The Holy Spirit is a PERSON. He is GOD. When the Spirit is present He brings LIFE where there is death, CREATIVITY and INSIGHT where there is chaos, and POWER where there is weakness. He wants a RELATIONSHIP with you!
As we continue our series on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, let’s go over three thoughts:
- When the Holy Spirit is present, He produces LIFE where there is death.
The Holy Spirit brings LIFE. LIFE is a by-product of the Spirit of God…
Frederick Buechner writes:
“…the Latin word spiritus originally meant ‘breath’ . . . and breath is what you have when you’re alive and don’t have when you’re dead. Thus spirit = breath = life, the aliveness and power of your life… God is Spirit (John 4:24). Thus God is the power of the power of life itself, [and He] has breathed and continues to breathe life into His creation. The Spirit of God, Holy Spirit, is highly contagious…” —Frederick Buechner [1]
In other words, when the Holy Spirit is present He always brings life, vitality and aliveness.
This is the essence of who He is and what He does!
In the Bible, whenever the Spirit is present, there is LIFE.
Check out Psalm 104:29:
When you send your Spirit, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth.—PSALM 104:30 NLT
“Aliveness” is a gift of the Spirit of God. Whenever the Spirit of God is truly present, there is a deep, electric, mysterious and awesome sense of being ALIVE!
In Romans 8:2 Paul calls the Holy Spirit “…the life giving Spirit.”
“…because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit
has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
—ROMANS 8:2 NLT
In John 6:63, Jesus said this about the Holy Spirit…
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.
—JOHN 6:63 NIV
2 Corinthians 3:6 says that “…the Spirit gives life.” The Passion Translation renders that phrase, “…the Spirit pours out life.” In other words, He doesn’t ration it, He has a surplus of it, and He loves to pour out LIFE in dead places and on dead and dying things!
Romans 8:11 describes it like this:
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
—ROMANS 8:11 NLT
Imagine living life with resurrection power… According to Romans 8:11, if you know Jesus, “God’s Spirit of Resurrection lives in you.” The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of you.
This is the power that can cancel your PAST, conquer your PROBLEMS, and even change your PERSONALITY.
It can raise you back to life spiritually!
It can resurrect a dying or dead marriage. It can breathe new life into your failing health. It can resurrect dying or dead dreams…
The Holy Spirit gives LIFE where there is death.
Do you know what John Wesley called life in the Spirit? Wesley called life in the Spirit “a kind of spiritual respiration.” Wesley called it “…the exchange of breath…”
Wesley said that when we really begin to live a “Spirit-filled life,” here’s what happens. He said, “We breathe out the fetid, putrid air of our sinful being, and God breathes into us the life, purity and power of His breath.” Furthermore, Wesley said, we “breathe in” grace and we “breathe out” good works…
2. When the Holy Spirit is present, He brings CREATIVITY and INSIGHT where there is chaos.
That’s the story of creation! You saw it! The earth was formless and empty. Darkness covered the face of the water, but the Spirit was hovering over the water as a dove hovers over its nest! The Spirit of God partnered with the Word of God to bring the life of God to this planet!
Psalm 104 described it like this.
When You send out Your breath, life is created,
and the face of the earth is made beautiful and is renewed.
—Psalm 104:30 VOICE
Some of us have made a mess out of our lives… We’ve made a mess out of our marriages, relationships, finances and even our health… But when God sends out His Spirit — His breath — LIFE is CREATED, and the face of the earth is made beautiful!
The Spirit of God can bring beauty out of your brokenness. He can bring order of your chaos. He can give creative answers and insights to your perplexity.
In Exodus 31 God gives Moses instructions on how to go about constructing the tabernacle. This would be an important place. It would be the place where Israel would meet and gather together for worship. People would see this place and be reminded of the presence of God in their lives.
So what did God do? He gifted an artist with creative ability and insight.
Then the Lord said to Moses, 2 “Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 3 I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. 4 He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. 5 He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft!
—EXODUS 31:1-5 NLT (Cf Exodus 28:3; 35:31; Deut 34:9 (Joshua); Micah 3:8 (Micah))
The Spirit of God transformed Bezalel into a master craftsman. He was Chip and Joanna Gaines, David Bromstad and the Property Brothers (Drew and Jonathan Scott) all in one man!
