There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord There are many forms of work, but all of them, in all men, are the work of the same God In each of us, the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose. (I Corinthians 12:4-7)
THE GIFTS OF the Holy Spirit as enumerated in 1 Corinthians 12 are too familiar to require elaboration: wise speech, putting the deepest knowledge into words, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing true spirits from false, ecstatic utterance of various kinds ("tongues"), and the ability to interpret it. St Paul emphasises that those composite gifts are the work of the one Holy Spirit and they are distributed separately to each individual at will. It seems to me that the basis of these gifts is a liberation of the person from the oppressive overseership of the rational mind so that the psychic faculty can be opened up and flow out in unrestrained relationship to those in its vicinity. The Spirit, Who, as we have already said, is the real agent of unity between people (and ultimately all the creatures of the universe) opens up the enclosed, fearful, intolerant ego so that a freer fellowship can be developed. And the mark of this freedom from restraint is an outpouring of psychic powers and the intensification of deep awareness between people and eventually between all creatures throughout the universe.
As we are liberated from the constricting power of the rational mind and all the inhibitions that have closed round us from our childhood onwards, so we become receptive on a deeper level of personality to the desires and attitudes of other people. We also begin to know ourselves better and can tolerate our dark, shadow side. This aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit I have touched on in a previous chapter, and I believe it is the primary manifestation of a truly spiritual development of a person. It leads him, through humiliation, to acceptance of himself as he now stands and thereby to an understanding of and compassion for other people also. This deeper awareness of the needs of others is the right path of psychic development, because its basis is concern for others rather than a desire for personal power over them. As psychic awareness develops, so the person becomes more deeply related to an increasing number of people, and also finds an augmented attunement to the full Communion of Saints. Eventually he knows these to be closer to himself than the people with whom he has social intercourse.
To many people the gifts of the Holy Spirit are accepted as manifestations of a direct contact between God and man. Personally, I think this is an over-simplification. The dispersion of many of these gifts among immature people and the bigotry of some who claim them does not match up to a divine collaboration. It is a spiritual law that those who are in direct communion with God become more Christ-like in their workaday lives. Jesus makes this very clear in his warning "Not everyone who calls me `Lord' will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father." He goes on to say that even those who prophesy, cast out devils, and perform many miracles in His name will not be so much as recognised by Him. (Matthew 7: 21-23) And yet prophecy and miracle-working are among the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and there can be little doubt that exorcism is related to distinguishing the true spirits from false ones. It is evident that a person endowed with spiritual gifts may not be spiritually minded, but may use the gifts selfishly and unwisely. What distinguishes a truly spiritual person is his devotion to God which is made practical in his devotion to his fellow man. The criterion is again clear: "I tell you this: anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40) It is indeed the very humility of the action that proclaims its perfection; a grandiloquent gesture focuses attention on the agent and hereby sullies it.
Psychic powers are a natural endowment. We all possess them in some degree, but there is a class of people, called "sensitives", in whom these powers are well developed. The child is usually more psychically sensitive than the adult, probably because the rational, analytical aspect of its mind is still undeveloped; in addition, the personality is less rigid and well formed in childhood, and there is a greater ease of identification with the manifold forms of life. Enviable though this may be on a superficial level, it is essentially a stage on the way to full self awareness, and as such it is necessary for this psychic attunement to wane as full self awareness develops.
This point of view may disturb some people who believe, quite rightly, that liberation from the domination of the ego and identification with all life in the Holy Spirit is man's proper end. But it should be remembered that the ego, our point of absolute self- identification in the moment of action is not only God-given, but is also the means by which we make an individual contribution to the scheme of things during our span of life on earth. In other words, while we are assuredly members one of another, that membership does not consist in shedding our individuality and fusing into a shapeless mass. It means giving of our particular essence, which is unique, freely and without reservation to the community, so that it is enriched by our special witness, while we, in turn, grow into a more complete person through the fellowship granted us by that community.
