Throughout my ministry I have been regularly confronted by a fearful response to any discussion of the Holy Spirit. Somehow, it seems, people are afraid that inviting the Holy Spirit into our hearts or into our worship, will mean that we are inviting weird behavior, extreme reactions, and embarrassing expressions of belief. These people seem to think that encouraging the Holy Spirit will lead to speaking in tongues in church or snake handling in the pews. Puh-lease!
The Holy Spirit is not something to be feared. That is one of the reasons why the church has moved away from such archaic language like “holy ghost”. The Spirit is not a ghost. It is not ghastly and it is not intended to frighten us. The Holy Spirit can never make someone do something that they are uncomfortable doing. We cannot get “possessed” by the Holy Spirit and ‘forced’ to do something weird or strange or awful.
The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God in our lives. When we invite the Holy Spirit to come into our hearts we are energized both to love God even more, and energized to love our neighbors even more. With the Holy Spirit, we gain insight into the mind and heart of God. We gain uncanny wisdom, clear understanding of the ways of God, and courage to do the things we want to do, but have been afraid to do in the past.
The Holy Spirit is like the accelerator on your car. When we give our lives to Christ, and invite Christ to be our Lord and Savior, it is as if we started the car. We are still sitting in the driveway or parking lot, but we are not moving. We can play the radio, turn on the lights, and regulate the temperature. But we are not moving which is what cars were invented to do. Without the Holy Spirit we are only idling in our faith. But with the Holy Spirit, we are put into gear. The more we are filled with the Holy Spirit, the more we can accelerate. When empowered by a deepening relationship with God, we are able to do more, go faster, and accomplish more for the sake of God’s kingdom.
Throughout the Bible, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples meant that their testimony and their ministry had more power and more impact upon the people to whom they were preaching. Healing is a good thing. That’s a result of the Holy Spirit’s power. Discernment is a good thing. Knowing with clarity the difference between right and wrong is critical to living lives that avoid the potholes of life, and whose witness demonstrates the things we can accomplish when God is present with us.
On the day of Pentecost, as we read the story in Acts 2, the fearful, hesitant, and dim-witted disciples become transformed into bold and courageous proclaimers of the gospel, willing to stand up in an open marketplace to declare that Jesus died on the cross for us, was raised from the dead on Easter, and his Spirit is distributed to those who believe. Throughout the rest of the Book of Acts we see demonstrations of wisdom, insight, power, healing, amazing preaching, and transformed lives. On Saturday, May 30, those in the Alpha Course will learn much more about the importance and value of the Holy Spirit. On Sunday, May 31 we will celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit when we worship.
I pray for each of you that you will be open to what the Holy Spirit can do to bless and strengthen your life. Please do not be afraid, and do not resist. If God loves you completely, he would not give us a gift that would harm us.
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