How Did the Coming of the Holy Spirit Revolutionize the
People of God?
One of the most well-known and frequently quoted verses
regarding the Holy Spirit in Scripture would be Acts 1:8, “But you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And the following
chapters in Acts provide us with the details about what happened in the early church
after the coming of the Holy Spirit. Maybe because of my lack of understanding
of the Bible, my impression about the works of the Spirit had been limited, for
a long time, to the signs and wonders, speaking in tongues, healing diseases,
casting out demons and so on. Based on that, I was fairly convinced that I was
saved and even a good Christian because I got a gift of speaking in tongues.
However, these erroneous notions of my being a saved
Christian and of the Holy Spirit were shattered three years ago when I encountered
God, not on the way to Damascus, but in my room. After the encounter, I started
to strongly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in my heart and
witness what the Spirit is about. One of the first things I remember about the
works of the Spirit was convicting me of my sin or my sinful nature, which neither
I could realize by myself nor do anything about it to redeem myself. In John
16:7-8 Jesus says, “But if I go I will send him (the Helper) to you and when he
comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.”
Of course I did repent of my sins on a regular basis, as best as I could
remember before I received the Holy Spirit. However, the sin the Holy Spirit
prompted me to repent of was way beyond my previous concept or acknowledgement of
sin. The Spirit enlightened me to see my whole being or nature is in and of itself
sin, not just a few apparent fruits of it. Upon this revelation, I realized, in
the truest sense, that I was doomed for good. However, in a split second, I was
told by the Spirit that there is someone who already took care of this
unbearable weight of sin. Yes, it is Jesus!!!! In the matter of a second, I
felt I was literally being transferred from total darkness to light. That was
the most dramatic, literally life-and-death experience I have ever had! And the
Spirit led me to profess that Jesus is my savior and my Lord, showing me the
vision that I am also being crucified on the cross where Christ died.
Another thing the Spirit did was revealing who God is. I was
born in a Christian family and grew up in the church for all my life, but I had
a very foggy idea of who God is. Especially when it comes to the triune God, I
had no clear idea about what each person of God is and does. However, the Holy
Spirit showed me who Father God, the son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are and
their distinct roles (?) among them with a vision. “Now all of us can come to
the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us
(Ephesians 2:18).” That is exactly the work of the Holy Spirit. “But when the
Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who
proceeds from the Father, he will witness about me (John 15:26).” He also bears
witness with my spirit that I am a child of God so that I can boldly call out
to him “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:6)
Also the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s word to me. John
14:26 says, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my
name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said to you.” Before I have the Spirit in me, Scripture seemed like a
strangely boring mystery book. Even with my best efforts, I barely understood
the literal or superficial meanings of the letters. However, when the Spirit
opened my spiritual eyes, I could see God’s relentless pursuit for the
redemption of His people through Christ Jesus in every book in the Bible.
Scripture has become no more a mysterious, irrelevant book to me, rather it is
a love letter written by God my heavenly Father.
Although all these works of the Spirit are equally wonderful
and awesome, if asked to single out the most amazing thing happened to my life
by the coming of the Holy Spirit, I would say the change of my heart I
witnessed. Despite my best intention and effort, I could not love God and
follow His good and pleasing will before. Honestly speaking, I did not want to
do that. If there was one reason for my trying to do so, probably that is
because I was scared of Him. I did not love him at all. I simply couldn’t.
However, what I experienced was actually prophesied over and over again in
Scripture. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will
write it on their heart. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people
(Jer. 31:33).” “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not
turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts,
that they may not turn from me (Jer. 32:40).” The Holy Spirit, as an
executioner of the new covenant, writes God’s law on our hearts and puts the
fear of God in the hearts. More importantly, he replaces our hard heart with a
new heart. “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit
within them. I will take away their stony, stubborn heart and give them a
tender, responsive heart so they will obey my decrees and regulations. Then
they will truly be my people, and I will be their God (Ezekiel 11:19-20).”
With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our heart, we
become a temple of God. “Do you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s
spirit dwells in you? (1Cor. 3:16).” This
is the ultimate fulfillment of the new covenant God made with us, the church.
What happened to the early church, I think, were basically
the same things I have described above. By the Holy Spirit poured out on them
on the day of Pentecost, the apostles and other believers were emboldened to
speak the gospel of Jesus Christ to the public. Many signs and wonders followed
them. However, the most fundamental power of the Holy Spirit is, I think,
leading people into repentance, hence salvation. “Because our gospel came to
you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full
conviction (1Thes. 1:5).” It is also this very power of the Holy Spirit to work
in the heart and mind of a believer, bearing fruit of the Spirit throughout
his/her life. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things
there is no law (Galatians 5:22).”
