THE INVISIBLE JOB
When he comes who is the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth....He will glorify me. John 16:13, 14, N.E.B.
During my years as an academy student my job was to operate the campus public-address systems. My boss was a very wise person. He often told me that I was doing my job best when no one knew I was there at the controls. "If the volume is turned so low that the listeners are straining to hear, they will say ,'Why doesn't that guy turn it up!' If it is too high and beginning to feed back, they will say, 'What's the matter with that kid?' But if it is just right, they will be so engrossed with the speaker they won't even know that you are there. And that's what we want."
The Holy Spirit's deepest desire is that we see Jesus. He does not wish for the attention to stop short of the Goal and to focus upon the medium. He knows that His work is to counteract that of Satan, who is busy telling lies about Jesus. In contrast, He longs for the confused children of this planet to know the truth about Him whom to know is life eternal.
One person asked, "Why do we know so much about Jesus and so little about the Holy Spirit?" I suspect that the Holy Spirit would say, "That is just the way I want it." For it is not intricate knowledge about the nature of the Trinity that brings us salvation; it is the character of God as revealed by all members of the Godhead that leads us to trust.
Christians long to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised we could (Acts 1:5-8). Spirit-filled Christians, as with the Spirit Himself, will be fulfilling their tasks most effectively when they draw the least attention to themselves and the most attention to Jesus Christ. The gift of Spirit-filling is not for private religious entertainment. It is not a form of sanctified ecstasy. It is not a cause for boasting about new levels of religious achievement.
John the Baptist revealed the high-water mark of his Spirit-filled life when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). This should not surprise us, since this is a perfect expression of the attitude of the Spirit Himself. The infilling of the Spirit is the infilling of the life of Christ, that He might be revealed to others.
When he comes who is the Spirit of truth, he will guide you into all the truth....He will glorify me. John 16:13, 14, N.E.B.
During my years as an academy student my job was to operate the campus public-address systems. My boss was a very wise person. He often told me that I was doing my job best when no one knew I was there at the controls. "If the volume is turned so low that the listeners are straining to hear, they will say ,'Why doesn't that guy turn it up!' If it is too high and beginning to feed back, they will say, 'What's the matter with that kid?' But if it is just right, they will be so engrossed with the speaker they won't even know that you are there. And that's what we want."
The Holy Spirit's deepest desire is that we see Jesus. He does not wish for the attention to stop short of the Goal and to focus upon the medium. He knows that His work is to counteract that of Satan, who is busy telling lies about Jesus. In contrast, He longs for the confused children of this planet to know the truth about Him whom to know is life eternal.
One person asked, "Why do we know so much about Jesus and so little about the Holy Spirit?" I suspect that the Holy Spirit would say, "That is just the way I want it." For it is not intricate knowledge about the nature of the Trinity that brings us salvation; it is the character of God as revealed by all members of the Godhead that leads us to trust.
Christians long to be filled with the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised we could (Acts 1:5-8). Spirit-filled Christians, as with the Spirit Himself, will be fulfilling their tasks most effectively when they draw the least attention to themselves and the most attention to Jesus Christ. The gift of Spirit-filling is not for private religious entertainment. It is not a form of sanctified ecstasy. It is not a cause for boasting about new levels of religious achievement.
John the Baptist revealed the high-water mark of his Spirit-filled life when he said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). This should not surprise us, since this is a perfect expression of the attitude of the Spirit Himself. The infilling of the Spirit is the infilling of the life of Christ, that He might be revealed to others.
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