We’ve just passed the season of gift giving. I’ll tell you I have so much fun giving and receiving gifts. I love the beautiful paper, the ribbons, the look of joy or surprise on my loved one’s faces as they open them, and the delight in opening packages given to me.
I remember one gift in particular many years ago. I was in grade school and longed for a stuffed toy for Christmas. I told my Mom and Dad that I really, really wanted a stuffed toy. Every opportunity I could take I would tell them that I really, really wanted a stuffed toy. And do you know what my parent’s response was? “Well, ReeAnn, you’re just going to have to wait until Christmas.”
Those were most unwelcome words. I wanted to know right then if I would get that stuffed toy! I really, really wanted it. So I lived an agitated life. Every opportunity I could take I would tell them that I really, really wanted a stuffed toy. And each time I asked for it they would say that I had to wait for it.
As Christmas day approached the wrapped gifts under the tree grew more numerous and intriguing. One day a rather large gift appeared with my name on it. Only a child can experience the kind of anxious joy that a wrapped gift can give.
Christmas morning my brother and I raced to the tree at some unearthly hour, I’m sure. I could hardly wait to get my hands on that gift. My father, in his usual mischievous ways, would hand us the little gifts first and worked his way up to the largest gifts for each of us. Each gift was great, but oh, the anticipation for the largest gifts was greater still.
When my father handed me this gift it was at least as tall as I was. I was sitting on the floor with my legs crossed hardly able to sit still. I ripped into the paper and there before my eyes was a giant stuffed cute-as-a-button panda bear. I was so thrilled I did something I had never done before. I grabbed that panda bear in my arms and instantly did a full backward somersault! My joy knew no bounds. And my family rolled with laughter.
What is a gift? Well, usually a gift is a bit of a surprise even when you know it is coming. Gifts are sometimes given in wrapped packages, covered with something so that the contents are revealed only after it is removed. A gift usually comes from someone who has an interest in you. This interest can be for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the person just loves you, or it’s your birthday, or you are a new person in the community or you have achieved a goal. There are all kinds of reasons to give gifts.
How do we respond to the giving of a gift? Not all of us do a backward somersault! But the first response always has to be to receive the gift. A gift is not really a gift unless it is received. It could sit on the table or the floor indefinitely if no one were to open it. Once it is received it can be enjoyed, shared, used or given again.
Part of God’s good gift to us is his written Word—revelations of himself in human history. We will approach the book of Acts in a devotional manner—wanting to be transformed by God through his wonderful Word. We may be looking at it a little differently than most people do.
Many of the preliminary studies talk about the book of Acts being a history of the birth and growth of the New Testament Church—and this is in part what it is. Some studies say that this book is a biography featuring key figures of evangelism and apostleship. We can read how lowly fisherman became mighty men of God and how common or corrupt folk, women and men like you and me, become vibrant, miraculous evangelists. And that too, is what this book is—in part.
But I am after something very particular in my life. I want to become very focused on God. I want to move from an “anthropocentric” worldview—that is, seeing everything from a distinctively human perspective—to a more “theocentric” worldview. I want to know what God is doing, how he is doing it and how I can recognize him more and more. I want to understand and appreciate his great undeserved gifts to me. I want to be under new management. I want to be less in control of my life and controlled more by the Holy Spirit. I want to completely surrender to the kind of life management that will lead me into his abundance, joy, peace and power.
Therefore I invite you on a journey with me to find out what it means to be under the management of the Holy Spirit. It will be like unwrapping a wonderful gift. At each turn of the page, at each new passage we explore together, it will be like tearing off the wrapping, opening the box and finding something absolutely wonderful. I think you will be surprised at what we find. Pray that God would reveal himself to you in powerful and effective ways.
The first seven chapters of the book of Acts are Luke’s reflections of a particular time that begins in Jerusalem. The disciples had just experienced the death and resurrection of their Friend and Savior Jesus Christ. Several times prior to these events Jesus had told them about the Holy Spirit. We can find these passages in several places in the books of the Gospel—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In fact, so much can be learned about the Holy Spirit throughout the entire Bible! Through this journey we will focus on selected passages that will teach us some of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke’s Gospel he wrote about John the Baptist, the powerful prophet of the Messiah and his message. Do you remember what John said and did? Luke wrote about it in this way.
Luke 3:15-18
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
That is one of many accounts given regarding the Holy Spirit and his relationship to Jesus Christ. The disciple named John also wrote his account of the life of Jesus. In his Gospel we find some of the most specific and lengthy writings about the Holy Spirit. In John 3:34 John wrote that God gives the Spirit without limit to the Son. In 7:39 John recalled that the Spirit would be given to the disciples after Jesus was glorified. And in John 20:22, after the resurrection, Jesus breathed on the disciples and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” But, by far the most powerful verses about the coming of the Holy Spirit are in John chapters 14 and 15. In these wonderful chapters Jesus describes the promise of the Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit. I challenge you to read these chapters this week. There is so much to learn about the Holy Spirit!
We are finding out some pretty incredible things about the Holy Spirit as a gift so far. But before we go any further, let’s read Luke’s first words in Acts. Read carefully as Luke describes the events in Acts 1:1-9.
