"Will The Spirit Come?"

Have you read a book called When the Spirit Comes by Colin Urquhart (1974, Hodder & Stoughton)?  During recent months two or three of our visiting ministers have talked about the Holy Spirit; about the need for greater awareness of the Holy Spirit, if the United Reformed Church is to survive.  They have known Colin Urquhart’s book, sometimes Colin Urquhart himself and his church at Luton.

The book is not in print, so I started reading it in the British Library, but this was not enough.  Readers are not allowed to take books out of the BL, and, although this is a useful constraint in that it concentrates the mind wonderfully, I wanted to have longer access to this book, so I got it on Inter-Library-Loan.

The book makes an immediate appeal.  It is written in a lively style and exudes enthusiasm: ‘It was like a great flash of light. Something I had been searching for had suddenly been discovered. “I am a son of God!” (p.9)  But the enthusiasm soon seems slightly excessive: ‘I felt different. I was different. I was bubbling over with joy… I wanted to go dancing and skipping around the house shouting, “I’m a son of God! I’m a son of God! I AM A SON OF GOD!”’ (P.9)

The style is made vivid by metaphors, but they do not always stand up to examination and interpretation.  For example, human beings are compared with coffee pots, pouring out the liquid of their resources, but limited in strength because they do not allow God to remove the lid and pour His life and strength into them; the lids may be made up of different layers, such as sin, guilt, fear and doubt. (Ps. 21-22)  I did not find this metaphor convincing.  Thinking back to it, I remembered the reference to coffee pots and lids but had no memory of what they were supposed to represent.

There were many references to ‘speaking in tongues’: ‘I …was filled with a great peace.  God was breathing His Holy Spirit into me. I found myself speaking strange words, a language I did not know.  It never occurred to me that this was “speaking in tongues”. I did not understand it.’ (P.11)  Other characters ‘speak in tongues’, but the effect does not seem compatible with biblical references.  I kept wanting a more explicit definition and clarification.

The book expresses developing faith but relies on a cumulative effect rather than a convincing argument.  Examples of healing by faith seem over-simplified and anecdotal.  One case is of a child called David, who was two years old and almost a human vegetable.  He was taken to a healing group who had agreed to pray for him: ‘Immediately David began to change.  Within two weeks, he was not only standing, he was running!  And he could hear!  And he was beginning to talk! And that blank expression had gone!  Instead he was laughing and even singing! …The health visitor said that in all her experience she had never known any child to be healed of such advanced brain damage.  When you know Jesus, anything is possible.’ (Ps.65-66)  There are many similar examples, though sometimes the healing does not work.  On one occasion, a badly burned girl stays alive longer than is expected but is not cured of her burns: ‘One week after the accident, during my morning time of prayer, the Lord said to me: “Release her.” “Very well, Lord, if that is your will; I release her into your loving care.”  The little girl died peacefully.’ (Ps.86-87)  The accounts are based on unsubstantiated assertions rather than on argument.  Have you experienced healing by faith?  Can you add your own examples and perhaps evaluate them?

I would like to know more about the Holy Spirit and about Colin Urquhart’s beliefs and works.  Have you heard of – or perhaps met – Colin Urquhart or anyone connected with his church, St. Hugh’s at Luton?  Have you read other books by him?  My Father Is the Gardener?  Anything You Ask?  Do you think healing comes from the Holy Spirit, or the National Health Service?  H.S. or N.H.S?

One example Colin Urquhart gives of the work of the Holy Spirit is completely different:  ‘There was another occasion when I was going to a meeting in thick fog.  I had to find a vicarage in the middle of a housing estate that I did not know.  I was completely lost and prayed, “Please Lord, lead me there.” “Turn around.” I turned the car round. “Straight down this road.” I obeyed. “Left here…right here…round the roundabout…turn left here.”  And there I was, right outside the house. “Thank you, Lord.”’(P.92)  Was the Holy Spirit the original inspiration for Sat.Nav.?