Do we fear the Holy Spirit or delight in its presence in our life. I was talking with a friend the other day about the Holy Spirit and it raised some questions in my mind and heart. If I walked into many mainstream biblically sound churches, or the churches elder meetings and shared about things I have seen the Spirit actively do in my life and others lives, I fear that I would be labeled a whack. So let us look at this. God the Father sent the Son, God the Son sent the Spirit and God the Holy Spirit is in our lives. What has the Spirit done for people through out history? Oh I don’t know lets see.
Healed the sick and killed the unfaithful. Caused the blind to see and blinded eyes of soldiers that would squelch the gospel. Resided in humans and cast demons out of humans. Caused hearts to melt and hearts to harden. Given prophesy of hope and given prophesy of damnation. Caused some to speak in other languages and caused others to be able to interpret others languages. Awakened hope of salvation in some and caused some to turn their heart against the hope of salvation.
Genesis 1 is widely used to describe the Trinity, but people usually only uses it to point to Christ being there at the beginning, if we hold to it being a verse to describe the Trinity then lets look at the Trinity. We hold the Trinity to be, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, equal yet not equal, 3 yet only 1. But the fact remains the Holy Spirit is one of the Trinity, THE ETERNAL TRINITY. So why is it hard to believe when we have a member of the almighty Trinity residing within us that we would not be able to speak in tongues, prophesy, heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead. It isn’t us doing it anyway, it is the Holy Spirit, and there is nothing in our humanness that can do any of that.
Now I know some people would agree with me but say “Wait a second Nathan, how can We know when it is the Spirit, or when it is a thought of our own or when it is nothing of God but only our humanness creeping in again.” My response is this. FAITH. We have the faith to move mountains, how can that happen when we don’t have the faith to trust the Holy Spirit in us to guide us and direct us.
When that persons face crosses your minds eye, when you wake up at 3am for no reason, when you hear a song and it makes you think of someone, when you see something in your minds eye while sleeping or awake, when you walk by someone and have a twinge, when you sense evil, when you look at someone and feel the pain they are in. when these things happen and we fail to follow through with Prayer, with Scripture, with witnessing, with laying on of hands, with responding in the Spirit, we are failing at Christianity. It is either another believer who needs encouragement or it is a lost soul that needs Christ, those are the two people in the world those washed by the blood and those going straight to Hell. Trust the Spirit, trust that twinge, trust that feeling, it isn’t going to hurt anything to stop and pray for someone, it won’t destroy your witness to pray for someone, either they are a believer and will be encouraged, or they are on there way to Hell and need prayer. I don’t believe there is a time in history where prayer was not needed or was not even the right thing to do, prayer will hurt nothing, so trust the Spirit, and trust the guidance of what you know to be true. The truth that the Spirit is in us and will guide us, have the faith that it will guide us in the right direction.
(disclaimer- I am in no way holding to a view that says faith is all about feelings, we have feelings and can use them but it is different to trust our feelings in everything and to trust our feelings in the Spirit, practice is the key here, knowing what is the feeling from the Spirit and what is a feeling of humanness.)
