On The Holy Spirit

January 18, 2025

Her: "Have you ever spoken in tongues?"

Me: "Huh, what's that?"
"You know, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you start talking in a language you don't know."
"Well...no."
"Oh!  Well then, you're not saved."

"Say, what?!"

    This is, more or less, a conversation I remember having with a friend of mine in junior high.  She went on to try to convince me of her viewpoint over lunch, and I was fascinated because I'd never heard anyone say anything like that before.  After thinking about it, though, and discussing it further, we agreed to disagree, and I set the whole idea to the side and moved on.

    Some time later, while attending a summer camp, though, the topic came up again.  Had I been baptized with the Holy Spirit?  Baptism with water wasn't enough, I was told; I needed a second baptism, a spiritual one.  My counselor described a feeling of euphoria, losing control, and yes, speaking in a different, heavenly language.  What she said sounded wonderful, and I wanted it.  

    And that's how I found myself one summer evening, sitting on the floor with my eyes closed, rocking back and forth, praying fervently and emotionally, and trying to loosen my tongue, so that God could  take over and give me the Holy Spirit, and say amazing things through my mouth.

    But...it wouldn't take, and I couldn't quite make myself fake it.  Probably I wasn't quite surrendered enough.

    Years and years later, I tried again, this time in my mentor's kitchen, after she'd explained that tongues was actually a special prayer language, and was the Holy Spirit praying through you, with words beyond what our human speech could express.  Again, though, it wouldn't happen, and though I tried getting the ball rolling by making random sounds, it didn't work, and I just couldn't make myself pretend.

    Why, oh why, wouldn't God give me the Holy Spirit?  Was I not sincere enough?  Not holy enough?  Had I not achieved a high enough level of spirituality?

    But, of course, the Holy Spirit is more than just speaking in tongues.  I also learned that he worked through prophetic words.  

    Every summer our church would have a picnic, and a father/son duo would do the service, and stay afterward to pray over people and prophesy over them.  There were two years that I worked up enough nerve to get in line to receive a prophetic word.  The first time I was told that I would write these wonderful songs for the church.  The second time I got what I call the "jackpot" prophecy: NOW was the time that God was going to use me to do amazing and mighty works; I would pray over people and they would be healed, and God would be with me and cause what I did to prosper.

    I tried to write songs.  I'd spend hours and hours, and while I wanted to so badly, I never really managed to produce anything.  And I prayed over people and I prayed.  I believed SO HARD.  But no one ever got healed, and nothing amazing or miraculous ever happened.  If anything, I faded further into the background. 

    Again, I was stuck on the outside, looking in at all the Spirit-filled people, wishing I could somehow be good enough to get my ticket in.

    But there are other ways that the Holy Spirit works.  Who could forget the spiritual gifts listed by Paul?  I was told that everyone receives at least one of them, and thankfully there are a whole bunch of different tests you can take to try to ferret out which of them you've been gifted with, so that you can cultivate it.  

    Unfortunately, most of them didn't agree with one another, and gave wildly different results.  The one, though, that seemed to come up consistently was "discernment", but that always just seemed to be because I'd been taught the Bible very thoroughly as a child and "knew my stuff," as it were. 

    Beyond that, though, I understood the Holy Spirit to be primarily a divine power source, something we needed to learn how to access, how to tap into.  I learned that the Spirit leads via inner prompts (which we must learn to recognize and obey), and that being "Spirit-led" generally meant being spontaneous and able to improvise on the fly, adjusting things (like the music) based on what we sensed in the spirit-realm.

    And what was that realm?  Always the inner life; less in the thoughts and more in the feelings and emotions and an inner sense.  God, being spirit - as I understood - worked primarily inside of us, not through external physical means (like water, bread, or wine.)  

