THS: The Holy Spirit, Part 3

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, May 23, 2010. The text for this week's message is 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

This morning, we are in the third week on our series on the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago, we started off by looking at who the Holy Spirit is. We saw that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity alongside the Father and the Son. While they are all three distinct individuals, they are eternally bound together as one in the Trinity. We also talked about how the Holy Spirit is not an “it” or “the Force” or anything of the sort. The Holy Spirit is a personal being that cares for and is involved in our lives in very real ways.

Last week, we did a surface-level look at what it is that the Holy Spirit does throughout Scripture, starting with the work of the Spirit in the Old Testament, proceeding through the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ ministry and landing on the Spirit’s post-ascension work in the life of the disciples and the early church.

The Spirit’s work continues in our lives as well. It didn’t end with the New Testament. The grace of God is applied in different ways at different times in our lives by the work of the Spirit. Before we enter into a relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ, the Spirit calls us to repentance. This is sometimes referred to as the prevenient grace of God; it is the grace that goes before salvation. Even when we are not at a point of being in relationship with God, God’s grace is at work in our lives.

When the time comes, and we do turn to Jesus and repent of our sins, the justifying work of grace is applied in such a way that our sins are no longer held against us. The slate has been wiped clean, so to speak. From that point on, the grace of God in our lives takes the form of sanctification, which means that we conform more and more to the image of Christ. We become more holy, not because of what we do with our lives, but because of what God is doing through us.

It is important for us to have a basic grasp of what the Spirit is doing in our lives so that when we come together as the body of Christ, we know that the Spirit is working in each one of us as individuals and as a collective. I mentioned last week that the Spirit guides and leads the Church today, much like how Jesus guided and led his disciples during his earthly ministry.

One important way that the Spirits guides and leads us as a body of Christ in this particular location at this particular point in our lives is through what we call spiritual gifts. A spiritual gift is a God-given ability used to accomplish something for the kingdom of God. We are empowered by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit to accomplish these things.

To begin, let’s talk a little more about what a spiritual gift is, and what it is not. A spiritual gift is not a natural talent. There are some people that truly have a talent for certain things – a gifted athlete, a math wiz, a good mechanic – all of those things are great talents, but they are not spiritual gifts. Again, a spiritual gift is a God-given ability used to accomplish something for the kingdom of God.

How about an example? When I was younger, I was a very good bowler. It wasn’t because God gifted me with an ability to bowl, but because I didn’t have a girlfriend. Seriously, between my two leagues and practice, I was bowling 12 games a week. You get good at bowling when you go that much, but there was nothing about my bowling that benefited the kingdom of God. It was not a spiritual gift, it was a talent that I had worked on. I could still go to a bowling alley today and throw a 150 because I worked on the mechanics of bowling for so long that it’s second nature, even when I haven’t bowled in years. The same cannot be said for a spiritual gift.

A spiritual gift is something that we can develop and exercise, but it is not something that just comes to us through hard work, intense practice or environmental factors. It is something that is given to us by the Holy Spirit. And for a third time, a spiritual gift is a God-given ability used to accomplish something for the kingdom of God.

Spiritual gifts are not individualistic. Said another way, spiritual gifts are given in the midst of community for the sake of community. Individuals are not gifted for their own purposes, but for the larger purposes of the kingdom of God; or, to quote something I read this week, “[spiritual gifts are] not for self-congratulation but for the upbuilding of the body.”

Think about an orchestra for a minute. There are all kinds of instruments, but there is only one conductor. That conductor’s task is to get all the instruments to play one piece of music together. Each individual instrument has the task of adding to the overall piece of music. If the trumpet player decided to make it all about him (which, sometimes, trumpet players do… J), then the overall goal of playing that piece of music would never be accomplished. Spiritual gifts are used for the benefit of the body of Christ so that the body of Christ can accomplish its goal to make disciples.

And keeping in line with the orchestra analogy, you can’t have a successful orchestra if everybody played the violin. Some people have to play the strings, some have to play woodwinds, some have to play brass, and some have to play percussion. Each person has a role, no matter how large and no matter how small that role is important for the overall, big picture success of the orchestra. You can probably see where I am going with this. The same is true in the body of Christ. Everyone has a role to fulfill.

