Scripture: "Jesus repeated His greeting, 'Peace be with you.' And He said to them, 'Just as the Father has sent Me, I am now sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit.'" (John 20:21)
Scripture: "I will ask the Father and He will give you another Comforter (counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener) that He may remain with you forever. The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it doesn't not see Him, for He lives with you constantly, and will be IN you...But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, (in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf,) will teach you all things. He will cause you to recall everything I have told you." (John 14:26)
Scripture: "Paul said, 'John baptized with the baptism of repentance, continually telling the people that they should believe in the One who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. Upon hearing this they were baptized again, this time in the name of the Lord Jesus. And as Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied." (Acts 19:4-6)
Scripture: "And you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." {Acts 1:8)
Scripture: "And these signs will accompany those who believe...they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover." (Mark 16:18)
Dear Friends,
Grace and peace of the Holy Spirit be with you always. I have felt the nudge to talk a bit about this mysterious third person of the Trinity. As we move into the realm of spiritual gifts, we need to make sure we know the Giver! The Catechism is FULL of references to the Holy Spirit and His role in the life of the church and in our lives. The Church Fathers have much to say about the marvels and wonders they witnessed in the early Church. Then how is it that we, in our day, know ABOUT Him, but have so little experience OF Him? The astounding thing is that the Holy Spirit IS the encountered Presence of God. The Catechism refers to Him as the breath of God, the fire or flame of God, the anointing of God and so on. CCC #683 says, "'No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.' This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit. To be in touch with Christ we must first be touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us." CCC #684 says, "Through His grace the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us, and to communicate to us the new life, which is 'to know the Father and the One whom He has sent, Christ Jesus."
Notice that Jesus lived His first 30 years being an obedient Son and learning His father's trade. But at His baptism, Mark 1:10 says, " The moment Jesus rose up out of the water, John saw the heavenly realm split open, and the Holy Spirit descended like a dove and rested upon Him." CCC #690 says, "Jesus is 'Christ,' anointed, because the Spirit is His anointing..." Why is this SO important to understand? We must know Who this Holy Spirit is so we can know who He is supposed to be for us! If Jesus did all His miracles and healings as God, then we can stand in awe, but we cannot hope to emulate that. But, Philippians 2:10 says, "He emptied Himself of His outward glory by reducing Himself to the form of a lowly servant. He became human! He humbled Himself and became vulnerable to be revealed as a man and was obedient."
Don't be mistaken. He was always God, but He laid His divinity aside to show us something absolutely crucial for our own lives. He operated NOT as God, but as a man totally filled and flooded with God Himself. And this God, He was filled with was the Holy Spirit. He knew that we would need to EXPERIENCE Him. It is not enough to know ABOUT Him. We need and have always needed an ENCOUNTER with the living Presence, Power and LOVE of God...an encounter that changes every single thing in our lives. Jesus knew the cost of being His disciple. He knew that they would need the same power source that flowed through every fiber of His being. That's why He began talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit in John 14. He knew that his disciples in every generation would need not just words, but power; and not just power but courage, wisdom, understanding, vision, endurance, love, hope and more. And they would need these at a supernatural level. What we can do in our own strength will never be enough.
