-or- Who is to Decide What the Spirit is Saying?
I despise one conversation in particular. Most often, Christian clergy are the offenders in such a conversation (and bishops are the worst, since they believe they are given authority to make such calls on behalf of not only the laity, but also--and especially--the clergy), although the laity have taken on the bad habit as well. The habit, the conversation, is namely, claiming to know the movements of the Holy Spirit in another's life.
If I experience some hardship, others are quick to claim that the Holy Spirit is using that hardship to test me, to purify me and make my faith in God complete. If I am in some situation that causes offense or despair, the Holy Spirit has called me to it, has called me--please notice--so that I might grow. We love to justify another's suffering by thinking and saying that it is good for them!
The damnable part of such "comforting" words is that one cannot argue against them. That is not to say that they are true, but rather simply that such claims are unassailable.
What follows is my assault on such claims as to how the Holy Spirit is moving in my life.
Please note, first of all, the possessive, first-person singular pronouns I use in that sentence. True faith is and must needs be subjective. God would have us each individually, as individuals, be transformed by the Crucifixion/Resurrection event. Yes, I hear about the historical event from a third person, some apostle, and yet it means nothing unless I appropriate it myself. Hearing the gospel means nothing unless the hearing of it transforms my heart, the way I think, and ultimately transforms the way I behave in the world. In the moment that faith is born in me, I am divided from all others, and I relate singly to my God. And it is only through God, by the act of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit, that I am united to others. The Communion of Saints (whether here on earth or in heaven) is accessed only through Jesus Christ, who is the Way to the Triune God. As Luther once said, there are two things that all must do alone: work out one's faith and die. No one can die for me. No one can believe for me (that is, no one can be transformed by the gospel for me, but only for themselves).
Only I can interpret what the Holy Spirit is calling me to do or be. Because it pertains to the Holy Spirit to relate to me individually. The task of faith is to discern the Holy Spirit's call for my life. Other voices--even the voices of the most faithful, even the voices of those called to proclaim the gospel--are just as easily misleading as they are accurate. In fact, the one who claims to speak for the Holy Spirit is in a precarious spot, since it is the greatest offense to be wrong about the Holy Spirit's intentions. Indeed, one of the most destructive acts, for a Christian, is to wrongfully make a claim about the Holy Spirit's will and movement in the life of another person.
Imagine how debilitating it would be, if you were in a state of complete despair, to have someone (particularly someone who is so removed from your life as to be a stranger) to say to you: the Holy Spirit has called you to be in that situation, and it is the Holy Spirit that is instructing you precisely through this experience. For surely, you currently think you know what you need, but that is only what you want---and the Spirit is calling you away from vain and selfish desires. And now imagine that the person who says this is one who is supposed to have some spiritual authority, spiritual authority because of the call of the church.
Meanwhile, in your despair, it feels as though the Holy Spirit is saying just the opposite! That, by humbling and depriving you of inspiration, by making you feel inhuman, making you feel other than yourself, the Spirit is telling you that you have not yet finished your journey.
Who is correct? Whose is the right interpretation of the Holy Spirits communication?
Today, in our churches, there lives the sentiment that the individual cannot be trusted with interpreting the communications of the Holy Spirit. But this is no different than it has always been. The Pharisees did not trust that prototypical human individual: Jesus Christ. And if you read the book of acts, there is a constant tension between the community of the faithful and the individual person of faith. The Holy Spirit, paradoxically, gathers us into a congregation and then works unceasingly against the crowd.
Whenever someone other than yourself pleads with you: "Be open to the Spirit's call." And if they say such a thing with the purpose of helping you come to terms with some particular circumstance, then do not listen. It is the same as if you have an argument with someone and the argument ends without any resolution. And the other person says to you, "Well, pray about it." You know that the person has already decided what is "right" and they only expect you--through the vehicle of prayer--to come around to their point of view. In the same way, people abuse the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, when people ask you to be open to the Spirit they--as often as not--are dissuading you from discerning the Spirit's true will for your life. Just as when Peter was told by his Teacher "Get behind me Satan." Peter was claiming to speak with religious authority, but he was unknowingly following the will of the demonic.
When I come to someone, I have no authority to claim what the Holy Spirit is calling them to do or to be. I am without authority. And it is my calling, as an ordained minister of the church of Christ, to help you ask that question for yourself: "What is the Holy Spirit calling you to do or to be?"
Because if I make a claim and it is false, I am condemned and I have positioned myself to stand alone--apart from God, because I have claimed to be God. But if you make a claim for yourself about the Holy Spirit and are wrong, you immediately stand before God's graceful countenance. You have not set yourself up as God, but have set yourself up as an individual human being in relationship to God--through your very attempt at discernment of God's will over above yours.
And even if I make a claim about the Holy Spirit's call to you, and I end up being correct--I have condemned us both!!! I am condemned because I have still set myself up as God, and I have the added temptation of thinking that I am right in my claim for Godhood! I have condemned you because I have forced you to relate to me and my words instead of relating yourself, as a singular individual, directly to God. I cannot tell you what to be or what to do, but only help you ask the questions so that you stand before God in freedom of what mortals would influence you to be.
When someone says to you, "You must be open to the Holy Spirit." And if they are referring to a particular situation, and vying in their heart for a particular outcome. What they mean to say is this: "You are being difficult. Stop making trouble for us." And it is your right, indeed, your duty to resist such a claim on your life and fling yourself even farther out into the deep water. It is your right and duty to ask the Spirit directly what it is God calls you to do or to be.
Ah, but blessed is the one who defends the question. Blessed is the one who asks you, "What is the Holy Spirit calling you to do in this situation?" Blessed is the one who merely helps you to understand the situation and--more specifically--helps you to understand the issue, that is, the question at hand. Blessed is the one who empowers you to make the decision, instead of putting stumbling blocks in your way.
Finally, to overcome the stumbling blocks--to will to follow the Spirit when others claim the Spirit calls you to something else, to will to follow the Spirit while others say God calls you to do the opposite--such a trial is left for the hero of faith. At some point we are required to stand against those we love, against those in authority, against even ourselves in order to follow the call of the Holy Spirit.
But only the individual can discern what is the trial and what is the call.
Because the Holy Spirit always speaks to you, always speaks to me--and does not speak to us.
Yes, the Spirit gives us one mind in Christ Jesus. But remember, the mind of Christ followed the will of the Spirit. We are called to do the same--for ourselves, and not for others.
So, I ask you, "What is the Holy Spirit calling you to do or to be?"
The possibilities that present themselves when that question is asked in honesty and in earnestness will bring the individual anxiety. Because the question is meant to bring freedom, and not captivity.
Thanks be to God.
Postscript:
Just as the Holy Spirit pours gifts into each one individually, so too the call to use those gifts is poured out individually. It is impossible for the Holy Spirits actions, will or movements to be considered objectively. For this reason, many of the symbols of the Holy Spirit are things can cannot be controlled: water, fire, wind. Yes, these things can be contained, but it takes constant effort. Woe to the one who uses their energy to contain the Spirit. Woe upon woe to the one who tries to contain someone falsely under the name of the Spirit. Here is the two-edged sword! Here is the reason that I am without authority--even over myself. How do I, then, discern the Spirit's call? That is the question. rha
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