The Spirit Of God Like A Fire Is Burning: Mystical Christianity
Having introduced a discussion of the Holy Spirit in this way, I'd like then to attempt to express my own personal perceptions of the workings of the spirit and why I believe that Christianity without the mystical becomes something that emphasizes form over substance and lacks the power to evoke a desire for a more intimate relationship with God through the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit and Me
I grew up in a church that taught that the Gift of the Holy Ghost is a Gift from God of constancy for my lifetime. The Gift was part of my baptismal rite when, after having been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Ghost, I was placed in a chair and hands were placed on my head. Someone speaking for the group commanded, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."
I was then taught that the Holy Spirit of God would be my constant companion throughout my life. Although exhorted to live a righteous life, I was never admonished that the Holy Spirit would attend me only so long as I was worthy or righteous. On the contrary, I was given to understand that unworthiness or unrighteous behavior would not drive the Holy Spirit out of my life but might very well cause me to lose part of all of my ability to discern that Spirit.
At the time of my baptism I did not immediately sense that something holy and spiritual had settled within me. I did not immediately break out speaking in tongues and prophesying. Rather, I took my impressions of the baptismal rite and my thoughts home with me where they would be repeatedly examined for years to come and would ultimately inform my understanding of my relationship to God.
"But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you."-Gospel of Mathew-
As a young husband and father I was taught to give Husband's and Father's blessings to my family. With the birth of each child and when the time for the naming ritual arrived, in the presence of my congregation I would take the child in my arms to for a name and blessing.
I was taught not to charge into the blessing with my own
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