What Spirit?

Churches are usually peaceful places.

But in one church in a city in the United States, a fight broke out during which a woman was stabbed, and the minister of music tased the pastor! People are capable of surprising behavior. A delegation sent by Jesus into a Samaritan village was rejected by the local people. James and John —revealing they were not called the “Sons of Thunder” without reason— were so incensed by this slight that they asked Jesus if He would permit them to call fire down from heaven so that the offending locals would be incinerated! The request was made by the man who would go on to write five New Testament books, including one of the gospels and the book of Revelation.

“Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54).

Both James and John were disciples of the Prince of Peace. John wrote the following words of Jesus in John 13:34: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” And yet, along with James, John asked Jesus if it would be permissible to burn to death a town full of people! If you are not surrendered to Jesus, you are capable of absolutely anything. Often it is people who are considered perfectly respectable that commit the most heinous crimes or the most outrageous acts. The fact that a person claims to be a Christian or goes to church or takes up the offering doesn’t really prove a lot.

What are you like under provocation? “It is in a crisis that character is revealed.”* What are you like when someone steps on your toes or you don’t get your own way? Do you know “what manner of spirit you are of?” (Luke 9:55).

If God reveals to you that the wrong spirit is governing your life, see that as an invitation from Him to make room for more of His presence in your life.

Only His Spirit at work in our lives can truly change us.

As the old saying goes, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”†