When you walk into a Pentecostal church, you can easily get the impression that they've moved on from Christ to focus on the greater and more important ministry of the Spirit. This comes across in their focus on teaching the charismatic gifts, and how Christ's life is all about his miracles, his death is about the physical healing power of the cross, and his resurrection is about his overthrow of the demonic. Worship and testimonies also focus around these issues.

Now, if everything is about the Spirit then even how we interpret the Bible becomes all about what we hear from the Spirit. Objective study can falter. The theology of the atoning power of the cross can be drowned out. The character or fruit of the Spirit can even be left out. This appears to be a pitting of the Spirit against the Word which is wrong.

This could be summarised at the risk of misunderstanding as:

• Spirit + nothing = Everything

But there is a love for Christ and the Word, even if they give a different impression. Nevertheless, even as Pentecostals try so rightly to move away from Pharisaicism and legalism, they may move into the equal but opposite position of doing away with the law, hyper grace, and doing away with repentance and holiness.

As this table summarises (perhaps too simply), there are real beliefs that lead to real problems, and there are distorted understandings of what people believe that need to be clarified. Ultimately what we want to achieve is something pro-Word, pro-Spirit, pro-Christ that sees people truly born-again with the Spirit, grounded in the Word, humbly walking with God according to his standards and will. Can it be possible? Yes it can!

The Spirit empowers us in the same way that He empowered Christ

When Christ began his ministry he received the Spirit, and when he finished his ministry, he gave the Spirit to us, his disciples. So the Holy Spirit was empowering Jesus for ministry, and Jesus said that now with the Spirit in us, we have the same power to do the same things (John 14:12-17; Romans 8:11). This means that whatever we do in the Spirit should align with whatever Christ did. It means that, because the whole Bible speaks about Christ, that whatever we do, should align with the whole Bible. We might do "even greater" things (John 14:12), but they will all have the same alignment and lead to the same Jesus.

Thomas Smail puts it this way: "Jesus is the original prototype of the spiritual man, and everything that happens in us by the Spirit is reflection of what has happened in him."Thomas Smail, Reflected Glory: The Spirit in Christ and Christians, 1975, 51 Thus, the Spirit wants to reproduce Christ in us. Notice this is not leaving Christ for something greater, but rather, becoming more like Christ.

We ought to be seeing something approximating this:

• Christ + Spirit = Christ-likeness

Practically, this means we should seek to find reflection of Christ in all that we do and experience. Does it look like Christ? Does it bring glory to Christ? Does it smell like Christ, taste like Christ, feel like Christ? When we reflect on our experiences and bring them before God in prayer and Bible study, we should ask these questions to ensure we are heading the right direction.

Pentecost was all about Jesus, not the Spirit

Second, at Pentecost, the Spirit did not so much blaze a different way forward as burn the message that Jesus was who he really said he was; he is Lord; he is the Christ, the Messiah; and he is alive—"we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great deeds God has done!" (Acts 2:11) The disciples were to be witnesses to the ends of the earth that Jesus rose from the dead, and therefore Jesus' message is true and good. The gifts of the Spirit were not to show off the Spirit, but to witness to the gospel message of Jesus.Thomas Smail, 58

Therefore, it's legitimate to look for the Spirit's activity in things like the readiness of someone to die for Jesus, or preach Jesus in the face of hate (not just speaking in tongues or other charismatic gifts).

Therefore, a person hunting for spiritual power is probably more like Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:18-19) than a real Christ-ian. The Spirit points to Christ, but that person is pointing to power.

Therefore, we ought to love the Word as the Spirit loves the Word. Study of the Word (all Scripture testifies to Jesus, John 5:39) ought not to be shied away from as if the Spirit has another source for his truth.

Our horribly short statement needs to be added to:

• Christ + Spirit + Word = Christ-likeness

Of course, one can go too far and forget the Spirit, like many conservative churches—as opposed to Jesus who taught his disciples to wait for the Spirit before going out.

Jesus lived, died and was resurrected

As discussed at length in the series "Mission of the Church", we need to recognise and acknowledge not just one aspect of Jesus, such as his atoning death, but all three aspects: his life, death and resurrection. Churches who focus on his death tend not to champion live-giving hope to the poor, nor walk in Spirit-empowered resurrection life. Churches who focus on his life or his resurrection tend to downplay Jesus' atonement on the cross. But just imagine for a moment what a church that is the witness that Jesus called us to could be if it embraced all three major aspects: strongly Spirit-led, seeing miracles all pointing to Jesus (not power); strongly Word-based, driving holiness and repentance (not hype); and strongly Christ-centred, driving physical life-giving culture and loving action in the power of God (not man).

As Jesus exclaims:

It's not far away if it's at hand. Something started at the resurrection. 

His resurrection started the bringing of Christ's kingdom to earth (remember that's what Jesus gave us as part of our model prayer—let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, Matthew 6:10). It's not something that is just for another age to come. But Pentecostals already know the overthrow of darkness has begun.

But what about the connection with Jesus' death?

Epheisans 4:9 affirms:

I think we all want revival. Now, a study of history (Scripture included) affirms that wherever revival is poured out, there precedes a time of intense persecution and suffering—and the people turn in prayer to God (read Dr. Michael Brown's Revival or We Die for more on this topic, and my book review of it). These are people who genuinely need God.

We should:

• live like Christ;

• die (to self) like Christ; and,

• rise (in power through the Spirit) like Christ

But when we turn God into a health and wealth gathering venture, because we want to be comfortable, we will continue to be disappointed. The approach of these people turns the above 3-fold way into an impersonal spiritual law to be exploited, rather than continuously fixing our eyes on Jesus and empyting ourselves in humility.

Well that's mostly been aimed at Pentecostals. Onto Conservatives.