(Spiritual = Unmediated) = Romanticism

I find myself having this thought over and over again.

Popular evangelical Christianity is frequently confused as to how to identify / seek / encourage / authenticate the genuine work of the Holy Spirit.

Churches (including ours, at some points) get accused of quenching the Spirit; whilst there may be senses in which that is true, it is not usually true for the reason indicated by the plaintiff. Churches (including ours, at other points) are described as full of the Spirit; whilst there will be senses in which that is true, it is not always true for the reason indicated by the person concerned.

So often, what seems to be at the root of this confusion is the automatic identification of “spiritual” and “unmediated”. (I posted about a year ago as to how this plays out in the areas of assurance and ministerial vocation). So, whenever God acts without agent the Spirit is at work. Whenever there is an intermediary, the Spirit is not at work.

• If we plan every detail of a Sunday service, the Spirit has no space to work, because the planning interferes.
• If we fully script a sermon, the same
• If the emotions are not stirred directly by God, the Spirit was not present

• etc.

The most obvious thing this misses is the fact that God frequently uses means, but that doesn’t make something any the less his work.

• One of the most spectacular ministries of the Spirit is to bring someone who is spiritually dead to new life; Romans 10 is unambiguous that this requires the preaching of the gospel by someone sent for that purpose. So one of the greatest things that the Spirit does is mediated by human ministry.
• Likewise, the Spirit is (we hope) as active in the planning of a Sunday service as he is in the service itself.
• The Spirit inspired the Scriptures, not in a vacuum, but through the writings of the human authors (2 Peter 1)

• The Spirit illuminates the Scriptures, not in a vacuum, but through the ministry of the teachers the risen Christ gives to his church (Acts 9, Ephesians 4)

There are more serious theological reasons why this is a serious path to stray down

• “There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus”. (1 Tim 2:4) God (all 3 persons) is mediated to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. To seek unmediated access to God, whichever person of the Trinity we would access, is to displace the gospel and to deny human sin.

• The Spirit is himself a mediator. His task is to be amongst us as “another counsellor”, ministering the presence of Christ to us. As the Spirit comes and lives in our hearts, all 3 persons — Father, Son and Spirit — can be said to live in us (John 14-16). To desire the Spirit but to desire an unmediated God is to deny the very Spirit we claim to seek.

And yet, as I say, I meet that assumption really very frequently. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it articulated: “I believe the Spirit is at work when and only when God is experienced in an unmediated way”. But it is the assumption that drives many comments I hear about how we decide when the Spirit is / is not at work.

And I think it all boils down to a prevalent Romanticism in pop evangelical Christianity. “You ask me how I know he lives…” What does anyone else think?