“Do not be drunk with wine, for that is reckless living. But be filled with the Spirit.”

— Ephesians 5:18

The church of Jesus Christ began in earnest on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the believers in Jerusalem with great fanfare as recorded in Acts 2. This was 50 days after Christ’s resurrection.

A lady said to me one time, “I wish you would preach a sermon on the Holy Spirit. What is it?” It? Suppose when you get up tomorrow morning, your husband says to you, “Well, good morning, Thing. How are you today, Thing?”

It is obviously a gross insult to depersonalize someone. And to depersonalize the Holy Spirit of God is an insult. So let us consider just who the Holy Spirit is. Now if you were to ask any of the cultists, they would all tell you the same thing: The Holy Spirit is a “thing”; The Holy Spirit is a “force.” It is like gravity, or magnetism, or nuclear energy, or electricity. It is not a person.

But the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. Along with the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is one God, in three persons. The Scripture says, “He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27).

Does the Spirit have emotion? The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:30 that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is not a one-time experience but an ongoing one.

Come, Oh Holy Spirit, and convict us again of our sins. Call us to the Father. Glorify Jesus before our eyes. Melt me. Use me. Fill me.

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, THE HOLY
SPIRIT CAN REIGN IN MY LIFE.