Forgotten God – Chapters 4 & 5

It’s been a few weeks since I posted on Francis Chan’s book: Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit.   We took a few weeks hiatus, but we’re back and this is a catch-up post…

Chapter four: “Why Do You Want Him?“

The chapter title summed up the main theme.  It’s really about purposes for desiring to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.  It’s an interesting question – and one that probably isn’t really considered as one asks and prays for empowerment.  Do we wrongly treat the Holy Spirit as a token?  Do we call out to him with wrong motives in our heart?

Chan writes about a few wrong reasons that we seek empowerment in our lives:

• Attention – making it about us
• Miracle hunting – where we have this idea that we conger the Holy Spirit up for the things that we deem necessary and appropriate without consideration of His will, purposes, and priorities.

I guess we’d all like to say we don’t fail in these areas, but if I’m honest, I guess I have.

The biggest section that got me was the idea of leading rather than following the Holy Spirit.  Somewhat similar to “miracle hunting”, it’s where I fail to recognize that God is God and I am not.  It’s where I project my desires, purposes, plans, on the Holy Spirit – assuming that they are His will rather than mine – and expect Him to comply and “make it so” (oh, and by the way God, here’s the timetable I’ve planned out for You.)

The most convicting verse in this chapter was 1 Corinthians 12:7, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”  As I seek to live like Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, if my end goal isn’t “the common good” – well, I’ve blown it.  Praise God for 1 John 1:9!

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Chapter five: “A Real Relationship“

This chapter dealt with our being known and having a relationship with God and how the Holy Spirit enables that.  It also talked about some things that tend to inhibit that relationship.

Chan echoes what he wrote about in Crazy Love – how our relationship with God is often colored or marred by our relationship with our earthly father.  God is the perfect Father who knows and loves us in a way that we simply cannot comprehend – and sadly, our human comprehension of His love is based on earthly relationships, which are often poor.

With confidence, we must hold to what Galatians 4:6-7 says:

Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

He writes about two areas that often inhibit our relationship with God:

• Comfort – the fact that we live “safe” lives.  If we hedge ourselves from anything that would otherwise stretch us for God, maybe that hinders our relationship with Him.  If the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and we live lives that are comfort-laden, do we even need His empowerment and relationship?  Thought provoking and convicting…
• Volume – the fact that our lives are too busy or loud.  This one is big for me.  At times, I just am doing too much and that can affect my relationship with and reliance on God.  I’ve got to force myself to carve time out…to turn down the volume of life and connect with God in the quiet.  Sure he is everywhere and with me always, but it’s often in those quiet times that He speaks to my heart loudest.

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On to chapter six: Forget About His Will For Your Life!…I’ll still post some of my thoughts soon…