And, if you are thinking, “Oh, that’s nice, but I don’t really have a gift. I don’t have anything to offer,” then you didn’t hear me. Everyone. Not “everyone else.” Not just the special people. Not just the younger people. Not just those with a little more life experience. Not just the spiritual giants in our midst. Everyone. If you are a member of the body of Christ, if you can stand up and say that you believe Jesus Christ is Lord and has been risen from the dead, then you have been given a gift by the Holy Spirit to use in your life in order to glorify God and build up the body of Christ. Repeat after me: “I have a spiritual gift.” Okay, now that we know that people who have confessed Jesus as their Lord and Savior have been gifted in some way, what are some other things that we need to know about spiritual gifts?

We already know that spiritual gifts are not talents, nor do they stand alone for our own benefit. A spiritual gift is just that – a gift. It is a special grace given to us by the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish something for the kingdom of God. Our gifts work alongside the gifts of other members in our particular setting. Now, a couple more things.

First, gifts are not offices. Perhaps you’ll find out that you have the gift of shepherding, which is also known as pastoring. If that is your particular gift, it doesn’t mean that you have to become a pastor. It means that you have the gift to nurture and care for others and guide them towards spiritual maturity. You don’t have to be an ordained minister to do that. Another example. Let’s say you find out that you have the gift of teaching. That doesn’t mean that you have to give up whatever it is that you are doing right now and become a Bible teacher.

Spiritual gifts are given to us so that we might build up the body of Christ where we are. We don’t have to leave our current place in life in order to exercise our gifts of teaching or pastoring. We need to look for ways to incorporate our gifts into where we are. Our gifts play a significant role in our call. It is not enough to know that we are gifted; we have to look for ways to use our gifts for the kingdom of God right where we are.

Next, gifts are not ministries. Ministries are outlets for us to exercise our gifts, but our gifts are not ministries. Your particular gift or gifts will probably stay the same through the years, though you may develop more understanding of what your gifts are; however, the ministries through which your gifts are used may change. Ministries are temporary; gifts are not.

Spiritual gifts are not the same as spiritual fruit. Having a spiritual gift does not necessarily mean that you are living a godly life. We are told in 1 Corinthians 1:7 that the Christians in Corinth were not lacking in spiritual gifts, but we also learn from reading the letter that there were all sorts of immoral things taking place. Giftedness does not equal godliness.

Along those same lines, spiritual gifts are not intended to be a source of pride either. Remember, the gifts that you have are given to you by God. No single gift is better than another. Do not envy the gifts that other people have, and do not gloat about the gifts that you have. Again, giftedness does not equal godliness. Use your gifts with humility, giving glory to God every step along the way.

Now that you know about spiritual gifts, let’s talk about something that might be a little uncomfortable. What happens when you don’t use the gift that God has given you? To get your head into this question, here’s a little story: “A long time ago, in a land far, far away, there was a church filled with people gifted by the Holy Spirit, but they didn’t do anything with their gifts, and the church died. The end.” I wrote that story. It’s riveting, isn’t it? I’m a master of the English language.

Seriously though, I’m attempting to use a little bit of humor here, but the point I’m trying to make is not funny in the least. Thousands of churches that have closed their doors throughout history already wrote this story; churches that were once thriving and became insulated; churches that became more concerned about what other churches in town were doing than about what God was calling them to do; churches that lost sight of their ultimate purpose. It is definitely a harsh reality to face, and it may be easier not to face it. But not facing it doesn’t make it go away. If we fail to use our gifts for the benefit of the kingdom of God right where we are, we may not have another opportunity to do so. We will have a life filled with regrets about what we could have done, and we will have a calling that goes unanswered. That’s a harsh reality, but it’s true.

Okay, on to the practical application. We’ve already established that everyone here has a spiritual gift, and that leaves us with a couple of questions. First, do you know what your gift is? Second, are you using it for the benefit of the kingdom of God? If your answer to either or both is “no,” then you are in the right place this morning.

What I have for you this morning is a spiritual gifts inventory, or test. The directions are pretty self-explanatory, but I want to go over them with you for a couple minutes. There are several pages with statements and another page, which is called the “analysis sheet.” Fold over the part of the analysis sheet that has the name of the spiritual gifts on the right hand side so that all you can see are the columns. Then, go through the statements and answer them 1-10 (1 if the statement doesn’t describe you at all, or 10 if it describes you exactly, or somewhere in between). In each box on the analysis sheet, there is a number that corresponds with the statement number on the test. Make sure you get the right statement lined up with the right box.

