Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit

by Francis Chan

The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice.

The light of the American church is flickering and nearly extinguished, having largely sold out to the kingdoms and values of this world. While most people see that there is a problem, few do anything about it, and most of those who do, run toward the wrong solutions.

Instead of speaking meaningfully and insightfully into the culture, we have capitulated and in many cases look no different from the world.

The church becomes irrelevant when it becomes purely a human creation. We are not all we were made to be when everything in our lives and churches can be explained apart from the work and presence of the Spirit of God.

know only that when you surrender fully to the Spirit, Christ will be magnified, not you (John 16:14).

so I’ll just hold on to this, that, oh, and that, too….” It doesn’t work that way. When I read Scripture, I see the truth and necessity of a life wholly surrendered to and dependent upon the Holy Spirit.

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Cor. 2:4–5

“the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of p...

Christ said it is better for us that the Spirit came, and I want to live like I know that is true. I don’t want to keep crawling when I have the ability to fly.

A Christian is fearless.

Rather than guarding your perspective, consider taking a fresh look at familiar passages to make sure you haven’t missed something. You may end up with the same theology you’ve always had, but maybe you won’t. Don’t let your views be determined by a particular denomination or by what you’ve always been told.

what if I pray for the Holy Spirit and nothing happens? What if I ask for more of the Spirit’s fruit in my life and don’t see any apparent “results”? It’s scary to pray boldly for change or freedom from sin, because if nothing happens, then doesn’t that mean God failed? Doesn’t that mean His Spirit isn’t all we’ve been told He is?

I encourage you to pray confidently for what God has promised. Don’t put your hope in what others promise or what you’ve been told you’ll “get” if you are a “good Christian” (e.g., a good job, financial success, the perfect spouse, healthy children, a big house, etc.). And ultimately, you need to stake your faith in God alone, not in the gifts (good as they may be) that He gives. It really comes down to trust. Do you trust God that when He says no or “not in this way” to you, you still believe He is good and doing what is best?

The flip side of fearing that God won’t show up is fearing that He will.

So, if you say you want the Holy Spirit, you must first honestly ask yourself if you want to do His will. Because if you do not genuinely want to know and do His will, why should you ask for His presence at all?

You’re probably familiar with God’s command in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Are you concerned about breaking this command? Do you know what it means to quench the Spirit?

had contempt toward anyone who claimed to have “a word from the Lord.”

The biblical response would have been to “test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil” (1 Thess. 5:21–22 NIV).

Some conservatives may quench the Spirit by ignoring His working, but surely putting unbiblical words into the mouth of God is a form of quenching the Spirit as well. We need the Spirit in order to live faithfully. But we also need one another as we work out our faith.

The point is not to completely understand God but to worship Him. Let the very fact that you cannot know Him fully lead you to praise Him for His infiniteness and grandeur.

When we forget about the Spirit, we really are forgetting God.

Too often we disdain our bodies as the source of sin and our fallenness; yet they are precisely where God the Spirit chooses to dwell!

I believe that if we truly cared about the Holy Spirit’s grief, there would be fewer fights, divorces, and splits in our churches.

The Spirit helps us speak when we are in precarious situations and need to bear witness

teaches and reminds us of what we need to know and remember.

power to be God’s witnesses

By the power of the Spirit we put to death the misdeeds of the body. The Spirit sets us free from the sins we cannot get rid of on our own. This is a lifelong process we entered into, in partnership with the Spirit,

Through the Spirit we have received a spirit of adoption as children, which leads us into intimacy with the Father, instead of a relationship based on fear and slavery. The

convicts people of sin.

brings us life and freedom.

The fruit of being led by the Spirit of God includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

So, really, why do you desire the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life?

The most obvious and stated purpose of these manifestations is for the good and edification of the church.

how much do you love the church?

I love these people so much. I pray God empowers me in some way to encourage these people toward a deeper walk with Him

Self-glorification is something many of us struggle with.

Let’s pray that God would empower us so radically that we would get no glory. That people would see our works and glorify God.

Sometimes we even resemble Satan, who told Jesus to jump off of the temple and perform a miracle.

definition, it’s ridiculous to desire the Holy Spirit for our own purposes.

I honestly believe that most of us—while we might say we want to be led by the Spirit—are actually scared of this reality. I know I am.

what would your church (and the worldwide church) look like if everyone was as committed as you are?

But it’s absolutely vital to grasp that He didn’t call you there so you could settle in and live out your life in comfort and superficial peace.

At some point along the way, you agreed with God that you were not meant to be ruled by your fleshly desires and passions (like anger, self-indulgence, immorality, etc.), and you removed the central role that these things once had in your life.

Each day she would find and eat food that was decaying, knowing that was what she would be served in prison. The discipline she demonstrated is humbling; how many of us would choose to eat rotten foods?

While preparing for prison, she memorized more than one hundred chapters of the Bible and many hymns

fasting and prayer.

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Rom. 8:15–17)

From my own experience, I have felt closest to God when nearness to Him was a necessity.

(Maybe Your Life Is Too Loud)