This distinction is of fundamental importance in the mystical life. We are to attain union with God as free agents, and not fusion, in which our essence is incorporated into the divine body, so that we lose our God-given identity in the process. Until our ego is fully developed, we cannot even know ourselves as persons in our own right, let alone assert our personality in our particular situation. If I am to function competently in life in a particular capacity, be it priest, doctor, artisan, or housewife, I must execute my work with authority, an authority that proceeds from my personal self (or ego). If I have no knowledge of or trust in that ego, I will have no confidence in my ability to perform that work, and as a result of this lack of identification with myself, I will not be able to play my proper role in the world's business. The object of the psychotherapeutic process is to enable the patient to come to a full knowledge of his ego, which, as I have previously indicated, may have been so submerged by early unhappy experiences that it has never had a chance to reveal itself. Then alone can he grow into the maturity of a full person.
The aim of the spiritual life is not the destruction of the ego but rather its fulfilment as the focus of identity that brings us to a knowledge of God. The ego has, in fact, to be transformed from an isolated point of self-awareness to the light within man from which the Holy Spirit radiates. "The first man, Adam, became an animate being (a living soul), whereas the last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit." (I Corinthians 15:45) If the end of material man is to function as a self directed person, the end of spiritual man is to be at one with God and through Him to raise up, from corruption, the whole created universe. It is only when the ego is well-formed and capable of choosing alternatives and judging situations, that its domination can be shed and it can be subservient to the power of the Holy Spirit. Before his ego has attained this degree of maturity and wisdom, it would be dangerous for the person to be in full psychic communication with the variable powers of this world and that of the life beyond death. They could easily overwhelm him and possess his consciousness.
This extreme state of affairs probably does occur in some instances of mental illness. That it does not occur in young children may be due to the close guardianship they enjoy from benevolent psychic forces. The presence of a "guardian angel", improbable as it may appear to the worldly-wise, has been confirmed in the lives of many people. If such a being exists, as I firmly believe to be the case from my own experience, it could protect the person from contact with undesirable psychic powers. But as the ego becomes more developed and the person functions as an independent unit, so he becomes less receptive to all psychic communication, whether beneficent or malign. This situation is seen to its most extreme degree in the destructive type of intellectual whose mental brilliance blinds him and cuts him off from all true fellowship.
From this we can understand that the spiritually aspiring person should have a well-grounded awareness of his own identity but should not be imprisoned in it. He should be so at ease in himself and joyful in his own being (without Ceasing to be aware of his weaknesses and defects) that he can accept himself for what he is, and focus his attention outwards to other people and to God. It is far worthier to approach God in prayer with self-forgetful abandon and joy than to cringe before Him in abject self-abasement. The first attitude is one of true relationship, unworthy though we may know ourselves to be of this great honour; the second is really one of self-centred anxiety in which we are more concerned with ourselves than with God. It is unfortunate that much liturgical prayer stresses self-abasement to the exclusion of selfless love of God.
When the Holy Spirit is working authentically in a person his ego becomes strengthened, but at the same time he is able to flow out in greater concern to other people. It is this second feature that is related to the psychic function. In other words, a truly Spirit-filled person is in conscious psychic fellowship with the world, and is not simply the passive recipient of psychic emanations that are directed at him from all quarters. It therefore follows that he can begin to "test the spirits" as he would test an intellectual proposition, rationally and with an inner authority. It is this command of the psyche that marks the spiritually aspiring person, On the other hand, the psychic ingress into his own personality broadens his understanding of other people and brings him closer to God. Therefore neither the personal self nor the psychic power that proceeds from outside dominates the person. It is rather the Holy Spirit Who has this authority, informing the personal self and enabling it to test the spirits with a judgement that is both intellectual and intuitive.
