Book Review: “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan

I read a book by Francis Chan over the last couple days titled “Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit”, and it was pretty thought provoking for me. It’s really easy for me to forget about the Holy Spirit being an actual person in the trinity and to just think about him as being some sort of cosmic force that God lets us tap into when we need it. In fact, I usually get so focused on Jesus being everything I need, that I usually attribute the work & power of the Holy Spirit in my life to Jesus. While they may be the same God, Jesus basically told his disciples that it would be better for them to have the Holy Spirit in them to have Jesus with them. Even though I’ve read that portion of scripture lots of times, I have never really thought of it quite that way before, that Jesus walked with the disciples but the Holy Spirit was in them/us.

I have often thought about how cool it would have been to be able to hang out with Jesus for a few years, but really when I think about it, these guys were just a bunch of knuckleheads when Jesus was with them. They never knew what Jesus was talking about, I read the gospels and see how many times Jesus repeated the same things over an over to them and they still didn’t seem to really get it. It wasn’t until they got filled with the Holy Spirit that they themselves really started to have any real impact on the world around them.

This book has been a good reminder for me of how crucial a role the Holy Spirit plays in my spiritual life (that He essential is my spiritual life), and to keep in mind that Holy Spirit is not just my “conscience”, but that He is the part of God that actually lives in me, giving me the desire to do his will, helping me to love others & empowering me to live the life God has for me (when I’m not getting in the way).

One point Francis made as I was reading the book, brought to light how I have a tendency to want to know the master plan… I want to know what direction I should be heading and what God wants me to do. For the last several months my wife and I have been in limbo trying to do different things, seeing God closing doors, and waiting around for God show us what we’re supposed to be doing. It’s been frustrating, but I think a lot of the problem is that I am too focused on trying to figure out what the long term plan is, that I often forget to just pay attention to what the Spirit is trying to guide me to do today.