Hello Church Family,
I hope that you are well. I remember very distinctly when I first came to the understanding of who Jesus is and what He came to do. I was studying and reading The Bible on my own, and I walked downstairs to share something I just learned with Melanie. As I walked towards her, I froze in my tracks. At that moment, the darkness was cleared away, and the lights were turned on.
I understood at that moment what Love really was and how much God loved me to send his Son to die for me. Up to that point, Christianity was just a story to me, and I felt like I did not have much of a connection to Christ. For me, that was the moment when the Holy Spirit descended into my life. From that moment on, I was a changed person—a new creation. The old Brian was gone, and a new Brian was born on that day. I'm not sure if you have had a moment like that, but I can assure you, you will know when it happens.
Many of the truths I was learning while reading The Bible began to drop into place and make much more sense after that day. Kind of like an old school Tetris game (younger people may need to Google it.) I didn't become an instant Jesus expert, but I did feel part of the story versus reading it from the outside. I felt connected to God in a way I had never before. One of the most powerful connections that emerged was, I began to see God as a Father instead of an acquaintance, and like any good Father, he began teaching me more and more.
“The Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.” Billy Graham
The Holy Spirit allows us to become who God created us to be, and through His power, we have aid in all situations. Without Him, we are powerless and lost. This first time in scripture we read about the Holy Spirit is in Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
The Hebrew word translated as "Spirit" here is ruach, which also can mean "breath." The ruach elohim, "the Breath of the Almighty," is the "means" in creation. This is not the Spirit in the form of a dove or person that is in view here, but rather God's power and energy; the picture is of God's energy breathing out creation and speaking the world into existence. The Holy Spirit is the power by which God accomplishes His purpose.
When we first meet the Holy Spirit, He is creating. He is turning chaos into order. He is creating light, Heaven, dry ground, plants, seasons, years, living creatures both in the water and on land, and then we read in Genesis 2:7 the ruach of God, the "breath" of God creates the first human. then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. The Holy Spirit was the agent of creation. The Spirit of God is His power!
I think about my own life and what it was like before the Holy Spirit took up residence in my heart. I was in the dark, formless, void, without life, and alone. When the Father gave me His Spirit, I became a new creation. I have life; the lights go on, I have a purpose, I'm no longer in the dark. The Holy Spirit creates this new person, a new Brian!
Are you a new creation? Do you see God as your Father or just another acquaintance? The Holy Spirit is ready to take control of your life, but you have to relinquish that control first.
Father, thank you for making a way for us to restore our relationship with you when we could not. Pour out your Spirit on us and fill us daily as Paul told us we are to keep being filled. We desire to follow your Son more than anything else, and we ask for your Spirit to guide our footsteps to where you want us to go. It's through the precious name of Jesus that we ask all things.
Amen.
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