Holy Spirit Fire & Glory: Encounter His Power and Presence Everyday
Excerpted from Daily Surrender.
He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you (John 16:14-15 NIV).
For many, it is easier to relate to God the Father because we have all had an experience with fathers in our lifetime, and the same with Jesus because He walked in our shoes for a time.
But when it comes to the Spirit of God, we tend to shy away from talking about Him because He feels more physically intangible and not as easily grasped.
Similarly, talking about our physical needs often feels more comfortable than revealing our emotional needs because one is more tangible. For example, asking for a glass of water at someone’s home feels more simple and less vulnerable than expressing a need for eye contact or a hug, and yet both are needs—one just more physically tangible than the other.
Everything about our relationship with the Holy Spirit is vulnerable and incredibly intimate. He is the abiding presence of God within us. Our invitation to the Holy Spirit requires surrender of being in full control and invites Him to do a work in us that we haven’t been able to accomplish on our own. That kind of surrender is one of complete trust. Trust and surrender go hand in hand, and to have the Spirit of God in full operation in our lives, we must give both completely to the Lord.
Giving up control personally and in a corporate setting feels daunting to many. The fear of man has subtly crept into our gatherings, and we have capped the work of the Spirit in the fear that the Holy Spirit would do something that may offend people. In this fear, and in other ways, too, we have limited the movement of the Spirit and thus limited our connection and awareness to the majesty and glory of the Lord. We must not create a god in our image who fits our mold and comfort level, instead of seeing Him as He is and for who He is. Our need to serve people and their preferences has too many times closed the doors to the work of the Spirit of God, limiting Him to our comfort and thus trading our inheritance in Him for form with no power. We do not need to entertain people; we need to lead them to the feet of Jesus, and nothing and no one does this better than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is to be revered, honored, and hosted by His people without fear because He does not operate on His own. The Spirit does not glorify Himself—He reveals only what the Father tells Him and glorifies Jesus our Lord (see John 16:13).
I remember one evening meeting when during worship, I was sobbing on the floor as the Spirit was revealing the value of the feet of Jesus. As I worshipped, I felt the weight of my need to serve Him and how it was aligning my heart to serve others. I sobbed as I clung to His feet and recognized how much I needed to be in this position as a minister and pastor. The feet of Jesus revealed the posture that I was called to—serving at His feet. My sobbing at His feet then became sobs of gratitude as I realized that the Holy Spirit, by His mercy, was allowing me to step into that powerful truth because He loved me and longed for me to know Jesus.
The revelation of the value and worth of Jesus is not relegated to moments but is available to those who live in friendship with the Spirit. The heart’s welcome to the Spirit is a welcome to see Jesus rightly, a welcome to have Jesus glorified and magnified in our hearts and minds, knowing His ways and majesty. And when we behold Him, we are transformed into His likeness, and the likeness of Jesus is a glory too magnificent to describe. Seeing Jesus paints our world in vibrant colors of hope, joy, and peace. It gives meaning to valleys and mountaintops and sustains us through trials and victory. Dependence on the Holy Spirit is vital to see Jesus as we need to.
Holy Spirit, help me to trust You with all my heart. I surrender every part of me to Your loving hands and ask for a greater sense of Your abundant presence with me. Reveal to me any areas that I limit Your abundance in my life and pour Yourself out upon and within me so that I may walk in freedom and the hope Christ Jesus is calling me to. I know that You are always pointing me to Jesus, and I desire nothing more than to see Him glorified in my life. I want to see Jesus and His beauty, I want to know Him, and love Him with all my heart, mind, and strength. I desire to seek after Jesus and be transformed into His likeness day by day. Help me, fill me, and mark me with Your goodness and glory. Amen.
He Breathed on Them
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22 NASB).
Theology is filled with incredibly powerful and profound wisdom, but if it does not become real to us, it remains simply knowledge. The way we are awakened to the great power and reality of Christ’s work is by the wonderful work of His Spirit in us. The Spirit of God is our great awakening and is necessary for every part of the Christian life and call. There is nothing of eternal significance we can do without Him. After Jesus was resurrected from the dead, He met with His disciples and He breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit in order to commission them to carry the gospel of salvation for the forgiveness of our sins (see John 20:22).
I believe we as the bride of Jesus have become dull in understanding the Person of the Holy Spirit and His work in us, the people of God. We have clung to tradition and understood through a lens of opinions the work of the Holy Spirit—but have become asleep to the biblical truth of who He is and His great work and power within us. The grasp of even a fraction of the revelation that we are the temple of God would drastically change our lives and how we live forever.
The Spirit is not a thing or an “it”—He is the third Person of the Trinity and God Himself. The Person of the Holy Spirit is the honored Guest and the treasured Gift of the people of God, and He should not be taken for granted. We are not entitled to the Spirit, nor are we entitled to His operation in our lives. He is the gift Jesus gave to us, and He must not be grieved or quenched.
The Holy Spirit is sensitive to our invitation and longing, and He deserves our honor, our respect, and our worship. The honor of the Holy Spirit could never detract from Jesus because it is His role to glorify the Son and to bring to remembrance everything Jesus has said. The Father is not afraid of us seeking a relationship with the Holy Spirit, for He is the Spirit of God and speaks not on His own (see John 16:13).
I believe one of the greatest grievances to the Lord is the Church’s approach toward the Holy Spirit. Some believe that He is no longer in operation, while others treat Him like He’s scary or some kind of ghost. I have not often seen the Holy Spirit push His way through a meeting or force Himself into a room. Of course, He is always there and present, but how often do we see Him made manifest? And when we reduce the Christian life to that—a form—we live a life of tradition with no power. The Holy Spirit is the power of the Godhead. He is the Breath on the dry bones in Ezekiel 37. He is the very Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, and He is available to dwell in every believer.
We have spent many hours debating and asking questions about the Holy Spirit, but something we don’t ask enough is, “What would my life look like if I accessed the fullness of what God has made available to me?” The Holy Spirit isn’t an extra, nor is He an option in the Christian life; He is crucial to us living in oneness with Jesus, walking out our salvation, stepping into the Great Commission, and knowing the ways of our Lord. A life lived without dependence and surrender to the Holy Spirit is one full of striving, lacking power, and incredibly dull.
How can you honor and welcome the Holy Spirit into your life today, beyond just knowing about Him? What would this look like practically?
Holy Spirit, I honor You and the gift that You are to me. I welcome You into every area of my life and every plan I have for this week. Help me to recognize Your presence with me in my day-to-day life, to honor Your incredible availability to me, and to walk in communion with You. Awaken me to the fullness of Your power, mercy, and grace toward me. Your Word says there is joy for those who live in communion with You, and I ask for the fruit of joy to strengthen me and be felt in my life. In Jesus’s name, amen.
