I’ll be honest with you. I’ve grown up a pentecostal, yet had no idea what that truly meant until I got to college. The Holy Spirit that I heard talked about in church on Sunday and experienced through camps and youth events, was never clearly explained to me. At times I even wondered what was the big deal after constantly seeing the super hyped up emotions that many people encountered causing them to go crazy in service, yet saw nothing else different afterward. I’ve come to realize that many young people leave high school with the same impressions I felt and today I want to share a few insights young people need to know.
1. The Holy Spirit is a person.
Simply put, the Holy Spirit is God. He is the third person of the trinity. He’s not Jesus’ little brother nor God the Father’s step-child. He is fully God. He was there from the beginning (Gen. 1:26) and He is our counselor (John 14:26). He is not a force, nor a vague, mystical being. He is a person with a personality and you can talk to Him as a person.
2. The Holy Spirit is here to glorify Christ and reveal His Word to us.
Jesus left a specific explanation of the Holy Spirit to His disciples in John 15:26, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.” The Holy Spirit is our gift from the Father who brings TRUTH. Jesus goes on to say in chapter 16, “13 he will guide you into all the truth” and also says, “14 He will glorify me.”
The Holy Spirit is here to help us make sense of who Jesus truly is and what the scripture truly means.
3. The Holy Spirit is not spooky.
Gone should be the days of hearing the Holy Spirit referred to as the King James “Holy Ghost” envisioning someone who enters into a person and causes them to look like they were shot with a taser and bouncing around all over the floor. The Holy Spirit shouldn’t spook or frighten anyone, in fact He is here to give us courage and boldness (Acts 4:31). He is not an alien that possesses your body and does mind control like Loki in The Avengers.
He is real and He will only take what you give Him. 1 Corinthians 14:32 tells us, “For the Spirit of the Prophet is subject to the Prophet.” He operates with love and clarity.
4. Speaking in tongues and other spiritual gifts are awesome, but they are only the tools, not the end result.
As a young person, I was so confused because time and time again, I saw people emphasize on the gifts, but never truly understand what it meant. As I experienced what God could do, I realized that this is only the first step to what God wants with us. If you notice throughout the book of Acts, each time the disciples received the Holy Spirit’s baptism, it was only meant to lead them and empower them to win souls. They took the experience and experimented power outside of the four walls. I ask myself, “Wouldn’t it be awesome if in our day to day interactions with people at work and at school, if we were to pray for the sick and see them healed? Wouldn’t it be awesome to understand and have wisdom beyond our reason and use it to speak life into people leading them to believe in an almighty Creator who orchestrates the very breaths we take?”
All this is possible, but just remember these are only the tools to win people, not the end result.
5. The Holy Spirit is available to anyone who asks.
One of my absolute favorite passages is when Jesus speaks to His disciples on how to pray and says, “For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:10)” It’s as simple as that. Ask, seek, and knock. No need to do any crazy chants, run around the room, or say any special words. All you have to do is ask. God is our Father who gives His Son and His presence to us today for FREE. Jesus even goes on to say, “11 ‘Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?'”
God is not going to give us something ridiculous. He gives us something remarkable. He doesn’t give cheap knock-offs, rather He gives of himself so that we might be more like Him.
