[Jesus said,] I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:7

In today’s verse, Jesus gives us an amazing promise about the Holy Spirit, yet many of us just gloss over it: It is to our advantage, He said, that He return to heaven, because then we can receive the Spirit. If asked whether we would rather have Jesus beside us or the Spirit inside us, how many of us would really choose the Spirit? This is where Spiritual Theology comes in.

When spiritual theology looks at a principle, it asks “So what?” What difference does it make? How does this work out in our every-day lives? What does my own (and other’s) life-experience teach us about this?

Did you know that the largest Christian denomination on earth has only in the last 25 years conceded that the earth is round? That’s right. For centuries they taught flat earth. Then as that position became harder to defend they sort of let the matter go quiet. Finally, on Oct 31, 1992, they capitulated. What took them so long? They didn’t have their Spiritual Theology down. They clung to badly interpreted proof texts and ignored the evidence of orbiting spacecrafts. They ignored experience.

For many Christians, the same thing holds true when they consider the Holy Spirit. They cling to badly interpreted proof texts and ignores all that the Holy Spirit is doing in other parts of the Body. Complaining about ‘excesses’ and warning of Satan posing as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14), they tuck the Holy Spirit into a category of things not understood and go on their way.

 So they really have the Holy Spirit living inside them, but His inward presence results in little or no tangible experience of Him. They believe in the Holy Spirit, but they relate to Him the same way we might relate to our endocrine glands: Grateful they’re in there; Wouldn’t want to lose them; Not really sure what they do; Don’t really interact with them. For these Christians, the Holy Spirit is not a moving, dynamic person. He’s more of a belief; An idea. That shows how far we can be from grasping what Jesus was offering to us in today’s verse. He said the Spirit inside us is more important than having him beside us.

Why does Paul command us to “be filled with the Spirit”? (Eph 5:18) He says it because while all Christians have the indwelling Spirit, not all are filled, and not all are filled continually. Not all are filled to capacity, and some need their capacity increased to be filled more. Not all are seeking the fullness of all that the Spirit can and will do. Seek it. Don’t quench the Spirit (1 Thes 5:19). Don’t grieve the Spirit (Eph 4:30). Seek the Spirit. 

“If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). The Spirit is a good gift—but one we must ask for.