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JUNE 30, 2011
WHY THE HOLY SPIRIT?
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25, NIV)
Location. Reputation. Challenge. Accommodations. Price. All of these go into the hopper of decision when we are
planning a golf trip and ask ourselves, “Why should we play here?”
In our walk in God’s kingdom, we know that we do best to keep in step with God’s Spirit. And it’s a
suggestion that makes us more than a little nervous, for when we read our Bibles closely we find a lot of crazy stuff happening when the Holy Spirit makes an appearance.
So let’s begin here. In the Scriptures, we see the Holy Spirit in two significant forms of operation.
One of these is when the Spirit of God “comes on” a person, equipping that person with special power and
purpose for a special moment in time. Think Gideon and Samson and Mary and the apostles at the Pentecost. Of course, think Jesus.
But the more common mode of the Holy Spirit is to fill people. In Acts 6, the believers chose seven men
to serve as caretakers for the widows among them. These men, we are told, were selected because they were “known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3). This was no temporary
empowerment of the Spirit; it was part of the recognizable spiritual character of the men.
In the epistles of Paul, we are encouraged both to keep in step with the Spirit and to keep being filled with Spirit
(Ephesians 5:18). That is, we are meant to desire and invite the Spirit’s full-time residence alongside us and within us.
But why would we do this?
We know, for one, that the Spirit supplies boldness for relating the wonder and work of Jesus to others. Peter spoke
with boldness on the day of Pentecost, then again before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4. Later in that same chapter, when the believers were praying together, the building shook and “they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).
The example of the men chosen to serve is also helpful. In this account and deeper into the chapter where Luke
described the words of Stephen, fullness of the Holy Spirit and wisdom were coupled.
Which finally points us back to the words of Jesus in Matthew 10, where the Lord sent His disciples out to mission,
instructing them, “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your
Father speaking through you.”
Why the Spirit? Because the Spirit points always to Jesus. And He does this through you. What a marvelous equipping for
an amazing commission!
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Jeff Hopper
June 30, 2011
Copyright © 2011 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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