Holy Spirit Part Two

Here are the last three parts to the Holy Spirit from the Book “The Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. I hope these awaken some new thought on how incredible the gift of the Holy Spirit is to each of us who accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

For me, reading this book gave me a much deeper understanding of who the Holy Spirit is. Why God our father would place such a gift as this into each of us. That if we truly gave our full and complete heart over to God, He gives us this amazing gift to help heal, guide, restore, renew, and refresh us. This gift brings with it a deeper kind of love, a heart full of joy and peace. It also comes with the desire to know God more so we are drawn to read our bibles and His wisdom is poured upon us each verse that we read, each page that we turn. With that, let us turn back to the remaining three descriptions of this profound and amazing gift, the Holy Sprit.

The Fifth, the Spirit has emotions.

For a long time, whenever I read that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit (Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:30), I thought that was a bit of an exaggeration. It almost seems sacrilegious to say that I could grieve God. Who am I to have such power over the Spirit? That doesn’t seem right. In fact, it even seemed wrong to say that God has feelings; for some reason, I felt it belittled Him. Francis Chan goes on to tell a story of two women in his church who were angry with each other and how it grieved him, so see how their desire to be right over the other was so damaging. Pastor Chan ends this by saying “I believe that if we truly cared about the Holy Spirit’s grief, there would be fewer fights, divorces, and splits in our churches”.

I understand greater now how we can grieve God. How many times have you looked at your past and shuttered on how you justified something that you did that you knew would not be pleasing to God. In my life sad to say too many to count. That not only grieved the Holy Spirit, it now grieves me. Do I know I am forgiven? Yes, but would I like to go back and have not made the decision I did, triple yes! How much easier my life would have been had I walked closer to God, not justified my thoughts and feelings, and walked farther away.

Sixth, the Holy Spirit has His own desires and will.

The Spirit has a plan for our lives; for each of us. The exciting news is, we don’t get to pick what that plan is. The more exciting news is the Holy Spirit’s plan is much deeper, far greater than you could ever imagine! If we are willing to follow, God’s Holy Spirit will guide and direct us into the most amazing journey. That’s true. Have you ever spoken to anyone who followed God into a ministry they later regretted? If you have, then I am sorry to say you were following yourself and your desires and not God’s.

Last night in our weekly bible study group, I heard the leader talk about a time God called her into an international ministry on the city level. She perused it to the state level and then to the National level. It just about killed her. After much rest, prayer and soul searching, she realized that the Holy Spirit called her to serve at the city level. It was her that drove her to take on more than God intended. Sound familiar? If not file this away in your memory bank so when the Holy Spirit calls you to do something you go and stay where He leads you.

What she describes is easy to do. It’s easy to get caught up in the movement, it’s also easy to get burned out. God will not give us more then we can do but we sure can.

Seventh, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient.

These are theological words that essentially mean that the Spirit is all-powerful (e.g., Zech. 4:6), present everywhere (e.g., Ps. 139:7–8), and all-knowing (e.g., 1 Cor. 2:10b), respectively. These are some of His attributes that we will never fully grasp as finite human beings. In Isaiah, we read, “Who can fathom the Spirit of the LORD, or instruct the LORD as his counselor?” (40:13 TNIV). Though we will never be able to perfectly articulate or completely understand these attributes, may these aspects of the Spirit lead us to praise, even with imperfect words and incomplete understanding!

Trying to grasp God will be a lifetime pursuit for me. I agree with Pastor Chan when he says we will never fully grasp as finite beings. The deeper I go in seeking God the more amazed I am at His love for us. He created us and we let Him down. He wiped us out; except for Noah and his family and we still let him down. Kings and Kingdoms have risen and fallen and we have as humans pursued Him and walked away from Him over and over again. If you doubt me, then just read the bible and you will understand that this is true. He finally did the unthinkable in human terms, He sent himself in human form, Jesus Christ, to pay the price that we could never pay. He sacrificed His son to atone for all mankind. That includes you and me.

I will be forever amazed that God would go this far, reach this deep, pursue me, us, to such a level. What do I (we) have to offer Him, all that we possibly have? I owe Him everything. I would not be able to give Him all that I have however unless He gave me the gift of the Holy Spirit. So let me end this journey on knowing the Holy Spirit better with a heart full of thanks to God for the gift of His Spirit living in me.

If these have interested you at all, I highly recommend that you get the book “The Forgotten God by Francis Chan and read it for yourselves. I can assure you it will not be a waste of your time.

God’s continued blessings in and on each of your lives.

Terrie L. Olson

Executive Director

Hearts Being Healed Ministries.