Dear readers,
I’ve decided to compile a collection of the books that I read over this year and share with you what I have learned and maybe encourage/challenge you to read some of them yourself.
Honestly, this is a book report. But, bear with me.
I decided to not bring any books with me on The Race, which I don’t think was the best choice, yet I do find myself opening my Bible a lot more because of it which isn’t altogether bad.
I had planned on purchasing some books through Kindle or any other means of electronic books that I could read on my iPad and not take up so much space, but I realized that I didn’t actually download any of the books I had purchased.
So I felt a little defeated. But I was scrolling through my Bible app and I found a downloaded book that caught my eye, Forgotten God by Francis Chan. I was so excited that I had a book to read and I immediately began reading through it.
The basic theme or message if you will, of Forgotten God is that The Holy Spirit is drastically suffocated in the northern American views of Christianity and churchgoers altogether.
I know this to be true because I grew up literally living and serving in so many different churches. Yet I never heard Him talked about, until October of 2020.
That is tragic.
Talking about The Spirit is more supernatural than most of us are comfortable with.
Yet He is the one part of the Trinity that lives within us. What’s so scandalous or taboo about that?
Our bodies are a living temple for The Holy Spirit to dwell in, I’m sure we’ve all heard that part. But have you ever thought about how that actually means that God is literally living inside of you?
The God of the Universe, The Alpha and Omega, He sent His Own Spirit to make His home inside those of us who invite Him in.
I personally learned a lot of things that are very clearly laid out in scripture, describing The Holy Spirit’s role, and his attributes as well.
- The Holy Spirit is a person. He’s a He, not an It.
- The Holy Spirit is God.
- The Holy Spirit is eternal and holy.
- The Holy Spirit has a mind of its own, and he is always praying on our behalf.
- The Holy Spirit has emotions.
- The Holy Spirit has His own desires and will. (we all need to honestly pray as Jesus did, “not my will but yours be done.”
- The Holy Spirit is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. (All-powerful, present everywhere, and all-knowing.)
There is so much more, He can’t be contained or placed into a box or category where we know everything we need to know about Him. As I typed that paragraph I thought of a Pokémon, (If you don’t get this reference bear with me.)
Pokémon was a trading card game that came out back in the ’80s or 90’s I’m not sure which, but you collected all of these little and big creatures called Pokemon, and you learned all the stats and skills to use them effectively.
I can know all the Bible lays out before me concerning The Holy Spirit, and I will never fully comprehend His power or His ways. God doesn’t give us all the answers we desire, just the ones we actually need to know.
The Holy Spirit helps us speak, I’m sure some of you know what I mean. If you looked back at your life you can think of a time where you spoke and you couldn’t believe the words that came out. That’s the handiwork of The Holy Spirit.
He is our comforter, our advisor, our encourager, and our strength.
He leads us in our day to day walk, remember He is literally inside of you.
It is only by the power of The Holy Spirit that we put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. The Spirit sets us free from the sins we cannot get rid of on our own. This is a lifelong process we entered into, in partnership with The Spirit.
Through The Holy Spirit, we have received a spirit of adoption as children, which leads us into intimacy with The Father, instead of a relationship based on fear and slavery.
The Spirit is not a passive power that we can wield as we choose. The Spirit is God. A Being who required that we submit ourselves to be led by Him. You can say you’ve given your life to Christ all you want, that’s a normal ‘Christian’ thing to say. But are you willing to fully surrender to The Holy Spirit, no matter where He wants to take you?
Francis Chan’s book has so many amazing quotes concerning The Holy Spirit, I’m going to just place a couple here for you to mull over…
“I think a lot of us need to forget about God’s will for my life. God cares more about our response to His Spirit’s leading today in this moment than about what we intend to do next year. In fact, the decisions we make next year will be profoundly affected by the degree to which we submit to the Spirit right now in today’s decisions.”
“You don’t need the Holy Spirit. You don’t need the Holy Spirit if you are merely seeking to live a semi-moral life and attend church regularly. You can find people of all sorts in many religions doing that quite nicely without Him.
“You only need the Spirit’s guidance and help if you truly want to follow the way of Jesus Christ. You only need Him if you desire to obey everything He commanded and to teach others to do the same.”
“I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit. I want people to look at my life and know that I couldn’t be doing this by my own power. I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am screwed. (I probably shouldn’t write that word here, but it’s how I truly feel about this.)”
“I certainly do not advocate ignoring scriptures or basing everything on experience, but to completely ignore experience-including your personal experience and the experience of the wider body of Christ, both now and historically is unbiblical.”
One more…
“You are most likely familiar with the ‘fruit passage’ in Galatians 5, which says “but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
You may even have the list memorized.
But look over those traits right now and ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree.
Do you exhibit more kindness and faithfulness than the Mormons you know?
Do you have more self-control than your Muslim friends?
More peace than Buddhists?
More joy than Atheists?
If God truly lives in you, shouldn’t you expect to be very different from everyone else?
What disturbs me most is when we’re not really bothered that God living in us has not made much of a noticeable difference.”
As a whole, if any of this letter has challenged or convicted you in any way I am thrilled. That’s The Holy Spirit at work, don’t ignore Him.
If you have the chance to read Forgotten God I highly encourage you to do so. If not, just go sit by yourself and talk with Him yourself, ask Him “Holy Spirit, where do you want me to go? What would you like me to do? I will do it. No matter what.”
That’s a good start I think. Who knows where He’ll lead you from there on out.
I just know when I listened to Him he sent me to Costa Rica, so be prepared for anything.
Until next time
-Mitchell
