Search
Search

Receive the Holy Spirit

LISTEN NOW

John 20:21-22 (NIV)

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

CONSIDER THIS

Blessings to you this Pentecost Sunday! Today we begin our new series titled “Receive the Holy Spirit” – and I’m looking forward to our journey together.

Breathe in deeply with me for a moment. Now, breathe out. Feels good, doesn’t it? Our breath is unseen, but yet is so very, very real. Breath and breathing are powerful, primal images for us as human beings. To breathe is to be alive.

In the Bible, the Holy Spirit is understood to be God’s very breath – the pure expression of his sustaining, creating, and transforming life (Gen. 1:2). In the Nicene Creed, the Holy Spirit is called “the giver of life.” Anything we can, and could say about the Holy Spirit will always come back to the fact that the Spirit is the breath, the wind, the living, active, creative, and life-giving presence – of the Creator of the universe.

In John 20, the image of the Spirit as the breath of God comes to the fore as Jesus steps into a room full of bewildered disciples immediately following his resurrection. Can you imagine the moment? Mary said she had seen the Lord (v. 18) – should they, could they, believe her? As Jesus enters the room where they’ve been hiding from the Jewish authorities (v. 19), they are suddenly awakened from their unbelief, fear, and disillusionment – they are seeing Jesus alive before their very eyes!

He is breathing again, by the Spirit that raised him from the dead (Rom. 8:11)! Their Lord was just recently breath-less on the cross; now he is standing in front of them, breath-full and ready to provide divine resuscitation to any soul ready to rise with him! Jesus begins to speak, and in the same way Jesus spoke to the disciples in that room where their lives changed for good, so too our risen Lord walks into the room of our hearts, by the Spirit, and speaks these words to you and I today.

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you!” Receive his comfort.

“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Receive his commission.

“And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” Receive his life-giving blessing – his presence, strength, and hope for all your days ahead!

So how about it? Are you ready to join the early disciples? Are you ready to receive the Holy Spirit? Are you ready to breathe more deeply the breath of God? That’s what these days will be about for us.

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

THE PRAYER

Jesus, I receive the Holy Spirit. Open me up to receive all you have for me. Come, Holy Spirit. I open my heart to you as the disciples did, to receive the life-giving gift of your presence. I am ready for my own personal Pentecost. I receive your Holy Spirit!

THE QUESTIONS

  1. Have you ever needed to catch a good, full breath? How did it feel when you felt that unseen air rush into your lungs?
  2. In what ways does that moment speak of what happened for the disciples in John 20 – and what can happen in you if you open yourself now to receive the Holy Spirit?

For the Awakening,
Dan Wilt

Share today's Wake-Up Call!

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

Comments and Discussion

3 Responses

  1. Although I’ve never experienced the sensation of physical drowning, I can imagine that the reception of the Holy Spirit would be much the same except in a spiritual sense, as one is able to expel the water and inhale air again.

  2. I can speak about shortness of breath as an asthma sufferer. There have been times during heavy physical exertion that I had to sit or lie down because my breathing was so labored and short it seemed as though no air was being taken in through my lungs. This was the moment before I thought I might pass out. Then as my restricted, shortened breathing allowed my muscles to recieve the oxygen they required each following breath became easier. Then my heart rate began to slow. A calm came over me. Relaxation finally allowed that first full breath and a calm peace settled over me. Yes, there have been instances where the emergency inhaler I carry seemed the only thing that saved my life.

  3. When I received the Holy Spirit, I’d been recently baptized in a Methodist Church – an Associate Pastor was to preach that Sunday night & the Senior Pastor & his wife had sat behind us. I turned around to him & simply said I want to be baptized tonight – my little girl & I. She was 3, about to start Sunday School. I had wanted to help & was told I should be baptized when I’d asked should I be. Without hesitating, the pastor got up, got the baptism bowl w water & after the sermon, i, then my little girl were both baptized. As I knelt being baptized I prayed in my heart to a God who I wanted to hear me: “I believe. Help me with my unbelief.” A couple of nights later, l I didn’t feel any different & was very disappointed. I lay in bed that night and for hours i cried out to God desperately wanting to know that I belonged to Him. If He was real & if He loved me, like the Bible says, He could do that. It wouldn’t be a hard thing for Him to do..I asked Him to fill me w the Holy Spirit. I asked Him to make speak in tongues – I asked Him to fill me with a double portion of Elijah’s Holy Spirit. I asked Him would He take me by the hand & lead me and teach me like a good Father? This travailing prayer went on for hours. Then suddenly I felt a whoosh of Peace from the top of my head down through my feet and clearly I heard the most beautiful voice or voices w kind of a sound like rushing waters saying, “Do not be worried. Remember this.” And I passed out. At some point later that night, I suddenly sat straight up in bed from that sound sleep and I spoke in tongues. I was over the top excited and this time I heard more like a whisper thought “Read Paul.” I got up from bed, retrieved a Bible and began reading earnestly – as I read then and in the coming days out loud, streams of tears flowed onto my lap onto my Bible – it felt like I had been starving and now was being fed – I was gulping it down. The Words I was reading were now going straight into my heart – piercing it – instead of just into my head. They had changed from words on a page to spiritual food for my starving soul. Everything had changed. Everything.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *