Listening for the Still Small Voice

Pentecost is one of those Sundays I never quite know what to do with. In some churches I have been part of I was made to feel like a lesser Christian because I wasn’t speaking in tongues or didn’t get “slain in the spirit”, I somehow stayed on my feet while being prayed for (despite all the attempts to push me over). Somehow the picture that was built up in my mind about what it was to encounter the Holy Spirit had me convinced that it had to be big, dramatic and visible (or audible) to everyone around me. Until that happened I was going to remain a second class Christian. One church was convinced that there must be something demonic going on as I told someone that often people speaking in tongues sounded like something out of Tolkien. So I’ve always been cautious about Pentecost and recently careful to make sure that I don’t somehow give someone else the same message that I had received on countless occasions.

This morning I helped lead a local arrangement at my link church. The previous week the entire congregation had helped select the hymns, different people volunteered to do the readings and lead prayers and I spent some time putting together some prayer stations and planning some prompts to help us talk about our knowledge and experience of the Holy Spirit together.

Our readings explored some of the different ways the Holy Spirit appears through Scripture, in Fire, Wind and Breath, in life-giving water and finally in that still small voice speaking into the silence. These themes were picked up in the prayer stations and in a great deal of what people shared in conversation.

I found it really encouraging, going in I had been afraid that this was all going to be a little bit too weird – as they came in someone said that “it all looked a bit Zen”. and yet, everyone engaged with all of the prayer stations, tying ribbons onto a tree branch to be moved by the wind (well by a fan), lighting candles for prayer, interacting with the water fountain and drinking from glasses of water placed around it and then sitting in silence by a candle with some gentle music playing to create a space of stillness.

When we regathered the discussion took off with just one question “which of these ways of thinking about the Holy Spirit resonates with you?” Everyone had something to share.

One that is going to stay with me, and which I will need to unpack was the person who shared that they are “not sure about this Holy Spirit stuff”. They went on to say that they think that God’s Spirit has been given to everyone, whether or not they are Christian, but that we need to learn to recognise it and to respond. In theory being Christian means that we have an advantage, we know what it is we are looking for, but that maybe receiving the Holy Spirit becomes performative and a rite of passage, rather than being a life changing encounter with the Spirit of God. We get so caught up in looking for signs that we fail to notice when God speaks in ways and through people we don’t expect.

Several people spoke of feeling an encounter with the Spirit on the moors in Ilkley, or sitting by the canal in Rodley. Other shared about encountering the Spirit in the words and actions of others, strangers in the park or friends over coffee. One thing that became clear was that I was not the only one who had felt like a failed Christian because they didn’t have a dramatic Holy Spirit encounter. But as we shared and talked it was obvious that we had all encountered the Spirit in different ways throughout our lives, and often in ways and places we did not expect.

How, where and in who do you encounter the Holy Spirit?

Which image of the spirit speaks to you most strongly?

The Spirit does not always come in the ways we expect.

Sometimes the Spirit comes like fire:challenging, calling, transforming.

Sometimes like water:refreshing, sustaining, renewing.

Sometimes like wind or breath:moving gently yet powerfully through our lives.

Sometimes in silence:quietly present beyond words.

Here are some pictures of our prayer stations as well as a pdf containing the service plan along with some prayers and tips to aid discussion. There is also a list of everything needed for these prayer stations. Obviously it was written for pentecost but can be used for anytime of the year.