TRISTAN SHERWIN

As a Pentecostal, I was taught that being Spirit-filled was about tongues, words of knowledge, prophecy etc.

However, I’ve learnt this isn’t the case at all.

I’m not a cessationist, but Spirit-filled is more evident in loving others, walking humbly & living prophetically.

Being Spirit-filled is about learning from and exhibiting the life of Christ in our communities, not being able to say “Kassandar” et al.

It’s possible to speak in tongues, as the Apostle Paul tells us, and still be a menace to society.

It’s possible to make prophetic sounds but still be resistant to the prophetic orchestrations of the Spirit’s movement towards other.

In short, I couldn’t care less about the gifts you excercise or excel in.

If you’re racist, sexist, supremacist, xenophobic etc. you’re not Spirit-filled.

If you’re moved by Prejudice, Hate, Greed, Ignorance and a desire for control, you’re not Spirit-filled.

If you’re moved by compassion, mercy and humility out of your inward-looking perspective and toward other, now we’re getting somewhere.

I’m speaking to myself here, too.

I long for the Spirit to move. But I long for the Spirit to move us towards the marginalised, the oppressed, and the broken, not just to a greater number of people speaking in tongues.

I long for the Spirit to move us toward creating community; that the Spirit will guide us in becoming Christ-like. That we’ll learn to be fathers to the fatherless, and how to gather, as a family, around the lonely.

Come Holy Spirit, come.