When you go through all the statements, add up your totals, and you will have an idea of what your spiritual gifts are. What I would like is for everybody to write down your top three, and then turn in your sheets to me in the next couple of weeks. I will then put all of them onto one spreadsheet, and we’ll start having a pretty good idea of what gifts we have spread throughout the congregation. This will be very valuable information for us as we move forward in discerning God’s call for us as a congregation. God is not going to call us to do something that He has not prepared us for.

And let me just say that I know it is going to take some time to go over this inventory. But I really want to encourage you to do it. This is information that is going to help us move forward as a congregation, and we can’t do that unless people are interested in hearing God’s call and are willing to do something to respond to it. Take half an hour at some point this week, maybe even this afternoon, and fill this out.

Remember, a spiritual gift is a God-given ability used to accomplish something for the kingdom of God. Everyone has a spiritual gift, and, yes, that means you. Let’s learn about our gifts, develop them and put them to use so that the people in our community, in our county, around the state and around the world, will come to know and glorify God.

THS: The Holy Spirit, Part 2

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, May 16, 2010. The text for this week's message is Acts 1:4-11.

Last week we started our series on the Holy Spirit by talking about who the Holy Spirit is. And “who” is a very important term here. The Holy Spirit is not a “what,” but a “who.” We talked about how the Holy Spirit is a personal being, referred to in Scripture as “he,” not “it.” While we may not be able to give a perfectly clear description of who the Holy Spirit is, we do know that the Spirit is a part of the Trinity, alongside the Father and the Son. We also know that the Holy Spirit cares and wants to be involved in our lives – the type of relationship that we cannot have with an impersonal object.

Over the course of this series, it is my hope that you get a better idea of who the Holy Spirit is, what the Holy Spirit does and what the Holy Spirit is doing in our midst today. We may have a difficult time describing the Spirit and the work of the Spirit in exact detail, but that doesn’t make the Spirit any less true in our lives. There are a lot of things in life that we don’t know in precise, exact detail, but we know them to be true, and that is what is most important to remember when we approach a subject like the Holy Spirit.

This week we are getting a little deeper into the question of what it is that the Holy Spirit does in our lives. And as I got deeper and deeper into this subject, I realized that there is no way to go into detail on all the things that the Spirit does without making this a very, very long message. One of the books that I am using as a resource during this series has 40 pages in 8 point font on the work of the Spirit, and there is no way that we have the time to go that deep into the subject.

So, clearly, the Spirit’s work is not limited to what we are going to look at this morning. I’ll try to make it as clear as possible, but know that there is so much more to what the Holy Spirit is doing than what we will be talking about in the next little while. And that’s all right, because, after all, if we can completely explain the work of the Spirit in one morning, we’ve severely underestimated what God can do. No matter how long we dig into it, God is always bigger than our understanding.

In approaching the work of the Holy Spirit, I’d like to look at it in three different segments. First, what does the Holy Spirit do in the Old Testament? Secondly, what is the work of the Holy Spirit in the midst of Jesus’ ministry? And finally, what does the Holy Spirit do in the life of believers in the time following Jesus’ ascension into heaven? This last segment will dive a little bit into the focus for next week, which is “what is the Holy Spirit doing today?” But we’ll be taking that question in a different direction next week.

There is one thing that is an overarching theme in the work of the Spirit, and we’ll see it throughout these three segments, and that is the fact that the Holy Spirit gives new life. In John 6:63, Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh is no help at all.” It seems like an odd statement. After all, we all know how life happens on this earth, and flesh is certainly involved on some level. But what Jesus is saying that that flesh would not have life were it not for the Spirit. And as we dig deeper into the subject, that will make much more sense.

So, first off, what does the work of the Holy Spirit look like in the Old Testament? We are told right from the beginning that in the beginning the earth was dark, formless, chaotic and empty, but that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. God speaks and creation happens. Life comes into existence because of the spoken word of God.

As the creation story unfolds, we get to the part of creation where God forms man out of the dust of the ground. But man is not given life until the breath of God fills the form. Why is this important? Because the Hebrew word for “breath” is the same word that is used for “Spirit.” In fact, in the New Testament, the word for “breath” and “Spirit” is the same in Greek as well. The Spirit is what gives life, not only to all creation through the spoken word, but also to all humanity through the very breath of God. What we see, first and foremost, about the Spirit in the Old Testament is that the Spirit gives life. Without breath, there is no life. Without the Spirit, there is no life.

