“Mom, Dad … Do you know about the Holy Spirit?”
(Read or Click Here to listen to the Podcast)
As a matter of fact, we did, but how did our teenage daughter not know that? Children keep us humble, and at that moment, my husband and I felt like we had failed as parents.
I was recently reminded of this moment as our church studied the book of Acts. It opened my eyes to the reality that I had unintentionally put my relationship with the Holy Spirit somewhat on the shelf, and in that, had been missing a powerful aspect of my faith, and I wondered if that is something you may have done as well?
Back then, we’d noticed that our daughter Autumn had been changing. Connected to a group of young people in love with Jesus during high school, she’d attended worship nights and gone up for prayer to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.” As far as children go, Autumn had never been any trouble. Growing up in church, she loved God, gave her life to Jesus at a young age, attended church camp year after year, and attended youth group. Autumn was trying to do all the right things, and yet her faith hadn’t fully been ignited.
As she participated in these worship nights and went up to the altar for prayer to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, this good, Christian girl, with whom nothing seemed amiss, powerfully changed! We noticed it at home but hadn’t put the pieces together until that day when she walked into the room with her face lit up like a lightbulb and presented us with this question, “Do you know about the Holy Spirit?”
The truth was that both my husband and I had been “baptized in the Holy Spirit” as teenagers. We’d been part of the Pentecostal movement and cherished the vital third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. But through the years there had been abuses. Speaking in tongues, miracles, and outward demonstrations of the Holy Spirit got out of balance and became the emphasis rather than the Holy Spirit Himself. Instead of the sweet gift the Holy Spirit is meant to be, the filling of the Spirit became an area of confusion and chaos.
Most painful of all, the teaching we received that everyone who was filled with the Holy Spirit would speak in tongues, brought confusion to our older children who had been prayed over to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and hadn’t received the gift of speaking in tongues. They walked away questioning why God had passed them by or if they could trust their church’s teachings at all.
With Autumn being our youngest child, by the time she was a teenager, my husband and I had stopped talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the churches we attended had as well. Not knowing whether that period of Church history was just a craze or from the Lord, many believers and churches put the filling of the Holy Spirit on the shelf because we didn’t know what to do with it.
Yet, here was our daughter, showing us once again, that what Jesus told his disciples was true--that the Holy Spirit is a beautiful, essential part of the New Testament Church that He came to give us and the empowerment we need to carry on His work in the world.
There are different teachings about the filling of the Holy Spirit. Some believe that since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the disciples in the upper room written about in Acts chapter two, every believer is baptized with the Holy Spirit when they come to Jesus. I considered that as well. But reading different accounts in the Bible, there was evidence that the fullness of the Spirit didn’t always come at conversion. Recently, thinking about this again, reading Bible passages about the Holy Spirit, and praying about it, I did some other research.
I went to a seasoned mentor of mine, Linda Andersen, who many of you know and love, and asked her about her knowledge and experience with the Holy Spirit. Linda is in her 80s and has walked with the Lord since she was a young girl. I’ve known her for the last 25 years and observed her living relationship with God and the overflow of the gifts and fullness of the Holy Spirit in her life. I knew she had been in many different denominations throughout the years and had been open to teachings across the spectrum of denominations. I was curious to hear what her experience had been with the Holy Spirit, if she had been filled at her conversion or at a different time, and what part she would say the Holy Spirit plays in our life of faith.
Answering my questions, she told me her story.
After walking with the Lord for many years, trying to do all the right things to be a “good Christian,” as she called it, by middle age her life was unraveling. One of her adult children was faltering. Grasping for another Christian straw to grab, she was at the end of herself and called out to God. Recently, having a conversation with her husband after hearing a teaching about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they both admitted that they weren’t sure they had been “filled” like it spoke of in Acts. So, in her desperation, she asked God to fill her with the Holy Spirit. Getting up from her knees with no visible evidence or lightning flash, from that moment on she said that she was different. She was filled with a new strength that was not her own. Living out her Christian faith no longer felt like a heavy yoke but flowed out of her freely and powerfully.
Then there was Candi, a young gal in my youth group 40 years ago. She had been raised in the faith with parents who earnestly loved Jesus. Candi had given her life to Jesus at a young age and was endeavoring to walk with him. Yet she was frustrated. She watched others in youth group experience a living relationship and boldness in their faith, and yet as hard as she tried, it eluded her. Until one night, while we were attending a Christian conference, she went up for prayer to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We were staying in separate hotel rooms. The meeting had gone on for quite a while. When she went up for prayer, I decided to head to my room and get to bed. The next morning, I stopped at her room as I headed to breakfast. She threw the door open with a huge smile on her face.
“Lori, I stayed up late last night. I’ve been reading the Bible. I’m telling you the truth. I’ve never heard any of this before!!” Through God’s baptism of the Holy Spirit, her eyes were opened to His word, and her relationship with God was ignited in a fullness she hadn’t known before. That was 40 years ago, and Candi has been walking in power, boldness, and intimacy with God ever since.
Firsts and lasts have special significance, and the very last thing that Jesus told his followers before He ascended to heaven was that they needed the full impartation of the Holy Spirit before they could bring Him to the world. We need the same thing today!
From Jesus’ instruction we know that we need the baptism, but that baptism can show itself in different ways, not just one! At times, the full impartation of the Spirit would show itself through speaking in tongues; other times, His filling was evident as boldness to preach the gospel or to minister to someone in miraculous love, joy, peace, or wisdom.
Rather than focusing on the outward sign of our filling, like what happened a couple of decades ago in the Church when the teachings about the baptism of the Holy Spirit got out of balance, we should focus instead on what Jesus told us in Luke 11:11, “that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” Acts 1:7 says, “When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power to be His witnesses,” and John 14 says that after we are filled with the Spirit, He will “teach us all things, and remind us of all Jesus said.”
Like the difference I observed in my daughter, Linda, and Candi, who had been trying their best to live the Christian life, the filling of the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in our faith being fully ignited. But, like God the Father, and Jesus, the Holy Spirit will never force Himself upon us. We must welcome Him in.
If you haven’t been taught about the filling of the Holy Spirit, or if like me, you’ve heard some confusing teaching through the years and put Him on the shelf, what if today we opened ourselves anew, praying to the Father like the disciples in the upper room for the Lord to pour out the Holy Spirit fully upon us … not afraid or ignoring this vital third person of the Trinity, but excited about all the blessings He will bring?
That’s what I want! How about you?
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Question to Ponder: What has your experience been with the Holy Spirit? How is God stirring you to open yourself more fully to Him today?
Drop me an email … I’d love to hear about it!
Until Next Time ...
May we love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength,
Lori
lori@thesanctuaryatbearcreek.com