Holy Spirit

In Us, Through Us, For Us

Have you ever done something you swore to yourself and everyone else you would never do? “Ew I would never date them!” or “I would never do what they did.” Sometimes it’s to ourselves or someone we care about. “I will always love you” You’re 14. No, you will not always love them.

I remember many times in my life I have made promises to myself like this. The image in my head of God laughing every-time I use words like always and never is permanently etched in my subconscious.

I think we have all struggled with this at one time or another. Sometimes it comes from a place of genuinely believing. Other times, we are trying to make people see a version of ourselves that we wish was there, but we know doesn’t actually exist. Where ever it is coming from, deep down we know we can never live up to who we want to be. At least, not on our own.

Peter is an interesting cat in the Bible. He had some of the highest highs and lowest lows with Jesus. He was the first to say Jesus is the Son of God, but he also tried to keep Jesus from fulfilling His mission of going to the cross, but Peter also followed really close to Jesus in His final hours on earth as He was being abused and mocked, but Peter also denied that he knew Jesus 3 times to a 12 yr old girl. My boy was conflicted. But I get it. There was something that was missing in Peter’s life that Jesus gave him. Jesus was patient with Peter, just like He is with us.

Peter’s entire time with Jesus, Jesus kept calling him to be something no one else saw. A leader. Peter was called to lead, but he need to know who he was first. He needed to know his identity.

Acts 2:1–14 NLT

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!” Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this.

Peter went from a coward, scared of a 12 year old girl by a fire to a bold follower of Jesus calling out a crowd as murderers. That doesn’t just happen. There has to be a significant event to change that. Something big. Something huge! It has to be God!

Peter struggled with his identity. He never really knew who he was. He was a fisherman, then a follower of Jesus, then when Jesus died, he felt lost. His identity was tied up in what he did or who he was with.

But how many of us have struggled with that exact same thing? Struggling with who we are based on who is around us? Or what we do? Our identity can get lost in a lot of things that don’t really matter to our identity. They are important, but not the most important.

We’ve learned about God our Father the creator, we’ve learned that Jesus was fully man and fully God. The Holy Spirit is very important as well. He is the promise Jesus gave as He went to heaven after the resurrection. Next month we will go more into who He is, but for now. Let’s talk about how He relates to who you are.

Ephesians 1:13 NLT

And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.

When you accept Jesus as your savior you receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. This means you are a child of God. That is who you are. It is part of your identity. With that identity comes many other aspects. But here’s the catch. You have to accept and believe that God has accepted you as His own. Without that core belief, nothing else will seem true to you. You will excuse it away as if it is for someone else.