Allowing the Holy Spirit to Transform Part 2

Dye tells this story:
While working in the Wagu village, many came to Christ. Instead of making a list of behaviors, the missionaries advised the Wagu people to go to God for wisdom and direction regarding how they should act, what they should do or not do, what ceremonies or parts of their culture should be kept, which should be dropped. The missionaries tended to be impatient about certain activities that were displeasing to God. But, they restrained from expressing their opinion. They wanted the people to develop a relationship with God and to be able to hear God’s voice for themselves.

One aspect of the culture that disturbed the missionaries was polygamy. The older men took several wives which left no women for the younger men. Therefore, not only was there polygamy but also adultery was rampant in the tribe. The Wagu people determined that if they were to love one another, then polygamy was selfish. The developed a law that stated that no man was allowed to take a second wife if there was a single man without a wife. After 15 years, polygamy was non-existent; all the young men had wives; the rate of adultery was drastically cut.

This article convicted me of the arrogance that I carry, thinking I have a right to determine the path of transformation. It taught me that if I will focus on teaching the 3 key principles, the Holy Spirit will step in and create real, sustaining transformation in people and communities. It has rocked my discipleship principles to the core!

Allowing the Holy Spirit to Transform - Part 1

An article by T. Wayne Dye has rocked my core theology of discipleship. (From my Perspectives Class)



Dye walks you through the life of Pete the missionary. A tribe that he is working with has just become Christians. There are some traits that Pete cannot stand in this tribe and that they need to be changed now that they have become Christians. He has taken it upon himself to let this tribe know what they are doing wrong (all under the pretense of trying to help them).

Dye is making the argument that we as disciple-ers are to allow the Holy Spirit to bring about transformation. And even harder to hear, that maybe the Holy Spirit will convict in a totally different sequence than he did with me.

“Anyone who has followed Christ for long has experienced the Holy Spirit convicting him or her of behavior that they had not realized was sinful. This is not a once-for-all experience. God repeatedly and progressively leads individuals through a process of transformation to become increasingly like Christ. In a similar way, God moves by His Spirit and speaks by His word to bring about gradual changes in a community of believers. We find that the Holy Spirit brings conviction for particular sins in different sequence from one people to another” (Dye).

It is not my right or responsibility to point out what “sins” people need to work on. By doing this I am making the gospel about a list of “to do’s” instead of about salvation by grace. What I am responsible for teaching is
a) God is sovereign
b) The Bible is the authority of Truth
c) To love one another

Through these core teachings, the Holy Spirit will be able to transform a society.

Living as the Poor

My friends from Indiana, Jeff and Adrienne Reichanadter are having an incredible expereince with their family. They have left everything and gone to India for 6 months to work at an orphanage. Their blogs are so awesome of what they are seeing as they live as the poor.

This was their most recent post. Awesome. I wonder if God would give my family an experience like this?

The Reichanadter Journey

Thy Kingdom Come

Perspectives Week 3- “Thy Kingdom come…”

One of Jesus’ main themes in His teaching was the Kingdom of God. He taught in order show people how to enter the Kingdom of God. His miracles were proof that the Kingdom of God had come. His parables illustrated the truth about God’s Kingdom. He even taught His disciples that in prayer the heart should be, “Thy Kingdom come.”

“The Kingdom of God is His Kingship, His rule, His authority. When we realize this, we can see this meaning in passage after passage in the New Testament. We can see that the Kingdom of God is not a realm or a people, BUT IT IS GOD’S REIGN. Jesus said that we must “receive the Kingdom of God” as little children (Mark 10:15). What is received? The church? Heaven? What is received is God’s rule. In order to enter the future realm of the Kingdom (heaven), people must submit themselves to God’s rule here and now” (George Eldon Ladd). Therefore in the prayer “Thy Kingdom come,” we are pleading for God to reign on earth.

Do we really desire God’s Kingdom to be on earth?

I can only answer this from an American point of view. Because the current generations of Americans have never experienced a tyrannical ruler ship over our country or much suffering, I don’t believe that we necessarily desire God’s Kingdom to be set up. This is a very different mindset than what a New Testament Jew would want. Israel had been under Roman rule, Babylonian rule, plus many others. They very much wanted God’s Kingdom to conquer all who had tried to rule over them. We in America still have our freedoms and our “good life.” Why would we want that disrupted by God’s Kingdom? I don’t think until we really see and experience the godlessness and suffering of this world , do we crave to see God’s Kingdom rule.