The Advocate

Acts 2:2&4 “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”

Please read Acts 2:1-4. The truth is, the Church cannot be the Church without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot function or be all that God has created us to be. We need the Holy Spirit.

Sadly, some folks have found a way of doing Church without the Holy Spirit. People have become experts in navigating Church life without the Holy Spirit. Folks have become masters of ceremony; bringing various acts, performing artists just to stir people up, without the Holy Spirit. I have nothing against the performing artists but performing arts can never replace the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Throughout the ages, the Holy Spirit has been grossly misunderstood. From the first day, He was fully ushered into the earth, into the Church of Jesus, He was totally misunderstood. When they saw the people speaking in other tongues, they said they were drunk. Peter had to say to them, no one gets drunk at nine o’clock in the morning. Even today, on one extreme, are people that are always in frenzy, acting crazy, claiming they are filled with the Holy Spirit. On the other extreme, are people who feel they do not need or do not want to have anything to do with the Holy Spirit. God neither wants us to give Him a bad name nor deny Him.

The person of the Holy Spirit is so powerful. The Church needs Him because He is like the air that we breathe. We cannot do Church without the Holy Spirit. Having Church without the Holy Spirit is like missing the essence of the existence of the organism called the Church. We depend on the Holy Spirit. However, because we do not understand Him, we cannot relate to Him. More than twenty years ago, while I was serving in Northern Nigeria, I was sharing with a group of believers from the L.C.C.N. church. They were believers but they were sceptical about baptism in the Holy Spirit and they had a lot of questions. So, I proposed to them that if I answer all their questions with the Bible, they must believe in the Holy Spirit, and they agreed. Question after question, scripture after scripture, answering their questions. By the time we were done, the Holy Spirit hit the room and they were all speaking in tongues. I did not have to lay hands on any of them. The place was on fire literally to the glory of God because the ignorance was out of the way. Ignorance hinders a lot of people from advancing in their walk with God.

Prayer: Holy Spirit of the Living God, I open my heart and life to You, I need You to talk with God and be all that God has called me to be. Have free sway in my life, in Jesus Name. Amen!