Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. Let us pray. O God, who have taught the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant that in the same Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
This prayer is known as a prayer to the Holy Spirit. It is used in the Catholic church, the Emmaus community, and many other denominations and religions. Without a doubt, this prayer dives into a great mystery that I cannot fully explain or comprehend, but I will tell you this. According to scripture, the Holy Spirit—some call it the Holy Ghost—is one of the promised element Jesus gave to each person whos names have been written in lambs book of life. The Holy Spirit is God’s spirit, that lives, reigns, fortifies, destroys, heals—quite literally does everything of God because it us God. We cannot fully understand God let alone His spirit.! Today, let us visit on thus Pentecost Sunday, our spirit, the Holy Spirit. As I start in the Gospel of John, please take heart that the Holy Spirit is not just ‘something’, or an object, or even a feeling. It’s a living spirit that houses all of who God is and what God can do.
The road traveled far and wide with Jesus is now coming to a crossroads. Jesus is leaving them—He is leaving the whole earth. This was devastating news when it reached their eager ears for the first time. They touched Christ. They ate with Christ. They lived with Christ. They cried with Christ. They hurt with Christ. All the disciples who served under Christ are now about to experience a new chapter, where Jesus Himself declares that they will be separated from their Savior, the Christ. I can only imagine their pain and confusion about the whole subject of the trinity, theology, and now experiencing hopelessness . Jesus tells us “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I am going to the Father.” In this, however, we find hope that what Christ came to do, He now entrusts to us to do God’s majestic work with responsibility and power. But how? Christ will not be present! The Savior of the world, who healed the sick, the deaf, the mute, and the blind, is now leaving? Does this sound like a loving God to you? How can we even attempt to learn of God’s and do His work if we don’t have Jesus, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ! This is where the great mystery comes into play, my friends, as we read from chapter 14, verse 16. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; 17 the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.” This, my friends, is God’s promise to us! Jesus reassures his disciples that, though he is departing, he is not abandoning them. He will give them the gift of the Spirit. This Spirit will be the new way that Jesus will be with his disciples, staying with them even though he is bodily departing from them.
The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, is the one whom God has freely given to each of us, who not only knows God but is God, His Spirit. You see, Scripture tells us that God is a spirit, and we must worship Him in spirit. What a friend we have in Jesus, the friend who does not leave us but is present with us, bodily present before his crucifixion and resurrection with his disciples, bodily present with disciples today in the power of his Holy Spirit. In the Holy Spirit, Jesus is with us as a constant companion. We are not alone. Thanks be to God. But you may be asking, was not God’s spirit always present from the beginning? The short answer is yes, but with conditions. In the beginning, God tells us in Genesis, “ Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” Sin is what has separated us from God to date! Scripture tells us man's heart is evil to the core. The wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. We are deceptive and corrupt people, all because of sin. For God to dwell with man’s sinful heart, sin had to be dealt with by way of blood—the life force of us all. It took a sacrifice, an atonement, for each person to be forgiven for their sin, just for a period of time. This method that God originated was never intended to be a permanent solution to the sin problem, as Scripture tells us that God cannot look upon sin. So, for God’s spirit to work with people who had unforgiven sin, God’s spirit could not indwell people unless they had given God the rightful atonement for their sin. These are the sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem or wherever they went. When we read the scripture, it tells us, ‘The Spirit of the Lord came upon that person.’ Sometimes it was for a season, and sometimes it was permanent. But it was mainly for God’s special leaders and prophets. People were healed, fire fell from heaven, and prophets spoke the very words from God. But when the day of Pentecost came, the Spirit fell on all who were gathered. Peter’s sermon quoting Joel explaining, It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will have dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. This is Pentecost! Fifty days after Christ’s resurrection. Today, this very moment, the spirit of the living God is upon each of us who trusts, believes, and loves the God of all creation only through Christ our Lord. “Jesus tells us no man comes to the Father except through me.” When Christ was ascended to the right hand of the Father, Acts chapter 2 tells us that the promise Christ made for a helper to indwell us in His absence was fulfilled. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.
In closing, I would like to ensure that you understand clearly a few key points about the Holy Spirit's presence within us and what we need to consider. First, just as the temple of Jerusalem was used to sacrifice the blood atonement for sin, this is what Christ did for each of us as a permanent solution from now on. In this, our bodies that received the Holy Spirit are now a temple of God, in every aspect of the word. We are responsible for taking care of our bodies; we must treat them with care. Our bodies are a Holy Temple. Second, anyone who does not have the Holy Spirit does not belong to God. When we received the Holy Spirit, it was when we accepted Him as Lord and Master of our lives. Baptism, confirmation, and even the thief on the cross, who did a deathbed confession, received God’s spirit. Third, we who have the Holy Spirit are sealed with Him forever! Nothing under heaven or earth can take away His spirit from us. We can, however, walk away from God as a result of willful sin. Fourth, when we do God’s work, deliver His messages, perform anything in Christ's Holy Name, it is never us who speak or do the work, but it is our Heavenly Father speaking and working through us. We are the conduit of God. It’s never about us! Fifth, everything we do, from going to the grocery store to praying for someone, is all that we are and all that we do, led by the Holy Spirit. If we allow God’s spirit to reign free in us, we then become sons and daughters of God. We are His godly children. Sixth, always remember, the Holy Spirit never bears witness of Himself, but always of God the Father. Seventh, 1 Cor. 12:11, all gifts are activated by one and the same Holy Spirit just as the Holy Spirit chooses. Teaching, Evangelism, administration, leadership, giving, wisdom, faith, prophecy, servanthood, healing, discernment, compassion, shepherding, miracles, exhortation, interpretation, apostleship, helping, knowledge. These are NOT talents, but divine gifts from God.
So, what does it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Andrew Wilson explains it rather well. When you’re sailing, is “being filled with the wind” an experience or a habit? Both. Catching the wind on a sailboat is clearly an experience. I vividly remember that first feeling of being seized and carried forward by a mighty power from elsewhere. But it is also a habit. If you don’t put the sails up, pull the mainsheet fast, or adjust the jib, you won’t go anywhere, even if the wind is blowing powerfully. Sailing, in that sense, is the art of attentive responsiveness to an external power. You rely entirely on the external power to get you anywhere. Sailors never imagine themselves to be powering the boat by their own strength. But you also have to respond attentively to whatever the wind is doing, which comes through cultivating awareness, skill, and good habits. When we pursue the experience of the Holy Spirit - Paul uses the language of filling and drenching, drinking and pouring. We rely entirely on the Spirit’s immeasurable power, rather than our own strength, to get us anywhere. But we also develop habits. We respond attentively to what he is doing in and through us, a capacity that comes through awareness, skill, and practice. Paul mentions four such habits in subsequent verses: teaching one another, singing, giving thanks, and submitting to one another (Eph. 5:18–21). And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father; 21 and subject yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ.