On Faith In The Holy Spirit

Back in Paragraph 150, we discussed the way to proceed in faith, even when our understanding of doctrine doesn’t conform to the truth.  In this paragraph, we talk about faith in the Holy Spirit, which often involves trusting in God when our emotions don’t conform to the truth.

The Holy Spirit is our silent partner in holiness.  We often don’t see His work.  We feel abandoned sometimes, as Jesus Himself did on the cross, and the idea of a powerful advocate seems unimaginable.  During those times, it’s okay to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

When Jesus cried this out, when He felt most vulnerable and most alone, it was at that time that he was closest to God.  He was, at that very moment, performing God’s will perfectly.

When we feel cut off from God, the Holy Spirit is at work.  The Holy Spirit brings us closer to the “depths of God”.  We don’t see it always, and we very rarely feel it—but it happens all the same.  Indeed, the deeper we go, the less we see.

This tells us something about the Holy Spirit, and about ourselves.  In life, we need comfort and emotional support.  In the beginning, we need lots of it.  As we grow older, we learn to do without so much of it.  We leave our infantile ways behind, and life becomes more about action than emotional waves.

As we grow in our faith, as we explore the depths of God (guided by the Holy Spirit) we generally experience more and more dry spells.  That’s not always because God wants to test us.  Rather, it is because the Holy Spirit is guiding us, and the Holy Spirit (the third Person of the Trinity) is a person of action—not one of mere emotion.

So as we grow in faith, we must learn to detach ourselves from God’s consolations, and embrace God’s will.  This is what faith in the Holy Spirit leads to.  And perhaps one of the more difficult tasks of a Christian.