Holy Spirit Lesson 2 Companion Devotional

I was on a search to find out about the Holy Spirit. I knew that according to Ephesians 1:13 when we come to know the Lord every believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit. He comes to reside within each of us. I also knew that we are all baptized into the Spirit from I Corinthians 12:13. But I read newsletters from missionaries in countries in Africa and heard other reports from China about the power of God on display. I wondered, where was the Holy Spirit in my life? Where was He is my church?

I had been taught that experiences with the Holy Spirit were not for today, that we have the settled Word of God and do not need supernatural experiences. But I felt so dry inside, like a gear grinding against metal needing oil. I read the book of Acts and saw the amazing activity of the Spirit there. I began to wonder what happened to the Holy Spirit? Was He on break? Is there more to the Christian life than what I know?

I had a close friend who seemed to know more about the things of the Spirit than I. I enjoyed talking with her about what she was learning and experiencing. I saw great joy and peace in her life. She loved the Word of God. She had a lot of credibility with me. Sometimes I went with her to home meetings and Bible conferences at various churches. The speakers mostly taught for a while and then offered to pray for people in attendance. I always had my biblical antennae up, I wasn’t going along with anything that didn’t line up with the Word of God. And I certainly was not going to fake it and fall down if someone prayed for me like some of the people I saw at those meetings! I was interested and skeptical at the same time.

I went with my friend to a conference where, it turns out, an old friend of mine was one of the speakers. I knew him when he was a seminary student. He went on to become a seminary professor. I knew this guy was not going to compromise the Word of God. His life had been touched by the power of the Spirit. Visiting with him for a few minutes, I found him to be a very different person than I remembered. He had a sense of humility and gentleness. I was curious about the change. He was teaching that we need to be strong in the Spirit of God and in the Word of God, not one or the other. And. Both. He said that the way we get more of the Spirit in our lives is the same way we get anything from the Lord, we simply ask.

So I began to ask the Lord for more of His Spirit in my life. (I knew I had the Holy Spirit but I felt like He had been relegated to a tiny corner of my life.) I asked the Lord privately in my prayer time. I asked for prayer from others in small groups. I even got in the prayer line at conferences. I was persistent, in the words of Luke 11:9, I asked, sought and knocked. And nothing happened. For about four years absolutely nothing happened.

It occurred to me that I may have offended the Holy Spirit. In my earlier zeal to steer clear of the supernatural, not wanting to unwittingly open myself to the enemy, I had literally told the Holy Spirit that I did not want anything to do with Him. If you tell someone you don’t want anything to do with them, do you think they may get offended? I told Him I was sorry for the way I had tried to keep Him in a box in the corner of my life and asked for His forgiveness. It was reassuring to see that just after Luke 11:9 where we are told to ask, seek and knock, it says in verse 13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” I felt like the Lord was reassuring me. If you ask for the Spirit of God, He is exactly what you will get.

One day in our regular church service as we corporately prayed from the prayer book, I felt a slight fluttering movement in my eyes even though they were shut. I knew that I was not moving them. This started to happen every time I prayed in church. Then it began to happen when I prayed at home by myself. It even happened when we went to dinner in a restaurant and prayed before the meal. This feeling was growing stronger every time I prayed.

Not too long after this my friend who took me to the meetings invited me to a home meeting. I remember I was late because I had to wait on a plumber at home. When I finally got there and walked into the meeting, the best way to describe it is all heaven broke loose! It was as if the Holy Spirit fell through the roof onto me. I felt a charge of something like electricity surge through my body. The Lord’s presence was palpable. Many manifestations of the Spirit happened to me that day. The main sense was simply joy. And that sense of dry gears crunching inside of me was gone. Fresh oil seemed to be greasing those gears.

It has been over 25 years since that day. To this day, usually when I pray I sense the flutter of movement on my eyes. Occasionally I have felt that surge of His power. I have observed and experienced many of the gifts of the Spirit that I was earlier taught are not for today. They are wonderful gifts from our heavenly Father that are meant to be opened up and used. These gifts build up the body of Christ. I especially love to see the Father’s heart of love revealed to an individual when another believer delivers a prophetic word from the Lord. I love to see how the Lord unlocks hearts through a word of knowledge, breaking through with His love because the individual realizes God knows their situation and the cry of their heart.

Through these years of walking in the Spirit I have found the Word of God and the Spirit of God are always in sync, never in contradiction. The Holy Spirit inspired the Word of God. No wonder the Holy Spirit is all over the Bible from the first chapter to the last. In Genesis 1 He is hovering over the surface of the waters at creation. In Revelation 22 He extends an invitation to all with the Bride saying, “Come and let the one who is thirsty come, let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” The Holy Spirit has not gone on break.

As we begin this part of our journey on the ancient paths exploring the Holy Spirit, some of you may be like I was, skeptical yet interested. Or you may have never given any of this a thought. You may need to be intentional and begin to diligently ask, seek and knock for more of the Holy Spirit in your life. Some of you may have shunned the work of the Spirit like I did. You may need to start with a prayer asking Him for forgiveness for this.

When I taught on the Holy Spirit a while back, we started the class by giving each person a lovely string bracelet to wear for a week. It served as a reminder to simply say, “Welcome Holy Spirit.” I can’t think of a better exercise for you this week. Get a piece of string or dig out some sort of bracelet, put it on and wear it for a week. Each time you notice it, let it be a reminder for you to say, “Welcome Holy Spirit.”

Before we pray, ask the Holy Spirit if there is any time you have shunned or offended Him. Wait on Him. If you can think of a specific time you have done this, confess it, tell Him you are sorry and ask His forgiveness. He will forgive you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you that no matter what our Christian walk has been like, there is always more of the Holy Spirit available. We are asking, seeking and knocking, we want more of your Spirit. We open ourselves up to you. Pour out your Spirit on us. Welcome Holy Spirit.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen