Brian McLaren

I found this video that features Brian McLaren (the author of A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and Everything Must Change. On top of being an author he is also an activist for social justice and peace. All of which should be accomplished in Jesus name. Check it out.

http://www.hopeinfo.co.uk/

Hearing the Spirit?

What does it mean to listen to the Holy Spirit?

This is a question that I have been wrestling with lately. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to do with it! I find the Holy Spirit to be the most difficult person of the Trinity to deal with. She is always on my mind when I pray, when I attempt creativity, when I witness creativity, or when I wonder at God's Creation.

Before talking about what it means for me to hear the Holy Spirit I think it's important to grapple with my perception of the Holy Spirit. I recently read The Shack by William P. Young. In it, he depicted the Holy Spirit of the Trinity as a shimmering Asian woman. I thought this was a good start, but not quite where I am at. At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit was symbolized by a dove, flying down from the torn open sky. Another good one. In Acts the Holy Spirit is depicted as coming down on the apostles like fire at the Pentecost. In Hebrew the word for "spirit" (ruah)can also mean "wind".

So in the Bible we've got a dove, some wind, and some fire. The Holy Spirit is depicted in all sorts of different ways in the Bible. And you know what? That's perfect! We can't pin down the Holy Spirit! You know why? Because he is the sneakiest God ever. The Spirit is always moving, always changing, always affecting us differently. Have you ever thought that you have things figured out exactly right and then have everything changed in a moment of enlightenment? That's the Holy Spirit slapping you and saying "there's more!"

When it comes to hearing the Spirit for me, all I can think of is being repeatedly told, "there's more!" When we think our relationship with God is good enough, the Spirit says "there's more! keep working!" If we get bogged down in the hardships of life the Spirit grabs onto us, points to the future and says "don't worry. There's more!" Continually witnessing absolutely beautiful things in life is simple evidence of the Spirit continually creating and saying "you like that? well there's more!" The Spirit is about movement, and change. But she is also about connection and grounded relationship. He is about open minds, but she is also about focused minds.

The Holy Spirit is here among us. He is always moving, yet she is always present. The Holy Spirit is here, and he brought Jesus with her. Through Jesus we can pray to the Father. So I guess you could say that the Holy Spirit meets us where we are while pointing to who we should be with.

Ok, so what does it mean to listen to the Spirit? I don't know. It's a difficult question because the Spirit is always working differently (yet, somehow, he is always working the same). I feel that the Spirit is always speaking to me visually. When I see something incredible I feel like I am hearing the Holy Spirit. It could be different for you. Find out what touches you the most emotionally. Find out what you find the most inspiring and incredible. It's very likely that Spirit is speaking to you in those moments of wonder and feeling. We just have to let ourselves hear her.




P.S. I'm sorry if this is a really poorly written blog post. But it's late and I'm tired but I had a strong desire to post tonight.