Experiencing God the Holy Spirit
When my girls were toddlers, they had a toy that was a cube. Each side of the cube had openings of various shapes which they could put the appropriate shaped object into. The goal was to get all the objects into the cube. For an adult, this was obviously very simple. For a toddler, this could be both challenging and frustrating.
I most admit that when it comes to experiencing the Holy Spirit in our lives, I have a cube that has various openings. But as much as I would like every passage of Scripture to easily fit into one of the openings, they do not always do so. Sure, I can bang them pretty hard and get them in, I'm just not so sure they were intended to do so.
As I have begun preaching through the books of Acts, God is stirring my heart to both reexamine my assumptions regarding the Holy Spirit's work in our lives and, more importantly, to experience the Holy Spirit at work in my life, my family, and our church in a fresh way as He sees fit. My response to this stirring is to first of all pray. Secondly, restudy Scripture. And third, restudy what others have written.
In restudying Scripture, I printed over 30 pages that include each verse in the Bible where the word "Spirit" occurs. My goal is to try to attempt to categorize how we experience the Holy Spirit in our lives as precisely as possible while recognizing that the workings of a Holy Spirit are a mystery that I will never fully understand. And because He is God and I am not, I am thankful that is the case. So, as one friend said on Facebook, "Being precise about a mystery that cannot be understood? Sounds Easy!" But, here goes. As I read each verse in the Bible on "Spirit" I would suggest that there are at least 5 ways that people experience God that Holy Spirit in our lives.
1. People can respond negatively to the Holy Spirit's working in their lives. Unbelievers can both blaspheme and resist the Holy Spirit. Christians can grieve and quench the Holy Spirit. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit is to see rock solid evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus and then credit it to Satan while completely hardening your heart to Him. (Scared you have committed blaspheming of the HS. If you have such a fear, don't. The fact you still fear the things of God is evidence that you have not hardened your heart towards Him in an ultimate sense. Still, make sure you know Jesus and are not resisting the Holy Spirit!) To resist the Holy Spirit is to hear the gospel but refuse to turn to Jesus. (This is neither an argument for or against the doctrine of irresistible grace, another blog for another day!) To grieve the Holy Spirit is for a believer to have ongoing, unconfessed sin in his or her life. To quench the Holy Spirit is to hinder the work of God among a community of believers through dissension, gossip, denial of the work of God, etc.
2. When a individual believes in Jesus and is saved, He or she is sealed with the Holy Spirit and receives the Spirit of adoption. When one trust in Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus takes up residence in His or or her life. This individual is marked as God's child once and forever more. Even in sin, the Spirit of God abides in a believer. In this sense, a believer will never lose the Holy Spirit.
3. Christians must seek to be led by the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit continually and repeatedly. The bible does not teach what is sometimes called a "Second Blessing of the Holy Spirit." However, the Bible consistently teaches a Christian's ongoing, repeated need for the filling, leading, and empowering of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says the Spirit is like a flowing river going in (from God) and coming out (to bless others) of a Christian's heart. If I was to stretch a rope across a flowing river, how many times would water flow pass that rope? Too many to count but that expresses how often we should desire the Holy Spirit to lead us and fill us and empower us. Continually and repeatedly!
4. The Holy Spirit is free to anoint and empower individuals for certain tasks and callings as He see fit. Such workings of the Holy Spirit in a individual can be intended to be life-long or short-term and may be removed in response to the disobedience of the individual. The Holy Spirit clothes, anoints, comes upon (however you want to say it!) individuals for the purpose of doing various tasks from sewing to building to battling to preaching to healing to witnessing to transporting to enduring to... you get the picture. Such an anointing of God's Spirit is up to the sovereign will of God although He does at times place such anointing upon someone in response to prayer. When the Bible speaks of the Spirit leaving an individual, it is in this sense NOT the sense of category number one.
5. The Holy Spirit may soverignly choose to pour Himself out suddenly or in response to united prayer so that the presence of God is more fully known, the affections of believers' hearts for Jesus are raised, their desire and effectiveness in evangelism is multiplied, the specific will of God is made clear, the lost are saved, and needs of the hurting are sacrificially met. This is our great need of today. History has called such workings of God various things: awakenings, revivals, reformations. Whatever you call it, I want it! Will you join me in praying for this!
Although I do think these statements are accurate, I echo the fact that the Holy Spirit is God and I am not and His working need not fit into any box that I create. I also will say that it sometimes difficult to determine which of these categories a specific text of Scripture fits into. It seems to me that sometimes one phrase can mean different things in different text. For instance, often times we speak "Receiving the Holy Spirit" as category number 1 (when someone accepts Christ, and in this is appropriate). Yet, at other times "Receiving the Holy Spirit" may mean category 3, 4, or 5. Sometimes "Filled with the Holy Spirit" means category number 3 while at others it seems to mean category number 4 or 5. Also some phrases seems to be interchangeable with others. For example, sometimes, but not always, receiving the Holy Spirit may mean the same thing as the Holy Spirit was poured out upon them.
Where do manifestations of God's Spirit fit into these categories? Good question. My quick cop out answer - anywhere God sees fit. I would add that some would suggest that certain manifestations of the Spirit were intended only for the apostles and have therefore ceased. Such arguments have a basis logically and historically but do not seem to have Biblical support (in my opinion). My advice in evaluating the legitimacy of a certain manifestation would be to apply 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22. I would also add that manifestations of the Spirit are not always consistent throughout Scripture. To me that is reminder that the Holy Spirit may show Himself in any way He sees fit. What is consistent is that when the Holy Spirit works among His people, people are convicted of sin and turn to righteousness, His people always have a fresh experience of the goodness of God and the sweetness of Jesus, and the lost come to Jesus for salvation. That is what I want in my life, my family, and God's church.
