I was asked the other day whether we can have more or less Holy Spirit, or do we have the whole holy Spirit the whole holy time?

Instead of answering the person directly, I thought I’d place it in the public realm to see what others think.

So let’s start up our new show, kind of like Dr. Phil or Oprah, but probably less correct most of the time (and that’s saying something)…

…that’s right…

It’s “Ask Rev. Red”. The young pretentious minister who is wrong half the time and the other half is just confused!

Concerned Living Roommate: How much Holy Spirit do we have?

Rev Red: Well, I’m always uneasy when people say that the Holy Spirit is “more active” in a place or when people ask for “a special pouring out of God’s Spirit”. I’m not really sure what they mean. Do they mean that the Holy Spirit wasn’t present or active before that point? Or only partially active? Or are they implying that, if we get the conditions just right, the lights moodily low, the music ambient and soothing, the right number of hands raised — then we’ll trigger some sort of trap-door and the Holy Spirit will pour out like Niagara Falls on the waiting hopeful?

Let’s look at the Holy Spirit in scripture. In John, the Holy Spirit is our Advocate who lives with us and is in us (14:17). By the Holy Spirit it is Jesus Christ himself who is in us. And Christ is in the Father (14:20).

There is no talk of the Spirit being “partially” in us. Just as there is no talk in the gospels of Christ only “partially” being with humanity. Christ is fully human sharing the fullness of our human life and experience (and death). Many people have tried to lobotomize Christ’s divinity from his humanity over the years. And many heretics have been consequently burnt at the stake (which I don’t condone by the way!). To say the same of the Spirit is just as dangerous. The Holy Spirit is fully with us uniting us through Christ to the Father.

The famous Psalm 139 says: “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.”

In some ways, it is illogical to say that there is ever a time when we don’t have the Spirit with us. The Spirit of God sustains all of creation. The Spirit hovered over the waters before the creation of the world. The Spirit knit you together in your mother’s womb. While we can certainly reject the Spirit and turn in on ourselves, to say therefore that the Spirit is less with us doesn’t follow.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on believers. But Peter’s address suggests that this is not a series of events (when the Spirit is poured out more or less). Rather, it is an ongoing reality that is a consequence of Christ’s resurrection and ascension. The Spirit is continually poured out on all people (2:17).

While there are certainly moments when we are more acutely and experientially aware of the Spirit’s presence, that doesn’t mean the Spirit is less in us at other times. One of the legacies of the charismatic movement in the church, is that it has elevated the personal experience of the Spirit to a very high place. Certainly these are important moments, but our faith should not be sustained by or dependent on these moments. Otherwise my experience rather than the revelation and love of God is at the centre of my faith.

There does seem to be the inconsistency here than some people do seem to have a more active or lively faith. And what about those who aren’t Christian at all? One of the great mysteries of faith is that God has chosen us unconditionally in love and grace, and yet we still have the opportunity to reject that love. It is futile path we choose, because running away from God just leads closer to God in the end (consider Jonah trying to run to Tarshish — where can we go to escape God’s Spirit?!). And yet, even as we choose a lie, that lie comes true in a way. We can live our lives in rejection of the Spirit. But that still doesn’t mean that the Spirit is not present. We’re just living in denial of it’s whole, holy, lifegiving presence.

But what are your thoughts? How do you understand the Holy Spirit?

Arohanui,

Jordan