"In the Catholic Church of the nineteenth century, the Holy Spirit had become what some theologians have termed, 'the forgotten Person of the Trinity.' There were some formal prayers to the Holy Spirit but little expectation that He would actually come in a perceptible way." (Dr Mary Healy, THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS HANDBOOK) During this time frame, a nun named Sr. Elena Guerra, felt led to start an order to the Holy Spirit and to petition the Pope to write an encyclical on the Holy Spirit. He did, but it was not well received by the Bishops. She then encouraged Pope Leo to consecrate the new century to the Holy Spirit, which he did. But probably because the Bishops received this so poorly, the Holy Spirit did come in power, but He fell outside of the Catholic Church. It was the beginning of widespread revival. Wherever He was welcome, great signs, wonders, conversions and healings happened. From all of these places, the great FIRE of God spread, and missionaries went out to all the world. This was less received and experienced by liturgical churches, but in time, land led by Pope Saint John XXIII's prayer, "Lord, renew Your wonders in this our day, as by a new Pentecost," the Holy Spirit fell on a group of Catholic college students at Duquesne University about 50 years ago. Pope Saint John Paul II said, "Wherever the Spirit intervenes He leads people astonished. He brings about events of amazing newness; He radically changes persons and histories. This was the unforgettable experience of the Second Vatican Council during which...the Church rediscovered the charismatic dimension as one of her constitutive elements." (Message of Pope John Paul II for the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities, May 27, 1998)
You may be saying, all of this is great but what does it have to do with me? EVERYTHING! This same Holy Spirit, the "anointing" of God that radiated in and through Jesus, has been given to us in Baptism to do the same in us. WE MUST know Him, and know who He is to be for us, so that we can tap into the wellspring of Heaven that is our inheritance as sons and daughters of the Most High God. The Holy Spirit is our anointing for power, our anointing for supernatural wisdom and courage, for endurance, and the One who helps us see through Jesus's eyes and love with Jesus' Heart. He is the living water that Jesus promised would flow through us continuously and never run dry, IF we were connected to Him...if we learned to abide in Him. People of God, Jesus has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we can do more than talk about the Kingdom. He's given us the Holy spirit so we can demonstrate the Kingdom. This is NOT the gift of a few. RIGHT THIS MOMENT He is IN you! The Trinity is IN you! What are you doing with that? It's not enough to read the blogs and appear on the phone calls...Look at our world. What are you DOING with the incredibly explosive, dynamic power of the Most High God that is living in you????
Let's ask Him to rip the veils off our eyes and bring us to a whole new level of activation. How do we get there? ASK HIM! Ask yourself, have I had an encounter with Jesus? Have I had a palpable experience of Him? He wants to give you that. Now is your day. And this is not a one-time thing. Jesus wants that living water to flow and flow and flow in us, never ending. Our lives should be always growing deeper and deeper roots in Him. Does it always feel warm and fuzzy? NOPE. Sometimes I feel nothing and go long periods that feel like a darkness and desert. But does that mean that He is no longer with me? He has promised in John 14 that He will not leave us orphans...that He will be with us to the end. But sometimes He closes the curtain so that we must look for Him with more intensity. Our hunger for Him grows when He seems hidden. But the Holy Spirit is there to comfort and encourage us to keep going, keep believing. He is our constant companion on the journey of life. He is the One constantly revealing Jesus and the Father to us, building us up in faith and the courage to go on.
We must pursue the Holy Spirit, seek Him, ask Him to come and EXPECT Him! Pray for a fresh FIRE, a new anointing. Then step out in faith and PRACTICE! Our Father who loves us LONGS to see His children asking for His gifts, and surely the Holy Spirit is His greatest. Without Him we could never hope to see into the Spirit realm. We wouldn't be able to grasp the significance of the Sacraments, to know our identity in Christ, to love and hope and care about anyone in our lives, and to hear the voice of God commissioning us to go and DO the impossible in His Name. The Spirit animates all of life, and how desperately we need Him to animate US! Ask, seek, knock, REPEAT. Make this your daily aim and never, never, never quit.
Msgr. Vincent Walsh, in his book, WHAT'S GOING ON, lamented the Church's response to the coming of the Holy Spirit in power in this last century and beyond. His prayer was, "Catholic Church, I hope you don't miss your visitation." Let's rededicate ourselves that WE CATHOLICS will not miss our visitation! We can't understand Him or control Him. We can just receive Him with grateful hearts. Come Holy Spirit, come with every gift You have for us. Set us on Fire for ALL that is in the Heart of the Father.
Declaration: Thank You, Holy Spirit for living in us! We are constantly being filled and refilled with the flowing water of Your Spirit. Your Presence in us is burning away anything not of God. We give You full permission to make us exactly what You want us to be. Daily we pray Your Spirit is overshadowing us. Let Your power and Your love be what radiates from every fiber of our beings so that all God's people, so dear to His Heart, are healed and made whole in Jesus' name. (Acts 5:16-17)
Love to all of you. Let's keep each other in prayer.
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