Holy Spirit and Pentecost
"If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth […]” (John 14:15 - 18)
The person of the Holy Spirit is one of the many things that we are meant to enjoy every single day. While we will celebrate the feast of Pentecost - the time of the year that we remember how the Holy Spirit can come dwell in us and be with us - it’s great to know who He is for us as believers. What does the Holy Spirit mean to us in our everyday lives?
Let’s start in what should be the appropriately titled Genesis. The Father, as He created man; in that moment, He gave man the Holy Spirit through the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). This means that when you are created by the Father and chosen by Him, you can receive the Holy Spirit. This is a reality that is seen multiple times throughout the Old Testament. In fact, the Lord says in the book of Exodus that:
Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep and guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
- Exodus 23:20
That was the Holy Spirit. The Father sends the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him and obey Him (Luke 11:13, Acts 5:32). It’s all we need. Consequently, what does that mean for us in our daily lives?
If I were to give you context:
Let’s say that you have an opportunity to go hang out with your friends after school or work, but you know that you have stuff to do at home and prayer in the evening. The choice is yours, as all people have free will. If you allow the Holy Spirit to show you what the Father wants you to do, then you will go home and raincheck, knowing your time with the Father YHWH is imperative to your life.
That was an easy example.
But let’s say that you did go out with your friends to all hours of the night. You didn’t do anything that you were supposed to do at home and you completely missed your time of prayer. The time that you had consecrated to the Father, to your intimacy with Him, was given to your friends instead. You ignored what the Holy Spirit asked you to do and went out with your friends. In this situation, the Holy Spirit will remind you (John 14:26) of what you did and will put that guilt inside of you, making you want to ask for forgiveness and repent.
In truth, the Holy Spirit is meant to be a helper to us; bringing us closer to the Father with every choice that we make. The Feast of Pentecost is the time designated by the Lord so that we may understand that and truly appreciate the Father YHWH for sending us help to live a life we cannot live without Him.