Question:
Can we reach this level of connection with the Holy Spirit?
If so, how?
Under what circumstances were the apostles enabled to do the miraculous things they did and be led so directly and clearly by the Holy Spirit? Well, they were establishing the Early Church, working in God's power to make a space in the world, for the first time, for the Church, the Bride of Christ. What's more, they were doing so in a culture that was powerfully hostile to the doctrines and practices of the Church. Additionally, the New Testament had not yet been written and so its spiritual principles, commands, and wisdom that guide believers today were not available to the apostles, "preparing them unto every good work" (
2 Timothy 3:16-17). The apostles also needed to establish themselves as legitimate representatives of God, post-Calvary prophets of a sort, speaking for God and acting in His power for His purposes. And so, obviously, a special measure of supernatural leading and power was necessary then that is not necessary today.
The modern Christian believer has the complete word of God, which the Spirit "calls to remembrance" and illuminates as the believer is careful to study it and live in accord with it, that orders their thinking, values, morality and conduct, guiding them clearly through mundane, everyday living. In our time, too, the Church is well-established in many regions of the world, a familiar and settled feature of western culture (though, this condition is now eroding pretty seriously). With seminaries and Bible colleges all over the place and the proliferation of spiritual "experts" writing books, and making documentaries, and offering seminars, the uniquely empowered apostles of the Early Church are no longer required.
However, something like the apostles' experience of the Holy Spirit still occurs today. In circumstances where Christ and the Gospel are directly challenged by occult power, I hear of Christians going nose-to-nose with the demonic and God intervening in a supernatural manner, demonstrating to all that He is greater, securing the attention of those looking on, and creating a platform of spiritual authority from which His servants speak and uproot the strongholds of the demonic. In such instances, God has the furtherance of His kingdom, His glorification and the dissolution of occult domination in mind, not just thrilling His children with sensational events as a sort of religious entertainment.
To whom much is given, much is required. In virtually every instance in Scripture where God acted unusually, supernaturally, in a person's life, it was as a precursor to requiring of them an out-of-the-ordinary level of service (or to judge them). This was true of Noah, Moses, Gideon, Joshua, Joseph, Daniel, David, Paul and so on. Few Christians, though, want the sort of demands placed upon them that God placed upon those in Scripture to whom He "gave much" in experience of Himself. No, they just want a bit of spiritual stimulation, some excitement, not to give up all for the sake of serving Christ, not to go into the darkness and battle "spiritual wickedness in high places," tearing down long-established strongholds of evil and perhaps dying in the process.
Can we obtain the same interaction with the Holy Spirit that Jesus, God incarnate, the second Person of the Trinity, had? I don't see how. While we are made in the imago dei and so share some few, basic things in common with our Maker, and while we are the temples of the Holy Spirit (
1 Corinthians 6:19-20) and joint-heirs with Christ (
Romans 8:17), we still do not come anywhere close to being God incarnate, perfect in fulfilling the law of God, enjoying the sort of union with the Godhead that Christ did. And so, we should not expect to experience the Spirit in just the way Jesus did.
But, we
can experience God. In Scripture, we are told that the Holy Spirit will convict us of our sin, teach us God's truth, empower us to resist temptation and stand strong in the face of temptation, comfort us in seasons of trial and sorrow, and transform us into the "image of Christ" (among other things). (
John 16:8; John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:10-16; Ephesians 3:16; Romans 8:13-14; Philippians 2:13; Philippians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; Hebrews 12:5-11; Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:9) These are all very profound, life-altering things that the Spirit does, having always a direct and serious effect upon our practical living. But this is exactly why so many believers find the work of the Spirit unattractive and dissatisfying. They want to be excited, not changed; they want to be thrilled, not transformed; they want to feel God's power, not commune with God Himself. And so, they turn away from the normal, quiet, progressive, truly life-changing experience of God the Bible describes, chasing after something noisier, something more stimulating to their senses, but something actually quite ungodly instead.
1 Kings 19:11-13
11 And he said, Go and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What do you do here, Elijah?
God was not in the noisy, the tumultuous, the hot and blinding, but He was in the still and small, the quiet, the calm. As creatures in a world bombarding us all the time with stimulating sights and sounds, with a myriad of bright, loud distractions, the quietness and peace of fellowship with God seems entirely too placid - dull, really. It seems only after the World has beat the stuffings out of a person, wounding, and exhausting, and corrupting them, that they limp toward God, poisoned and darkened by the savage, wild wilderness of the World, crying out for relief and protection. Only when they have discovered that the sound and fury of the World is not all it promised to be is the invitation of God to the peaceful life in the Spirit He describes to us in His word of interest to them. We humans sure are a stupid bunch...
