It’s interesting how this has been so difficult to put into words. The Holy Spirit is such a complex but simple concept that sometimes I have to literally take a step back and just go ‘whoa’. The idea of God wanting to have part of Him live inside us. To communicate with us. To guide us. He loves us enough to get all up in our mess. Sometimes my own mind scares me… yet, He wants to be there because He loves me.
I was thinking about this book I read back in January by a Chinese prophet, Watchman Nee. He states the three components of the human person-hood. Body, soul, and spirit. Three parts. The body being our physical existence, our soul being our personality and conscience, and spirit being what we use to commune with Christ. In thinking of that, I thought how funny it is that God almost fits the mold too. Jesus is body, God is soul, and the Holy Spirit is Spirit.
I think one of the most common misconceptions of the Holy Spirit is that it is A) exclusive to Pentecostals/Charismatics and B) did not show up until the New Testament.
To explain the first, you guys already know about my disdain for denominations, at least you should. I feel denominations are actually against God and stupid. Ephesians literally tells Christians not to divide themselves according to different doctrine but to believe wholly in the Word of God and what do we do??? We find ways to title ourselves differently from each other so we can justify the part of the Bible we think should be emphasized or more important.
So in case the above slight rant was not obvious, the Holy Spirit is not exclusive to any one group of Believers. It is available to any and all Believers. Think of it as a signing bonus. Give your life to Jesus and you get the Holy Spirit.
Now this can present itself in many different ways. I think people assume the baptism of the Holy Spirit will be just like the Disciples. Wind will blow in. Fire will appear above our heads. Now, this does still happen for some. There are people I have seen fall over shaking like they are having a seizure from the Holy Spirit. I have seen others who have burst into tears and immediately started speaking in their prayer language and literally healing physical ailments.
All this to be said, I have also seen people who do not feel the Holy Spirit upon their entry into the book of Life, and yet they feel the warmth and the work of it within them. I think it depends on how the Holy Spirit wishes to present itself honestly. God is dramatic. He literally made a pillar of fire to lead people and if you don’t think that shows he’s got a flare for the thematic, I will question your judgement. However, He can also be incredibly subtle.
I know people who said they would be terrified if they ever felt anything physical after being prayed for through the Holy Spirit. Others need the feeling of being baptized in flame to believe. For goodness sakes, Saul literally went blind from a flash of light and fell over when Jesus/the Holy Spirit first made contact.
The greatest way I can explain my encounters with the Holy Spirit is to say it feels like I drank hot chocolate on a cold day. I know that sounds funny but I’m being serious. I feel heat just spread all over my body. Sometimes I get goosebumps, sometimes not. Then I get pressure on my chest and I can feel I need to pray, or talk to someone. It is not a revelation to me every single time, but a conversation with a dear friend.
Now for the second matter, the arrival of the Holy Spirit as the Pentecost. If you have read the Bible, specifically Acts, you know of a day called Pentecost where the Holy Spirit came to the disciples in the upper room with wind and fire. (Hence Pentecostal.)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome(both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
~ Acts 2:1-13
This is not the only time the Holy Spirit is mentioned though. It is not the first time it has come. Look to the Old Testament. To the Spirit hovering above the water in Genesis. To Saul the King. To prophets. The Holy Spirit was in the Old Testament. All three parts of the Trinity, the personhood of God, existed from the very beginning of our time.
It is however in the New Testament where the anointing of His Spirit being in EVERY believer took place. We are no longer Believers restricted to the law, but in the Way. (Not to say we should be anarchists, you guys should know me better than that by now if you think that is what I am saying.)
When Jesus died, He said He would leave behind a ‘Helper’ and ‘Comforter’. In the absence of Jesus’ physical existence on Earth and God’s presence walking wholly, the Holy Spirit comes in as the internal part of us. Every human is born with a conscience. We are told the law of God is written on our hearts from the moment of our conception.
The Holy Spirit brings to us, different than the conscience, conviction. Conviction and guilt are two very different things. There is no other answer to true conviction than complete surrender, or the alternative of denying your basic spiritual needs.
So the Holy Spirit is inside of us. It moves us, breaks us, refines us. I would refer to the Holy Spirit as a burning sensation. While the burn sometimes may feel like the spark we need, it also works to get rid of the impurities so we are made perfect in Him.
