Ignorance is possibly the greatest enemy of Christianity’s spiritual well being. In saying that God’s people were destroyed for “lack of knowledge” the prophet Hosea distinctly voiced God’s displeasure that Israel had rejected spiritual knowledge.

There are many logical thinkers today who simply do not want to investigate spiritual mysteries, if they even believe God exists! Many believers are not willing to be pressed to discover the ways of The Spirit. In their zeal, others foolishly propel themselves without any operational knowledge into counterfeit pseudo spiritual realms without God’s invitation or guidance.

This has led modern churches into a classic tactical disadvantage on the spiritual battleground described in Ephesians 6. The two extremes of traditionalism and fanaticism in the Christian world, long embraced as the only visible choices for the average seeker, has made the option of authentic and balanced spirituality seem too “idealistic.” Consequently, Satan easily tempts most to choose the comfortable middle ground of ignorance, when it comes to the only thing that really matters in true Christianity…God!

Fundamentalism” offers a misplaced religious identity, by refocusing on knowledge at the expense of the God who established biblical foundations, and who then expects Christians to mature beyond those elemental spiritual fundamentals. (Hebrews 6:1)! Today’s Church has “camped out” between these two extremes and created a “Christian” draw toward the spiritual vacuum they don’t realize they live in! When we are not willing to listen when the Lord speaks by His Spirit, our faith is reduced to a monotonous set of precepts and rules that can lull otherwise sound men and women into a dangerously passive religious state (see Isaiah 28:11-13 in the Amplified Bible)!

Faithful believers, however, stand upon an entirely different kind of middle ground. Radically real Christianity trusts exactly what the Lord has said, keeps learning about it and knows the virtue of putting it into practice! The Word of Truth will not allow us to accept anything less than the certainty, accuracy, and precision of the Holy Spirit! It also won’t let us take the quick fix of hyper-spiritualism in place of Him, or languish in the mediocrity that ends up reducing Him down to our own level!

The very words of the Apostle Paul in our text demand that we study the genuine characteristics of the Holy Spirit and His works. Our job is to become familiar with the variety of expressions and personality traits He uses to reveal Jesus to the world…let’s not waste His time and ours by settling for the old and stale, sensationalizing the new and nutty, or safely performing our faith!

This excerpt was taken from Everyday Preparation For Jesus’ Return by Rocky Veach.