The Holy Spirit is a real person – the third and coequal member of the Trinity. Though his often overlooked or perhaps neglected by many twenty-first-century believers, his is just as divine as the Father and the Son (Acts 5:3-4).
- He possesses divine personality and personally chooses people for ministry assignments (Acts 13:2).
- He communicates with us (Rev. 2:7) and searches out the deep things of God to make them known to believers (1 Cor. 2:9-12).
- His is the one who makes Christ a living reality to the believer (Eph. 3:16-17) and in fact is called the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9).
- He is coequal with both the Father and Son as part of the mystery of the triune God.
Jesus explained, “The Father will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16).
- After the Son accomplished his work on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, the Son would send the Spirit.
It was better for the disciples to have the invisible Holy Spirit in them than it was to have the physical Jesus with them.
- The invisible Spirit had now taken residence in them and granted them power.
- Peter learned the harsh truth we all have confronted – it’s one thing to know the Word, but it’s quite another to obey it, because no outward teaching can compare to the inward power of the Holy Spirit.
Re-source: Return
come or go back to a place, activity, or person
The Christian church was born through the power of the Spirit.
- Because of the hostile environment around them, they were repeatedly driven back to God for a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit, and they were wise enough to yield to his direction.
- Is the Holy Spirit moving like that in our lives?
Many people find it easy to relate to God the Father and Jesus the Son, but when it comes to the role of the Spirit in their lives, they don’t have a clear picture of who he is or what he does.
- Do you ever feel that way?
If the early Christians were around today, would they even recognize what we call Christianity?
- Our version is blander, almost totally intellectual in nature, and devoid of the Holy Spirit power the early church regularly experienced.
- How much loss do we suffer because we don’t expect the Spirit to show up as promised?
- Everything we read about the church in the New Testament centered on the power of the Holy Spirit working in the hearts of Christion believers.
- Sadly, for many of us, this has not been our experience.
It’s time to return to the kind of faith we see in the New Testament church.
- They believed in Christ’s word, they expected the Spirit to do great things, and he came through as promised.
- He will do the same for us today.
craving and resource from “Spirit Rising” – Tapping into the Power of the Holy Spirit – by Jim Cymbala with Jennifer Schuchmann
