“The Secret Fire whispers to us if we have ears to hear. It tells us things—even shows us things,” Tom Bombadil explained in The Rings of Power.
“How do I learn to master its power to fight back against the darkness?” asked his acquaintance.
“What does the Secret Fire need with you as a master?” snapped Bombadil.
How often we forget the Secret Fire (Tolkien’s name for the Holy Spirit in The Lord of the Rings) is a Person to be partnered with and not a power to be acquired. How often we act like Simon the Magician, whom Peter rebuked for wanting to buy the Holy Spirit like a new spell book. How often we want the Holy Spirit to show up in our churches on our terms, in ways where we can contain him without things getting strange or out of control. How often we script out plans for him to move in our own ways instead of his.
But we are not in charge of the Secret Fire—the Secret Fire is in charge of us.
Jesus made one of his most intense statements about the Holy Spirit. He took the Person of the Trinity very seriously. We must, too. 🔥
Jamin Bradley 
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