Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences are deeply troubled by my tendency to analyze.
But the fact is that I am one person, i.e. the same person who examines data about the historical Jesus and expresses skepticism of some of the details recorded in the gospels also claims to experience the risen Jesus in a personal way. So when Adrian Warnock started talking about the experience of Holy Spirit baptism, I decided to say a word or two.
I’m not going to defend my particular theology in this post, but let me simply state that I believe that Holy Spirit baptism can, and ideally should occur at the time of one’s baptism in to the Christian faith. Nonetheless in the book of Acts we have numerous instances where the two experiences are separated. I believe nobody comes to Christ in the first place without the work of the Holy Spirit, but the idea of the baptism of the Spirit involves one personally experiencing and being transformed by it.
At the same time I want to guard against the notion that this experience is singular, that one checks off the boxes of conversion, then baptism in the Holy Spirit, and then one has attained. I don’t like the idea of Christians who have “attained.” I think they tend to fall quickly into pride. I know I would, so if I ever get to the point where I believe I have attained, it will be the surest sign that I haven’t. I know I’d fall straight into spiritual pride without passing Go or collecting my $200.
I do remember a specific experience at the time of my own baptism at age nine. I was in Mexico with my missionary parents and had to convince them and a Spanish speaking pastor that I knew what I was doing. It was the strong conviction that had come on me that made me able to do so. They were very skeptical.
But I want to discuss a later experience, that came when I was working in the church. This happened several years ago. I was trying to get material written for the early stages of Pacesetters Bible School, and I would be interrupted frequently. But one week almost the whole church staff including the pastor was going to be out of town on a mission trip, and I was looking forward to a week of writing with few interruptions. It was not to be.
One of the things about “mystical” or “spiritual” experiences that I have noticed is that they do not occur for my convenience. My Monday of that week happened as I had hoped. I got a great deal done. On Tuesday I was praying through my prayer list. I had an extensive prayer list, and was quite systematic about praying for the people on it. Having checked off my list, I felt that I had done my part in praying for the congregation.
Included on my list were all the college students and all the church leaders. As I began praying through the list that day I was interrupted by a voice. Now all the more intellectual folks and those who are not Christians are permitted here to doubt my sanity. I generally just assume it’s loosely attached. But I did hear a voice. It said, “Stop.”
So I stopped a moment and then started to pray for that person again. Again, I heard “Stop!” Then the voice began to question me about these persons. What were their gifts? Regarding the students it asked me what they were studying, when they would be finished, and what their ambitions were. For the church leaders it asked me what their specific roles were.
Now the fact is that I didn’t know most of this stuff. They were on the staff or on committees, or they were students, so their names were on my list. I didn’t have a clue as to who they were personally. Then the voice asked me, “How do you expect to function as a teacher in the church if you don’t even know what these people are supposed to be doing?”
Good question! But I’m a stubborn person. I argued with that voice for the remainder of the week, from during the morning Tuesday through around noon Friday. By noon Friday I was pretty much done. I think I had a mild idea of how Elijah must have felt when God said, “What are you doing here?” (1 Kings 19:9)
What happened at noon on Friday? Finally I admitted that I needed to change the way I did business. I was all in the books. I planned curriculum according to what I thought people (in general) needed to know. I didn’t really want to know the people themselves. That was messy and took up too much time.
It was a transforming moment in ministry for me. I may be insane to argue with a voice for several days. Each day I returned to the office intending to work, and it didn’t happen. When I shut down and went home, things went back to normal. But that insanity was transforming. People noticed the difference. They would ask me, “Who are you and what have you done with Henry Neufeld?” The main obvious difference was that I started taking a personal interest in people’s lives, their call, and their work in the church. I started to try to meet those needs.
Now this seems fairly obvious in hindsight. Isn’t that simply good people skills? But at the time I didn’t exercise that variety of people skills, and due to my knowledge in other areas, and basic teaching skill, people put up with me anyhow. It took this spiritual encounter–in my view an experience of baptism–completely being overpowered–by the Holy Spirit to get me on track.
Hi Henry – I’m still listening – though I don’t speak much. It is very difficult and often special pleading to speak of personal experience. I am reminded of 2 Corinthians and Paul’s rant against the super-apostles. But – it will not do to restrict revelation to the accepted rationalizations of experience that are commonplace ‘religious’ views. I will blog on Küng and the limited ways and means of revelation in Islam at some point. What I have done, in contrast, is to hide revelatory experience in story – letting a character speak of the knowledge of God (subjective or objective genitive as you wish) – rather than putting things in an explanatory mode.
