Shouldn’t the Holy Spirit be as easy to find as wonton hor fun at East Coast Beach on a Saturday night? This was the pressing question asked at the second week at the School of Theology.
By Clinton Dixon
PHOTO: Clinton Dixon.
“Elvis-lookalike seen shopping for durians at Bedok Central.”
Yes, every blogpost needs some sort of gripping yarn or some outlandish claim to grab cyberspace attention. But lucky for me, I don’t have to resort to that. In the Christian circle, all you need to do is utter two words and you have everyone’s attention. Holy Spirit. There—I said it, and I’ll say it again. Holy Spirit. Yes, got your attention now, haven’t I?
The highlight during the second week of SOT was on how to be led by the Holy Spirit. The previous week, Pastor Phil Pringle told the SOT class that many years ago in his church service he saw the Holy Spirit, in the form of a person, literally comforting some members of his congregation. This got me thinking (yes, I know, it does happen from time to time)—sure, we all sort of know about the Holy Spirit but do we really know Him? That the Holy Spirit is a person came as quite a surprise to me. How do we lead a Spirit-filled life?
I don’t know if you’re anything like me but when I’m hungry I’m generally led more by the stomach than the Spirit (and all the brothers say amen to that). Thankfully, hawker centers abound in the Lion City as opposed to what we get in New Zealand. Most Singaporeans know exactly what they like to eat and exactly where to find it—I should know, I’m married to one.
From this very “fleshly” thought bubble I stumbled upon a sort-of epiphany. If we know exactly how to satisfy our appetite for the natural, shouldn’t we as Christians who profess to have a love and passion for Christ know exactly where (or who, in this case) to turn to when we hunger for the things of Christ? In other words, shouldn’t the Holy Spirit be as easy to find as wonton hor fun at East Coast Beach on a Saturday night? Food for thought?
Believe it or not, I tried writing this post on the MRT—foolish, you might say, but I did learn one thing—noise is a distraction and a distraction is a concentration killer. When you can’t even hear yourself think do you think you will be able to hear from the Holy Spirit? That small, still voice of the Holy Spirit gets crowded out every time when you aren’t in fellowship with Him.
I have discovered over the past week that a life without the Holy Spirit is like a spiritual starvation of sorts; you just aren’t getting the whole meal. Without Him it’s like we’ve been invited to a heavenly buffet, carrying a plate the size of a saucer and one chopstick. You just can’t grow into God’s calling on your life on that sort of spiritual diet.
The Holy Spirit can either be your closest friend, someone you would do anything for, or that very distant relative you see once every Christmas or Chinese New Year. I know which sort of relationship I want. How about you?
Clinton is married to Grace, has two young boys and is fast approaching middle age (but don’t tell anyone else). He hails from the land of the long white cloud—New Zealand—and admits to having very little understanding of The Lord Of The Rings. Through his studies at SOT, he is seeking to find God’s true calling on his life.
