During the month of June at Trinity Church, we have been emphasizing the Holy Spirit and His work in our lives. It is impossible to overstate the value of His role. Jesus' atoning work on the Cross was done -- not only to make it possible for us to go to Heaven some day -- but also to make it possible for the Holy Spirit to indwell us in the here and now. This morning in my devotional reading I encountered these words spoken by Jesus on the eve of His crucifixion:
"If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can't take him in because it doesn't have eyes to see him, doesn't know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you." (John 14:15-17 The Message)
The Holy Spirit indwells believers the moment they accept Christ as Savior. However, there is a further experience with the Spirit that involves an overwhelming fullness of His presence and power in our lives. This is called the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" (see Acts 1:5) and is available to every believer, providing power for Christian living (see Acts 1:8).
One of the bi-products of the Baptism in the Spirit is spiritual language. What a favor God has done for us in this blessing. Sometimes called "speaking in tongues", it is a controversial subject in the Church, unfortunately. But for those who will embrace all of God's gifts as "good and perfect", it brings tremendous benefits.
More on this in my next post.
0 comments:
Post a Comment