Mike Paschall . com

If anyone is interested in an audio update of our life in Waco, I’d recommend you tap into the podcast from my message at Emmanuel Christian Fellowship last Sunday, June 15^th, entitled Trinity Sunday (the link for the podcast is embedded in the sermon title). Yeah, that’s the latest scoop.

I promised to put the following up. It’s too good not to:

The Spirit works where he wills. The Spirit of God cannot be restricted in his operation by the Church; he is at work not only in the offices of the church, but where he wills: in the whole people of God. He is at work not only in the “holy city”, but where he wills: in all the churches of the one Church. He is at work not only in the Catholic Church, but where he wills: in Christianity as a whole. And finally he is at work not only in Christianity, but where he wills: in the whole world.

The power of the Spirit of God can pass through all walls, even church walls. It is true that the Holy Spirit has his dwelling and his temple in the Church, which he fills and which he governs. Here his power is especially revealed, since in the Church and through the Church the word of God is preached and his sacraments are administered. But, the Spirit of God, if domiciled in the Church, is not domesticated in it. He is and remains the free Spirit of the free Lord not only of the “holy city”, not only of the Church, not only of Christians, but of the whole world….

The Spirit is at work when he wills. The Spirit of God is not, of course, a Spirit of arbitrariness or apparent freedom, but of real freedom; he is a Spirit of order, not chaos; peace, not contradictions, in the Church as well as in the world. This is what Paul had to remind the Corinthians, who, proud of their spiritual gifts, had neglected order in the Church: “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33).

At the same time, God’s Spirit does not blow when he must, but only when he wills. No decrees of the Church, in doctrine or practice, can force him to act or not act at a given time. True, God is absolutely free, and is thus free even in regard to his freedom.

From The Church by Hans Küng