Meet My Friend

Pentecost?  What does that even mean?  Yesterday was the day of pentecost. Now most people, who are not of a church background have no idea what that means.  Honestly for most of the time I have been saved I really didn’t understand what it was either.  

Lately, for the past few years I have really started praying that I would be full of the Holy Spirit, that I would hear his voice more clearly and that He would lead me and guide me in everything that I do and say.  That prayer and so many others are only made possible by what happened at Pentecost.  The day the Holy Spirit made his first appearance in the heart of men and women, yes girls got it too.  (Acts 1-2) 

I think when we hear the word pentacostal in our world today the first thought is crazy.  Our culture has made “pentecostals” seem weird and uncontrollable or we think of woman who don't wear make-up or pants.  I honestly believe this is a tactic of Satan to block the Holy Spirit from our lives. Being filled with the Holy Spirit does not make you a pentecostal and it doesn’t make you crazy.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit makes you draw closer to Jesus, it brings you into the greatest most intimate relationship available on this earth. I am full of the Holy Spirit and I wouldn’t consider myself "Pentecostal", just like I am saved and wouldn’t consider myself a "Baptist", "Lutheran", "Methodist". Not that there is anything wrong with being any one of these things.  We put labels on ourselves that limit people's understanding.  I want to be considered a Christian, a Christ-follower without the labels. 

When Jesus left to be with the Father in Heaven he sent us and comforter, counselor and friend.  My heart has been longing for a closer relationship with the Holy Spirit.  It wasn’t until I was a silly eighteen year old girl who couldn’t live for God if she tried asked the Holy Spirit to fill her that I was able to really pursue God.  The Holy Spirit has transformed my life.  I am a new creation today because He came in and whispered transformation to my spirit.  

I am reading a book called “The God I Never Knew” by Robert Morris, it is all about the person of the Holy Spirit.  Morris does a great job of de-spookifying the Holy Spirit.  Matt and I visited a church here in Dixon this weekend and the Pastor was preaching about the Holy Spirit.  God is trying to tell me something, this time in our lives, all of us, not just me, it is more important than ever to allow the Holy Spirit access to our hearts, to lead us and help us.  

When I am lonely he comforts me, when I am anxious he brings peace, when I am full of joy he is joyful with me.  He is not some spooky ghost floating around the world, he is my friend.  Today I am feeling overwhelmed by the grace and love I have found from the Holy Spirit.  Maybe it is because I am living in my childhood home in the town I grew up in, the place where people knew me as someone else.  The place where people knew Carrie, without the Holy Spirit.  

I am praying that I get the opportunity to be myself around here, the person who is full of the spirit of God.  The person who loves others and tries her hardest to walk in purity.  She is new around here.

If you are reading this and are unfamiliar with the Holy Spirit, or you have been scared of Him, please take the time to investigate on your own.  Keep asking, Keep seeking, Keep knocking.