What I’m Thinking: Spirit of Discernment

Even on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came with signs and wonders, it was not obvious that what was happenings came from the Holy Spirit. People still needed to interpret. They still needed to understand.

Here’s a transcript:

I’m wearing red because this coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. It celebrates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church; we frequently call it the Church’s birthday. And on that first Pentecost, people saw something that looked liked flames dancing above the heads of the apostles: red flames, and thus red.

The apostles also found themselves speaking in languages that they did not understand but which others, visitors from foreign places to the city of Jerusalem, did. And so there’s this sense of confusion and of clarity, of hearing things that you do not understand but at least you hear them in your own language.

And that, I think, is typical of the work, of the movement, of the guidance even of the Holy Spirit in that day and in this. We still need to interpret, we still need to discern, we still need to decide what is the Holy Spirit and what is not.

The Holy Spirit may overthrow our expectations or it may confirm them. Some of the folks watching, listening to the apostles that day thought that they were drunk. Simon Peter returned that no, this is something that was prophesied – but I might point out that until that day nobody expected that prophecy to look like what they saw.

It is our kuleana, it is our responsibility in each one of our days to be attentive for the movement of the Holy Spirit, to listen for that still small voice, to follow the wind, the breeze of God. But it is also our kuleana, our responsibility, to determine what is the Spirit and what is not, what moves us toward that better and brighter place, and what in fact moves us back towards all the heartache, all the sin, all the evil of the world we already know so well.

It is our kuleana, our responsibility, to test the spirits, and to follow that which is holy.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.