Holy Spirit
“Enter into the promises of God. It is your inheritance. You will do more in one year if you are really filled with the Holy Ghost than you could do in fifty years apart from Him.”
— Smith Wigglesworth
Warm Up
- You may or may not have been brought up in church. But either way you have a perception of ideas that you have built up about who Holy Spirit is. Describe the way you see Holy Spirit. What relationship do you have to Spirit and what does He do in your life?
Lessons
Video coming soon
Often we talk about the Father and the Son but we forget Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity. We cannot exclude Holy Spirit from the Perichoresis relationship with The Father and The Son. We must come to the truth that when Holy Spirit does something, God is doing it.
The Spirit of God can feel mysterious at times. Many people are confused by the spooky connotation of an invisible floating energy that does stuff for God. Holy Spirit is not a ghost or an it. Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ among us. He is the comforter promised by Jesus, who unites us with the Father and the Son, and transforms us into the image of Christ.
“It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”
— John 16:7And we see this happen on the Day of Pentecost when his disciples are waiting in the upper room for his promise to be fulfilled.
All Jesus has ever known is intimate communion with the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the Spirit in the womb of Mary, baptized with the Spirit, and on the cross surrendered His Spirit to fulfill his sacrificial ministry to the Father. The Spirit now ministers this finished work to us.
The Spirit is often described as the comforter who leads us to repentance, The liberator who frees us from the disease of sin and empowers us to live joyfully in service to Christ. By the power of The Spirit we are brought to union with the divine nature.
One of the functions of Holy Spirit that people forget is the conviction of sin. John 16:8 says "When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment." Could it be that Christians have taken Holy Spirit's job to convict people of their sin? This usually comes out in condemnation and judgment with signs that may be true, but hurtful. If we don't allow Holy Spirit to do what Holy Spirit does we could push people farther from knowing God.
If you have said "yes" to the gift of Jesus, then you already have the fullness of His Spirit available to you.
You don't need to fast and plead with God for more of His presence. Holy Spirit does not withhold himself from you. You are as close to God right now in this moment than you will ever be. This reality of constant union is what makes experiencing His tangible manifest presence so easy.
- Have you ever experienced or witnessed a manifestation of the Holy Spirit? This could include speaking in tongues, uncontrollable joy, falling out under His power, shaking, open visions, and radical repentance from sin.
- How do you feel about these kinds of manifestations of the Spirit? Do you think it's strange? Or does the supernatural excite you?