The Holy spirit - Wonderful and Noticeable


This is one of my talks on the Holy Spirit, adapted from Nicky's own.

What Happens when we are filled with the Spirit

The book of Acts has been described as Volume 1 in the history of the Church, and throughout that book, there are several examples of people experiencing the Holy Spirit. I want to look at some of them. The circumstances are different each time but they all have something in common – there is always something wonderful – something noticeable that happens. There are signs, or manifestations. Let’s check out some of these occasions; 

In Acts Chapter 2, it was unexpected. 
“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

This is the occasion when believers were first indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and something wonderful, something noticeable took place. 

Some wanted the ability to give it for selfish reasons

In Chapter 8, Peter and John prayed for the people in Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, and Simon the Sorcerer saw the results, he offered them money and said,

“Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Peter warned him it was a terrible thing to try to buy God’s gift with money, but the thing I want to point out here is that there must have been a reason Simon wanted to buy this ability - something wonderful and noticeable must have happened. 

Someone who was actively hostile to it.

In Acts 9 a young man named Saul (a Pharisee) had been actively persecuting the church. But on the road to Damascus to persecute even more Christians, he was confronted by Jesus and struck blind. In a house in Damascus a Christian disciple named Ananias placed his hands on him and prayed for him to receive the Holy Spirit. Immediately, the Bible says, something like scales fell off his eyes and he could see again. Within a few days Paul, as he was known now, was preaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Again, something wonderful and noticeable had happened. 

Some weren’t aware of it

In Chapter 19 we read:

“…Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

… On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.

Something wonderful, something noticeable happened. 

In Chapter 10 we find another amazing example, and totally unexpected. Through a number of visions, God had brought the Apostle Peter to meet with a group of Gentiles at the house of a man named Cornelius. This was the first occasion where the Gospel was communicated to people who were not Jewish. Peter began speaking, but halfway through Peters talk, something remarkable happened:  


“,,,the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers (Jewish Christians) who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on Gentiles for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.”

When the Holy Spirit shows up - something wonderful, something noticeable usually happens.

Blessings,
John 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wonderful People

Image
Anglican Diocese of Athabasca Synod - Peace River Alberta  Friday Oct 13 I drove 5 hours to Peace River to make a presentation at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Athabasca. Bishop Fraser Lawton would love to see as many of his parishes as possible running Alphas. Many of the delegates are actually familiar with Alpha, although, having run it often in the moderately distant past, may not be so familiar with all of our new materials. So Friday evening's dinner was turned into a model Alpha supper, including jokes and the showing of the invitational first video of the relatively recent Alpha Film Series. This version is hosted by Toby and Gemma, a hip young pair of presenters, and targeted at the Millennial generation, the 18 - 35-year-olds. I always say that baby boomers like it too because they too like to pretend they can still be young and hip. Between Friday evening and Saturday morning I met many great people and found quite a bit of enthusiasm for Alpha. If all comes ...
Read more

Whirlwind Tours

Image
Because, as the title of this blog indicates, this is a diary, it will not always contain great theological or philosophical revelations. Sometimes it will be just what a diary is - a record of my thoughts and/or activities. I have set myself a bit of a busy schedule over the next two weeks, but that's the whole point, isn't it. Even though this is my retirement career, I still treat it as a full-time job. Basically, I do my best to devote 9-5, five days a week to my Alpha duties, and Saturday and Sunday are never ruled out if Alpha stuff needs attention. So... my schedule as it stands so far for the next couple of weeks includes two presentations at St Paul's Anglican Church in Edmonton this Sunday, trips to Westlock and Morinville, AB, a Pastors' lunch presentation in Whitecourt and visits to churches in Provost, Wainwright and Lloydminster. One thing I like to do wherever I go is check out a bit of each town's history and sources of local pride. Many Alberta comm...
Read more

On the Road Again

Image
I'm in Grande Prairie this week, ostensibly to attend  a dance competition where my daughter, Jen's dance studio is competing, and doing very well, if I may say so with a bit of fatherly pride. However, as I do not yet have a travel budget, I stole the opportunity to make calls on the churches in town, with some very encouraging results. I have previously visited most of them during my time with Alpha, so this was a matter of renewing relationships and re-introducing myself in my new capacity with Christianity Explored . Most calls just involved friendly conversation and ministry updates. I have also told all my churches that I am happy to encourage them with Alpha as well, so I shared the joy of what is probably the main Grande Prairie Alpha church, over the number of new believers coming to faith through their Alphas. Then, however, without my having even mentioned it, he produced material on a new discipleship program they are considering - Discipleship Explored - ...
Read more