Our church is doing a series entitled 'Heros,' which explores everyday people in the bible doing extraordinary things. The subtext is 'There is a hero in all of us.' Again, I am thankful that the church is seeking to empower and help us, the church hoi polloi, trust God for extraordinary things, even though we see ourselves often as unworthy or incapable of God working in our life in this way.
What I would love to hear more is about how the Holy Spirit fits into this theme. Without an acknowledgement of the Spirit's role in living a life of extraordinary faith, it seems like many could walk away thinking it was 'up to them' to be a hero. The idea of us and not Jesus or the Holy Spirit being the hero also could subtley condition people to think that there may be something 'in us,' our flesh, that can please God. I'm not sure of the exact place in the bible, but I know that God calls our attempts at righteousness without his Spirit 'filthy rags.'
It bums me out that the Spirit does not get more praise and attention in church. We as believers possess God himself in our hearts, Romans 5 says 'the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.' We have God living in us, yet it seems like we are still looking to our flesh and our own strength as the sources of our lives.
I'm so thankful for Bill Bright and Campus Crusade--Bill understood at a very deep level the significance of the Holy Spirit, and that value still permeates Crusade ideology and philosophy. I would love to see a renewed passion for and committment to the person of the Holy Spirit in my life and in the lives of believers. It seems like by neglecting the Spirit we are neglecting the most precious gift Jesus has given us next to his death on the cross.
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