The Australia Territory’s Rallying Cry: Spirit-led
BY COMMISSIONER MIRIAM GLUYAS, Territorial Commander
The Salvation Army Australia Territory has issued a ‘rallying cry’ as a callback to its Army roots, using slogans to unite and inspire our Salvationist troops.
The rallying cry is ‘Jesus-centred, Spirit-led, hope revealed’.
The rallying cry isn’t intended to add even more to our mission, vision, and values, but instead serves as a measure to draw them all together as we ask ourselves in all we do:
‘Is Jesus central to this?’
‘Where is the Spirit leading us?’
‘Where am I seeing hope revealed?’
Today we explore the second of the three rallying cries:
SPIRIT-LED
The Salvation Army has 11 faith-based statements, called doctrines, that summarise our religious beliefs. These statements place The Salvation Army in harmony with other mainstream denominations of Protestant Christianity.
Doctrine 7 states: “We believe that repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary for salvation.”
Samuel Logan Brengle, one of The Salvation Army’s great holiness theologians writes about the Holy Spirit: “The baptism of the Holy Ghost is to bring us into union with Christ, into loving fellowship with the Heavenly Father, to fit us snugly into God's great, complex scheme of life, and equip us for such service or sacrifice as falls to our lot.” (The Guest of the Soul, 1934).
The Holy Spirit has been gifted to us and works in regenerating us inwardly and propelling us outwardly. The Holy Spirit helps us to be like Christ in both his declaration and subsequent demonstration in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
We believe the Holy Spirit convicts us (John 16:8), convinces others (Acts 2:4) and conceives new birth in believers. (Romans 8:11).
To be led by the Holy Spirit requires great discernment without distraction (Ephesians 5:1-25), discipline without detraction (Acts 15:28), and conviction that leads to action (Acts 2:1-37). Spiritual development, prayer and fasting, discipleship and accountability, prophetic gifts and testing of the word, time in teaching and learning, devotions, worship, retreats: whatever the practice, all of our ways must lead to listening to God and obeying God’s voice as evidenced through the Holy Spirit.
It may be easy to think that being led by the Spirit is about serving well, ministering better or simply being a good servant of God. But Brengle has more to say about this:
“The baptism with the Holy Ghost is for power for service!’ so many people think and say. And so, it is. But it is for far more! The baptism does reinforce and empower the soul. The man or woman who is baptized with the Spirit is ‘endued with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49), and as a spiritual energy and effectiveness which are not of this world. Their lives and their words take on a strange, new influence and power, which come from the active co-operation of an unseen Guest, a holy and Divine Presence abiding in love within them, and this fits them for the service of their Lord. But service is not the whole purpose of man’s being. What a person is is more important than what they do. Goodness is better than greatness.”
The Salvation Army Australia has also adopted the line, ‘Believe in Good’ as a means of connecting others with the heart of our movement, encouraging faith in the Good News and hope for the future. This is visible on internal and external communications. It is an invitation to faith, and an urging to see God’s goodness in the world at work. We don’t aspire to be simply a ‘great’ organisation or movement or mission. We want to truly be the Good News of Jesus Christ, lived out and empowered by our Holy Spirit’s revelation.
The Salvation Army Australia is committed to this, from our roots to our fruit. We have a Spiritual Life Committee made up of officers and soldiers who meet throughout the year to pray, discern, seek God and position ourselves in an attitude of reverence, surrender, humility and listening before God.
We believe every follower of Jesus should be involved in similar action and practice. Whatever the outworking of the Holy Spirit’s gifts or leading in your life, we know that every believer is charged with the following promise in regards to prayerful discernment: “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Ephesians 6:17-18).
Co-founder William Booth once said: “Before we go to our knees to receive the Baptism of Fire, let me beg of you to see to it that your souls are in harmony with the will and purpose of the Holy Spirit whom you seek.”
Co-founder Catherine Booth once said: “Now, this is who I account for the want of results – the want of the direct, pungent, enlightening, convicting, restoring, transforming power of the Holy Ghost; and I care not how gigantic the intellect of the agent, or how equipped from the school of human learning. I would rather have a Hallelujah Lass, a little child, with the power of the Holy Ghost, hardly able to put two sentences of the Queen’s English together, to come to help, bless and benefit my soul than I would the most learned divine in the kingdom without it.”
· RECEIVED: “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
· REASSURED: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.” (Romans 8:26).
· REMINDED: ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” (John 14:26).
· RELATIONAL: ‘For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Romans 8:14).
· REVELATION: ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).
· REGENERATED: ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36-26-27).
The themes above are simply suggestions to help us focus our thoughts. They each relate to the Holy Spirit’s identity and how we are meant to live in response; in our caring, creating, building and working.
I recently sat down with my good friends Rosy and Eva. Together we shared the times we depended on the Holy Spirit to lead us in the midst of struggle and the unknown. To view the conversation, click here
