On contentment, personal experience and the fire of the Holy Ghost

Dear friends,

After a week of holidays and rest, I’m back with more bullets and thoughts about mission, discipleship and renewal.

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Here are your weekly bullets:

On contentment, personal experience and Scripture:

“Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience.”

― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

We rightly caution ourselves to not place spiritual experiences above faith in the person and work of Jesus. We’re also aware of the dangers of hype, pure emotionalism and irrational faith.

It is imperative that every experience of faith be judged by Scripture and discerned within our local church community.

Yet, if we are not careful, we can fall into a non-experiential kind of spirituality and apathy.

As Dr. Craig Keener wrote in his seminal Spirit Hermeneutics:

“While careful study of Scripture helps counter the unbridled subjectivism of popular charismatic excesses, study that does not lead to living out biblical experience in the era of the Spirit misses the point of the biblical texts. All Christian experience in this era must be properly “Pentecostal”—that is, shaped by the experience of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit on the church.”

We must remember, that the God of Scripture, as Fred Hartley III says, is on fire.

Throughout Scripture, fire symbolizes God's manifest presence — His particular, selective, very personal and tangibly perceived presence, principally reserved for His people.

Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, all of Israel, the apostle Paul, the apostle John, and the early church at Pentecost all encountered the manifest presence of God through fire.

As the writer of Hebrews says: “Our God is a consuming fire”.

Our cautionary posture toward “experience” can lead us to be disciples without burning hearts.

We may develop cutting-edge discipleship programs, devise innovative church planting strategies, and cultivate creative missional thinking and do all these things without pursuing the fire of God’s manifest presence — and, worst of all, becoming content with its absence, as if we have no need for it.

What if we could adopt a posture of being “ignitable” while also being discerning—contending for the manifestations of God seen throughout Scripture, while allowing Scripture to be the arbiter of our experiences?

Can we cultivate a holy discontent for the gap between our experiences and the possibilities of God, while still walking by faith in Christ rather than by experience?

We can honor Scripture above our experience yet read Scripture experientially, with faith and hope that the God who acted in salvation history is presently pouring out His Spirit and fire until kingdom come.

Furthermore, many experiences that some might view as extraordinary are actually normative.

Casting out demons. Speaking in tongues. Healing the sick. Prophecy. Supernatural boldness.

All of these are manifestations of Spirit present in the apostolic church and throughout church history, and they should be seen as normative in our day.

As we carry the gospel into an age of skepticism and disenchantment, may we be countercultural in our pursuit of God’s supernatural power and refuse to settle for anything less. Refuse to settle for faith without fire.

Let’s be ignitable.

A short Ministry update:

Last week, I had the privilege of preaching to a hundred youth at a summer camp in southern Spain. This year marked the camp’s 40th edition. I preached two evening sessions, led an evangelism workshop, and participated in a discussion panel.

We witnessed a profound move of God, with many youth committing to follow Jesus and making radical decisions to live holy lives and make Him known.

It’s inspiring to see God moving among Gen Z, not just in Spain, but all around the world.

In two weeks, I’ll be preaching at another youth camp and would greatly appreciate your prayers.

Let’s continue to contend for, serve, and pour into the next generation.

On the Fire of the Holy Ghost:

“Men ablaze are invincible. Hell trembles when men kindle. Sin, worldliness, unbelief, hell, are proof against everything but Fire. The Church is powerless without the Fire of the Holy Ghost. Destitute of Fire, nothing else counts; possessing Fire, nothing else really matters. The one vital need is Fire.”

— Samuel Chadwick

“In my experience the church has been more eager to see its ministers conferred with degrees than with the power of God.

But if we are not simply to resist the attrition of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, but are actually to make inroads in their domain, extending the kingdom of God in the lives of individuals and transforming society, then what we need are not vicars in church sporting academic hoods but ministers clothed with tongues of fire.”

— Simon Ponsonby, More

As always, let me know which content resonated with you and what you would like to see more of.

PS: next week’s issue will be all about Mission, the confusion surrounding its definition, holistic mission vs prioritism and more!

Until next week,

Timo