As the Spirit Leads
"But lead us not into temptation…" – Matthew 6:13
Alright, I'll admit it – in my religious background the Holy Spirit always seemed like a third wheel. It had to be included for the Trinity to work, but God and Jesus were the stars, the Holy Spirit was more of a tag-a-long. When it was spoken of at all, it was referred as either a "fill-up-our-cups" happy pill or as being like a force shield from Star Trek protecting us from the photon torpedoes of sin and temptation. Wrap the Holy Spirit around us, and sin stays safely at a distance (as if sin is this external thing anyway). Repeatedly as a teenager I heard the line about "leave room for the Holy Spirit" in reference to dating – as in don't get so physically close while making-out that there isn't room between you for the HS (which kinda defeats the purpose of making-out, but I guess that was the point). In this truncated definition – the Spirit uplifts and protects when it does anything at all.
But then I read passages like Matthew 4:1 where Jesus is led into the desert by the Spirit. He spends 40 days, struggling, fasting, praying, and facing temptation because that is where the Spirit took him. It was where he was meant to be. Suddenly the line from the Lord's Prayer about asking not to be led into temptation makes more sense. Far from being just a happy pill or a force shield, the Spirit is actually far more dangerous and subversive.
The desert is a hard place – barren, empty. A place not of joy and assurance, but of desolation and doubt. It is where one goes to wrestle with God – really struggle with the hard questions that honestly have no answers. It is where the temptation to settle for a simplistic faith devoid of the struggle constantly plagues us. Where putting God into a manageable box can seem a preferable choice to being ripped apart by spiritual anguish.
The Spirit can lead us into the desert. The Spirit can lead us into temptation.
And deliver us from evil. For that is the way of the Kingdom.
julieclawson(at)gmail(dot)com 
Julie,
Good post. I've thought for a while that most Christians live as practical deists. We don't really believe that God is present with us through His Spirit. So, we try to invoke the Spirit or summon the Spirit as it were with our prayers and our good living. What would happen if we actually believed and lived as if the Spirit were here… with us… now… really?
-Alan
Hi Julie – prompted to comment by 'Blog comment Day', lol.
I'm sure you're right that the Holy Spirit is the neglected member of the Trinity – I reckon that the fear of being lumped in with the more extreme tendencies of charismatic Christians might be some influence in that for more missionally minded Jesus followers.
That's a shame. And its time that a fully rounded Trinitarian theology, which definitely has a 'charismatic' (in the right sense) dimension, was more widely recovered.
Julie- happy Blog Comment Day! I am a friend of Jeromy's at Mending Shift and am happy to have found your site. What a great first post to read here!
This is something I have been pondering myself for some time. Not only did the Spirit lead (or drive) Jesus into the wilderness but the Spirit is also promised to lead us into truth. I have to wonder, if God is infinite (which I believe God is) than why do we presume that this "leading" has stopped? Why do we assume that the work of God was done in the first century and that our task today is to merely mimic or recreate the "way they did it then"?
I think the task of the Church today is to listen better and open our eyes to the Spirit's leading today. The problem with this (or fear) is that it is scary. Sometimes that leading, like you say, is into a wilderness of unchartered territory. But, but…there are angels there to minister to us and a Promised Land waiting on the other side if we are faithful.
Good to meet you!
grace and peace,
Chad
Julie, love your article at Sojourners. Going to post it and link it at my blog. God Bless You!
The idea of the Spirit leading us into the desert blows away a big chunk of the "bless me" culture of the American church. We want the happy pill and force field of protection, but we're not so sure about wrestling with God and ourselves in the desert. It's a scary place to be, and the biggest temptation I've faced there is to settle into the pain and disappointment and begin to think that's all there is. But if the Spirit led me into the desert, there's quite likely another side to the experience… even if I can't quite imagine what it's going to look like.
Maria, I agree.
I am reminded of Jesus' cry of derilection on the cross: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This is a cry that comes from the place of wilderness – a place of complete and utter desolation. Jesus cries for us what we so often cry ourselves (like the Spirit prays for us even that which we do not know to pray). The wonder of all this is that even inside this cry by Christ we learn that there is no chasm too deep or too wide for God to bridge and redeem. Out of this Friday cry arises a Sunday proclamation.
Amazing..
Write your book!
I have long taught that in spite of/because of that line in the Lord's Prayer, the Spirit
does/can/must sometimes lead us into "testation"
As usual, U2 helps me get this..
Elevation leads to Vertigo,
and the devil is God's devil:
http://davewainscott.blogspot.com/2006/12/devil-is-gods-devil.html
Fascinating post and comments. I wandered here through a series of links as a result of John Smulo's Blog Comment Day.
I am just emerging from a bit of a wilderness time. Sort of a suburban middle-class, middle-aged white dude, post-evangelical wilderness. I wandered close to the edge of the precipice that was the death of my faith. Your post reminds me that just possibly the Holy Spirit led me there. That's a comforting thought. Kind of pisses me off too. But then again, I tend to be an impudent child of God.