3. F U E L l E D

N o l o n g e r p o w e r l e s s

The worst thing about life before Jesus was the sense that we couldn’t really change or save ourselves even if we wanted to. We were powerless. That’s true, that’s what we were, but not anymore.

When Jesus was about to return to the throne of Heaven, he gathered his followers and told them to wait in the city until they received power. He knew that in order to use their freedom in a way that honored God, in order to use their freedom to say ‘no’ to the old ways of slavery, they would need more than an adoption certificate. They would need a power on the inside of them that would enable them to live this new life, they would need a capacity within them that none of them had ever had. Jesus had also given the responsibility of telling others about the opportunity to be found and free. He told them though, that for this they would need power too. So they waited.

Within a few weeks, while a group of them were in the city praying together, the room began to shake. A loud sound began to fill the room, it sounded like a strong wind blowing through the place, roaring with energy and power! Then, suddenly, what appeared to be like flames appeared, and a small tongue of fire settled on the heads of each person in the room, around 120 of them. They weren’t burned though. It was like electricity pulsing through their veins; the power had arrived.

From this moment the message of Jesus spread like wildfire. This message of how to be found and free is called ‘The Gospel’, or , ‘Good News’. This gospel of Jesus began to attract thousands of new believers, they all found themselves receiving the same ‘power’ that enabled them to say ‘yes’ to things of God and ‘no’ to the things they were once enslaved to. More than that, these ordinary people started to heal the sick and perform miracles! It’s well documented, many people encountered the supernatural love of God as these new believers began to use their freedom to help others learn about Jesus.

H O L Y S P I R I T

When these first believers received power, a lot of people in the city came running to see what was happening. It was quite the commotion. One of them, Peter, stood up and started shouting to the crowd in an attempt to explain what they were witnessing. He told them that this was the ‘power’ that Jesus had promised them. In fact, hundreds of years before that, said Peter, the prophet Joel (in the Bible) said that this is what would happen! This was the Holy Spirit being given, or ‘poured out’ on believers. The same way people get immersed in water and we call it ‘baptism’, Peter said that they were ‘baptised’, or fully immersed, in the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus said would happen. One person said that to live the way God says to live isn’t hard, it’s impossible! And that’s true – unless you have the Holy Spirit! That’s exactly why Jesus told his followers to wait until they had it. We need the Holy Spirit to help us.

The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God, it’s the spirit of Jesus Christ, He is God.

God is beyond description, our limited vocabularies cannot define or contain the magnitude of the unlimited God. Our words fail to say all there is to say about Him. Suffice to say, God is Father, God is Son (Jesus), God is Holy Spirit. Yet God is not three, he is one. There is one God, not three gods. But this God is comprised, if you will, of three. He is an eternal community and always has been. He has never been lonely for within himself he has friendship and family. He is Father, Son and Spirit, all at the same time. This is by far one of the most mind bending concepts in the Bible, and we’re not going to try to explain it all here and now. It’s called the doctrine of the Trinity, and it is sprinkled throughout the entire Bible and we can discuss this at length later. I bring it up simply to say this, the Holy Spirit that was given to the believers is not some ‘other’ spirit. He is God. God became a man so he could die for all of us, then he came as the Spirit so he could empower all of us. It’s not just for some, or for the ‘special’ ones. Every single adopted child of God needs the Holy Spirit and can expect to receive Him into their lives.

The Holy Spirit is not a force. This is not Star Wars. He is not a ‘thing’ or an ‘it’. He is a person. He is God. He is the very Spirit of Jesus, sent to be with you until you enter into heaven.

E M P O W E R E D

The Holy Spirit is like the fuel in the car, without Him you will run dry and breakdown. You need Him. He is your energy supply, your power source, your enabler, your helper, your counsellor, your guide. He will be the one that helps you to learn the Father’s voice and to obey it. He will fuse his energy to your will so that you have the power to say yes to God and no to the other voices you used to listen to. It will be the Holy Spirit that will give you the strength to resist temptation and to forgive people that have hurt you. He will also help you to find creative ways to love people and make the world around you a better place. A car needs to go to a petrol station to fill up, you need to spend time with God to get ‘filled up’. Reading the Bible will help you fill up. Praying (talking to God) will help you fill up. Developing your relationship with the Holy Spirit will fill you up.

You fill the car up with fuel in order to go places. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is not given without reason. He comes to help you go places, to go from being weak to being strong, to go from being timid to being bold, to go from being powerless to powerful, from afraid to full of courage!

He comes to transform you more and more each day into a person that is more like Jesus.

Bit by bit, if you allow him to, if you participate with him, if you use your freedom to embrace him and his process, he will transform you into someone who acts, thinks, sounds and loves more like Jesus every day. He is a gentleman, not a slave driver. He won’t force you, he will invite you and prompt you like a good parent, and you can use your freedom to say yes, you can choose to obey Jesus and live the life he says is best.

Jesus said that people, even bad people, know how to give good gifts to their children, so how much more would our Father in Heaven, who is good beyond measure, know how to give good things to his kids when we ask? He said this when he was teaching his followers to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit, why don’t you do that right now, and ask the Father to ‘baptise’ you – to immerse you in the power of the Holy Spirit, you might pray something like this:

“Father, I believe you know how I should live much better than I do. I believe that in order to live the way you say is best, I need a lot of help! Thank you that you are a good Father and you want me to have the help I need. Would you please give me the gift that you promised I could have, the gift of your Holy Spirit. Please fill me with your Spirit, immerse me and empower me with all that the Holy Spirit wants to give me, in Jesus name, Amen.”