The word "the Holy Spirit" has been used too carelessly in the church by both pastors and believers as though one feels embarrassed to talk with people if he has not been moved by the Holy Spirit a few times a day. It looked strange to me so I spent time observing the people saying that they have been moved by the Holy Spirit. After my observation, I realized that people tend to ennoble their normal emotional mood by the saying that "I have been moved by the Holy Spirit". Furthermore, they would talk about their ideas, thoughts and emotions in the name of the Holy Spirit.
When believers go to the extreme, they would consider their innermost thinking and emotional feelings the result of the Holy Spirit's work. So we have many people claiming that they have been moved by the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to wrongly use God's name and when we use God's name for our own benefit? For instance, in order to make others believe our words, we say that our words are from the Holy Spirit. It turns out that without knowing it, we are using God's name in a wrong way when we take advantage of God's faithfulness to back up our own words. We put into question the truthfulness of which we are uncertain about.
It was the same scenario with the false prophets in the Bible. They claimed that God had sent them and moved them to speak, which made people misunderstand God and think of Him wrongly.
There was one known false prophet in the book of Nehemiah. When Nehemiah came to Shemaiah's house, he did not go outside his house to meet him. He told Nehemiah that God had told him that someone would kill Nehemiah in the evening. He also told him that God had told him to ask Nehemiah to hide in the temple and lock him up there to save him. In order for him to make Nehemiah believe him, Shemaiah dared to use God's work on him a few times. However, Nehemiah was not a fool. He recognized the fact that he had been bought by Sanballat and as soon as he hid himself in the temple, Shemaiah would lock the door immediately and go to Sanballat for money. This story is narrated in Nehemiah 6:12.
Another false prophet we are familiar with is Hananiah. In order to make sure that the people believe him, Hananiah claimed that the Holy Spirit had moved him to speak. As a result, people felt tired of hearing Jeremiah speaking, thinking that he was a fool. Do you see it that when the false prophet claimed God's name, the true prophet's word was considered poison? Therefore, God judged the false prophet Hananiah through Jeremiah, who said to him, "Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded people to this nation to trust in lies. Therefore, this is what the Lord says: "I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord." (Jeremiah 28:15-16)
There are many other examples in the Bible. In Ezekiel 13:1-6, God told Ezekiel, "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy out of their own imagination."
In addition to false prophets using God's name wrongly, some people without authority also claim recklessly that God had moved them to speak in order for others to believe them and accept what they say. Using God's name, they challenged people to accept their words.
Because of these people, some jokes have been made in the history of the church. One notable example is the historical Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement. When its leadership ran into conflict because of power struggles, knowing that none can find God to check whether He has moved someone or not, any leader who wanted to express his opinion would act strangely in order to let God fall upon him before he spoke.
We see such things occurring in Chinese history again and again. People who wanted to achieve their own ambitions always disguised their true ambition with God's will. For example: those living on the Mountain Liang, who wanted to rebel against the state in power, claimed that they were aimed at bringing about justice for heaven.
There was a man named Montanus in Church history, who was like those claiming that the Holy Spirit had moved them. He always convulsed for a while before he started to speak, saying "I am the Holy Spirit and Mantanus is just my tool to speak." He attracted a group of people to follow him and even the famous church father Tertullianus was deceived by him.
Having said so much, I am not against being moved by the Holy Spirit. But I am against claiming the supreme authority of God for our own ideas and feelings.
How can we tell whether a person is truly moved by the Holy Spirit or not? There are four ways.
First, the Holy Spirit's works are based on the Word of God.
The Holy Spirit came to lead us into all the truths so the premise for the Holy Spirit to touch us is that we should know God's word. If we are ignorant of God's word, even though we may feel that the Holy Spirit has moved us, our thinking and words are likely to have come from our own head. The historical prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak because they had received God's word before. But when a newcomer to faith, who have not understood the Bible, claim that he has been moved by the Holy Spirit, we should doubt his claim.
Second, the work of the Holy Spirit is continuous.
The prophets used by God in the Bible are all moved by the Holy Spirit. When God's Holy Spirit entered into their hearts, they felt it difficult to suppress the ideas in their hearts. For instance. Jeremiah said that when he shut his mouth after the Holy Spirit moved him to speak, he felt that his bones were burning so he could not help but speak.
While momentary impulses are only temporary, the work of the Holy Spirit is continuous and indelible. Paul exhorted in Thessalonians, saying, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire." "Put out" meant originally "suppress". The fire of the Holy Spirit can not be put out by man. Though we may try to suppress the fire like Jeremiah for a short period, we cannot put out the fire at the end.
Third, the work of the Holy Spirit is centered around salvation.
This is the scope of the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does not move you aimlessly; but, each time He moves you, it is about salvation. I have seen a believer who was moved by God to determine what he would eat at each meal after his prayer. When I asked him whether he felt tired in life, he said yes but he could not help it since he dared not to live his life outside of God's will. It seems that God is so free that He has to move you and telling you what to eat for each meal. He has told me his testimony. Once, God moved him to eat rice, but he did not have any rice at home that time so he made noodles for himself because he did not want to obey God's guidance. He suffered from diarrhea afterwards.
Fourth, the work of the Holy Spirit is like a surprise.
It is one of the greatest difference between the work of the Holy Spirit and self-impulse. The work of the Holy Spirit helps us understand in advance what will happen in the future while self-impulse works in us by explaining to us what has already happened.
When the Holy Spirit works in us, He asks us to take action first. Though we may not know what we are doing, our direction is clear. Take Phillip for example. When the Holy Spirit moved him to draw near to the eunuch, he did not know what He asked him to do with the eunuch; but, he knew what the Holy Spirit asked him to do. Afterwards, he realized that the Holy Spirit wanted him to preach the Gospel to the eunuch.
Another example is Peter. When the Holy Spirit moved him and asked him to go to Cornelius' home, he did not understand why but it was clear about what He wanted him to do. Later, Peter understood that he was sent by the Holy Spirit to teach the message of salvation through Jesus. By comparison, our self-impulse does not work in this way. It is our natural or first reaction when we see something happening. Anyone who is not foolish will have this kind of reaction. Therefore, let us guard ourselves against wrongly using God's name because of our self-impulses!
We tend to confuse the work of the Holy Spirit with our own thoughts and feelings even if God warned us in the Ten Commandments not to misuse His name. Nowadays, many heretic groups claim that that the Holy Spirit has moved them and told them the day of Jesus' return. Their lies are also a result of their misuse of God's name so we should not follow them blindly without distinction.
Written by a grassroot missionary
Translated by Alvin Zhou
