"Drifting Away"

"It's critical that we keep a firm grip on what we've heard so that we don't drift off. If the old message delivered by angels was valid and nobody got away with anything, do you think we can risk neglecting this latest message, this magnificent salvation? First of all it was delivered in person by the Master, then accurately passed on to us by those who heard it from him. All the while God was validating it with gifts through the Holy Spirit, all sorts of signs and miracles as he saw fit." Hebrews 2:1-4 MSG

The realization that I have NO IDEA what God is doing in the heart and life of any person was truly an earthquake moment. That was the result of years of study and meditation on scriptures that before had seemed so clear, but had become much clearer in the light of that realization. Like so many Bible teachers and church leaders, even college professors under whom I sat, the assumption that the "age of miracles ceased with the death of the Apostles of Christ" was just not open for question. For some reason that conclusion always kind of bothered me but I never really challenged it in my own spirit. Over the years as I continued to study and think and observe, my hesitancy to question the assumption I had been taught, slowly began to spawn a new awareness of God's Spirit in my own life.

God always does whatever he pleases because he is God, even all kinds of things I may not understand or can explain. Paul sums it up for me at 1 Corinthians 12:4-6

"There are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."

 None of us require the same "signs and miracles" to be repeated today to know who Jesus Christ is. That fact has already been adequately confirmed by the Holy Spirit, I can read all the true evidence I need for that confirmation. However, God and his Spirit are still actively working in whatever way the Father wills to achieve his eternal purpose. That working may manifest itself in all kinds of ways that wont fit with the majority experience. Just because I have no answer, no plausible explanation for some specific occurrence doesn't mean God did or did not cause it to happen. However, if I didn't fully embrace 1 Corinthians 12:6 as being applicable to me too, I see no reason to even pray.

The really scary part however is the idea of "drifting away" if we fail to pay attention to what God has said, what he has done and what he is doing. "Drifting away" is rarely, if ever, an intentional result. We can easily become careless with our faith however and fail to allow it to grow beyond where we are at any time. For me, the Holy Spirit is the constant from the days of Paul and those early Christians to today.

As I reflect back, I think what I was taught about the Holy Spirit from the time I became a Christian as a young teen caused me to virtually ignore him. Actually I was never taught about the Spirit at all. But when I slowly continued to study for myself in earnest, gradually I have become acquainted with him in my life. The huge difference he has made is this - my faith is no longer attached to the church in any form or by any name. My faith is now totally, gratefully anchored in Jesus Christ, not me, not my heritage, not my family, not any church of any kind, forever in my Lord. HALLELUJAH!