When it comes to writing about the Holy Spirit, I sympathize with Job when he said, ‘surely I have spoken of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.’ But we can take comfort in the fact that we live on the resurrection side of the cross and that we have been promised by Jesus that the person of the Holy Spirit will be known personally by those who have been born again. In my experience the problem is not whether or not there is a baptism of the Spirit after the salvation event, Christians fall into one of two camps with this regard. We will have to agree to disagree about it. No, the important issue for us seems to be, what do the subsequent baptisms, or fillings of the Holy Spirit look like? How are they manifested and what do they accomplish?
Paul’s directive to be ‘filled with the Spirit,’ meaning, be continuously filled, seems to imply that after the ‘Baptism of the Spirit’ there is to be a continual overflowing of the divine presence in and through our lives. Perhaps what we think of as a fresh infillings is really a restoration of the flow of eternal life that has been restricted in someway and in varying degrees. Have you ever unblocked a stream or a drain? The water has been seeping through the blockage but once that is removed there is a sudden flood of water that sweeps all before it, after which the normal flow resumes. This restoration of the flow of the Spirit can be an individual experience, a church experience or a national experience. Look at the denominational charismatic renewals, great revivals and contemporary moves of God. Useless traditions, man made programs and superficial and nominal Christianity are all replaced with the dynamic presence of the Living God. This is what Paul might call, ‘life from the dead.’ The lost are brought into the Kingdom and divine life surges through the Body of Christ once more.
What is a mystery is that we can restrict the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives by soulish thoughts and actions. Is it possible that Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead chooses to limit himself by our human failings? Or perhaps he bypasses us and uses some other person, group or nation.
Let our prayer this week be, ‘Father help me to remove anything in my life that would block the presence and flow of the Holy Sprit. I need to have more of Him in my life and less of me so that I can give you true worship and be part of reaching the lost and building up the Church.’
Celebrate, “ the glorious riches of this mystery, Christ in us, the hope of Glory.” Colossians 1:27
Have a glorious week. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Chuck King
Cornerstone Elder