When the Spirit Comes

When the Spirit Comes

Many are asking what it will be like when Holy Spirit comes upon us in power? Historically, He has come in a wide variety of ways. Like tongues of fire at Pentecost. As a blinding bright light for Saul/Paul. In laughter, tears, dancing and other ways over the past few years. Biblically, see 1 Kings 19:11-13 “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.’ Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.  When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”

I don’t expect any of us to have had Elijah’s experience but the story serves the point of demonstrating a variety of ways in which the Spirit may come upon us. Actually I left the last sentence in the quote because it also demonstrates a point. The Lord often speaks to us immediately after He demonstrates something and the question is frequently at a tangent to the direction of the demonstration. God showed Elijah that He can communicate through almost any means but, having done so, He wants to know why Elijah asked such a doubting question in the first place.

When the Spirit comes and how He comes is almost irrelevant. He comes upon us and He speaks to us and then it’s up to us to act on whatever He spoke about to us. I think Rees Howells had just about the best model on which we can pray - If I may paraphrase – “He will not come like a rushing mighty wind. But gradually the Person of the Holy Ghost will fill all our thoughts, His Presence will fill the place, and His light will penetrate all the hidden recesses of our hearts. He will speak through the preacher in every meeting, but it will be in the quiet of our own rooms that He will reveal Himself personally to many of us. “

My answer to the original question, “What it will be like when Holy Spirit comes upon us in power?” is this, “Holy Spirit will come any way He wants to which suits our ability to understand what is happening.”