The Holy Spirit

Sadly there is one thing that is happening now in churches all around Malaysia and all traditional churches. The evil one is trying hard to hide churches from the knowledge of the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, in a lot of churches the Person of the Holy Spirit is the most ignored and this is a VERY sad thing. This may be due to the lack of knowledge about Him and the sort of "taboo" about His works which has close connection to the Spiritual Gifts, manifestations like slaying and signs and wonders and so on. Honestly there are so many things to it that I am learning now. But I'll try to arrange and help put them simple, one by one so as not to confuse everyone reading and also, not to bring the wrong information. Holy Spirit, guide me.

Okay. In the Old Testament, we can see clearly that God is the main character that we see often. He is the voice that speaks to men and in quite some occasions, the Holy Spirit is there at work. Even if you start studying Genesis, you can trace the Spirit of God working ever since then.

Let's come back. Okay, the Old Testament, God is there. Then Jesus comes in the New Testament. Then, Jesus died on the cross and went to heaven. Then what? Jesus promised the Counselor, the Teacher, the Helper to come after His death. He even said that it is for our good that He is going away in this passage found in John 16:7-15 (NIV):

7But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgement, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12"I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

A lot will then argue that we are to give glory to Jesus now and not the Holy Spirit. It is found in the passage of how we see it. We only acknowledge the role of the Holy Spirit as the Counsellor and as the passage says, the Holy Spirit will bring glory to Jesus by taking from what is His and making it known to us (v. 14). So we are glorifying Jesus all the time. It’s not that we are glorifying the Holy Spirit by talking about it. In fact, God is with us as the Holy Spirit now since Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us. The Holy Spirit Himself will always glorify Jesus in the end.

So what is the Holy Spirit here for? Some of the answers are found in the passage above. Holy Spirit is here to :
1) convict the world of guilt^a]">[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgement. v.8
2) guide you into all truth. v.13
3) tell you what is yet to come. v.13
4) bring glory to me by taking from what is mine (Jesus') and making it known to you v.14
5) help us receive power from God.

Now I want to talk about point 5. The Holy Spirit is here, help us receive power from God. It is found in Acts 1:8 (NIV) where the verse says, " But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

We will receive great power to do all kinds of miracles and mighty works and wonders when the Holy Spirit comes on us. What for we receive the power to do all that? To be God's witnesses in the world. Everything that God does has a purpose. Everything that God gives has a purpose. So the purpose of having that power from God is to witness for Him, to enlarge His kingdom! It is a natural progression because that is the ultimate purpose of the power given.

Every time a person is prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, they will be prayed that the fire of the Holy Spirit will fall on the person. The fire is passion. There are a few things that are symbols of the Holy Spirit and the main ones are living water, fire, dove and wind. There are more and lately I found one - antelope. More explanation and evidence can be found through scripture references. And I would recommend you to read Good Morning, Holy Spirit and Welcome, Holy Spirit by Benny Hinn. I would not recommend that you read other books by him because it is said that he went a bit "off" after some time in his ministry but these two books which were written very early in his ministry is all right. I read them and all of the things in there are confirmed by various sources namely from my Spirit Filled Life Bible, Sermons (Words) people got from God, Prophecies and sermons from apostles and it all align. The book is filled with scriptural references.

Okay, back to the topic. When a person is filled with overflowing with the Holy Spirit, God's desires will be in their heart as the Spirit of God is in them. God's desires is to - enlarge His kingdom. God's heartache is for the unsaved. So all of those stuff will be in their hearts so they will be so very, VERY excited to tell others of the mighty works of God and their testimony.

Other than that, a great desire to know more about God will be evident and reading the Word of God is like, so heavenly. Another evident of the spirit filled life is the manifestation, the growth of the fruits of the Holy Spirit and also some gifts of the Holy Spirit, namely the Speaking of tongues. Not all will speak in tongues but all will be able to if they earnestly desire for it. Speaking in tongues = praying in a heavenly language or some say angel's language, and some other languages that the person never learnt before. More of that in the coming post.

One key thing when it comes to experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit: You must have a passion for His power. You must have a starvation in your heart that causes you to search and search until you experience in your own life the miracles recorded in the Bible, the very same miracles that are available today.

As we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, He will pour His presence our upon our thirsty souls like torrential rains upon the parched earth. The Holy Spirit manifests His presence and power to those who yearn for His touch upon their lives. Spiritual thirst draws His anointing like a siphon draws fluid from a full container to an empty one.

That is why the Lord promised through the prophet Isaiah when He said, "I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring" (Isaiah 44:3)

Many people are spiritually empty, their lives barren and dry. But only those who are truly thirsty for His presence will be filled to overflowing. Only those who yearn to know the Lord and who yield to Him in faith will experience His power and His work in their life.

The second key in experiencing the work of the Holy Spirit in many ways is even more important: You must understand that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is not a force or an influence. He is a person, and only when we understand that can we appropriate His work.

Honestly I want to share all that I have here with you but I will be re-typing the whole book of "Welcome, Holy Spirit" to you if I do that! I've only put up the key things. (The paragraphs in purple are from the book already) The Holy Spirit is not a thing, He is not an IT but a HE, a person in the Trinity God and has characteristics of a person like emotions, intellect and so on.

The Holy Spirit is the one who is there to help us now to become holy as commanded by God and to have the abundant life which was promised by God from the beginning. Do not deny His presence now. I will be sharing more in the coming posts. Stay tuned :)