Without question, the Pentecostal
Revival followed by the Charismatic Movement/Renewal have changed the face of
modern Christianity from a formalized, institutionized and lethargic religion into a vibrant,
expressive and passionate spiritual life by calling Christians to hunger and
seek for “encounter” with God, actively expecting and responding to the move of
God’s Spirit in the church and its missionary works, creatively expressing the
gospel by its music and worship style, its praise-permeated spontaneity and
bold ventures in community.
As J.I Packer puts it, “It [Pentecostalism]
sees itself as a revitalizing re-entry into a long-lost world of gifts and
ministries of the Holy Spirit, a re-entry which immeasurably deepens individual
spiritual lives, and through which all Christendom may in due course find quickening.
Charismatic folks everywhere stand on tiptoe, as it were, in excited
expectation of great things in store for the church as the movement
increasingly takes hold.”
Being much involved in
Pentecostal/Charismatic church myself, especially in taking up role as worship
leader in church services, a creative, expressive and passionate worship was
something that I sought after. I remembered sometimes ago, in our church service that was mainly consist of youth, week
after week we zealously worship the Lord and often expect some forms of
manifestation of the power of God’s Spirit in our midst. The general
expectation runs along this (albeit theologically and biblically ignorance,
since when being such enthusiastic about God’s presence, not much thinking
takes place) line: praise God until the Spirit comes and worship God
until His glory fall. I’m not sure if this line of thinking and expectation
holds true for many Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians but I think it does
reflects the mood and probably the worldview of most Pentecostals, that is, a
hunger for some kind of personal, tangible (and may I dare say, a “dramatic”)
encounter with God.
It is not my intention to question or to be skeptical of such passion
for I myself was numbered among those that I just described. But after
several years, I took some liberty to seriously think about it and begin to
wonder if this is a misplaced or misguided but otherwise sincere passion and
hunger for the things of God. The reason I say this is because too much of
the modern Pentecostal/Charismatic-like spiritual life (hence “spirituality”) is centering on
oneself and on their respective exciting experiences rather than being God-centered and contemplative of who God is as
revealed in Scripture, much less on what the cross has accomplished in the
lives of believers. Untrue to the heartbeat of the NT and also the Pentecostal
fathers, the gospel is only mainly heard in evangelistic events, Good
Friday/Easter or during Holy Communion addresses. Other than that only scant
mentions of what God has done to reconciled sinners through his Son Jesus
Christ and all the spiritual significance that flows from it were mentioned in
most Charismatic-like sermons. Too much emphasis on personal needs, appeals to
feelings/emotion, on the “how to live a victorious life” or the “7 steps to
experience breakthrough” kind of formulatic messages. Sadly, the gospel is appeared
to be regarded only as category for the entry point of salvation while the rest
of the spiritual life from there on turns on spiritual exercises such as prayer,
devotion, Bible study, worship, encounter with God, etc.
Believers coming to church
service usually expecting some kind of “special touch” from the Holy Spirit
which could potentially entails dissatisfaction if they did not experience any
tangible goose-bump or the like. What worries me is that instead of letting the
Spirit of God works according to His sovereign way, we due to our misinformed
expectations, would tend to expect him to work only in certain ways, that is,
in certain dramatic, tangible or sensible manners. So while in our prayers we
asked God to move freely, in our expectation, we unknowingly put him in a box.
We that has a very commendable habit of Scripture devotion, of all people should
realized that, as much as God through powerful manifestation of his power has
caused people to come to saving faith and empower his people for service, has
also saved other people through “normal” and casual preaching or conversation
such as in Acts 8:26-39, 13:13-52, 16:13-15 and 17:16-34 and has also empower
his people to go through hardships (Rom 8:14-28) in the natural world, not to
mention enablement from God for the “unspectacular” gift of serving, teaching,
encouragement, generous giving and even to show mercy (Rom 12:3-8).
I sense a dire need for
modern-day Pentecostals/Charismatics to be more careful and be more reflective
in our practices. We need to really evaluate if our spirituality measure up to
what the Scripture actually taught. In the end of the day, it is not about us but
about God. However powerful and dramatic the manifestation of God’s power we
may expect and that really had happened, it is by his grace and according to
his sovereign prerogative. Moreover, manifestation of his Spirit is meant to
point us to Christ, who through his death and resurrection has accomplished for
us our salvation, sanctification, and eschatological perfection to come and in turn poured
his Spirit upon us as deposit for eternal life and to empower us to live by
faith in his finished work. Instead of being intrinsic, biblical spirituality
should be extrinsic, that is, focusing upon God and his great redemptive acts
in human history that arousing deep affection and heartfelt responses.
