REFLECTION: THE SPIRIT – LOST OR KEPT 

By Rev Dr Clive W Ayre

In recent weeks the Christian year has led us to a major focus on the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we now begin that long season of Pentecost when the ecstasy of the Spirit's out-pouring in our lives must be tested in the long hard grind of the everyday. It is one thing to “Catch the Spirit”, but once the Spirit has been caught, it must be kept, and flow on to a consistent life of discipleship.

A man who loved birds usually spent some time each morning feeding them. He found that doves eat more than other birds, and will therefore quite soon eat right out of a person's hand. One morning he decided to play a game with one of his 'regulars'. He held out his hand with seed in it, and when the dove was about to peck out a few seeds, he closed his hand. The bird stopped, looked in disbelief, retreated a little, and tried again, since the hand was now open again. But he repeated the exercise. After the 6th time, the bird flew off, and it never returned. In the Bible, the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of God, like that dove, will also disappear if continually rejected.

Jesus describes the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as “an eternal sin”; it has been described elsewhere as “the unforgivable sin”, and that has often disturbed Christians. A quick rule of thumb is that anyone who fears they may have committed the “unforgivable sin” almost certainly has not. The unforgivable attitude, as we might call it, is, in its most basic form, the kind of moral perversity that is prepared to call good, evil, and evil, good.  It represents a calamitous loss of Spirit - of God's Spirit. There is a better way in which we may retain the Spirit given to us, in which we may grow in the Spirit.

The first way may be unexpected, but it is music. When we first meet Saul, we are told that God's Spirit was with him, and his leadership potential marked him out as Israel's first king.  Then in 1 Samuel 16:14-23 we read the devastating line, “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul”. But “whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre, and played it with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him”.  Music therapy in the Bible! The right kind of music can soothe and heal, and be a wonderful inspiration.

The second pointer is suggested by Mark (Mark 3:20-35), and can be summed up as “single-minded devotion”. As Jesus pointed out, “... if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.”  That's clear enough, but for many of us, the spiritual 'houses' we call our lives are often divided, and torn between differing loyalties. Single-minded devotion means that all other commitments are subject to that one primary commitment to God in Jesus Christ. But it is most important to put that commitment into practice.

To be open to the Spirit once is fine, but we need a commitment that will make our faith work, and keep it fresh. When we do that, we find with Paul that “our inner nature is being renewed every day”. The Spirit will be gloriously present in our lives.