Holy Spirit in Fellowship

Simon taught and gave the following class summary:

The original plan was to explore some teaching of the Holy Spirit based on the creedal statement (Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit - revelation) and the doxology (fellowship and guidance) in that order. It just happened that this Sunday Tanya and Yu-Ling was so “inspiring”, so instead we switched to fellowship in the spirit impromptu.

The class was conducted in two parts. The first part lay out some teachings and the second part was to experience the fellowship of the Spirit in practice by engaging in “spirit” guided conversation and prayer with fellow brothers and sisters.

1. The work of the Holy Spirit as to comfort and to disturb (Jn 14:1,26, OT prophets)
Q: “How do you describe the work of the Holy Spirit?”
A: “He comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted.”
I was taught this a long time ago and had not forgotten this ever since. I think it is a good board useful summary of the work of the Holy Spirit. It is also a good guide to have a “spirit” guided fellowship conversation. Ask your brother or sister whether he/she is in a comforted or disturbed state. If he/she was in a comforted state then ask whether you can disturb him/her. If he/she was in a disturbed state, then ask how you can comfort him/her.

2. Be aware not all “special experiences” are spirit guided or spirit guided for the reason of the kingdom. In I Sam 10:11 and I Sam 19:25, two cases of spirit led prophesying by Saul were recorded. For an external observer both incidents were “special” prophesying experience but the scripture in the context (read some verse before and after) made us aware that in the first case the prophecy by Saul were favorable but the latter case Saul was not in favor. (In fact the turn point was recorded in Ch 15 when the Spirit left Saul) Sure, both incident were Spirit guided but to the person involved (Saul in this case) the intentions were very different.

3. Not all spontaneity or novelty are spirit driven, spirit is a spirit of order and discipline as well.

4. The true test of spirit is stated very clearly in I Jn 4:1-3 “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God”. This brings back the whole discussion we had concerning the incarnation.

5. Phil 2:1-4 asked us to be humble in our approach. We are to seek what is best for others. We are implied to take some risk of vulnerability in order to achieve fellowship. Humility and risk taking are both central ideas when we try to initiate genuine fellowship.

We then broke into groups of three and did a “spirit” guided fellowship conversation with the comfort/disturb model.

We ended the class with a prayer time that ended with the Lord’s Prayer together.