Blessings to you – write on.
Thanks for this post Henry. You have confirmed for me that some of my own individual experiences with what I thought to be the Holy Spirit were probably authentic experiences. I fall into the more rational side of things and often doubt the sanity of the situation. It’s nice to know that someone who can process things rationally as you do has similar experiences.
That sentence resonates with me. I hesitate to write about this. I somehow prefer to testify about mystical things to those who are inclined to accept them and about apparently rational things to those who prefer that. But I think it’s more authentic to put both out for examination.
I would not be surprised or offended if someone suggested I needed medication for that condition. I’d ignore them, yes, but not be offended!
WOW. *headscritchie* Do you now plan curriculum more tailored to the individuals you’re teaching? How do you DO that?!
Well, the first thing is that I get to know the people I’m serving much better. I don’t just talk to a couple of leaders, decide “we need X” and then provide it.
But I also usually adapt my material to each particular class as well. There has to be a core that is solid, which I plan based on knowing the people I would teach. When I’m invited to a church I don’t know personally, I will spend some hours in conversation with pastor or the appropriate education chair, or whoever is in that position in the church.
So while I have a large collection of PowerPoint presentations that I use and reuse, I never use them unmodified. Then I also give myself a great deal more room for interaction with the group. I have been known to abandon “the plan” and rework everything on the fly when I find out that the needs are different than I anticipated, but I work very hard to avoid that by doing the learning ahead.
There are some “Spirit-led” people who believe that one can only follow the Holy Spirit by not planning. I believe the Spirit can lead us in planning as well.
Just this past Sunday my wife and I were invited to preach at our home church. She took the early service, and I took the late service. We were very busy and didn’t coordinate our talks at all, but we ended up with the same theme simply approached in drastically different ways. My wife, who normally works with a short outline and let’s the Spirit lead, preached from a prepared text, while I, who usually prepares a text, had simply made an outline, and then didn’t look at it while I preached at all. All of which goes to show that at least for me there isn’t a formula.
It sounds wonderful, but much more complicated, especially when different people need different things. As a teacher, it’s what I aspire to… but it’s SO HARD!!
Yes, it’s very difficult, and don’t imagine I’ve somehow attained. Remember what I said about people who have attained!
But I did shift very much from program oriented to people oriented in my approach. I keep trying to learn how to do it better.
I wonder if anyone but me has noticed how truly dull many books on adult education can be? One would think the experts on the topic could be a bit more engaging. There’s good information there, but one has to dig it out and brush it off.
Henry, this is a great article on a topic I’ve wanted to tackle. I’m with Bob on the discomfort we should feel about throwing pearls before swine as it were but I also think the blogosphere could use more discussion of things like the baptism in the Holy Spirit and less book reviews and memes!
But you know, even if less people find them interesting, it’s easy to write a book review. A post on a meme practically writes itself. Writing about one’s personal spirituality produces a bit of tension. I think it’s a good idea, or I wouldn’t have done it (probably!), but it’s definitely harder to write.
Thanks to all for encouraging words.
I’m with you, Lingamish, even if I do keep tagging you with memes. I think there’s room for some light relief, but also (although I prefer to avoid the word “baptism” in this context) for some serious posting on what it means to experience the Holy Spirit in our lives. But, as Henry says, it is not easy to write about such things.
I would note that I put “Baptism of the” in parentheses for that precise reason. It’s the experience of the Holy Spirit, but the use of the term “baptism” would be a bit controversial.
In my view, however, nobody comes to Jesus without the work of the Holy Spirit, so that the baptism would be more a matter of becoming aware of, and cooperating with the Holy Spirit in one’s life. That experience can be repeated and expanded upon, I believe.
But as it is, I merely propose the experience I wrote about as an experience of the Holy Spirit, and not definitive for anything other than my own spiritual experience.
Thanks for posting this!
Thanks so much, I have been praying for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for a long time, but I have had expirences like this, so maybe, just maybe, The Holy Spirit has been there since I was saved and immersion baptised many years ago, I have not had the gift of Tongues, and I sort of felt that it was something that went hand in hand with The Holy Spirit, but maybe not for everyone, I am aware that we don’t all get the same gifts, so now I have something to think about, and I have much more respect for the voice in my head. Thank you, You have helped me so much. And of course I feel I need more, and I need to do more and have less, And know more about who I am praying for. Amazing revelation for me. chippewabear