Article #31 Faith

What kind of faith makes life function well in the here and now?

How can we develop a faith that is strong, permanent, and personal?

Is it possible our faith can be experienced moment by moment?

While we like the idea that faith can be a noun, we personally love the idea of it being a verb. It is a faith that moves in action as we move in action.  This makes faith, the noun and the verb, intertwined and real.

The question we get most often refers to how Elaine and I live.  What does our faith look like and how does it operate in our daily lives.  People want to know what our secret is.

Psst, there is no secret.

There is however a powerful truth.  The Holy Spirit is a person, and also God.  Let us explain in plain English.  When Jesus ascended into Heaven his Father unleashed, and we use that word intentionally, the Holy Spirit to live in and through the people left behind.  I can imagine the feelings of the people as they watched Jesus ascend into the clouds 2023 years ago.  They must have thought, what in the world are we going to do now?  What do we do without him here with us? The sense of loss having their savior and friend leave must have been profound.  Jesus said, Stay here.  Wait for the gift my Father promised to send.  This gift, the Holy Spirit, is an actual person, sent to be with us and acting in and through us. Do you now see the Holy Spirit as that connecter of our faith (noun) with the activation and actualization of our faith (verb).

God is actually three in one.  God the creator of all.  His son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  It is a mystery on how all this works together for our good.  It takes faith to activate the life we live in the here and now.  This kind of faith is also a choice.  We simply choose to believe.

We love it when the entertainment artists come close to showing very important elements of real life almost accurate.  In the first Star Wars film from 1977 we are introduced to The Force.  The sage character Obi Wan Kenobi describes The Force as “an energy field created by all living things that binds everything together.  It works in and through us giving us power.” This great science fiction saga has now produced an entire genre of entertainment.   The kernel of truth is there is in fact a spiritual dimension to life, created by God, which interfaces with the natural world.  It is not easily understood and not talked about much because it is so mysterious. It just does not fit into the religion box very well.

One studio executive asked us point blank to relate the bubbles of Heaven we experience with the presence of the Holy Spirt.  After thinking about it for a long time the answer was – intensity.  It is as if the person of the Holy Spirit focuses on a circumstance or a person much like a magnifying glass can focus the sun’s rays.  Within the bubble of that time and circumstance, the Holy Spirit’s presence and work is more intense and focused.

We are changing the emphasis in these last six articles to help you, our community, to get prepared for the invitation to group sessions and workshops to follow.  One of the topics addressed during the three-day workshop will be becoming acquainted with the person of the Holy Spirit.  We anticipate that we will begin the teaching and training, but the real work will be accomplished by the person ushered in 2023 years ago.  We see this entire idea of building a soul roadmap as a collaborative effort between our community, the readers and consumers of our content – either the feature film, the documentary film, or by reading articles and books we have published – and the person of the Holy Spirit.  We will devote time in the workshops to understand and to experience the mystery of the Holy Spirit.

It is going to be so much fun to gather together.