Somehow, the Holy Spirit has kind of the become the “middle child” of the Holy Trinity…
Many people know and talk about God. Christians – and the world, really – will talk about God. They’ll say things like, “God is good. God is all-powerful. God is love. God is real.” Even non-believers will speak about God by asking questions like, “Where was God when _______ happened? Does God even care about what’s going on??”
And, of course, Christians will talk about Jesus. “Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Savior. Jesus died on the cross. Jesus was perfect and sinless. Jesus loves you. At the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess…”
But for many Christians, the Holy Spirit is somewhat of an enigma who often seems to get the “middle child treatment.” For whatever reason, the middle child always seems to be ignored or forgotten. And in many ways, the Holy Spirit has received this same treatment from Christians and the church alike.
Ask people about the Holy Spirit and who knows what you will get!?!
For some people, the Holy Spirit was basically their spiritual parole officer, monitoring their every move so that He could tell them when they did wrong.
For others, they are afraid or apprehensive about the Holy Spirit. They’ve seen, or heard about, weird encounters and people acting differently. Maybe they’ve even some people taking things to an extreme, which made them feel uncomfortable.
And yet for other people, when you say Holy Spirit their response is basically, “Holy who???” And that’s because some people have no real context or understanding of who the Holy Spirit is or what He does.
We believe this has been one of Satan’s greatest strategies and tactics against the church. He has managed to confuse us, deceive, and discourage us when it comes to the role of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives. And in doing so, he has stripped us of the power and potential that can only be accessed and fulfilled through God’s Holy Spirit.
That’s because there are things God has called every believer to do and to fulfill, and those things can ONLY be done through the power and the leading of the Holy Spirit. But many of us have lived our Christian lives absent of the presence or an awareness of the Spirit. And in this way, we have forgotten God.
So we want to do is share some indicators that will reveal whether you’ve forgotten about the Holy Spirit. So here we go…
7 Signs You’ve Forgotten the Holy Spirit
1. You rely on your own wisdom rather than leaning on the Holy Spirit.
This is pretty obvious, but it’s also incredibly easy to do. Many of us will make significant decisions about our lives, our work, our relationships, or where we live by trusting in our previous experiences or basing it on our feelings and preferences. And the scary part is we will do this without ever once stopping to ask or to consider, “Holy Spirit – what do you want me to do?”
But this is not how we are instructed to live. To the contrary, we’re told the to do the exact opposite.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” – Proverbs 3:5-6 (NLT)
Here’s a good way to assess if this applies to you: Look back at the five biggest decisions you’ve had to make in the last 6 months and see if you were truly leaning on the Holy Spirit or just choosing what you wanted.
2. You don’t yearn to grow in intimacy with God.
One of the roles the Holy Spirit plays in our lives is to deepen our relationship with God. In many ways, He’s the glue between you and God that binds the two of you together. But He’s not just your typical type of adhesive…
That’s because as the Holy Spirit binds you to God, He also reveals the goodness and the depth of our Heavenly Father. And as you start to discover and unlock this new knowledge and revelation of God, you can’t help but want more and more of it! This is exactly what King David experienced and wrote about.
[David speaking] “O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you…” – Psalm 63:1 (NLT)
It’s the Holy Spirit that produces this type of desire in you. The kind of desire where all you want is to know God, to be with Him, to find your satisfaction and completion in Him.
3. You don’t hear from God without a middle man.
The number of Christians who don’t hear from God, or have never heard from God, is astonishing! One of the things that we are soooo passionate about at Meta Church is helping people – i.e. you – hear directly from God!
What we know is there is a significant number of Christians who are completely and wholly dependent upon things like devotionals, podcasts, or social media clips as their primary or only means of hearing from God. These things are not bad things, but they shouldn’t be your primary, or only, means of hearing from God.
If this applies to you – then you should know two things:
- You’re short-changing yourself.
- That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
“But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.” – 2 Corinthians 2:10 (NLT)
The Scriptures teach that God has secrets that He desires to reveal to you, and you alone, through His Spirit! And try as we might through our preaching, our pastoring, or our discipling – we’re not going to be able to reveal to you everything God wants you to know. And that’s because it’s a secret between God and you! He doesn’t want us (or need another person) in the middle of it.
4. You don’t feel conviction or the need to repent when you sin.
There’s a difference between guilt and conviction.
Guilt is when we feel bad about something. “I drank too much. I went too far. I crossed the line and I feel bad.”
A lot of people experience that.
Conviction, on the other hand, is when we recognize the wrong we’ve committed, how it’s separated us from God, and we repent from it by turning back to God. This is one of the roles the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. In fact, it’s how Jesus introduced Him…
[Jesus speaking] “And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness…” – John 16:8 (NLT)
The Holy Spirit’s desire is to show us where fellowship with the Father has been severed, and lead us back into a right standing with a righteous God.
5. You don’t use your spiritual gifts.
The moment you place your faith in Jesus, we’re told that not only do you receive the Holy Spirit, but you are given spiritual gifts that can be used for building up the body of Christ.
There are many different gifts: apostleship, administration, mercy, teaching, shepherding, hospitality, prophetic, knowledge, faith, tongues, etc. And it’s the Holy Spirit who gives these various to each person for the sake of the body of Christ.
“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” – 1 Corinthians 12:7 (NLT)
If you’re a Christian, these gifts are already in your possession. But so many Christians don’t use them or operate in them. Instead, we ignore them or only think of them every once in a while when we take another spiritual gifts assessment. So if you’re not using your spiritual gifts, then it’s possible you’ve forgotten about the Holy Spirit.
6. You don’t live in spiritual freedom.
This is a big one… There are lots of Christians who are living and operating with a religious spirit. Far too many Christians are doing things out of obligation, duty, performance, or with the intent to try and earn their approval from God or others.
But when the Spirit is present in your life, He will not lead you to religious obligation or performance, but rather to freedom.
“For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NLT)
You see, the Holy Spirit within you seeks to expose and crush any form of religion or self-righteousness. He wants to free you and liberate you from that burden so you can walk in the joy and wholeness found in God.
7. Your life spiritually looks the same today as it did years ago.
This final point might be the most glaring stain on Christianity and the church in America.
There are far too many Christians who have been going to church for years… supposedly following Jesus for years… and doing the exact same things for years with zero transformation and near-zero impact on the Kingdom.
They go to church, they volunteer, they might give some money to the church, and they might even read the scriptures and pray consistently. But they’re not living with greater faith today than they were yesterday. They’re not advancing the Kingdom of God in any intentional way. They’re not being transformed more and more into the image of Christ.
But this reality is actually impossible when someone is led by and surrendered to the Spirit.
“And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.” – 2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)
The Holy Spirit leads us to greater transformation and causes us to become more and more like Christ. It is through the power of the Spirit that your life can actually reflect the heart and mindset of Christ.
Despite all this, there is good news…
Because our commitment at Meta Church is that the Holy Spirit is NOT forgotten!
Our desire is that each and every person would live in the fullness and richness of the Spirit. And our prayer is that you would experience the power and potential of the Holy Spirit in your life like never before!
So if you’re looking for more ways to grow and walk in the Spirit, then we’d encourage you to check out our Spirit Come preaching series from Meta Church.