The Great Divide

How would you feel about the next statement?

The Holy Spirit has been and will be the strongest dividing force throughout history?

Think about it…

We tend to think of the moving of God as unifying and exciting. In many protestant circles the moving of the Spirit is sensationalized and becomes the focus of the Christian’s life and service. Not all emotion is wrong, nor unmerited. When God moves on the heart of sinful man it is an emotional experience. To encounter the glory of God is indeed a experience not to be taken for granted. It should be humbling, exciting and emotional when we come to the realization that we as sinful people have the honor to speak and experience the working of a holy God.

With that said when the Holy Spirit is at work there is also a great deal of division that occurs. Consider the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:34 “Think not that I come to bring peace: I come not to bring peace but a sword.” Look also to Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” As I have studied scripture I’ve noticed one important thing. When God takes time to repeat Himself is typically means the subject is important. In both passages of Scripture a sword is mentioned. Now as we look at the book of acts we see groups of people who were divided. People struggled greatly with either the words/ teachings of Jesus and the works/ministry of Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin and in light of that divides all humanity into one of two groups.

1.      Those who are amazed and perplexed and the things of God

2.      Those who are mockers and skeptics.

In the second chapter of Acts we see perhaps the greatest physical demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit of God; resulting in a deeper division of society than ever before. On that day three thousand people accepted the Lord as their Savior, while who knows how many turned away and hardened their heart even more to the message of hope. The truth of the matter is that the Christian life is exclusive in the sense that Jesus is the only way to heaven. The Holy Spirit is searching the earth to find those who will be faithful to God and those who have already rejected Him in their hearts.

The Holy Spirit, which is the very spirit of God, is preparing every man woman and child for that final judgment when he will divide the wicked from the redeemed. John the Baptist warned the Jews of this coming judgment in Matthew chapter 3,  “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”  The obvious question before us is on which side will we fall? On whose side will we stand? When God moves are we amazed and perplexed or skeptical and mocking? When that Day of Judgment comes will we be found with the righteous or with those who are wanting?