The sixth in a series of 16 blogs answering anticipated (or actual) objections to material set forth in A Way of Escape, i.e., the sixth in a series of 16 blogs answering anticipated FAQs.
OBJECTION #6 (of 16)
The grounded believer cries out, “I have morning devotions. As do most of my believer-friends. Why do you claim in your book that most believers have only passive relationships with the Holy Spirit?”
RESPONSE
Another two-part response. The first to address the assumed reader-audience for A Way of Escape. And the second to address degrees of engagement of the Holy Spirit.
1) ASSUMPTION: THE READER IS A STILL-STRUGGLING BELIEVER
Yes, three times in A Way of Escape I do claim that most believers have only passive relationships with the Holy Spirit. All within the context of assuming that the majority of my readers are believers that are still struggling to break free from sins of the flesh. In these three places, perhaps “most believers” should instead read “most still-struggling believers.”
2) MORNING DEVOTION VS. STEPPED-UP DEGREE OF “WALKING IN THE SPIRIT”
But even if my reading audience is comprised of all believers—struggling and non-struggling alike—I would still make the same claim. Yes, morning devotions, if they involve reading of the Spirit-inspired Scriptures and prayer, certainly do engage the Holy Spirit. But not to the degree necessary for the addict, as described in A Way of Escape.
The addict’s brain is defective and in need of repair. For the mind to renew, the limbic system must be regularly accessed, and the brain reprogrammed. When the flesh mounts an attack, and the addict’s response is a morning-devotion-typical “words-only” prayer or memory verse, the result is predictably bad. Why? Because, at best, these only lightly engage the brain’s limbic system. But if the stepped-up counterattack combines words with spiritually-and-emotionally-charged imagery, the brain is engaged in a much more powerful way, and the flesh can be repelled (for more, see www.wileygrafbooks.com/news/drop-the-passivity-v9 and Chapter 6 of A Way of Escape).
A GAME-CHANGING BOOK HAS ARRIVED
In A Way of Escape, readers learn how to drop the passivity, and build a more intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. Readers learn how to step up the degree to which they “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). They learn how to build a library of Spirit-anointed, flesh-diffusing apps. Apps that are uniquely fitted to them, and their unique Spirit-filling triggers (Ephesians 5:18b-19).
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).
The still-struggling now have another option. The still-struggling now have fresh hope for discovering that long-sought-after way of escape from temptation and resulting sin (I Corinthians 10:13). A way that—because it is wholly Spirit-powered—does not require enlisting the aid of an accountability partner or group. Truly, a game-changer!
THANK YOU, HOLY SPIRIT!
