Theology Thursday: Holy Spirit by Jesus Culture

"Holy Spirit" by Jesus Culture is #4 in CCLI's top 100 worship songs. So clearly a TON of us are singing it... but should we be? What is the song's theology of the Holy Spirit? In this video we examine 5 things Jesus says the Holy Spirit does, and compare those to the kinds of things the song asks Him to do.

[Boeingandme]

thank you for your thoughtfulness in considering what is honoring Christ most in the words of the songs we sing in corporate worship!

[viitoramaDeus]

I'm​ loving theology Thursday, man! keep doing it cuz we (church) needs to know what we sing and learn through the songs, specially those we play and sing on Sundays!

[irenefrancis]

I totally agree. Thanks for pointing that out. I had not given it the due consideration it deserves. I will share that with my friends who use this song. Finally I have subscribed. From the great white north. Shalom!

[iamthethwalrus]

This is great! Keep up the TT! Am blessed by it

[erindeuel]

I really appreciate your thoughts on this, so I hope my response doesn't come across as disagreeable! This opened up a great conversation between my pastor and I, and I wanted to share some things that I think really should be considered, because I would not go so far as to say that it is inappropriate to sing in a corporate setting:
1. You really can't come at this song without considering the history of how the Holy Spirit manifested during Pentecost in Acts when the Holy Spirit did in fact rush in like a violent wind and fill the room that the apostles were in. It's an important context to accompany this song that was not mentioned in this video. You can see this theme of and imagery from the Pentecost throughout the Torwalt's music and Jesus Culture's music. Charismatic denominations do actually believe that the Holy Spirit may still show up in this kind of manifestation in a worship service, and while not everyone believes this, of course, it doesn't mean that there isn't any scriptural precedence for it. I also think there's an implied understanding that when the Holy Spirit filled the room, major things started to happen - signs and wonders that the apostles could not have foreseen or known to ask for. In this context, inviting an experience from the Holy Spirit is an openness for Him to show up whatever that looks like - and at Pentecost that was a very participatory experience, not just a good feeling.
2. I don't believe that "welcoming" God into a place necessarily means that you don't believe that He is already present. More so, how can we talk of receiving the Spirit (this language is throughout the NT) without first welcoming Him? But either way, I think it's actually more about positioning our hearts rather than manipulating God to move - this is addressed in the bridge when it says, "Let us become more aware of Your presence" which also leads right into....
3. The Hebrews believed that God was omnipresent, but that He was especially present in a particular place: the Holy of Holies (so it is possible to believe that He's everywhere and yet "especially" somewhere specific). But how unfortunate and unbiblical to not speak of our longing for the glory of God (shekinah or otherwise)?! David constantly spoke of his longing - the glory actually should be exactly what we long for, regardless of whether we're asking to experience it now or in eternal life to come (although, aren't we always asking for Jesus to return now and bring that fullness now?). While I agree that the penultimate glory is yet to be experienced until we're face to face, we also can't ignore that the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn when Jesus died and that we now have the Spirit DWELLING with us, the new temples of God. (1 Cor. 3:16 - "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?").

I also would caution to not box ourselves as worship leaders into the idea that we should not sing a song if it doesn't mention Jesus by name or if it seems too "simple". We know God by many names - Father, Spirit, Son, Yahweh, Jesus, Abba, El Shaddai, Adonai... to sing about one is to sing of them all because there is only One True Living God. Let's not box ourselves in to only sing of His name as the Son when each personality of God teaches us and helps us to know Him deeper. And simplicity does not equate to shallow theology... you could spend eternity unpacking the simplest idea of God and still never fully understand - we don't have to pack every song with so much complexity. The fact that you made a video shows that there's plenty to unpack even in this simple song - it has spurred conversation and learning, and that's valuable. We can't rely on any song to tell us everything we need to know. And our call as worship leaders who choose songs for our congregation is not to make sure that each individual song rounds out a full theology on its own, but to present many types of songs that give us tools to express and understand different aspects of God and our relationship with Him. Unless it is FLAT OUT false theology, I would argue that every song can be beneficial for the Church.

Anyway - that's my two-cents for what it's worth! Thanks for making these and stimulating good conversation!

[russbennett]

A great critique. I've just re-read the lyrics and I think there has been a trend to just sing about the Holy Spirit as an 'experience' in the worship time without really singing about His primary vocations, as you pointed out. I don't know many songs that are specifically addressed to the Holy Spirit anyway, much less those that are more about Him pointing to and glorifying Jesus and empowering us as witnesses.
Having said all that, apart think the lyrics in this song express a genuine desire to know more of God's tangible presence, but perhaps better suited to personal rather than corporate worship.
I think the chorus is refering to the Shekinah glory filling the temple after Solomon dedicated it which they are translating to a physical space where worshippers are gathered now- where as Paul teaches that the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I will definitely give more thought to examining the biblical basis of lyrics in future... thanks

[hannahelireb]

The camera was focused on your books the whole time.





Who's the real star of the show?


But really, I've wondered about this song. Thanks for the insight!

[technochocolate]

Have you read Forgotten God by Francis Chan? It's on my "to read" list, and it sounds like it is a lot like what you're saying here.

[JazzmasterJonny]

Thanks for tackling some of these topics! I have a question that might interesting to hear your thoughts on: In the song "Forever Reign" by Hillsong, we sing the words "You have covered all my sin". Someone mentioned to me recently that they thought that is just an Old Testament idea and that he'd rather be "forgiven" than "covered". Is a line like that inaccurate or even worse, wrong for us to sing?

[stevetillery]

Thank you, brother. I had the same conviction when I first heard this song. What about calling out to dry bones? What do we think about that?

[misterstratocaster]

To me, it's just another sappy, overproduced song with a lot of flowery words that sound good on the surface. But, at least it doesn't sound like U2 like so much of CCM.