When a person has attained this degree of command over his faculties, and paradoxically at the same time a freedom from the domination of his personal self, he is in a position to use with love and wisdom the gifts the Spirit provides. I have already noted that these psychic gifts are not necessarily supernaturally acquired. There are many people who are naturally endowed with such gifts, and these are as liable to cause harm as good. Which effect they have depends on the dedication and spiritual maturity of the person. A good example is the gift of "tongues", or ecstatic utterance in an unknown language. It is also called "glossolalia", and is often regarded as a direct manifestation of the inner baptism that the Holy Spirit confers. It is in effect a release of the emotional part of the psyche from the censorship of its rational component. Now at last the person can flow out in direct personal praise to God, Who, as the mystics have always known, is never comprehended by thought alone but only by a much deeper and freer giving of oneself. This is the secret of love, by which alone God may be known and held. The language of glossolalia is in many respects comparable to that used by an infant making its first verbal contact with its parents. When we remember that only those who can receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child can enter into it, we can grasp the precious nature of the inwardly directed prayer of praise. At once it opens the person to the needs and love of others, and it plays its part in bringing him into psychic communion with a body of believers and eventually with God Himself. In my opinion, if this gift is used properly, it leads the person into greater peace and silence, so that eventually the utterance may give way to contemplative union with God. When two people are first introduced to one another, they exchange much conversation, discovering the various outer attributes and interests they share. But as they grow into the harmony of love, they have less need of words and can spend hours together in silent union. This is the human counterpart to mystical prayer by which the soul contemplates God through the Spirit within it.
But this same gift in the possession of a spiritually immature person can easily become an object of exhibitionism. The one who has this gift uses it not only to praise God but also to impress his fellows. Soon an attitude of exclusiveness develops, so that those who have the gift feel themselves to be a people apart, a chosen group. The result of this is not the unity of the Holy Spirit but the divisiveness of the arrogant personal self-governed by the lower impulses of self-aggrandisement and complacency. The gift of tongues can become a manifestation of hysteria in unbalanced people, who use it, quite unconsciously, to escape from the demands and difficulties of the world.
On the whole this gift is much more appropriate for private prayer than for public gatherings, except in a group of closely integrated people who love each other and have transcended the demands of personal recognition.
Another gift that is highly sought after and potentially very beneficial is that of healing. There are many natural healers, and again I believe that their gift is a psychic one. They are able to effect a close psychic link with the person in need and give something of themselves to that person. What the nature of this principle may be cannot be defined, in our present state of ignorance, on a scientific level, but the Holy Spirit, from Whom all life proceeds, is surely closely involved. There are some people in whose very company we feel better. There are some hospital visitors who radiate a sense of peace to all around them and can cleanse an emotionally charged atmosphere, bringing hope where before there was anxiety and darkness. Some such people have a healing touch. When they lay their hands on the body of someone who is ill, they effect a release from tension and pain. In some instances this effect proceeds to an improvement of an organic disease, sometimes to the extent of a remarkably rapid cure. Some healers of this type are quite unaware of their gift, being simple, practical people concerned with their everyday life to the exclusion of deeper, more metaphysical matters. And they are probably blessed in their mundane simplicity, for too deep an analysis of the problems of life can have a quenching effect on the flow of the Holy Spirit in one who is not yet ready for profound philosophical speculation.
Another class of natural healer, probably merely an extension of the one I have already described, claims contact with definite psychic entities, alternatively called "guides" or "spirits". And we would be ill advised to reject this testimony categorically. The intermediate psychic realm is inhabited, as I have already indicated, by the souls of both the living and the dead, all of whom have their own share in the Kingdom of God, even though many have separated themselves from a knowledge of that kingdom. The angelic hierarchy, again a subject of unbelief even to many Christians, is clearly involved in this realm. Angels are to be considered as messengers; their function is to carry the information of God the Holy Spirit to those limited in a physical body. They are of a different order to the "spirits" of people that inhabit the psychic realm. Their main attributes are power and light, and it is as such that they appear to receptive human beings. They have no form, but it is possible for the mind of the person who has perceived an angel to clothe it in mental imagery. As messengers they have no free will; in this respect they differ from human beings both in this world and in that beyond death. A good angel receives the message from the Holy Spirit, whereas a fallen angel is in bondage to the dark forces that dominate much of the material as well as the psychical world.
