“Depending On The Holy Spirit!”

“Depending On The Holy Spirit!”(Lk.12:8-12).
“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Some years back I attended the TASO-TEACH programme in TASO Uganda. I was posted to Masaka. In discussion with our mentors, I learned that the major challenge they faced in their work was from local M/WOG. These naive charlatans will tell sero-positive persons who are on antiretroviral therapy to discontinue treatment because by prayer the Holy Spirit has healed them. What happened was that when PLWH abandoned their treatment, their conditions worsened and by the time they went back to TASO, they were already with AIDS.
This is a mockery of the Holy Spirit! Sometimes, you find someone with very little knowledge of the Bible who gets up one night and start preaching and gathering gullible folks to himself. If you tell such a person the need for some theological orientation, the question you will receive is, “Did the fishermen – the apostles – go to any theological or Bible school?” Of course, they did. The synagogues were not only a place of prayer, it was also a place of instruction. By the way, theological institutions and Bible schools help orientate us to know Christ more in an interdisciplinary way so that we can better present him to others. If that is so, the apostles did not need any theological education from an institution. They learned from the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That is why in his absence, the Holy Spirit was to be there to teach them what to say – only to answer a query. It was not supposed to be the reason why they should learn from othersources.
Faith seeks understanding; otherwise it is blind and misleading.
If the Holy Spirit is a teacher, we should not blaspheme him. The Holy Spirit cannot tell us to tell sick persons to discontinue treatment and rely on prayer alone. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit! Before you say, “The Holy Spirit has revealed to me that…,” be sure that it was truly the Holy Spirit and not some of those elemental spirits that fill the atmosphere.
The Holy Spirit gives us courage to declare and testify for Christ where and when we do so at our own risk.
In the face of any kind of injustice, lies and manipulations, the Spirit helps us to know the difference.
Testifying for Christ in public is to denounce evil and call it by its right name. The Spirit does not push us to say, “It is well,” when in fact, it is not well!
May the Holy Spirit reveal to us always what is the right thing to do.
Weekend prayer: “…Holy Spirit, help us daily, by thy might, what is wrong to conquer, and to choose the right.” Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.