GOD WITHIN US

In Acts Chapter 1, Jesus promises His apostles a baptizing with the Holy Spirit.  In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells the believers that they were all baptized by the Spirit.   What happened between Acts 1 and 1 Corinthians?  Acts 2!  It’s noted there that the Holy Spirit comes to indwell all believers and at that moment, everything is changed!  It is probably the most significant moment in human history.  God came to permanently live in believers, as pointed out by Pastor Lauren this past Sunday.  

Acts 2 tells us that seven weeks after the resurrection, the sound of a mighty rushing wind burst into the Upper Room where the believers were gathered.  Flames of fire seemed to be coming out of the top of their heads.  When they went into the streets, they found themselves able to communicate in the languages of the people who were in Jerusalem from all over the world to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pentecost.

This discussion begs the question:  Do we have to have an experience just like those in the Upper Room in order to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit?  The experience (flames and tongues) of those in the Upper Room, while a fantastic evidentiary feat when observed by an onlooker, should be considered much less of a miracle than God coming to live within a human.  If one is looking for evidentiary proof of God the Holy Spirit living in a believer, one needs not look beyond the fruits of the Spirit described by Paul in Galatians Chapter 5.   People tend to limit the Holy Spirit (as if anyone could) by the paradigm that God has to work in a certain way, which is untrue.  God will accomplish His purposes in whatever way He desires.  

We may not speak in different tongues or have flames coming from our heads but we don’t need to in order for God to work His purposes through us.  We don’t have to have the power to preach, to heal, or to see three thousand become believers in order to prove we are filled with the Holy Spirit.