Welcome, Holy Spirit!
By Helen Jesze, 5th June 2022
“And when the Day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
Acts 2:1-4 KJV
Today, the anniversary of the day when the Spirit of God first descended upon the disciples and all those gathered with them, we give thanks for this tremendous blessing which the Father poured out on them, and that he will do the same for us today, as we welcome him into our lives – the Day of Pentecost, and the experience of our own personal Pentecost.
Symbols for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament are:
The Dove, Fire, Oil, Wind, Water, Power
Whatever we might be lacking or struggling with today, the third Person of the Godhead – the Holy Spirit – will come to fill that need.
If we need Peace, he will come as the Dove.
If we need cleansing and deliverance from sin, he will come as the Fire.
If we need physical, mental or spiritual healing, he will come as the Oil and the Balm of Gilead.
If we need spiritual hydration and refreshing, he will come as the Water.
If we need new spiritual breath, he will come as the Wind.
If we need power, he will come with his enabling and release.
When we invited Jesus Christ into our lives as our personal Saviour, when we came to faith in him, he came in by his Holy Spirit and brought about our ‘New Birth’. But separate from that is the experience of being filled with or baptised in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said about Jesus: He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he would baptise us with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
I would encourage you, if you have only experienced Jesus as the “Lamb of God” but not yet as your “baptiser in the Spirit” to reach out for that today. When I was 9 years old I became a Christian and at 14, was baptised in the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of “speaking in tongues”. Many changes took place in my life after this experience. It was like having a bigger spiritual ‘light-bulb’ in my spirit!! I was able to understand the Bible more, I could witness better for Jesus, and the Lord gave me the same dream three times. In this dream I saw myself standing in a church or hall, preaching fluently in the German language. As my second foreign language, I was learning German at school, and the Lord kept bringing German people across my path where I lived in the South of England, and I was able to learn more. This was the beginning of my call to ministry, especially to German-speaking people.
In the years since, I have been so grateful for the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence and help in so many episodes of Life. The promise is also to YOU! Reach out for it today! Or if you have had this experience and it means little to you now, then I would encourage you to get a new infilling! In the original, we are told to “be being filled” or ‘keep being filled’ – a constant flow of the Spirit in our lives.
So, I hope you will join me in saying: Welcome, Holy Spirit, come upon us afresh on this Day of Pentecost in 2022, to glorify the Father and the Son in a new way, in our lives!
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