Throughout the Old Testament, several different things symbolize the Spirit. Water is used by the prophet Ezekiel to show the presence of the Spirit of God flowing outward from the Temple. And at the end of the river, a river that sustains life, is a sea that is refreshed by the waters. Water cleanses, revitalizes, refreshes. It gives life.

Not surprisingly, the Spirit does the same for our souls. The Spirit cleanses, revitalizes and refreshes our spiritual selves. I was talking to my brother-in-law while we were on vacation, and he said that he heard an ant can live for several days without food, but it can’t go more than a day without water. Isn’t the same true for us? We cannot survive without water. Likewise, we cannot survive without the Spirit. Because the Spirit gives life.

The anointing of the Spirit is symbolized by oil in the Old Testament. Oil is used to set apart holy places and holy items in the tabernacle after the people left Egypt and in the Temple once they were settled in the land. When the prophet Samuel anoints David with oil, the Spirit fills him from that day forward.

The Spirit comes upon certain key leaders at important times in the life of Israel. I’ve already mentioned David, but also Samson, Gideon, and even Saul, before he became disobedient to the Lord, were filled with the Spirit. The prophets were also filled with the Spirit to fulfill their task of being a prophetic voice in the midst of a covenant community that had fallen astray.

What the people of Israel tended to forget, and we talked about it a few weeks ago, was that they were not elected for their own superiority, but to be servants so that all the world may be blessed through them. God spoke to the people by the prophets through the Holy Spirit, calling the people back to Him and to their primary purpose – to be a blessing to the nations.

In the story of Noah and the flood, some see the dove as symbolic of the Spirit. The dove was the bird that came back to the ark with an olive branch in its beak. It was letting Noah know that there was indeed life back on the earth. Later on, in the New Testament, we see the Spirit take the form of a dove again at Jesus’ baptism. As Jesus is coming out of the water, the Father speaks, and the Spirit descends upon him like a dove.

What we see from that point forward in Jesus’ ministry is what it looks like to live life in full compliance to the will of God through the empowerment of the Spirit. What we see in Jesus is not Jesus acting out his role as the Son based on his own strength. We know this because Paul tells us in Philippians 2 that Jesus poured himself out in full obedience to God. Jesus let go of his rights and stature as the Son, and fully relied on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in his ministry.

Jesus’ ministry on earth begins with the Holy Spirit, and it is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. When we recite the Apostles’ Creed, like we did last week, we retell the story of Jesus, and it begins with his conception by the Holy Spirit. In Luke we can read about the angel’s visit to Mary, and her consent to give birth to the Son of God, even though she didn’t understand how it was going to happen. She stepped out in faith, in spite of the fact that she had no clue what was going to happen. The Holy Spirit came upon her, and she became the earthly mother to the Son of God.

Again, just like I said last week, we don’t know the exact details of how this happened, but what we do know is that it happened. We don’t have to completely understand the mechanics of it all to know that it is true. If we truly believe that God is almighty, then we’ll trust Him to take care of the details that we can’t seem to understand.

As we read through the gospels, we see time and time again how Jesus had to rely on the power of the Spirit throughout his ministry. The miracles that we read about, the healings that took place, the changes that we see in the disciples – all of these are attributed to the work of the Spirit through the ministry of Jesus.

Not only does the Spirit work in the Old Testament and in the ministry of Jesus, but after Jesus ascends into heaven, as we read about in today’s passage, the Spirit’s work begins to take off in a whole new way. Throughout the Old Testament, we never read about the Spirit continuously dwelling in an individual. Often, the Spirit empowers a particular person at a particular time for a particular task. Rarely, does the Spirit remain with an individual for the duration of his/her life.

One glaring example is the first king of Israel, Saul. Saul becomes disobedient, begins to do things his own way and the Spirit of the Lord leaves him. In fact, we are told that the Lord rejects Saul as king of Israel. It is a downward spiral from there on out for King Saul. He slowly descends into madness and his story tragically ends when he falls on his sword during a battle with the Philistines.

Up until the ascension of Jesus, the indwelling of the Spirit is intermittent at best. Afterwards, the Spirit dwells within the believer to guide, counsel and lead. Jesus’ mission was to make salvation possible for all, and then the Spirit applies the work of salvation in the life of the believer. The Spirit calls us to repentance, and accomplishes within us the justifying grace of God which cleanses us from our sins, as well as the sanctifying grace of God which helps us conform more and more into the image of Christ.

