The Order of the (Holy) Spirit

Faithfulness to God is a blessing that God does not discriminate in spreading and upholding. If we do not all rise to this awareness, expect the church communities to be ruled by sterile systems. A friend of mine who is, today, in the highest ranks of his church, used to say: “it is strange how people are! When they reach leadership positions in their churches, they tend to restrict all the ministry, in its details, to their own person”! Despite my confidence in his faithfulness, I am not in full agreement with him in regard to this generalization or this restriction. How do we reconcile the freedom of grace with the order and structure in the Church? One of the poignant scenes in the New Testament is the meeting of the elder Simeon and Anna the daughter of Phanuel with Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:22-39). The law is not fulfilled without the prophets. The witness originates with God from where we expect or do not expect it. That Simeon and Anna always have their place in the temple, this is the victory of the order of the (Holy) Spirit in history.