connecting the dots

I've written two really long drafts about this topic. It's something that has been fermenting inside for months, and those drafts cover a lot of ground.

I'm thinking, however, to embrace brevity here to just hit the high points more or less.

I don't really understand how the Body has assumed tasks/duties/powers which until recently have been God's gig for centuries.

I look around and see many churches/ministries/people saying "we will empower you to (fill in the blank with some awesome sounding state of existence as a follower of Jesus)".

Some of the ones I've heard are people/ministries can show us how to "reach your High Place", "walk in divine overflow", "walk in your authority", "walk in your anointing", "walk in victory", etc.

Um...since when are we supposed to connect the spiritual dots for each other?

I don't know, but last time I checked 1 Corinthians 12 doesn't leave any qualms that the granting of power is the Holy Spirit's doing.

But I guess that depends on what type of power we're talking about.

The kind of empowering associated with the psychobabble and it's subsequent ministries is markedly different from the power via the Holy Spirit and the things He would bid us to.

Tied to this "we will empower you" stuff is the manner in which these folks determine the spiritual gifts in which Christians are to "operate" in.

Generally this is done through two methods: (1) human observation, and/or (2) some form of Spiritual Gift Inventory.

All I can say to the human observation angle is: Moses and his stuttering problem would NEVER be pegged by God's followers to be any type of leader. And I think this speaks volumes about what others say versus what God says.

I don't trust human observation as far as I can throw it, really. Maybe this is because I see God all too often doing things which go against the grain of human definition and wisdom.

As for the Spiritual Gift Inventory/Assessment stuff, have you ever looked at one of these? The questions are loaded, more loaded than any other test or assessment form I've ever seen of any kind.

People take these knowing that the church/pastor is going to take these inventories and place people into certain functions. So, knowing that Pastor Bob is going to be looking at their answers, what's the onus on Joe or Suzy Christian to answer the following questions (taken from an actual inventory):

"I have a deep passion to reach the lost for Christ"

"I place great importance on repentance"

I mean, come on, how is Joe or Suzy Christian going to answer questions like this: "never"? "very seldom"?

Ha. Yeah, right....

And so they take these tests and end up getting told "you're an evangelist", when they are no more an evangelist than the man in the moon.

Here's what seems to be the most lamentable about all this:

There are a lot of people who have a legitimate desire to be part of what God is doing. This grounded earnestness is met with "high place" and "divine overflow" lingo which leads down a path to self-inebriation and becoming puffed up.

Add to this that the designation of spiritual gifts (by the "divine overflow" folks, not the Holy Spirit) is amiss with human wisdom and human convention left and right.

Observing this, it is no wonder Jesus says "You go over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are" (Matthew 23:15).

We really as a whole need to back off this hostile takeover of things that are F/S/HS's gig. They are fully capable of connecting the dots in people who have a sober desire to be part of God's life.

We need to back off this hype and faddish speak. Back off the things that tickle the ears and cause people to get puffed up. And the Holy Spirit is who does the gifting, not us with our human systems.