(I was going to talk about ceccesationism in this blog post but we don’t have the space for that, next week folks.)
One of my favourite things I have learned about the Holy Spirit is that in Hebrew it is translated to the Holy Wind, the second word being ruach. When people ask me what the Holy Spirit is like or how we can know it is there, I tell them we cannot see the wind and yet we feel it. The Holy Wind, the Holy Spirit, cannot be seen on its own, but we see as it moves objects, we can feel it’s caress, see the products of it.
(I do want to say despite what it may cause to know, rauch is considered both a masculine and feminine word. God and Jesus are both predominantly referred to as ‘He’ in the Bible, but I do not believe the Holy Spirit is ever given a specific gendered pronoun. We talked about in the God part of the Trinity that God created both male and female in the image of God and how God transcends our understanding of attributes. I believe the Holy Spirit is the same.)
This I found from one of my devotions I did and the second part I think perfectly sums up a major lesson of the Holy Spirit:
“So what happens if you walk against the wind?”
“It creates drag. It becomes harder to walk and you get tired.”
“In the same way, when you walk against the Spirit, it creates a drag on your life. Everything you do becomes harder. It takes more energy to do less. So when you go against His Spirit, you are fighting against the Wind. And you can’t walk against the direction of the Wind without getting weary and worn out.”
I just absolutely adore that picture. How the Holy Spirit moves us, even it means against our fleshly nature to get to our spirit.
Finally, the last part of the Holy Spirit is what it produces.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. ~ Acts 1:8
When the Holy Spirit first anointed the Apostles they were given the ability to speak in tongues they did not know, understand those they never had before, cast out demons, heal, and more. The Holy Spirit is God’s power and authority coursing through us. It is what moves as we pray, or should at least or there’s something wrong with our prayers. A people filled with the Holy Spirit should be a people of worship, miracles, and devotion to the Lord.
I do believe as well the power the Holy Spirit brings is the indescribable peace, joy, and hope. The kind that fills people with the Spirit of Abandon (we talked about that on the blog.) We do not serve a docile God and His Holy Spirit is not docile. It surges and roars and demands to be heard… we have the blessing of being able to serve it.
There is not much else I can say on the topic, or think I have to share. We will talk about cessationists next week and honestly, the next three blog posts I have to write (including cessationism) are about the Holy Spirit so maybe this came just in time!
Holy Spirit thank you for being willing to spend as much time in my body as I have to. Thank you for refining me. For teaching me. Guiding me. Convicting me. Holy Spirit I pray you surge up inside of me. Lead me towards your children to teach them more about you. Teach me more about you. I want to know you more.
I pray for those searching for you Holy Ghost. The ones who believe they have next felt you and never will. Even the ones who refuse to experience you based off their own wrong beliefs of what and who you are. Surge into them. Encompass them. Envelop them. I pray they would feel your warmth and your love and your power. Let their peace rest in you as they experience how it is to be so completely filled and understood.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
May the Holy Spirit guide you into a new beautiful weekend and renew you!
God bless.
~ Ashley
P.S. I didn’t want to do too much testimony in this as it’s supposed to be a very educational point of view (which is difficult considering there is nothing informal about the Holy Spirit) but I honestly thought I didn’t have the Holy Spirit as a young Christian. My Oma asked me when I was 12 whether I had the Holy Spirit and I told her ‘I think so’ and she said ‘oh you would know’… I don’t think she realizes just how much that HAUNTED me until 18 at Bible college when someone prayed the baptism by fire from the Holy Spirit over me and I realized I had experienced all the feels before.
P.S.S. There are some people who believe you need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to experience all the signs… I don’t really agree, because I definitely prayed for healing before and it worked when I was a wee lass and no old white preacher man had put his hands over me and done a big prayer. Not that I’m saying the action itself does not have gravity…. I just don’t think the theatrics are necessary all the time.
P.S.S.S. If you read the Jesus post you know what a trip this post was. So done with the technology behind these posts LOL.
P.S.S.S.S. It just did it AGAIN! It automatically changed the image and text to this post on a different post!!!!!!! Something really does not want this getting out there. I’m going to have to keep my eye on this…..
A Light in The Darkness 