    The following song used to be one of my favorites, and definitely my favorite to play on the drums:

Lyrics:

There's nothing worth more

That will ever come close

Nothing can compare

You're our living hope

Your presence, Lord

I've tasted and seen

Of the sweetest of loves

Where my heart becomes free

And my shame is undone

Your presence, Lord

Holy Spirit, You are welcome here

Come flood this place and fill the atmosphere

Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for

To be overcome by Your presence, Lord

Your presence, Lord

Let us become more aware of Your presence

Let us experience the glory of Your goodness

(repeat)

    This song taught a couple of things:  First, that the Holy Spirit comes as a response to us and our calling, based on our receptivity; we act first, and He responds.  Second, that the presence of God is something we experience inwardly, as something that "overwhelms" and as a kind of "atmosphere" that is sensed.  It was also vague, with no mention of Jesus or His redeeming work (other than a nebulous reference to undone shame and a freed heart.)  The primary goal - especially with the repetition, the emotional building of the music, and the length of the song - was to create an experience, one which we would believe was the Holy Spirit at work.

    Confessional Lutherans, though, take a very different approach.

    Some people might look at the us and think that we ignore the Holy Spirit, or downplay Him, minimizing His work and maybe stifling or restricting Him in some way.  But this couldn't be further from the truth.  Quite the contrary.  Not talking about the third Person of the Trinity as much as other church bodies doesn't mean that we think less of Him, but rather that we understand His purpose: to point not to Himself, but rather to Christ.

    A good place to start, as always, is Luther's Small Catechism.  In his explanation to the 3rd Article of the Creed he says:

    "I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith."

    The Holy Spirit always works through the means of the Word.  It is He who calls us (not the other way around) and who gives us the gift of faith - and also sustains that faith.  He opens our eyes to the truth, and gathers us together into the Church.  He also sanctifies us - makes us holy - giving us new impulses and the desire to do God's will, as well as the strength to fight against the sin nature that still clings to us in this life.

    He speaks to us, yes, but it is always through the Word; He has not promised to give us special revelations apart from it, so we do not look for Him in the uncertain realm of our feelings and emotions or in signs or inner promptings.  It is not that we become stoics and ignore our emotions, but they are put into their proper place, and are normed by the light of the Scriptures.

    It took me a while to weed through and let go of all of the wrong beliefs I'd had about the Holy Spirit and His work, but ultimately I found the Lutheran teaching on pneumatology to be a breath of fresh air, offering some much-needed clarity, objectivity, and grounding in Scripture.  And once I understood what the Bible teaches about Him, I came to realize how much He is very much at work throughout the entire Divine Service (even though there are no smoke machines or droning guitars or speaking in tongues or emotional altar calls).  The Spirit and the Word go together and are inseparable; "There can be no wordless Spirit, and no Spiritless Word" (from The Fire and the Staff by Klemet Preus.)  The liturgy is filled with the Word, from start to finish, whether chanted Psalms, the Old Testament reading, the Epistle, and the Gospel, but also the Words of Institution, and many other smaller parts taken from the Bible that are spoken or chanted.  And the sermon, being taken from those readings and faithfully expounded upon, is also a means by which the Holy Spirit is working to create and sustain faith.

    So, am I saved even though I've never spoken in tongues?  Yes, of course.  Salvation is mine solely because of what Christ did on the Cross, received through faith.  That faith is the work of the Holy Spirit, who doesn't draw attention to Himself, but rather (like my pastor's outstretched arm) points my attention toward Christ Jesus my Savior on the Cross.  He is what faith looks to; He is what faith clings to.  

    The Holy Spirit is not found in my emotions, or my inner senses, or even in the kick drum or the lowest bass notes that are felt in your chest.  He is found hidden in plain sight, heard not with the feelings but with our actual physical ears as the Word is proclaimed into them, creating and sustaining faith.  He is not a mystical power source, but He is the One who gives us hope, new life, and new desires.  He is the true Comforter, lifting our eyes off of ourselves and onto Christ, our Savior and Redeemer, the Image of the invisible God, Love Itself in human form.

This is His primary work, to comfort the afflicted with the promise of the Gospel: Christ given for you (and for me.) God be praised. 

-M

(There is so much more that could be said, but let that be enough for now.  Check out the "To Learn More" page where I'll link to some excellent resources.)