In the same way that the disciples were guided and led by Jesus, the Church today (notice the “big C”) must be guided and led by the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish its mission to make disciples through baptizing and teaching. And this is where we, as a congregation, need to be able to discern the voice of the Spirit over the voices of the world.

Have you ever seen a dog chase it’s own tail? Random question, I know, but you’ll see where I’m going in a minute. It expends so much energy, it’s getting all kinds of exercise, but in reality, it’s not going anywhere. Sure, it moves around, and it may even move forward a little bit, but I guarantee you, that progress is merely an accident. Eventually, that dog will sit down having accomplished nothing. On the rare occasions when it actually does catch its own tail, all it is doing is hurting itself.

As a church, if we aren’t being led by the Holy Spirit, we aren’t doing anything more than chasing our own tail. If we aren’t being led by the Holy Spirit, we end up a lot like that dog. We end up going nowhere, the progress that is made is done by accident, and eventually we’ll just be worn out, or even hurt ourselves.

I know that we’ve covered a lot of ground this morning, and I hope it wasn’t too overwhelming. As always, I want to remind you that if you want to go back over this message, it will be available on the website listed on the front of the bulletin later on in the week. I try to remember to put all the messages on the webpage so you can go back over it later on… not as an excuse to miss a Sunday and catch back up. And if you want to try it out, we could also start having conversations in the comments section.

Okay, one last thing before we finish up here. I came across a quote this week that I want to leave you with, and we’ll just see where it takes your mind. “Vitality, authority and community are continuing evidences of the work of the Spirit.” Are those three things evident in your own life? Are those three things evident in our life as a congregation? Two questions that I really want you to think about, and I’m not going to answer for you. Think about them this week, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in the process.

THS: The Holy Spirit, Part 1

The following was preached at Veedersburg and Hillsboro UMC on Sunday, May 9, 2010. The text for this week's message is John 14:23-26.

There is a cable channel called the E! Network, which focuses on the entertainment industry. Every once in a while E! will show something called True Hollywood Story, or THS, featuring the biography of celebrities. And typically, this show will tell the audience three things: 1) who is the celebrity – where did they come from, what was their early life like; 2) why they are a celebrity – how did they break into the business, what did they do to become so well known; and 3) what they are doing today. And as I was approaching these next few weeks on the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t help but think that maybe we could all use a THS on The Holy Spirit. So, that is what I would like to do over the next few weeks.

We are going to take the same approach that E! takes with celebrities and look at 3 questions: 1) Who is the Holy Spirit, which we will focus on this week; 2) What does the Holy Spirit do, which is next week; and 3) in two weeks, on Pentecost Sunday, we will look at what the Holy Spirit is doing today. It will be a different approach on Scripture than we usually take because we won’t necessarily be going as in-depth on the individual passages, but we are looking at a more bird’s-eye view, a more theological perspective. I’m excited about this series, and I hope that by the end of it, you’ll be able to better see how God is working through the Holy Spirit in your life and in our congregation.

To start off this morning, I want to do something a little different than normal. This will be one of those times when it’s okay to talk during a portion of the sermon. In fact, we might sit here all morning unless somebody does say something – you’ve been warned.

Now, have you ever heard of Mad Libs? Mad Libs is one of those books that you can find where you have somebody fill in the blanks with a particular part of speech. It’s a lot fun because you can get all sorts of crazy, nonsensical things going on. We are going to do a Mad Libs this morning.

I’ve written a paragraph, and then I’ve taken out a few key words. I’m going to let you tell me what words to replace them with. This is what happens when I have three weeks to work on a sermon. The title of this Mad Libs is News Report… because it is in the form of a news report. Original, I know. Okay, let’s start.

[If you're interested in what the Mad Libs was all about... well, you missed. You're just going to have to make sure you don't miss another Sunday in case we ever do another one again!]

Here’s what they paragraph that I wrote says: This just in – The Holy Spirit has descended upon the disciples in the greater Jerusalem area. Reports are saying that disciples are speaking in tongues and people are putting their faith in Christ by the hundreds. We aren’t quite clear on what the Holy Spirit is, but we’ll keep an eye on this story for you.

Okay, enough of the fun stuff. Let’s dig in.

If I were to ask you to explain to me the Holy Spirit, could you? Let’s face it, we don’t know a lot about the Holy Spirit. Think about the Apostles Creed that we recited at the beginning of worship today. You start off by saying, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” And there’s quite a bit about the Father in that statement.

