Christians today yearn to develop their spiritual lives, however we can sometimes lack a knowledge of or close relationship with the Holy Spirit. Tyler Staton, in his book The Familiar Stranger, calls on Scripture and spiritual practices to help Christians enter into an authentic relationship with this Person of the Trinity.
Christian Today spoke with Staton to hear about some common barriers to experiencing the Holy Spirit and his heart to help Christians break through them.
Tell us more about why you felt moved to write this book.
My reasons were personal and pastoral in that I had experienced my own journey of walking in the Christian faith with a lot of understanding and yet little experience of the Holy Spirit, to eventually reaching a place where I had both understanding and the experience.
This seems to be a common story for those who have journeyed deeply in faith but on the other hand, it could also be a point of breach for those who cannot experience it and then walk away from their faith. I want to offer a way deeper into that spiritual life that many people are only standing ankle deep in.
Secondly, it just seems that we are in a moment in the Church more broadly where the Person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit are not so much feared as desired. We are probably emerging from a century or more of there being large streams of the Church, at least in the Western hemisphere, where the Spirit was not pursued at all. It seems we are emerging out of that at this moment in church history and into the everyday believer having a hunger for an authentic deeper experience with God through the Spirit. My heart is to articulate a clear pathway towards that experience that so many hunger for.
What are some common barriers to experiencing the Holy Spirit?
One barrier would be throwing the baby out with the bath water, so to speak, i.e. ‘I had a negative experience and so I’m now going to allow that to colour all that I think about who the Holy Spirit is and just stay away from any pursuit of the Spirit whatsoever.’
Another would be the best, most well-intentioned form of spiritual settling. I think so often we misunderstand the Bible, we look at it like a greatest hits record of all the things that God used to do in the lives of other people. The truth is that the Bible is an invitation to experience God; it is a record of what life with God is meant to be like.
We often study the work of God in the lives of other people without ever expecting God to do the same sorts of things in our own lives. I study Paul’s letters and I’m pursuing Paul’s life but I also want a face to face encounter with Jesus, to be the recipient and source of miraculous healing and powerful words of prophecy.
Could you elaborate on what you mean by ‘spiritual settling’.
I would say it is settling for a spiritual life that falls short of a biblical experience.
Would you say that is the case for a large proportion of Christians in the world today?
I can speak for the West and say it’s the case for a large proportion of Christians in the West. I think that we live in a world today that for many good reasons lacks a desperation and dependence on God, and that can very easily lull us into a spiritual sleepiness. God is a part of my life, like work is part of my life and weekend adventures are a part of my life and family is a part of my life, but God is not the centre of my life. God is not the utter dependence of my life and therefore we lack the pursuit of God that has marked His people down through the ages.
On a few occasions in your book you refer to the Spirit being present during the creation of the world. Why do you feel this is an important fact for readers to keep in mind?
We can trace the Holy Spirit as revealed through various metaphors from the Genesis creation story to key moments of revelation in the Old Testament and key moments in the New Testament. I restart at the same point to show that the Spirit is revealed as these different metaphors in the opening lines of Genesis. I do this very clearly in ways that would be obvious to the original Hebrew-speaking biblical readers who are often lost on us today through the intervening centuries and many different language translations. Essentially it is to show that the Holy Spirit is not a new revelation of God that began on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is a central part of the Trinitarian God’s Person that has been present and active from creation all the way through to the renewal that we still await.
Our society loves life hacks and things like being ‘mindful’. In what way are these limited?
I would say that a healthy lifestyle is always a good idea, whether that is eating more leafy greens, exercising, slowing down an internal hurry, or decluttering your stressed mind. These are all good things to pursue in the name of a healthy lifestyle. However, they cannot bring us peace in the biblical sense. Peace in the biblical sense surpasses our human understanding and is not something that we can gain through our own efforts. The peace that comes from God is a gift that only He can offer us, but He does readily dispense peace to those who walk with Him. So I would say there is nothing wrong with a more contemplative way of being even where that is doing things like focusing on breathing or slowing down, but if the God revealed in Scripture is not at the centre of that practice then I would say that it is not going to offer true and lasting peace to your soul.
What do you hope for readers to gain from The Familiar Stranger?
I hope that they gain a lot of hunger to know God more and they gain an understanding of a pathway that they can follow to know God more. I also hope they gain a deep sense of assurance that however much they want to know God, He wants to know them even more and is the one in pursuit of them far more than they will ever pursue Him.
