Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

by

Rocky Fleming

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”  (John 14:16-17 ESV)

If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, you will not understand many things I will share about the Holy Spirit.  Even if you are a follower, there is a great possibility that you will not understand either, for He is so mysterious. To the non-believer I say this to you for the scripture above points it out.  Why is it this way?  It is because the world and the people who live by the perspectives of the world require physical evidence before they will believe.  The Lord says that this evidence about the Holy Spirit is provided after we believe, not before.  One says seeing is believing.  The other says by believing we will see.  That is the reason the world has such difficulty with knowing Him.  It is understandable, for that is the way they approach life.  Unfortunately, throughout the ages their ignorance of what they will not believe because they do not understand it or have proof of it, has made them miss out on a lot. Worst of all they will miss out on God’s delivery plan from a doomed world, for they deny God’s ways and His truths.

Surprisingly there are those who are followers of Christ who resist the Holy Spirit for similar reasons.  They don’t understand Him, so they deny His existence.  Sadly, when they deny Him, they deny getting to know Him. But when their hearts are opened to know Him, they then discover what they’ve been missing as they get to know Him better.

I knew a lady who was a pastor’s wife for forty years. She is a good woman.  She and her husband have been in a conservative denomination all those years and have ministered God’s truth wonderfully well. Even so she told me she knew nothing about the Holy Spirit until she began to seek Him and study about Him in The Journey.  Their denomination shied away from those scriptures and Him.  There was nothing radical about our study of Him.  We simply referenced the scriptures He is mentioned in, looked at His names and personality, and removed her ignorance and her denial of Him by addressing Him in prayer.  Through this her heart was opened to Him, and then she believed.  Because she believed, she discovered what she had been missing most of her Christian life.

Why are Christians so afraid of HIM?  I say HIM, for He is a Person in the Holy Trinity. He is not an IT but rather a Person who has feelings, who has emotions and is equal to the Father and the Son in His deity.  When we read that we can grieve the Spirit, we can understand that He has feelings for us. He loves us.  He wants to nurture us and teach us and comfort us.  But if we deny Him, we deny all those good things He wants to give us … and He grieves.

I also grew up denying Him.  I didn’t understand Him, so I chose to stay away from Him.  However, He did not deny me.  Instead He patiently showed me by my life experiences how much I need His comfort and His presence to guide me, and to enable me to serve Him.  I understand how much God’s family needs His guidance and presence, based on my own experience.  They will never know how much until they find out what they have been missing.

If you are like I was at one time, ask Him to reveal Himself to you.  If you are a follower of Christ you cannot deny His existence and purpose, for Jesus Himself told us how important He is to us.  Acknowledge Him and seek to know Him better.  He will meet you where you are and will begin to show Himself to you better. But it starts with your willingness to invite Him in and be open to His presence in your life.  By the way. When we abide in Christ, it is actually His Spirit who we abide with.  Do you really want to deny yourself this privilege?