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.”
Now, let’s review what we are beginning to learn and comprehend about the Holy Spirit from all these Scriptures we have approached. What kind of gift is the Holy Spirit? How does the Holy Spirit operate as a manager of surrendered lives? Where does the Gift come from? When did the disciples receive the Gift?
Specifically we have found that the Holy Spirit is a gift of God himself. The Spirit comes from the Father and is given to the disciples. So, the Spirit, plain and simple, is a gift from God. No one can buy the Spirit, no one can create the Spirit and no one can steal the Spirit. Some people may try to tell you that if you send a certain amount of money to them, or attend this special meeting, or receive their handkerchief, that you will have the gift of the Holy Spirit. But no amount of money, no amount of effort, no amount of handkerchiefs can get you what is freely given by God to all believers.
The Holy Spirit reveals himself in several ways. We learn that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and through Jesus Christ and after his glorification (that is, his bodily ascension into heaven) in a specific and new way. It is very important that we understand the relationship between these three—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
It is the orthodox Christian belief that these three are demonstrations of one God. God the Father and Creator of everything, Jesus the divine Son having come to us in human flesh, and the Spirit is our present Comforter and Help. In our human musings we have a simplistic way of perceiving and attempting to grasp who God is. And God, knowing our simple, fallen minds, has elected to reveal himself as the One true living God, revealing himself to us in three ways. God is gracious to give us three ways to understand him. God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are not three different gods. No, they are the divine and holy mystery of the Trinity. This is very clear in the mind of Luke as he writes the opening passages of Acts. The three aspects of God are part of one whole. This is what we learn from the entire Bible and what we accept by faith as Christians. So, as the Holy Spirit is given to us, we also understand that it is the Spirit of God himself that we find within us after we repent of our sins.
The Holy Spirit comes to us as a gift through baptism of fire. This is a powerful and almost overwhelming image—through fire. What an unusual gift! Would you give someone something through fire? Fire does several things: it burns away unnecessary or wasteful materials; it intensifies the heat by which pure gold is separated from the less lovely elements; it cleanses and breaks things down to the basics and essentials. Fire does so many things. And so does the Gift of Holy Spirit fire. As we explore Acts we will watch as the Holy Spirit does his work of consuming and cleansing.
Another thing we learn about the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit comes after we wait. Waiting can be a very difficult thing. Imagine with me the disciples after they have watched Jesus ascend into heaven. What would be their next step? They had followed Jesus, God in the flesh, for three years and at that moment their leader seemed to be gone. Jesus gave very clear instructions—wait for the next step. Their leader was not gone, just coming to them in a different form—as a Gift. And this gift would be full of fire and power. And they would be able to receive it.
The Holy Spirit not only comes to us after we wait, but the Spirit gives power to those who are willing to be under his new management. The promise of Jesus is that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.”
One of the greatest struggles of our human existence is one of power. Power can be used in such wrongful ways. Some people, feeling powerless, take power into their own hands and demonstrate that by beating and abusing their spouses or children. Some people, feeling powerless, take power into their own hands and steal and kill to get what they feel they cannot obtain otherwise. Some people, feeling powerless, take power into their own hands engaging in gossip and slander, feeling that they are superior because of “special knowledge” of others. What human history has taught us is that some powerless people who take power into their own hands cause destruction and chaos everywhere they go. They needed to be under new management—not their own. They needed a Gift that would be the source of life and not destruction.
When we are under the management of the Holy Spirit something wonderful happens. It is like after opening your gift you find a beautiful new coat and put it on. Then when you go out, people will ask? “Is that a new coat?” To which you can reply, “Why, yes it is! I got it as a gift. My Father gave it to me. Isn’t He so thoughtful?!”
When we are under new management, we become witnesses to the goodness and grace of God. None of us deserves, really deserves, a new coat, but God gave it to us. None of us deserves, really deserves, a new life and forgiveness. But God gave it to us. None of us deserves, really deserves, the gifts of God, but he gave them to us. And just like getting a new coat, we can’t help but tell others about it. Our lives are lived differently under new management. We become witnesses to grace, witnesses to mercy, witnesses to love and peace and joy and hope.
How are we going to respond to the giving of the gift of the Holy Spirit?
Well, the only response always has to be to receive the gift. Just like Jesus instructed the disciples, we are to wait for it—actively wait. And while we wait we pray, seeking the infilling of the Holy Spirit, opening ourselves up to the possibility of a life under completely new management. Remember, a gift is not really a gift unless it is received. It could sit on the table or the floor indefinitely if no one were to open it. Once it is received it can be enjoyed, shared, used or given again.
The promised Gift of the Holy Spirit is not only for those disciples long ago. It is for all believers today. Just as a child anxiously awaits Christmas morning gifts, I pray that we will await the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We can become professional receivers, willing and ready at all times to be under his new management.
If you have not yet received the gift of the Spirit, I encourage you to actively wait and pray for the gift.
If we have received the Holy Spirit at one time, there is more that can be received. As we explore this wonderful book of Acts, God will give us more or what we need to know him and the Holy Spirit if we wait on him and pray for more and more of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
Copyright M.R. Hyde 2012
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