The Forgotten God - Introduction
“The Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the Bible, so who better to help us as we seek to understand it.”
Starting this week, our group is going to read through the book written by Francis Chan — “Forgotten God”. This is a 7-chapter book that talks about the Holy Spirit and the urgency to address the American church about His importance in our lives. For most of us who have been going to the church for a while now, the idea of Holy Spirit is hopefully relevant and familiar to us. But for those who have never heard about the word even, it is nothing but a mystery other than an uninteresting topic to delve into. But if our goal is to grow in our relationship with God and to seek His Word (aka the Bible), we need to understand the Holy Spirit — what He is and what He entails in our lives.
1) What is the Holy Spirit? What are your perception or knowledge about the Holy Spirit?
Or rather, who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the “Presence “ of the Living God who was with God in the creation. If we trace history all the way back from the beginning of time, the Holy Spirit is found within the first two verses of the Holy Bible. Genesis 1:2 says that the, “earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
The Holy Spirit is also the third person of God, as in the Holy Trinity. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus left us with the commandment to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age“.
In another instance, Jesus called the Holy Spirit as the“Comforter” or ”Advocate” who will be sent by the Father after He ascend back to heaven after the crucifixion. Jesus said in John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
The Holy Spirit is the gift of our salvation. In Acts 2:32, Peter said, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Continuing to verse 38, Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is also the “sealed promise” or “guarantee of our salvation”. In Ephesians 1:13-14, it says“In Him (Jesus) you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”
The Holy Spirit is our key to the doorway of heaven. In John 3:5-6, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is also the manifest power of God on earth. In Acts 1:8, Jesus left the disciples with the promise that, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”.
“If I were Satan and my ultimate goal was to thwart God’s kingdom and purposes, one of my main strategies would be to get church goers to ignore the Holy Spirit.”
2) Do you agree that ignoring the Holy Spirit is a possible threat to the kingdom of God?
Satan knows that with the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us, we are unstoppable. In Ephesians 6, Paul talked the full armor of God that will enable us to withstand any schemes and attacks from the enemy. In verse 16-18, Paul says “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.”
“But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.”
When we live by the Spirit, not only will we have access to the glorious riches of God’s love for us, but we will also be able to love Him and obey His words. We will be able to discern God’s will in our lives and to take heed of His calling and tender whispers. We will be able to be the light, hand, and feet of Jesus in this crooked generation. And we will also be able to be effective representatives of Jesus to the world by being the church that God had destined us to be.
3) At this point in your walk with God, do you think you are the church that God has called you to?
Now if we’ve been in the church for a while, some of us may have noticed that there seems to be something lacking in our churches nowadays. This can be easily seen in the growth of a church. As time goes by, are the numbers of members growing or slowly dissipating? This can also be seen in the impact of the preaching to the congregation. Are the members moved by the Holy Spirit to live changed lives? Or are they still living in sin in secrecy and showing a beautiful facade on a Sunday morning? This can also be seen in the way worship leaders pave the way for the Spirit to lead the congregation into worship. Are the leaders filled with the Spirit fully enough that what they do in the stage reflects the overflow of their love for God in their own personal lives? Or do they sound like clashing gongs, not making any spiritual impact to the people they lead?
“I believe that this missing something is actually a missing Someone - namely, the Holy Spirit. Without Him, people operate in their own strength and accomplish only human-sized results.”
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to say that just because members leave a church, does it mean that the church isn’t God-centered at all. We all know that people have different views and opinions that lead them out of a church. I also don’t mean that preachers, worship leaders, other church leaders, and even members need to be perfect human beings in order to serve God. But we need to acknowledge that in some churches nowadays, we mixed up passion-filled Christians with Spirit-filled Christians. The difference between the two is that the latter produces fruit in their service because the anointing of God is evident in their lives. Spirit-filled Christians are fully committed to Jesus Christ and fully surrendered to the leading of the Holy Spirit. While passion-filled Christians often are guided by their own “passions” or “flesh” behind who knows what intentions they have in the first place. Galatians 5:16 says that you must, “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” And if our desire is to do God’s will, then we really must walk and be led by the Spirit.
4) What are the things or reasons that hinder you from wanting to be led by the Holy Spirit?
For some of us, the answer is easy. We either don’t know what it means to know God, much more to give ourselves to Him, or we just don’t know what this means at all. But for the majority of us, several reasons can be concluded. In our previous study about Selah moments, we do have the tendency to be like the world by wanting what is in the world — success, fame, money, title, possessions, and other earthly desires. And sometimes, these not-so-God-centered desires of ours can distract us so heavily from the real deal in life that is which God has planned for us. Worse, these fleshly desires may cause us to not want to involve God in our lives as we don’t see the need of a Savior that we can depend our lives with.
“I also believe that the Spirit is more obviously active in places where people are desperate for Him, humbled before Him, and not distracted by their pursuit of wealth or comforts (like we are in the Western hemisphere).”
But in some places, like the rest of the world, where entitlement is not a rampant issue (oops, sorry!), there is an obvious greater need for Jesus. Believers from Africa, South America, and Asia per Francis Chan, are more vibrant and active in their walks with God. And this is because they acknowledge that they need God far better than the riches of this world combined can ever give. They are desperate for God as they know that earthly things cannot suffice the emptiness and brokenness in their lives. And this desperation is fueled by the Holy Spirit which caused them to believe with all their hearts that choosing God and having God’s love are their greatest treasure and reward. Ephesians 3:16-19 says, “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God”.
5) What holds you back from giving yourself completely to God?
Sometimes too, some of us are maybe just afraid to welcome God with full access to our lives because we think that by doing so, we are somewhat limiting our lives — limited due to laws and rules against sins that we probably enjoy doing or due to wants and needs that we probably think are more important than going to church and learning about this “God thing”. But here again is why we need the Holy Spirit — to unlock our eyes and hidden wisdom to see the abundance of God’s goodness that He offers through Jesus Christ! According to 1 Corinthians 2:9-11,
“Is it possible to get enough or even too much God? Is there a point where a person can be satisfied with the amount of intimacy, knowledge, and power of God he or she experiences? I don’t see how there can be, because doesn’t every encounter with God only cause us to thirst for Him more? And perhaps the core issue is really about our holding back from giving ourselves to God rather than getting “too much” of Him.”
“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him” these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
6) Why do we need the presence of the Spirit of God?
Without the presence of the Spirit of God, first, we will not know and have access to all the things God has prepared for us and for our future. Galatians 5:22-23 says that ”the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law”.
“We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.”
Second, we will also live (and even die) clueless about who we truly are and what our purpose in this lifetime is. Colossians 1:9-14 tells us that by being filled with the Holy Spirit, we will be able to “be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Our purpose in life is to glorify God with our lives for He who is and what He has done on the Cross through Jesus Christ who redeemed us back to life.
7) Why should we rely on the Holy Spirit?
“Don’t get me wrong: God has already done so much in my life, and I am grateful for it. I’m just convinced there’s more. There’s more of the Spirit and more of God than any of us is experiencing.”
I confidently believe with my whole heart that when we rely on God through His Holy Spirit, we expose our lives to be under an open heaven. And by doing that, we unleash all the good and perfect gifts coming from God and we cause ourselves to be living sponges awaiting for God to fill our life with nothing less than His best. The Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our hearts and will cause our hearts to really believe that “surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Psalms 23:6). What it looks like, is something we have yet to discover as we go through each chapters of "“Forgotten God”. But all I know now is we can place confidence in God that there will be more of Him that are yet to love and adore Him for from here on out!