We know that the Father is almighty, which means his has authority and is sovereign over all things. We know that He is also the creator, the one who made everything around us. We learn quite a bit about the father in that first statement. We learn even more about the Son in the second clause.

As we recite the second clause of the Apostles Creed, we retell the story of Jesus - conception by the Holy Spirit, the virgin birth, his suffering, death and resurrection, and the promise of his return. Those are some key things that we have to know about Jesus. But then we get to the third clause, and it’s really vague. We don’t get a lot of information about the Holy Spirit.

What’s the third clause? “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” That’s all we get about the Holy Spirit – the Holy Spirit conceived Jesus, and we believe in the Holy Spirit. It’s no wonder why we can give a good explanation of who the Holy Spirit is – in the most ancient and basic of creeds, we don’t get a whole lot of explanation on who the Spirit is. It’s never really been explained to us.

I’m not saying that today you are going to walk out of here with a definitive understanding of the Holy Spirit, but, hopefully, you do walk out of here this morning knowing at least a little bit more about who the Holy Spirit is. And by the end of the series, I want you to be able to talk about the Holy Spirit without having to stumble through a vague explanation that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

To begin, let’s make something very clear. The Holy Spirit is not the Force. It’s not some mysterious thing out of a Star Wars movie that is going to help you see the future, or, more importantly, help you move things without having to get up. The Force is science fiction. The Holy Spirit is non-fiction. The Holy Spirit is not some sort of impersonal, generic, “life force,” or energy, that connects all things together in some kind of mystical union, either. That’s New Age philosophy, which has no place in the Christian Church. The Holy Spirit is a personal being.

The Holy Spirit is never referred to in Scripture as “It.” Personal pronouns are regularly used in reference to the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7, Jesus says, “I will send him to you.” The Spirit prompts individuals to do things throughout the Book of Acts. The disciples consult with the Holy Spirit, as though talking to an individual.

The Holy Spirit acts in ways that a person acts. In today’s passage, we are told that the Holy Spirit will teach and remind. Throughout the New Testament, the Spirit guides, convicts, intercedes, calls and commissions. These are not things that impersonal, generic “energies” do. These are things that people do when they are in relationship with other people.

At our baptism, we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We aren’t baptized into an idea, but into a relationship with the Triune God – Father, Son and Spirit. You cannot be in relationship with objects. You can be obsessed with objects in your life, but you can’t be in relationship with them.

Why is that? Because a relationship is a two-way street. I hate to break it to you, but your car doesn’t really care about you. Your television doesn’t really care about you. Anything that you can think of that is an object doesn’t really care about you. You can be in a relationship with a Father. You can have a relationship with a Son. Likewise, you can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit

And while we are on that subject, the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. While the Trinity itself is sometimes a complicated subject, and we don’t really understand how it works, this is what we do know from Scripture: the Holy Spirit is a part of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and in the Trinity, each member is a personal being that has a role in our life of faith. While they are three distinct individuals, they are also united as one in the Godhead.

Now, I know I may be using some unusual terms here – Trinity and Godhead for example - and if you aren’t familiar with them, that’s all right. You don’t have to be able to explain them in detailed, theological terms. Some things in our faith are mysteries that we don’t have to be able to understand 100%, and the Trinity is certainly one of those things.

And let’s face it, there are a lot of things in life that we simply don’t understand as well. I’m willing to bet that only a handful of people here understand in complete and exact detail how their car works. I don’t. Here’s what I know about my car. I put gas in, I start the ignition and it works… most of the time. I don’t understand how the gasoline makes the car run, but I do know that if my car runs out of gas, it doesn’t run. And at this point in my life, that’s all I really need to know.

So many times, we want to know everything 100% before we buy into it, but we fail to realize that there are things that we take for granted each and every day. We don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less real for us. We know that we need food in our bodies. We know that when we hit the power button on the remote the television turns on. We know that our bodies need rest. Why do all of these things happen the way they do? I don’t know. I don’t care. I know that certain things in life are true, even if I can’t fully explain them. That is how it is for us and our approach to the Holy Spirit.

Here’s what I know about the Holy Spirit, and I hope you walk away knowing at the end of the day. The Holy Spirit is real. The Holy Spirit is a personal being that cares for us as individuals. And the Holy Spirit longs to be in relationship with us so that we can be truly alive.