The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14
Last time I provided two high-level steps to pursue if we want to meet with the Holy Spirit personally: 1. Ask the Holy Spirit to meet with us and reveal Himself to us in personal ways. 2. Ask people we know who seem to walk closer with the Spirit than we do to pray for us to receive more of the Spirit’s tangible presence in our lives.
Simple, right? Well, it’s amazing how many Christians are afraid to do that. Why? Because we don’t have an accurate concept of the Holy Spirit’s personality. So when we think of the Spirit it’s all kinds of weird… maybe even creepy… emotions. We know that this is God we’re talking about, but many of us have heard about Christians that are into the Holy Spirit that don’t fit our model of Christian decorum.
If that describes you, then let me admit that there are excesses out there. True. But that’s no reason to live in spiritual poverty just so you won’t be linked with the excesses that sometimes associated with spiritual wealth.
It’s kind of like some poor person saying, “I don’t want to be wealthy… have you seen the headlines in the grocery store checkout mags? Those wealthy people are wacko!” If that’s how you feel, let me tell you that there are plenty of wealthy people who aren’t wacko—you just never read about them in the grocery store checkout.
The same applies to what today’s verse calls, “the communion of the Holy Spirit,” which Paul prays over the Corinthian believers. If we knew the Holy Spirit as a person, this wouldn’t be a problem. You *hear* about people doing odd things in meetings where the Spirit is moving.
So the question is: Are we really choosing to live in spiritual poverty because we’re afraid of:
– Other people associating us with people who we hear do odd things?
– Doing the odd things we hear about?
– That we’ll get a counterfeit experience of the Spirit?
– We’re afraid of the Holy Spirit who is God (3rd person of the Trinity)?
The very fact that there are counterfeits shows that the genuine thing is really valuable. The fact that there are excesses tells us there is the authentic. That is why we should not miss a genuine relationship with the Holy Spirit.
Remember it’s our Father and Jesus who give us the Holy Spirit, and Jesus promised that if we ask for bread He won’t give us a stone, and if we ask for fish He won’t give us a snake. “…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11-13)
That’s the good news: God wants us all to know His Spirit personally. And that is why Paul’s prayer for believers still rings true:
“The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (1 Cor 2:13)