An Empowering Not Overpowering Spirit
By Dave Andrews
The modus operandi of the Spirit is amipotent not omnipotent.
Omnipotence is about God exercising power unilaterally over others. Amipotence is about God exercising power lovingly with, within, and for others. Omnipotence is overpowering. Amipotence is empowering.
The Spirit of God is an amipotent Spirit. The signs of which are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” At a personal level, there is love (passion and compassion), and joy (awareness and appreciation), and peace (trust and tranquillity). At a relational level, there is patience (persistence and kindness) and sweetness (not bitterness). At a social level, there is goodness (generosity) and faithfulness (fidelity). At a political level, there is tolerance (non-violence) and self-control (self-management). Notice last, but not least, is self-control or self-management. The Spirit does not seek to control us but to enhance our capacity to control ourselves, individually and collectively. (Gal. 5:22–23)
The words used in the Bible for “Spirit” are the Hebrew ruach and the Greek pneuma. Both these words refer to moving air like wind and/or breath you can’t see, but the effects of which you can see. The role of the Spirit is vital, but anonymous, as easily overlooked as the significance of our next breath, until we desperately need it.
Ann Armstrong wrote about her experience, as a polio sufferer, of being on a mechanical respirator that had helped her to breathe artificially for twenty years. “With the puff from my mechanical respirator I cannot make such a powerful shout [as I did with] my own lungs which helped me to introduce myself to the world with my first yell. In consequence I am always softly spoken and those around me can have no idea of the intensity of my passion.”[1]
None of us who breathes without a mechanical respirator can truly appreciate Ann’s experience. However, all of us know what it’s like to be breathless, and how debilitating that can be. We urgently feel the need to take a breath to function. The Sufi poet, Kabir, said we need “the breath inside the breath” to function fully as human beings.[2]
While images of “wind” and “breath” seem impersonal, the impact of the Spirit always stirs within us the deepest sense of ourselves as persons. Ann says she could only express the great passion she felt deep down if she were able to take a deep breath. According to the Jewish Bible, it is only as we take a deep breath and are filled with the Spirit that we can fully express the whole range of our emotional, intellectual, and volitional selves.[3]
Jesus said the modus operandi of the amipotent Spirit is quite mysterious. He said, “the wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” (Jn 3:8) However, Jesus said that the one thing that is necessary, is to be open to the Spirit when it presents itself. (Jn 3:8)
Jesus told his disciples about the role the Spirit played in his life. He said it was not duty, or obligation, or rules and regulations, but the Spirit that was at the heart of being who he was and doing what he was doing. (see Lk 4:18)
Jesus encouraged them to receive the Spirit. (Jn 20:22) But for some reason or other, they didn’t get it. The last thing he told them, before he left, was not to go anywhere until they were “filled with the Spirit.” He said if they were empty, open, and receptive, the time would come when they could be filled with the Spirit. (see Acts 1:4–5)
To create a hospitable space in their hearts for the Spirit, the disciples spent time constantly in prayer. (Acts 1:14) For them, prayer was a process of developing an awareness of, and availability to, the Spirit. It involved waiting upon the Spirit and a willingness to yield to the Spirit. It was essentially a desire to live life wholly and solely in the joie de vivre of the Spirit. It was only in encounter with the Spirit that all that was good could be affirmed, all that was evil could be confronted, and their task for the future outlined. A vision of justice could be revealed, an infusion of grace could be realized, and they could access the vitality they needed to practice the sensitivity required to engage in the struggle for the salvation of the world.
When the Spirit “came” at Pentecost, the disciples were ready for it. Even then, it was a completely unexpected, surprisingly wild and wonderful ride…
When the day of Pentecost had come … suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each…All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2.1–6; 12–18)
The role of the Spirit may be dramatic at times but is always anonymous. We hear the wind, look around to see who is there, and on an occasion such as this see “tongues of fire,” but on most other occasions probably see nothing at all. Even when there are tongues of fire, they act as signs that point to the people, singling out otherwise singularly unimportant anonymous people—most of whose names we do not know and never do get to know. The “tongues of fire” are a symbol of the way the Spirit takes “nobodies,” like these poor despised uneducated Galileans and makes them “somebodies.”
Fire has always been an archetype of passion. People “burn with desire.” When the Spirit comes at Pentecost, it puts people in touch with their passion to be their true selves. Relating to each one individually, the Spirit fills the space they have created in their hearts with a burning desire to become the person God has created them to be.
The text says that tongues of fire came to “rest” on each person—as if the fire sat with them comfortably, burning brightly but not dangerously, generating more light than heat. This suggests if people go with their “burning desire” to become the person that God created them to be, it will not lead to burnout. Burnout comes not from being too “fired up,” but from being fired up about an abstract ideal or heroic image of ourselves rather than the reality of who we are meant to be. Parker Palmer says the sustainable spiritual dynamic for liberation takes place at the intersection of where our true selves engage the real world around about us.[4]
Pentecost shows us that where people are filled with a burning desire to engage the real world in the light of their true selves, they can relate to their world with a much greater degree of sensitivity. Filled with the Spirit at Pentecost, a whole range of people demonstrated an extraordinary degree of sensitivity by speaking publicly, from the depths of their soul, about their deepest experiences of community in the past and their deepest hopes for community in the future. By speaking about their visions of community in the language of their hearers’ hearts, they were able to create a sense of community with their hearers—even as they spoke!
My friend Paul Tyson says, “Pentecost is the redemptive inverse of Babel.” Babel was an attempt to build a central global political economy, based on technology rather than morality, using a single universal common language. Pentecost is an attempt to develop a global community of local communities, that are decentralized, not centralized, but empowered by the Spirit to relate to people in all sorts of different languages with the same kind of sensitivity.
Post-Pentecost, this vision of an inclusive, egalitarian community became a reality:
Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:32–35)
This is not an exclusive Christian community, but an inclusive Christ-like community, committed to the way of Christ as a way of relating respectfully to all people regardless of religion, tradition, status, class, caste, age, or gender. It creates a society—albeit partially and temporarily—in which the grace of God is the order of the day. The people have everything in common, they distribute their resources to anyone according to their need, and consequently, there is no one with an unmet need—“no needy persons among them.”
Bio: Dave Andrews (www.daveandrews.com.au) lives in a joint household with extended family in Brisbane, Australia. He is a member of the Waiters Union inner-city community (www.waitersunion.org), a director of the Community Praxis Co-operative (www.communitypraxis.org) and an author of many books on spirituality and community, the latest of which is “To Right Every Wrong”.
OORD’S DRABBLE* RESPONSE
Dave Andrews distinguishes omnipotence as overpowering from amipotence as empowering. This has relational, social, and political implications. A key strength of Dave’s essay is how he uses scripture to support his points. He rightly says aligning with the Spirit allows us to join in the work for good. The Spirit can inspire dramatic acts of love or subtle, quiet contributions. Pentecost exemplifies uncontrolling love within the Christian community, offering a model of inclusive engagement. This love transcends boundaries, embracing people of any religion, tradition, status, class, caste, age, or gender, emphasizing the Spirit’s transformative and unifying power in diverse contexts.
For more on Oord’s view of partnering with God, see this article.
* A drabble is an essay exactly 100 words in length.
[1]. Paul S. Fiddes quoting Armstrong, A. Participating In God (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2000), 255.
[2]. Wayne Muller, Legacy Of The Heart (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 47.
[3]. Aubrey Johnson,. The Vitality of the Individual in the Thought of Ancient Israel (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1964), 30–32.
[4]. Parker J. Palmer,. Let Your Life Speak (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 49, 32–34, 16.