These statements are obviously terse and dogmatic, but, as Jesus told Nicodemus, "We speak of what we know, and testify to what we have seen." (John 3:11) They should be accepted according to the experience and insight of the reader. Those who cannot acceppt this account of the psychic realm should not reject it out of hand; I always advise sceptics to put indigestible concepts and ideas away in a mental drawer, perhaps for many years. And then a circumstance may arise in their own lives which may cause them to recall old, apparently outlandish teaching, and they can then review the stored concepts with a fresh mind.
Neither the "natural healer" nor the one attuned to intangible psychic forces need be directed by the Holy Spirit, although the Spirit can never be completely separated from human activity, since He is the life-giver. God makes the rain to fall on the just and unjust alike, and even Pilate could not have authorised the crucifixion of Jesus were he not in possession of God-given power. When the healing proceeds directly from the Holy Spirit, the healer finds himself detached from the domination of his ego and at one with the mind of Christ. In other words, the consciousness of the one who gives healing is far above the awareness of his own importance and the claims deriving from the personal self, and rests in perfect self-sacrifice before God. I would never suggest that such a healer by-passes the Communion of Saints and is in direct personal contact with God; I would reserve this claim only for the highest mystical experience in which there is an awareness of complete union with all things. But I would most sincerely assert that the Holy Spirit is in command, and that His communion with the one being healed is direct, and is unimpeded by either the personality of the healer or intermediate psychic forces.
If a psychic healer goes into a state of deep trance there can be little doubt that his ego has been submerged, but unfortunately his unguarded psyche is particularly vulnerable to the invasion of untested psychic forces, some of which might conceivably cause damage to him and his patients. It is for this reason that I distrust any state of deep dissociation from personal awareness. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, invites our active co-operation whenever He works through us. At the same time He makes it clear to us that we are instruments of His healing power and not the agents of healing. Not even the most exalted psychic entities can claim to be agents of healing. This function belongs to the Holy Spirit alone; all other aspects of the psyche are secondary factors.
The healing effected by the Holy Spirit is mystical in quality - by this I mean that it transfigures the person. Healing wrought by psychic or charismatic agencies (I personally believe they are essentially of the same nature, but this is a controversial matter which would be strongly denied by most people with Pentecostal leanings) may indeed proceed from the Holy Spirit, but it is liable to be intercepted and even disturbed by intermediate psychic agencies and the unredeemed unconscious mind of the person who gives healing. The Communion of Saints can act against unwonted psychic intrusion from without, but it is only the progressive inner sanctification of the person who is a healing instrument that can prevent his own prejudices and aberrations interfering with the full flow of healing power from the Spirit of God. This is why I have stressed the consecration of the will and the regeneration of the personality in a previous section; until these objectives have been attained, at least to some considerable extent, any healing power that may proceed from that person is likely to be distorted and even perverted.
The healing gifts of the Spirit therefore have a natural, a psychical, and a divine component, and they all come from the one source, God the Holy Spirit. But whereas a natural healer may tend to take the credit for the results of his work and fall into the error of spiritual pride and exhibitionism, and a psychic healer may be completely dominated by psychic powers to whom he gives all authority, the healer who works under the power of God, revealed as a person in Christ, has escaped the imprisonment of self-centredness and the glamour of psychic triviality, and is one with eternal reality. Only when the Spirit is fully in command can the psyohic powers work in harmony; likewise a healer filled with the Spirit experiences an integration of his personality and can function as a balanced person.
It is important to see how the healing gifts of the Spirit should be used in practice, how the will, consecrated by the Spirit, can work in partnership with the Spirit.