The
Holy Spirit: Working Behind the Scenes
Stephen
Terry
Commentary
for the January 14, 2017 Sabbath School Lesson
“The wind blows wherever it pleases.
You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is
going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8, NIV
For some, when talk comes around to the idea of the Holy
Spirit, they get a little tingle of creepiness up their spine. This may have been
even more so for those raised with the King James Version of the Bible where
Holy Spirit is more apt to be translated as Holy Ghost. This is reflected in a
popular children’s cartoon of the past about Caspar, the Friendly Ghost. That
the creator had to label him as “friendly” speaks to the general apprehension
when it comes to such creatures. Why is there such fear related to ghosts or
spirits? Perhaps it is because some are fearful that these spirits are
individuals who have died and returned in an ephemeral form to wreak mischief
or even worse, work lethal vengeance against the living for things done to them
in life. The fear-generated hopelessness of such a situation comes when the
victim realizes they cannot remove the threat because they cannot kill someone
already dead.
We may wish to blame such fears on Hollywood and the
horror genre of films, but these fears predated such fare. Spiritualists have
long capitalized on this belief in the dead returning as spirits, as they
purported to be able to put the lovelorn in touch with deceased loved ones by
contacting their spirits, usually for a fee. The famed escape artist, Harry
Houdini, in the early 20th century, made a practice of debunking
these spiritual séances, and other magicians since his death in 1926 have made
a practice of doing the same.[i] Nonetheless, the desire to
once again see or speak with a departed love one can be strong, and even in the
face of exposure of such scams people still travel to supposed “seers” in an
effort to reach out to the dead. But is such a thing possible?
The Bible tells us it is not.[ii] Solomon wrote, “…the dead
know nothing,”[iii]
and in Job, we read the dead “…will not awake or be roused from their sleep.”[iv] If this is what happens
to us when we die, then it seems communicating in any useful way with a dead
person is impossible, at least until Jesus raises the dead when He returns.[v] Our conclusion then should
be that the Holy Ghost or perhaps more appropriately, Holy Spirit, has nothing
to do with the idea of disembodied ghosts, since the whole idea of dead people’s
spirits roaming about is fallacious. Therefore we can move beyond that fear and
discover that God’s got Talent that we may have underutilized in our spiritual
journey.
But what is the Holy Spirit? It seems that although the
Spirit has nothing to do with dead creatures it is still of an ephemeral
nature. The Hebrew word for Spirit in the Old Testament is often ר֣וּחַ
(pronounced ruach), and that word
carries with it the idea of wind or breath. This is something that can float or
hover over the waters.[vi] It is something that can
somehow fill us with inspiration and skill through its presence.[vii] It comes from a place
called heaven.[viii]
It is like the wind, seen through its influence but not usually visible
otherwise.[ix] While at times its wind-like
nature is barely perceived, on rare occasions it can be a mighty, forceful gust
capable of shaking buildings.[x] Anyone who has ever sat
through a violent wind storm and felt the building they were in shake and groan
as the wind buffeted it knows how impressive that can be. How strange it seems
then that such a powerful being can fill our humble frame and bring into our
lives things that seem contrary to such a force, things like patience, peace,
compassion, and humility.
While these traits seem desirable it begs the question.
How do we get into a relationship with the Holy Spirit? Some might have us believe
that it happens to some Christians but not all. Others might teach that it is
imparted only to ordained clergy, and everyone else needs to obtain it
second-hand through them. Some might even believe that we must “pray through”
to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. This, however, sounds a little like
the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel trying to get their god to respond through
strenuous chanting, prophesying and dancing.[xi] In spite of our
persistent desire to inject human effort into everything as some sort of a
standard of worthiness before God will act, the Bible assures us that salvation
is a gift.[xii]
If salvation is a gift and the Holy Spirit’s presence has anything to do with salvation,
it would seem then that the Holy Spirit is also a gift.
Interestingly, Peter expresses it exactly that way. His
words to his audience on Pentecost were, ““Repent and be baptized, every one of
you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”[xiii] Repentance means we do
an about face. We stop walking away from God and start walking toward Him. Perhaps
this is because it is hard to receive a gift when we are avoiding the One giving
it. Next we are baptized as a public proclamation of our change in direction as
well as a symbolic dying to our old life and rising to a new one. Even Jesus
felt this was necessary although He had never walked away from His heavenly
Father.[xiv] Just as Jesus
immediately received the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter assures us we will
receive that gift as well. Some have told me that there is a magic formula for
this. They insist that one cannot be baptized “in the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit” per Matthew 28:19,[xv] but must instead be
baptized in the name of Jesus only per Peter’s formula. However, this is
doubtful as Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, who probably used neither
formula.
We should importantly note that Peter does not
equivocate regarding the Holy Spirit. He does not say some might get it. He
says all will get it, once repentant and baptized. It is a certainty. Then it would
seem if we feel we have not received the Holy Spirit after our baptism, we at
least make Peter out to be false, and maybe even God, for we indicate by such a
belief that we do not share in the experience of Jesus. Yet, Peter was
preaching on Pentecost after being filled with the special presence of the Spirit
of God. He would not lie about this for the Holy Spirit was speaking through
him[xvi].
Another interesting aspect to all of this is that the
ordinance that includes this receipt of the Holy Spirit as a divinely endowed
gift is the ordinance of ordination. While men have been vainly going about
proclaiming I ordain this person or that person and therefore their work for
God is now recognized, as though they somehow controlled the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of God has been quietly, perhaps even surreptitiously, going about
ordaining everyone who will come to God. Men like to make great drama about
these things on the public stage, but if we look at it carefully, all the
elements of ordination that were used for Aaron and his sons are present in
Peter’s proclamation. When we repent, we receive the blood of Jesus as atonement
for our sins, just as the blood was sprinkled on Aaron and his sons.[xvii] When we are baptized,
we are receiving the same symbolic cleansing with water that the Aaronic
priests received.[xviii]
Thirdly, when we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive the reality that was
symbolized by the oil poured on Aaron and all who came after him.[xix][xx]
In a world where the church claims the right to
restrictlvely ration ordination in a manner that allows no one to speak or
preach authoritatively unless they have the approval of a powerful cabal of
church leaders, the Holy Spirit’s work is downright subversive. But did Peter
understand what he was preaching in this way? It seems he did, for he wrote of
a universal priesthood,[xxi] and the apostles
themselves operated in a radical manner, bypassing the authoritative priesthood
in Jerusalem to disseminate a subversive doctrine that eliminated the need for
that same quasi-governmental priesthood. They did not go to the temple to obtain
ordination. They were already ordained as each of God’s followers is ordained
today. Instead they went out in the power of the Holy Spirit and radically
turned their world upside down for God. Undoubtedly their authority to do so
was challenged. Even Jesus’ authority was challenged.[xxii] We should expect our priestly
authority to be challenged as well. The Holy Spirit doesn’t care, and perhaps
neither should we.
