The upwelling of the Holy Spirit 

Upwelling is an oceanic term where deeper, colder water wells up to the surface of the sea. Spiritually it can describe the experience of spending longer periods in contemplative practice, writes Shaun Lambert

Two ancient models can help us cultivate this space in which to experience the upwelling of God’s Holy Spirit

 
Upwelling is a beautiful word that I was introduced to by my mindfulness teacher. I had been sharing the impact of spending longer periods in contemplative practice. I likened it to the experience of a child by the seaside digging a hole to catch water as the sea comes in and out. The smaller and shallower the hole the less water is retained or caught. The deeper and bigger the hole the more water is retained and for longer. I had said that the longer practices had created a deeper, more spacious stillness within where the peace from the practice remained longer after the practice. She likened this to upwelling.
 
Upwelling is an oceanic term where deeper, colder water wells up to the surface of the sea. It is a useful term spiritually to describe the experience I had relayed. It could as easily describe the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus talks about, ‘But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.’ (John 4:14 NLT) Another translation says, ‘a spring of water welling up [upwelling][1] to eternal life’ (NIV).
 
Rightly we often talk about the Holy Spirit descending, or invite the divine presence, ‘Come Holy Spirit!’ This is not just a prayer for charismatics. The felt experience of the upwelling of the Holy Spirit within us may be the graced fruit and awareness cultivated by contemplative prayer. It may be that with habitual practice this upwelling is consciously experienced more often.
 
Psychology recognises this inner spaciousness. Scott Symington, a Christian psychologist has a two-screen model in his adapted mindfulness approach. He says, ‘imagine your internal world as a media room with two screens. On the wall you see facing forward is the front screen, which represents the present moment and life-giving internal activity…Off to the right, still inside your mind, is a side screen – the place where the fears, worries, unhealthy urges, and destructive moods show up.’[2] It is helpful to know that we can move from our small fear-based screen to our more spacious awareness within. It is possible that in that spacious awareness within, our inner cathedral, that the upwelling of the Holy Spirit is mainly sensed.
 
Contemplative prayer also seeks to cultivate a spacious open awareness. It is in that space, and in the upwelling of the Holy Spirit in his own life that Jesus could say, ‘the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing,’ (John 5:19). The aim of contemplative prayer is of course this continuous awareness of the presence of God. There are two ancient models for cultivating this space in which to experience the upwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.
 
The slow meditative reading of scripture is one of these practices, often called Lectio Divina. Traditionally it has four steps: the first is the slow reading; followed by meditation – staying with the scripture. The third is praying out what emerges with the aim of arriving lastly at a state of contemplation, or open awareness of God’s presence. A common feeling while practising this is restlessness – which can emerge quite quickly. We are not used to sustaining our attention because our culture shapes us to be hyper-attentive – that is easily bored and restless, needing constant streams of information coming to us to placate that boredom and restlessness.
 
We need to learn to exercise our muscle of attention. We begin by focusing on scripture, and the first thing that happens is that our minds wander. We might not notice this for quite a while. However, we have a God-given capacity of meta-awareness, where one part of our mind can notice that another part of our mind has wandered. We notice our mind has wandered and what it wanders too, and direct it back to our focus of attention. As we do this our awareness of the scripture and God’s presence increases. We learn to switch our attention, to sustain attention that eventually becomes deep attention and awareness. We must learn to stay with the restlessness, surf it like a wave. Unlike the upwelling of the Holy Spirit this wave of restlessness leaves us dissatisfied but is shorter-lived.
 
Another ancient practice is the Jesus Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me (a sinner). Based on gospel prayers like that of Bartimaeus, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ (Mark 10:47), it also can help train our attention while we invoke the presence of the Son of God. Sometimes when we find it hard to pray anything else this prayer can hold us. It can be a prayer that anchors us in the present moment, receptive to the right moments of meeting with God by saying the first part of the prayer on the inbreath, and the second on the outbreath. We can make it more embodied by using a prayer rope to mark the prayers. Through it we can experience the thankful prayer of the psalmist, ‘He brought me out into a spacious place’ (Psalm 18:19).
 
This spacious place within and the upwelling of the Holy Spirit which fills it can enable us to be responsive rather than reactive. It can enable us to make wise choices rather than unhelpful judgements. Within that spacious place we find it easier to hold the difficult thoughts and feelings we face rather than avoiding them. We can relativize them – it’s just a thought, it’s not a fact. This is not to minimise difficulties or the reality of them but enables us to see them clearly, to reperceive them, rather than distort or inflate them.
 
One of my favourite places is the Bishop’s Garden at Wells Cathedral in Somerset. I’ve sat and watched the well pools from which the city takes its name. Every now and then I have seen an upwelling of water that emerges like a mystical event. Just as the wind of the Spirit blows where it pleases, the upwelling of the Spirit is not ours to control. All we can do is position ourselves in that spacious place within and await God’s grace.
 
A good prayer to ask for God’s graced attention is this:
 
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God may your healing loving presence
Embrace me.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God may your healing loving presence
Enfold me.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God may your healing loving presence
Flow through me.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God may your healing loving presence
Upwell within me.
Lord Jesus Christ Son of God may your healing loving presence
Flow out from me today.
Amen.


Image | Jeremy Bishop | Unsplash
 

Shaun Lambert is a Baptist minister, writer, psychotherapist, and Honorary Mindfulness Chaplain at Scargill Movement

[1] My addition.
[2] Scott Symington, Freedom from Anxious Thoughts & Feelings: A Two-Step Mindfulness Approach for moving Beyond Fear and Worry (New Harbinger Publications Inc, 2019, Kindle location 116


 

Do you have a view? Share your thoughts via our letters' page.