A Theological Error

One of the great theological errors of the more conservative evangelical church has been to regard the Holy Spirit as the Divine One who is to be sought after as the bestower of some spiritual experience which will transform the daily walk in an extraordinary way.  Certainly, there are Words in the Scripture which take us that direction and while it is a Biblical truth that we are to "...receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you..."  (Acts 1:8), a grave error occurs if we come to the place of the experience and see ourselves as having arrived.    

The moment of opening our lives to the influence of the Holy Spirit is not the end, but the door that opens our heart and soul up to the unlimited possibilities inherent within an ongoing awareness of the Spirit.  Our contact with the Spirit must not be relegated to one single experience as powerful as that moment might be.  To be filled with the Spirit, or to be baptized with the Spirit may speak of a moment which opens the door as a door is opened to begin a new journey, but the journey itself is full of Spirit possibilities.  The initial experience at which many arrive and get stuck is really a moment which gives the Spirit the freedom to access all our inner life and to constantly reveal Himself to us both in presence and in power.    

The truth is that every moment is a moment that is full of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Our eyes and our spiritual antenna is simply not tuned to be receptive to all that He wants to be doing in us.  This moment of beginning spoken about so much and sought after with such fervor in some spiritual circles is rightly seen as the moment of getting our life in focus for all that is ahead.  What is ahead is a life lived under the influence of the Spirit as well as one lived in submission to His will instead of our own and it will take us a life time to come to a place of understanding all that this means and even then it will not be enough.