Where are you with the Holy Spirit?
I always feel the more we can learn abut the Holy Spirit the closer we will become to Him.
I truly believe it takes a while for us to grasp the reality of the Holy Spirit. So we should keep that in mind when teaching children about Him.
Often, I think of the many people and generations that went before us.
The generation of the Old Testaement times, where people believed in many Gods but some were courageous enough to have faith in “The one and only” God.
Then there was the generation of blessed people that walked the earth at the same time Jesus was alive.
We, however, are the generation of the Holy Spirit.
We are truly blessed that Jesus cared and loved for us so much that He would leave behind a carer, an advocate and a Spirit that would be around us our whole lives.
In the gospel of John in chapters 15, 16 and 17 Jesus, during the last supper, tells the disciples that the Spirit will be the "Helper," "Advocate," or "Spirit of Truth" who will guide them after his departure. They are comforting words that we should cling to when Jesus says, The Holy Spirit will be “another helper” that will be with us forever. Jesus in the bible says that the Holy Spirit will be a “teacher” for us.
This is our generation, we are the people that have The Holy Spirit.
As Christians it would be so hard to imagine living in the times of Jesus, who was giving teaching and we did nothing to seek Him out, to listen to Him and to try and see Him. Wouldn’t we surely want to know as much as we could about Him and what his teachings were whilst He walked amongst us. Can you imagine ignoring Jesus? Well, that’s how it is if you are not walking with the Holy Spirit, not communicating with Him daily in prayer and well, just about for everything going on in your daily lives. We should cry out to the Holy Spirit in times of crisis and in times of celebration, really we are nothing without Him.
So, where are you with the Holy Spirit?
I once walked home from a church with friends after witnessing some prayer at the front of church and one of the people at the front had become somewhat noisy and animated with gutteral cries. The vicar (it was in the UK) at the time, very rightly said to the congregation to not be alarmed as this was the Holy Spirit in action.
The person walking home with me commented, “but was that really the Holy Spirit or was she just being loud and emotional”? I replied immediately, without thought - a very firm “yes” that was the Holy Spirit in action.
We don’t have to believe the “slane in the spirit” practising USA healers knocking out their congregation at all times, but we have to have a sense of respect that the Holy Spirit is truly all around us all the time. Sometimes, it helps to remember that He “dwells” around us and within us. It is the devils work that gives us doubt of Him and His power and His ability to be around us, guiding us. Jesus told us that He had to leave so the Holy Spirit could come. This is what we believe. Be discerning, but don’t lose sight of His blanket of love that He left for us.
The bible tells us that the Holy Spirit represents Jesus and Jesus is our advocate, sitting at the right hand of God the Father petitoning on our behalf. If we truly believe this statement then that is our route to Jesus, our route is through the Holy Spirit.
A pastors message recently had me thinking and relearning, every day is a learning day! During his message my eyes were opened to the fact that we have a habit of teaching children the Trinity in three separate columns. The column of “God the Father”, “Jesus the Son” and the “Holy Spirit”.
God the Father -
Jesus the Son -
The Holy Spirit
The message was that we put them in three columns and teach about them and around them.
He suggested that possibly we should think about “Jesus and the Holy Spirit being in the same column.”
This made sense to me, because if we understand that Jesus left us the Holy Spirit for our good and the Holy Spirit is our route to Him. The Holy Spirit’s purpose is always to lead us back to Jesus.
Now we all know the foundational statement, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" John 14.6 This means, that Jesus is the mediator, the truth, and the source of life, offering the only path to God the Father.
So, if the way to Jesus is through the Holy Spirit, and the way to God is through Jesus maybe teaching the trinity to the children suddenly gets a lot easier. and maybe some understanding of how close we should stay to the Holy Spirit becomes greater.
When I was a new Christian, I was struck how others around me would pray to Jesus whilst others would pray to the Holy Father, God. Some would start with Dear heavenly Father, whilst others cried out to Jesus. I used to think it’s like “dare you go to the Big Boss, or do you pass your prayers and petitions to the middle man, in a desperate hope he will go to the main man”. With study and maturity it became really clear to me that we should hold on to what it says in John 14.6 and I also knew that I had to teach children about an all accessible, loving, kind, friend who was Jesus. I also knew that I had to teach them that the way to Jesus is through the Holy Spirit.
I was astounded when I once went to a huge Melbourne Church and the speaker said something along the lines of “Forget Jesus this, Jesus that, speak to the Father directly”. I remember shuddering thinking I spend all my time teaching children about Jesus and having Him on our lips constantly, as this is the way to the Father. I think it would have helped that speaker to listen to the message about the Trinity and Columns and maybe have some realisation that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are firmly in one column to help us “speak to the Father directly”.
It is our job to teach the children that to be close to God, we need to be in relationship with Jesus and we do that through living each day with the Holy Spirit. Each generation has been given their part of the trinity to access an all loving, forgiving and powerful Father.
So before any teaching of “the Holy Spirit or the Trinity” to children, I think it’s best to check with ourselves - “Where am I with the Holy Spirit”?
It does us good to remember that when God said to Adam in Genesis, “Where are you”? God wasn’t questioning his location, Adam may have been hiding due to his “shame” but God could very clearly see Adam.
What God was saying is “Where are you with me”? It is a very sad situation that God even had to ask this of Adam.
Their realtionship was one of love and trust and mutual wonder. God had created Adam, He loved Him, but after defying God, God had to ask “where are you”?
How extremely sad, that the loving God would have to ask “where are we with our relationship”?
So, where are you? With the Holy Spirit?