As we say in our second core value “Grounded by the Word, Powered by Pray, Led by the Spirit”. The spirit we’re talking about is the Holy Spirit, but who is the Holy Spirit? To begin with, we need to understand how the Holy Spirit fits into everything else.

The Trinity

The Trinity is what we call God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The idea is that we have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and each one of them is a separate and unique person. Each one of them is also God. The bit where it gets complicated is that we believe there is only one God.

But that doesn’t make sense! We know. The Trinity is one of those things about the Christian faith that just doesn’t make sense. We won’t understand it until we get to heaven, and maybe even then we won’t. When faced with these things we need to decide are we going to take a jump and trust that it’s true even if we can’t understand it.

This gets even more confusing when we realise a lot of the ideas we use to explain the Trinity don’t actually work. For example, people will often say “someone can be a father, a son and a husband. In the same way, God can be the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” The problem with this is that while someone can be a father, son and husband they’re still one person. But the Trinity is three people.

The important things to remember is that the a) The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all different people (they’re not the same person) b) they’re all fully God and c) there’s only one God.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

So now we know where the Holy Spirit fits in, who is the Holy Spirit? In the book of John, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit and calls Him the Counsellor. Other Bible versions use the words, Advocate or Helper. Another word you could use is advisor because that’s what the Holy Spirit does. He advises us. And He does this in two ways.

One way is He speaks to us. This may be an audible voice, it may be a vision or picture in your head, it may even be a thought that appears in your mind that doesn’t seem like one of yours. There are several ways that He can speak to us. Whichever way He chooses to speak to us He will advise us on the right thing to do by suggestion.

The other way is a little more forceful and we call it conviction. The Holy Spirit my convict us that something is true. For example, He might convict you the Jesus is real and that you need to put your trust in Him. But He can also convict us about something we’re doing wrong. If you’ve ever done something and then afterwards thought, I really shouldn’t have done that, and feel it deep down in your stomach, that was likely the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Either way, while we can try and ignore or disagree with a suggestion you cannot ignore a conviction.

What happens when we listen to the advice of the Holy Spirit

In the Bible, we read about the Fruit and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We get each of these from listening to the advice of the Holy Spirit. The more we let the Holy Spirit influence our behaviour the more the Fruit of the Spirit show in our lives. The fruit are;

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Forbearance (patience)
• Kindness
• Goodness
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-control

If you want more of any of these fruit you need more of the Holy Spirit.

The Gifts of the Spirit are more active. If we are living holy lives (the way the Holy Spirit leads us to live) and we are praying and reading our Bibles then we can begin to move in the power of the Holy Spirit.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
Acts 1:8a NLT

This power comes in various forms and we call these gifts. The gifts are;

• Words of wisdom
• Words of knowledge
• Faith
• Gifts of healing
• Miracles
• Prophecy
• Distinguishing of spirits
• Tongues
• Interpretation of tongues

Some of these are obvious what they are and others a bit more confusing. For now all that’s important is that the more we live the way the Holy Spirit advises us the more He will gift us with these powers.

What do we mean by ‘being baptised in the Holy Spirit’?

When you put your faith in Jesus (when you let Him pay for all the mistakes you’ve ever made and begin to follow Him) we believe at that point you are saved. Your next step is then to get baptised. This has two parts. First, it is a public way for you to say “I believe in Jesus”. The second is a spiritual moment when you die to your old self, and come alive again with Jesus with a new life.  At this point it is like you’ve got a clean slate. All the stuff you’ve previously done is wiped away and you’re now clean of all you’re mistakes.

But now we believe there is something more. If you stopped there you would have a new, clean life but you would still be missing that power we were talking about. When you get baptised in the Holy Spirit it is like the Holy Spirit Himself comes to live inside of you.

Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’
John 7:38 NLT

Before it was like you needed to go to a well for water. If you wanted to be spiritually refreshed you needed to go to someone who had received the Holy Spirit and get something from them. But once you’ve been baptised in the Holy Spirit it is like you get a tap put in your heart. That way you can draw water from the Holy Spirit whenever you want, wherever you want.

What actually happens when you get baptised in the Holy Spirit?

Like we said, when you get baptised in the Holy Spirit we believe He comes to live inside of you. And when He does He gives you a sign to show you that He’s there. That sign is the gift of the tongues.

As great as our language is, there are no words to describe how awesome God is. And sometimes there are no words to describe the feeling and emotions inside of us. Tongues is like a private language from our spirit to God’s spirit. It allows us to praise God for how incredible He is even if we don’t have the right words because the Holy Spirit has provided the words for us.

Note, we said tongues is a language from our spirit to God’s spirit, not our minds. We don’t make up the words or try to come up with them. They flow naturally from our spirit.

To finish up

We know this a complicated and confusing topic. We’ve done our best to summarise the basics here, but there is loads we haven’t covered. You’re also bound to have lots of questions, so please feel free to come to one of your leaders and ask them. We love your questions.

To end, we just wanted to bring this last thought.

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.”
Luke 11:11-13 NLT

God wants to give you the Holy Spirit. You don’t have to convince Him. All you need to do is let Him know how much you want Him.