Helen on Christian Ethiopian El-Shaddai TV Channel, pointing to the Dove of the Holy Spirit, portrayed on the wall in the studio.

We Welcome you, Holy Spirit, Part 2

By Helen Jesze, 24^th May 2024

“But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth,”

Acts 1:8 The Amplified Bible

At the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th, God began to pour out His Spirit in a new way. My father’s family belonged to the Salvation Army and were all committed Christians, playing various instruments in the band and active in evangelistic outreaches. But his mother was hungry for more, and one day she was sitting by the kitchen fire, reading a book about the revival among Christians in varying churches and countries which was taking place at that time, when the power of the Holy Spirit fell on her, and she began to speak in other tongues!

This spread throughout the family; my father was a very quiet and undemonstrative man, but after he was filled with the Spirit, they had to carry him home, as he was so ‘drunk’. These new revelations from God were rejected and misunderstood by many of their friends. They were no longer welcome at the services. The same happened in other denominations, and those who had received their personal Pentecost were soon called “Pentecostal”, and were sometimes scorned and persecuted, being shut out by their former friends and Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

They started to have meetings in houses which were called “cottage meetings”, for they had no church buildings. There were soon so many Holy Spirit baptised Believers that there was no room in the cottages. Also, a need for teaching and structure became evident, and the Pentecostal Movement came into being. Through the years this too, has become many different streams with some differences in doctrine, structure and administration.

So I was born into a Pentecostal home, my parents having met at a cottage meeting (my mother and her family came originally from the Methodist church), and I saw several people receiving the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Having received Jesus Christ as my personal Saviour when I was 9 years old, baptised in water at 11, when I was 14, I began to reach out for the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, speaking about the Holy Spirit, said that we must be “thirsty” for the Spirit and we will receive. We used to have conferences on special days or weekends. Then they were called ‘conventions’.

It was a Pentecost weekend convention in 1957. I had been praying all weekend to be baptised in the Spirit, but nothing happened, and now it was Monday, and the last meeting was nearly over. Everybody seemed to be so blessed – was I the only disappointed one? I opened my eyes and saw everybody with raised hands, praising the Lord, some laughing, some crying, and this thirst that Jesus talked about became much stronger. I jumped up and ran round to my uncle, who was the pastor, and said, “Uncle Ted, I want to be filled with the Spirit! Now!” So he and a lady from the church prayed for me and within a few minutes I was speaking fluently in other tongues, in a language I had never learned!

I was filled with a great joy and in the days following, I noticed that I could understand the Bible better, as though someone had switched on a brighter ‘light’ in my spirit; I could also witness better to my school friends and teachers than before. Then there was the dream, which kept coming, the same one on several nights, which I told you about last week, through which, God called me into fulltime ministry.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

I began to learn more about Him, and want to share a few facts here with you. He is the 3rd Person of the Trinity – God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. The Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary and she conceived Jesus. So He was born of the Spirit, but still needed power for service – two separate experiences. At Jesus’ baptism in water, the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and alighted upon Him. God spoke from Heaven:

“You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased!”

Luke 3:22

Here we can clearly see the Trinity together – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We also, when we get saved / born again, are born of the Spirit into God’s family, but need an empowering of the Spirit for service, and to live our Christian life as the Father would have it. Here are some Scriptures about Him:

John 7:37-39: We must be thirsty for the Spirit

John 14:16+17: Our Advocate, our Helper, our Comforter

John 14:26: He will teach us all things, bring all things to our remembrance (remind us of what Jesus had said).

John 16:3-15: He is the Spirit of Truth who will guide us into all truth. He will not speak of Himself but speak what He hears from the Father and will show us things to come; He will glorify Jesus, will take spiritual things and will show them unto us.

The Holy Spirit was there at Creation, hovering over the waters, waiting for God to speak the Word, then He went into action and the thing, for instance ‘light’, was created – the Word and the Spirit, God’s dynamic duo! It is the same principle in our life. As we speak the Word in faith and obedience, the Holy Spirit will cause answers to be created and come forth in our lives.

OLD TESTAMENT symbols of the Holy Spirit are: Water, fire, wind, oil, breath. He was called: The Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the hand of God, the hand of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit moved upon certain people enabling them to do certain tasks e.g. Prophets, Samson, Deborah, Gideon, Miriam the prophetess…, but only for a time. It has only been since Jesus’ death and resurrection, that the Spirit can come and live inside the born-again Believer. Prophets and Kings were anointed with oil, symbolizing that they needed the Holy Spirit to help them in this task. Our Kings and Queens in England are also anointed with oil at their coronation, for this reason.

NEW TESTAMENT symbols of the holy Spirit are: Water, fire, wind, oil and dove. He was called the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit.

In the Early Church, they expected that every born-again Believer should be baptised in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues, as that is what happened to the 120, waiting for the Promise of the Father, which Jesus spoke about. He commanded the disciples to go and wait for this experience. They were not disappointed and were filled with a new boldness and ability to go out and preach the Gospel.

I’d like to encourage you today to reach out for this great blessing, if you have not yet received! Jesus is still the Baptiser in the Holy Ghost and fire! And if you haven’t spoken in tongues for a long time, then start again! Turn on the spiritual ‘tap’ and let it flow, or better still, jump into those ‘waters to swim in’ which Ezekiel prophesied about – of course, spiritually speaking!

Next week, in Part 3, we will look at some Truths and Myths about the Holy Spirit, some of which are often believed but are not scriptural.

Reach out in welcome for the Third Person of the Trinity today – this wonderful Holy Spirit! He is only too ready to answer!