Forgotten God by Francis Chan

Week 4: Chapter 3 — Why Do You Want Him?

Read Chapter 3 of Forgotten God by Francis Chan. Key Scripture: Acts 8:9–24; James 4:3.

Chan turns the mirror on our motives — because pursuing the Spirit for the wrong reasons is not only fruitless but dangerous, and this chapter asks us to examine our hearts honestly before we go further.

Discussion Questions

7 questions

1.Chan uses the story of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8 as a sobering warning. Simon saw the Spirit's power and wanted it — but for entirely wrong reasons. What were his motives? And how are they uncomfortably similar to some of the ways Christians today pursue spiritual gifts or experiences?

2.Chan asks a searching question: Do you want the Holy Spirit because of what He can do for you — comfort, power, gifts, excitement — or because He is God and you love Him? How would you honestly answer that right now?

3.Chan warns against pursuing the Spirit primarily for the emotional experience He sometimes produces. Why is emotion-seeking a shaky foundation for a relationship with the Spirit? What's the difference between experiencing the Spirit and chasing the feeling of experiencing Him?

4.On the other hand, Chan also addresses people who avoid any emotional or experiential dimension of the Spirit because they are afraid of excess or manipulation. Are you more in danger of chasing experiences or of running from them? What's driving that tendency in you?

5.James 4:3 says we do not receive because we ask with wrong motives. How does this verse apply to praying for the Spirit's work in your life? What would it look like to pray for the Spirit with genuinely right motives?

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Closing Prayer

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Father, we confess that even our desire for Your Spirit can be tainted by selfishness — we want comfort, or power, or the feeling of being spiritual. Like Simon, we can pursue the gift while ignoring the Giver. Purify our motives. Let us want Your Spirit simply because You are holy and good, because Jesus promised Him, and because we cannot love the way we were made to love without Him. Root out every selfish or fearful reason we approach You, and replace it with a child's honest need and a servant's willing surrender. Amen.

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