Hey bloggers,
In chapter one of First Corinthians Paul talks about Jesus, being holy, he challenges us not to be divided in the way we think of Jesus.
In chapter 2 Paul will speak of maturity and depth. He will present the Holy Spirit as a basis of transformation and change. In 2.18 he will give the end result of the work of the Spirit…”the mind of Christ”.
I would love to hear your reflections on the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is first Holy. This connects to the premier concern of Paul in chapter one, we are called Holy and we are to be His holy people.
Have you noticed that there is a bunch of activity around the Holy Spirit which frankly is pretty creepy?
You know, the TV preachers of the 80’s doing prostitutes and affairs, the cover ups, the replapses, yada, yada, yada.
How about a few years ago the leader of a major evangelical movement confessing to drugs, gay masseur, and more? His ministry was full of the Holy Spirit…(?)
Check out the major cults in history and you will uncover immorality blamed on the Holy Spirit. This is very similar to the Corinthian believers.
I am not throwing stones, but I have seen a bunch of weird stuff blamed on the Holy Spirit. Have you? I would enjoy hearing your reflections.
The Corinthians had special spiritual experiences which Paul will affirm later in the book. But in this chapter we are led to a deep truth of the Holy Spirit…we will in the end have the mind of Christ.
This means I will think like Jesus in my marriage, and in my work, I will connect my morality to the mind of Jesus, how I drink (I am alcohol free by the way) and what I watch.
So in the end…experience is not the cool stuff of the Spirit…but the mind of Jesus.
Do you have a crazy story or two? Love to hear it. In the end…The Spirit causes me to think, to have the world view, the orientation of Jesus in all I do.
Hope Experience 
If that is rock throwing then scripture has a dump truck full of rocks and ready to go! In January our small group will be studying the book of Jude. It is an amazing letter that gives us a picture of the pastors you described. Jude was going to write about the salvation we share, however, the Holy Spirit was pressing him to write something else. Verse 4 we see, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
That sure sounds like the pastors mentioned in the above blog that use the Holy Spirit as an excuse for immorality. At first glance you could read the 25 verses that encompasses the book of Jude and read all the attributes to an apostate and point the finger elsewhere. Read it a second time and look inward. Am I a grumbler, finding fault, follow after my own lust, speak arrogantly, flatter people for the sake of taking advantage. I know I fall into those categories more than I would like to admit.
Before it gets too depressing from all of the self examination, this book of Jude ends with one of the greatest verses in scripture. Verse 20-21 says, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.”
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