We at Memorial Drive have encountered a wonderful experience of meeting God in Spirit form. We are and will continue to grow into interactive work with Him.
I took three stabs at teaching about the Holy Spirit at Memorial beginning in the late 70s. Each quarter quickly jumped to the track of what He doesn't do and we never regained focus beyond our inherited fears.
The fourth try was different. I realized my mistake of the first three takes and announced to the class we would not entertain any comments as to what the Spirit doesn't do. We were well versed there. What we wanted to research was what He does do.
Due to His authentic leading, I did not teach the class. The class taught me. We probed the Word of God together for it was our source....of course. I would toss a bone and the class would think together. They began to make such astute observations, my time as the teacher during class was to jot down their findings.
The result of those morsels was a book that I first titled, The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthy Sense. I drew heavy criticism for the title and more criticism for the content. To explain, the title implies He makes heavenly sense; but not earthly. For the content? Well...I just had to take it and move on.
The result of God's breaking in to this congregation in Spirit form continues to be one of over-joy. Fear of where this would lead has been quenched by His productivity as promised in Galatians 5:22-23. We are growing in patience, kindness, love, etc. It is His trademark among His people.
Finally, one of the greater gifts of this study is to realize how free we are to yield control of every nook and cranny of kingdom work. We sow. We try. If it does work, we tell God, Thank you. If it doesn't work, we tell God, Thank you.
The over-joy of the Holy Spirit allows us to engage in a new world that is far above our heads.
(BTW--The Holy Spirit Makes No Earthly Sense didn't sell well. Howard Publishing eventually shipped the unsellables to South Africa and the book went out of print. My son Tim was on a mission trip to SA years later. The people he stayed with were intrigued by this new book they had purchased. It was this book. Soon after, I began to get an abundant amount of calls for the book that was now out of print.
I rewrote the book putting it in workbook form and renamed it Empowering the Ordinary (The Holy Spirit Helping Inadequate Believers.) I have self-published the book these past twenty years and cannot keep them in stock. Small groups are studying this workbook all over the country and in other nations. It has been translated into Russian. Hmmm....it seems the Holy Spirit is working among us! How fun!)
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