Written by: April J. Buchanan
Has the order of man dried the bones and constrained the work of the Spirit? Have the excesses and abuses of what is said to be allowing the Spirit to work as He will, bringing right and proper rebuke within the church and grievous mockery of the world and confusion of all kinds, led to feet like lead, steel spines, and cold hearts, called order by some?
One rolls on the floor and falsely attributes that to the Spirit. Another fears any appearance at all of strong affection.
Has the prayer closet been forsaken? Have men feared closing their eyes because it may very well lead to excesses and abuses whereby men are led by emotion and not by the Spirit? Have men found the way to restrain their emotions is to suppress any true holy affection that may be the result of the Spirit’s work?
Order is pleasing to God. Let it be so!
But if order becomes merely a response to disorder, and fails to also reveal the beauty of the work of the Spirit in the heart and right and proper worship to God, then it can become a cold response, known only by what it restrains and rebukes. Order has both a positive and a negative function. It does not merely expose and rebuke abuses and excesses. Order that is pleasing to God also reveals right and holy worship that is pleasing to Him.
The work of the Spirit is always in order. He is not responsible for the things attributed to Him by foolish, ignorant, and unstable men. However, one who will never lift his hands, never kneel, never close his eyes, never cry, lest he be out of order or identified with the foolishness of many who misrepresent the Holy Spirit, may well find himself struggling with prayer or repeating right doctrine in prayer from lips seized by the cold of his heart.
Tears are not out of order. Kneeling is not out of order. Raising hands is not out of order.
In a congregation there must be order. There are those so governed by their emotions that they would disrupt the service with wailing and the sudden impulse to rush to the front and “pray.” It is often common sense what is in order and what is not, what pleases God and what draws attention to the flesh and one’s own perceived spirituality.
Our prayers and singing to God may be governed by emotions, as is with many in the church today who call such things the moving of the Spirit when they clearly are not. Or they may be governed by strict doctrine that calls for an order that is not itself of the Spirit, whereby men’s hearts become cold and they fear any outward display of affection, thereby restraining not emotions only, but the outward expression of what the Spirit may truly be working inwardly. Or finally, we may recognize our weaknesses and men’s abuses and men’s attempts at control, and rather desire those holy doctrines and those beautiful truths in the heart and mind that, as we hear them, sing them, meditate upon them, and as is in order and appropriate, we may lift our hands, kneel, cry, or whatever is appropriate.
For some, these things are so abused that they lose their beauty. For others, fear of being identified with such men has led them away from those things that are not intended to attract or stir something up, but are outwardly to God what is being wrought by the Spirit inwardly.
A man may not raise his hands as he sings but once, and how precious then is that? It wasn’t performance. It wasn’t to try and attract God to himself. It wasn’t something that he must do, and so it was merely a duty. In that moment, the truth of what he was singing moved his heart, and he raised his hands in worship to God at the appropriate time. Not drawing attention to himself. And he may or may not do so again. He knows not. For the Spirit works as He wills.
And man is not governed by a cold formalism or by men so led by their feelings and emotions that they know not the true work and power of the Spirit, both to restrain a man in keeping order and to free a man to worship and pray in such a way as glorifies God.
Dear saint, God is a God of order. All things must be done decently and in order. Let us keep this order and flee the excesses and abuses of many in the church today. But be careful that we go not too far that we restrict freedoms that are in order and are truly the outward expression of what the Spirit is working inwardly.
Let us not mistake emotional excess for the work of the Spirit, nor mistake emotional restraint for spiritual maturity. Let us desire those holy doctrines and beautiful truths to fill the heart and mind, trusting the Spirit to work through the truth, producing in us those holy affections that turn our hearts toward God. And when those affections find appropriate outward expression, let us not be ashamed of them.
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