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Longing for Real Life by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Longing for Real Life by the Power of the Holy Spirit

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When You send Your breath [or Spirit], they are created, and You renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

One of the remarkable things that stands out to me about the Holy Spirit is that He is precise. He is sent for a specific purpose. He is an agent of change, renewal, and redemption—that could look like fire at Pentecost, setting the faith of the earliest believers aflame; or it could look like rushing waters from Revelation, sweeping everything downstream that has not been tightly anchored to Him. He can come in as the consolation of the persecuted, the healing of the afflicted, or the resurrection of the dead.

He embodies the power of love but not as a nameless, faceless force. That He is an actual person is a hard concept to grasp, but we take this on faith to be true. And when you encounter Him—when you spend time in His presence—as John Wesley said, our hearts get warm. They are breathed back into life and light. He is a real person.

You see, breath indicates speech; speech indicates intelligence and an identity. It shows that there is an identity with ability and a desire to act. It means there is thought and character. Being alive means there is an ability to reproduce; and when the Holy Spirit comes, children, not slaves, are born. Relationships are restored. The hearts of fathers are turned to their children and children return to their parents in obedience and honor. Families are healed.

The Holy Spirit reverses the curse of entropy, of chaos. He renews to counterbalance the fallen state of this world that is headed for destruction. He creates, recreates, and makes us new over and over again. He is that good! His mercies are indeed new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22–23).

We need that real life. We need warmth and promise. We need to see the force of His beauty because so much of this world is ugly. We need the Lord to send His breath so that we might be created afresh to experience renewal. We want Him to reproduce His life in our hearts. We want to be shown what delights Him so that we might pursue that instead of what we think is best. We long for Him to reverse the curses spoken over us. We need His truth to cancel out the lies we’ve believed. We hope for absolute truth that shows us the reality of springtime in the middle of winter. We want be restored to hope and trust more fully in the promises of God.

This is all possible because fresh creation still happens when He is present. He is the spring following the long, barren winter. He is the strength of God, exhaled from heaven for hope, for good, and for nourishment. He is the essence of life, the very wholeness of God. He is life; He counteracts and conquers death. Life is the opposite of death, so when the Holy Spirit comes, there is healing and things come back to life. And God gets the glory.

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me with real life. Let me see the force with which You are renewing this earth, my life, and my heart. Put Your truth in me so that I may be set free to live in life and wholeness. Conquer the feeling of death in my life, and I will be careful to give You all the glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Thought

Where are you witnessing the Holy Spirit breathing renewal into your life, or into those close to you?

Group Discussion

1. What have you seen as the difference between your own creation and the creation work of God in your life?
2. Do you believe the Holy Spirit will still reverse the curse of chaos that exists in this world? Why or why not?
3. What effect does giving the Holy Spirit identity as a person—not just a force—have on your faith?

Did you enjoy this entry? It’s an excerpt from Third Person: Thirty Days with the Holy Spirit by Amy Vogel. “God exists in relationship and wants us to enter into relationship with Him, where we discover who we really are. Third Person is a thirty-day journey into a greater understanding of the Holy Spirit—this little-known person of the Trinity. As you gain understanding, you will see your life take on more meaning, color, and direction than you ever thought possible.” Get it from our store here.

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