I was once in a class that had a guest lecturer speak on his experience working as a missionary in Papua New Guinea. This man had spent decades of his life working to reach some of the most remote people in the world, people who had never heard of Jesus, let alone what Jesus had done for them. Oddly though, the most profound part of his talk came at the end as he answered questions.
One student in particular had question after question on how the missionary addressed practices that would be deemed inappropriate by our western standards. They were specific, direct, and seemingly never ending. And to his disappointment, the speaker had very little to say on his experience changing routines or daily lives of the people he interacted with. Finally, after another round of questions where the student seemed to grow frustrated, the speaker stopped him and simply said:
“At some point you’re just going to have to trust that the Holy Spirit will convict people where they need to be convicted.”
That brought the questions to an end and we all sat there for a moment and pondered the depth of what he had just said. It was profound and it touched on something we so easily miss on a shamefully regular basis.
This student in my class was so worried about doing a good job sharing the gospel that he forgot what was and wasn’t his job. And sitting there a couple rows back, all I could do was relate to the mistake he was making.
We have to stop thinking that the Holy Spirit’s work is our work. It’s not. We can’t even come close to what the Holy Spirit can do and when we try… Well, we only need to look around us to see how well that’s going.
Our job is not to be the Holy Spirit but to direct each other to the Holy Spirit. When we try to do the Spirit’s job we squash people into our method of honoring God. And while we might have the best intentions, those other people aren’t us. There’s even the chance that what works so well for us might cause others to struggle and stumble.
Now I want to be very clear here. There are hard and fast things in scripture that are the non-negotiables of following God. I’m not advocating for saying “You do you!” About those critical things. What I’m getting at is the minutia of following God, the individual, personality coated ways we show him honor and respect.
In those spaces, your way is going to look different than other believers because God created us to be so wildly varied and different.
We’re not alone in this struggle. The early church was all over the place as both Jews and gentiles began following Christ. Everyone thought they had the right way to follow Christ and that everyone else was doing it dangerously wrong. Jewish believers wanted the gentiles to be following Mosaic law the same as them and things were getting heated. It finally took James speaking up and saying they shouldn’t be making it difficult for the Gentiles to be following Christ. Instead, he advocated for them to encourage Gentiles to be steadfast on the nonnegotiable points and hold fast. (Acts 15:13-21)
He got what everyone else was missing. He understood that it was the Holy Spirit’s job to direct the nuances of believers following Christ, not his. He advocated for what Christ intended all along and what that speaker in my class was getting at. Our job is to teach and encourage each other into deeper relationship with God and direct each other to the Holy Spirit.
When we instead direct each other to the Holy Spirit, we help each other preach the gospel to ourselves. We hold a mirror up to ourselves and see if we see Christ’s reflection or our own. We are made so much better for following the Spirit instead of trying to do the Spirit’s work.
We were never meant to be the Holy Spirit. Thank goodness. We’re not up to that job by any means. So let’s take a deep breath and let the Spirit do its work in others, even if that work looks different than it does in our own lives.
There are going to be fellow Christians who live for Christ and bring him glory in ways different from out own. We need to let them. As long as they are born again in Christ, we have to accept that people might not do things exactly the same way we do.
It’s not a mistake, it’s a reminder that God made us wonderfully and beautifully varied in how we interact with Him. This was on purpose. This is good. This is God in control.
Let’s find some joy,
-A
Avalon Robinson Author 