Apprentice 2 Jesus

An Anglicostal Connecting to a Real World

The Power of Pentecost and the Call for Self-Sacrifice

Dan

Mark Stevens has a series of interviews with Jack Levison over at his blog. The interviews talk about Levison’s book Fresh Air: The Holy Spirit for an Inspired Life. 

I have the book and need to read it. I’m still getting over the decision to not capitalize Holy Spirit. (I’m Pentecostal. Sue me.)

Mark asked Jack what he thought were the biggest challenges to Pentecostals today. The second point is what caught my attention:

2) Challenge #2: Rediscover a sense of self-sacrifice. I worry that Pentecostals, with increasing wealth and social standing, will fall prey to a gospel of self-fulfilment. How can the holy spirit help me with my problems? I love the chapter, “Jesus’ Test,” because it challenges to the core the message that the holy spirit fills my needs. What then does the holy spirit do? The holy spirit redefines my needs to conform to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

There is the apocryphal story of a pope saying to a monk, “No longer does the church have to say, ‘Silver and gold have we none.’” To which the monk replied, “Neither can the church say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.’”

The Pentecostal church is well beyond “the other side of the tracks.” We can fund just about anything any more.

We need a fresh reliance on the Spirit for the work in the world TODAY. It needs to go beyond our own needs.

The interviews with Levison are worth the read. I will eventually get over my little tiff about “holy spirit” and read it myself.

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6 responses to “The Power of Pentecost and the Call for Self-Sacrifice”

  1. William Hamilton Barnes Avatar
    William Hamilton Barnes

    Yeah, it’s likemy tiff against those who don’t capitalize the name/title “Satan.”

    Reply
  2. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    And Bible. But I could go on.

    Reply
  3. Jack Levison Avatar
    Jack Levison

    I understand your tiff about capitalizing Holy Spirit. I do. I came to this decision while writing a much longer book than Fresh Air. I’d encourage you to get hold of Filled with the Spirit (Eerdmans, 2009) and take a look at the first 150 pages or so. You’ll see how translators trip over the question of whether to capitalize Holy Spirit. They resort to notes sometimes because they can’t decide (“Spirit” in the text, “spirit” in the notes, or vice versa). More often one Bible translator makes a decision that disagrees with another. I opted to keep it clean: holy spirit. That may not be the best decision, but I needed to decide. I do hope, even if you continue to have difficulty with my decision, you’ll accept that I didn’t do this out of disrespect (as I said in Fresh Air). I made this decision after grappling with the Hebrew of the Bible, that is, out of respect for a Bible written in part in a language that is far more lyrical and resonant than English. Thank you, by the way, for quoting my interview with Mark. He asked great questions.

    Reply
    1. Dan Avatar
      Dan

      I should note I DID return to your book and finished it. Captilization or lack thereof certainly is an unsettled issue. Thank you for taking the time to comment!

      Reply
      1. jlevison Avatar
        jlevison

        Thanks for writing back so quickly, Dan. Capitalization is an unsettled issue still for me. I’m trying to elevate the spirit-breath in all people rather than denigrate the holy spirit given with salvation or in the baptism in the spirit. Whether I’ve succeeded, I’m not sure. Thanks for reading on despite your equivocation. I appreciate that. If you have other issues, other tiffs, I’m happy to respond to them.

      2. Dan Avatar
        Dan

        I really appreciate the explanation. It always helps! I enjoyed reading the book, by the way.

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