We don’t talk a lot about the Spirit of God giving creative ability, but He does. This was a critical time in the history of Israel. The tabernacle was a critical place of worship. So the Holy Spirit anointed a guy by the name of Bezalel with special creative ability so that he could design, build and oversee the construction of the tabernacle of God.
Imagine that assignment… Imagine being assigned the task of designing and building the place that God would come down to meet with his people in.
Moses gave the order, “This better be good…” How would you feel? You would feel anxious and worried. You would wonder, “How could I be worthy of doing something like that?” But then Bezalel stops and takes a breath. He breathes out all of his fear and anxiety and he breathes in inspiration, insight and artistic skill.
All of a sudden, his mind is filled with ideas, images and designs. Designs that are so overwhelming that when the Old Testament people of God gathered to worship, they would look at the tabernacle and go, “Wow!” And they would be reminded of God’s glory, majesty, beauty, splendor and holiness!
Are you aware that the Holy Spirit has given you certain gifts and abilities (1 Cor 12; Rom 12; Eph 4; 1 Peter 4)? He wants to awaken, stir up, strengthen, inspire, activate, enhance and ignite these abilities. God wants you to work and minister in the power of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit also provides insight and guidance.
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me.
—JOHN 16:13-14 NLT
But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you.
—JOHN 16:13-14 MSG
3. When the Holy Spirit is present, He brings POWER to our weakness.
Mark 1 describes the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. At the outset of his ministry Jesus went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist, who had set the stage for his ministry, and something happened… Check out Mark 1:9-10:
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open…
—MARK 1:9-10 NIV
This is “Kingdom language.” Mark isn’t talking about clouds parting and blue skies showing through. He’s not describing some kind of weird cloud formation. He’s letting us know that at the baptism of Jesus a fundamental shift and change took place.
This is the beginning of everything that you and I stake our lives on. Mark is letting us know that “up there” is coming “down here.” Heaven was torn open… God’s presence was being manifested in a new way. The rule, reign and presence of God was breaking thru! That’s what this language is all about…
The HOLY SPIRIT was HOVERING again…
At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.
—MARK 1:9-10 NIV
Underline the phrase, “…like a dove…” Hopefully, you understand that Mark is not just pulling an image out of thin air.
That image had been around for centuries. When the Spirit descended in the form of a dove at the baptism of Jesus, God was letting us know… He was letting Jesus’ followers know… God was letting the people standing on the banks of the Jordan watching this scene unfold know…that because of Jesus the HOLY SPIRIT IS BACK!!! Because of Jesus the Spirit had come to HOVER over us again!
God wanted us to understand that the same God who created something out of nothing in Genesis 1 had begun a new work of creation in Mark 1.
Jesus made this crystal clear after his resurrection in John 20:19-21. Jesus met with His disciples and then we read these incredible words.
[Jesus] spoke to them again and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22Then he breathed on them and said,
“Receive the Holy Spirit…”
—John 20:21-22 NLT
What Old Testament passage does that remind you of? It reminds me of Genesis 2:7. In fact, the verb that John uses to say that “Jesus breathed on them” is a very rare verb. It’s only used here in the New Testament. But it was also used in the Greek Translation of the Old Testament in Genesis 2:7 where the Bible says, “God breathed into that little lump of clay…”
It’s the same verb used in Ezekiel 37:9 at the valley of dry bones where Ezekiel prophesied to a graveyard and said, “Wind, come from the four winds, and breathe into these dead bodies, that they may live…”
John wants us to know that the same God who breathed life into a lifeless form of clay in Genesis 1, and the same God who breathed life into a lifeless valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37, is the same God who WANTS TO BREATHE LIFE into YOU and ME!
When Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” He was saying in a very real way: “In the same way that the Holy Spirit tenderly hovered over the waters at the original creation; because of what I’ve accomplished on the cross and through my resurrection, the Holy Spirit has come to hover over you…
The Holy Spirit has come to breathe LIFE where there is death, bring CREATIVITY and INSIGHT where there is chaos, and give POWER where there is only weakness!”
[1] Frederick Buechner, Wishing Thinking and Beyond Words. https://www.frederickbuechner.com/quote-of-the-day/2018/11/10/spirit