Living a spirited life

I have an agnostic friend. He’s also a faithful student of religion. He finds endless fascination in having conversations with people of all faith traditions – Sufi, Hindu, Baha’i, Jewish. But he tells me there’s always a difference when he talks to Christians about their faith experience.

“That’s the power of the Holy Spirit,” most Christians would say. So isn’t it strange that the Holy Spirit is rarely mentioned in today’s Mennonite Brethren writing?

Yes, we have an official theological position on the Holy Spirit (see Walter Unger’s “Thinking clearly about the Holy Spirit,”) and our Confession of Faith clearly affirms a belief in the Trinity. But usually, that’s as far as the conversation goes.

Are we afraid of the Holy Spirit? Maybe the doctrine of the Trinity is too mysterious and difficult to understand (remember all those Sunday school object lessons with three-leafed clovers and apples)? Perhaps we’re afraid to give ourselves over to the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe we’re just too busy to listen to the third Person of the Trinity. Or perhaps the idea of the Holy Spirit offends our modern sensibilities.

Despite the influences of postmodernism, we live in a society that values rational thought and cognitive processing. What’s more, we come from a denomination that prizes education – many of our beloved MB statesmen are scholars and teachers. So it’s no surprise we emphasize how the Holy Spirit speaks through study and the written word.

We also emphasize the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks through community. This is one of our Anabaptist disctinctives. “The individual was subordinate to the group, and Anabaptists believed the Holy Spirit expressed himself through the consensus of the believing community,” writes Erland Waltner.

But the Holy Spirit also speaks through direct, personal inspiration. Over the years, I’ve discovered how the Holy Spirit enjoys arranging “divine appointments” between me and other people. But my ears need to be carefully attuned so I don’t miss them.

A Holy Spirit moment

I remember one such encounter. It happened while I was on short-term mission assignment in B.C. My team was walking through Whistler Village when we spotted a young girl on a payphone, crying.

It’s not common to approach a stranger on the phone, let alone one who’s sobbing uncontrollably. Social etiquette gurus would label it rude. But Doug, our team leader, felt the Holy Spirit prompting him to do something. He walked up to the girl and asked if he could pray for her. The stranger’s countenance softened and she whispered, “Yes, please do.” Doug prayed, not knowing any details of the girl’s life but trusting God would work in her life.

We’ll never know how those brief words affected the girl’s life, but we know “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (James 5:16). Doug obeyed the Spirit’s voice, even though the request seemed strange and took him out of his comfort zone.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit asks us to do unusual or seemingly illogical things. He called Paul to go to Jerusalem, even though Paul knew he would be thrown in prison. He prompted Mennonite Brethren church planters to launch worship services in movie theatres, fire halls, and even pubs. He inspired MBs to quit their jobs as lawyers and farmers to embark on new careers, even though they had little or no financial security. He prompted MBMSI missionaries to start orphanages, in which babies were healed of AIDS and people came to know Jesus.

Incredible (and often surprising!) things can happen for God’s glory when we’re obedient to the whisper of his Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will call us out of our comfort zones into what might seem like chaos, but the results will always be amazing. He’s been working that way in our denomination for nearly 150 years.

As Willy Reimer says in his feature article, “Many Christ-followers wonder why their lives seem empty and Jesus seems distant and powerless. The answer rests in opening ourselves to the person and work of the Holy Spirit.”

Let’s not be too academically focused, busy, or afraid to hear the Spirit’s voice. Let’s be open to Holy Spirit-inspired appointments and kingdom surprises. It’s the key to seeing our MB churches thrive as we make a difference in this world.