I have a question for you: What are the results of your relationship with the Holy Spirit? Not an easy answer, particularly when the expected answer is not one that lists the side dishes, i.e. visible manifestations, experiential moments of varying physical intensity and such other, including -if you allow me some fringe thoughts- miracles.
In Genesis the Spirit of God ‘hovered” over the waters. He was there, He was up over the waters, maybe within reach, but hovering, not yet coming down. Hovering over the surface of the waters did not have any effect on earth in the story of creation in Genesis chapter one.
And then God said.
John tells us in the Gospel he wrote: In the beginning was the Word. And Genesis states that “In the beginning God created heavens and earth”.
Now, let me try to put some “together sense” in my statements above. I believe that when the book of Genesis states that God said, it is simply saying that God spoke the Word. And that something happened. When God spoke the Word, the Holy Spirit came and worked out what God the Father has said.
Do you see it? God the Father spoke the Word and the Holy Spirit performed it. God the Father spoke “Jesus” it and it was, it happened by the power and action of the Holy Spirt.
The Trinity at work!
That is the basic difference between the Holy Spirit hovering, moving, or touching some with some blessings, and Christians -individually and corporately as a church- moving in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is powerful and when He moves there will always be something that displays the power. Like in the Upper Room. There was the sound of a mighty wind. There were flames of fire over each one -not just on the twelve Apostles- but on everyone. And they all spoke in tongues. And the people in the streets saw and heard unusual things.
Awesome! The Holy Spirit moved!
However, the real transformation, the influence that brought change to society happened a few moments later, when the disciples came down from that Upper Room and the most powerful body the world has ever seen was born and went on from there to “put the whole world upside down”.
Awesome! Now THEY moved in the Holy Spirit.
In these days when so many are chasing after the “things” of the Spirit, not even the Holy Spirit as a person, but the things of the Spirit: The supernatural, the thrill, the goosebumps, the ecstasy, we would do well to remember that what changes individuals and communities is Christians moving in the Holy Spirit.
The difference is still the same. It does not matter how many encounters we may have with His Spirit, and neither does it matter how many unusual manifestations one can see in our church meetings: If we Christians do not MOVE in the Holy Spirit all we see are mere droplets, the Holy Spirit trying to catch our attention and inviting us to move in Him, with Him, and become the factor of change in our communities, and in the whole nation.
J. Conrad Lampan
Facebook: ConradLampan
Twitter: @ConradLampan
