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| Tipp City, Ohio store |
I have seen, in some Christian contexts,
"out-of-controlness" being valued as a sign that the Spirit is really
moving. To be "overcome" by the Spirit so much that one can no longer
say 'Yes' or 'No'. Mostly, I do not think that is a good thing, if ever.
In
this regard I really like what Mike Bickle counsels in his book Growing
In the Prophetic. (This is the main text we use on our RMS Prophecy class.) Few people have
witnessed more genuine and fake Spirit-manifestations than Mike. And there is
no doubt that he values the authentic moving of the Spirit. So we need to
listen when he writes things like this.
“Over the years, I have witnessed prophetic people being
asked to stop speaking or behaving in a certain way. Some prophetic people
claim that they are unable to stop because they are “overwhelmed” by the Holy
Spirit. However, the Scriptures are clear that people operating in the power of
the Holy Spirit are governed by love and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23)” (Bickle, Growing In the Prophetic, 163)
Paul
“would not let prophetic people in the NT church claim that they could not help
what they were doing in a meeting… [A]nyone claiming that they cannot control
what they say or do because they are “overcome” by the Holy Spirit is naïve…
Paul admonished and required each believer to contribute what he had in an
orderly way by using self-control (1 Cor. 14:28-40).” (Ib.)
“One
aspect of self-control is the ability to rule our spirits or to control our
words and actions. ‘He who rules his spirit [is mightier] than he who takes a
city.’ (Proverbs 16:32) ‘Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city
broken down without walls.’ (Proverbs 25:28)
This is
not about trying to quench or take control over the Holy Spirit. It is to say
that, when the Spirit moves, one does not lose their self-control but actually
finds it to be one of the manifestations of the Spirit.
There is a
Spirit-given self-control and a fleshly, Spirit quenching self-control. Seek the former.
