Subscribe

                                                 ‘Experiencing’ the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is not a monument that we cannot experience in this generation! He is not Someone very far away that we cannot understand Him! When St. Paul went to Ephesus, he found some disciples and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” (Acts 19:2a). To which they replied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit,” (Acts 19:2b).

St. Paul found something lacking in them, that was not a ‘something’ but a ‘Someone’ they were missing.

The New Testament tells us that, “When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied – …,” (Acts 19:6).

The leaders and the failthful of the Church, in the beginning, lived in the reality of the Holy Spirit. When Peter had heard that many had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and had been baptized, he went all the way to Samaria to pray for them. “The two went down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit,” (Acts 8:15). And the Holy Scripture says beautifully, “Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit,” (Acts 8:17).

The Holy Spirit is not a mystery that we cannot personally experience. On the day of the festival, Jesus exclaimed in a loud voice, “ … ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” ’ ” (John 7:37-28) And this ‘living water’ is the Holy Spirit. Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Festival of Booths (also called the Feast of Tabernacles). During this week-long celebration, Israelites remember the intervention of God during their wandering in the desert (see Exodus). As part of this commemoration, priests would carry water from the pool of Siloam to the altar, remembering God’s provision of water for Israelites (Exodus 17:1-7). The last day of the feast was the ‘great day’; on this day, priests would recite Psalm 118:25 while walking 7 times around the altar. This backdrop is crucial for understanding why Jesus spoke these particular words at this particular time. This proclamation from Jesus is also similar to His dialogue with the Samaritan woman.

"But those who drink of the water that I will them will never be thirsty. The water that I will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."  (John 4:10-13). 

And these are the times heaven is speaking to us, and whispering in our hearts, “Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And these are the times when men are hearing the voice of God in the secret place of prayer, and declaring it from the rooftops, “Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit!”

In the words of St John Chrysostom, "Before we receive the Holy Ghost, we are like a man weighed down with age and infirmities, but when the Holy Ghost comes into us, we are made young, beautiful and full of energy," 

Bringing ‘heaven to the earth’ cannot come at its peak without experiencing being filled with the Holy Spirit. And that is ‘the baptism’ of the Holy Spirit. It is not about the mere ‘indwelling’ of the Holy Spirit; it is about being ‘filled to saturation’ with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Fr. Dominic Valanmanal, a diocesan priest, who leads Bible Conventions in Kerala (India), said at a Convention, how God revealed to him that he needs ‘to teach’ others the necessity to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And that’s God's agenda for today, ‘the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on a thirsty heart’.

Jesus spoke an important ‘prayer secret’ while He was teaching on prayer and the Holy Spirit. We find that in the Gospel of Saint Luke Chapter 11: 5-13. He spoke of having ‘persistence’ in prayer. It’s called ‘prevailing prayer’. We need to develop in this area. “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him, whatever he needs,” (Luke 11:8). Here, Jesus was speaking about adding ‘persistence’ into our prayer for being filled with the Holy Spirit, for He ended this instruction with, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

In the earlier years of the Charismatic Retreats that originated and grew from Potta, we were always taught to pray only to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When people approached Priests or Counselors for any problem, the advice was always, “Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Many took this admonition seriously and prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and found that many problems and situations that they were in, left them!! God started adding wonderful things into their lives – marriage, job, business, and things were added into their lives. Physical healing, inner healing, and spiritual healing took place as they seriously prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It was purely the fulfillment of the Word, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well,” (Matthew 6:33).

A man of God was sharing, how God instructed him to tell people not to ask for cars or house or marriage or any other material thing but to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And he says, "When we did for hundred days, we inevitably ended up attracting those things that were never specifically asked for; God provided for mass weddings, people started receiving cars which they never asked for, and much more. That's Matthew 6:33 coming to pass.

In the Early Church, it was considered strange and abnormal to have no experience of the Holy Spirit!! Today, not having any experience is considered to be normal!! There is a comic take about this. Someone recently remarked, “If the Holy Spirit was removed from the Early Church, 90% of their activities would have stopped. If the Holy Spirit is removed from today’s Church, 90% of our activities will still go on!! In fact, no one will even notice!!” 

Jesus is knocking at our hearts, to open our lives to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And not just ‘filled’, but ‘filled to saturation and overflow’. Get hungry and thirsty for the Holy Spirit.

“I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit,” (John 1:33).

We need to accept the fact that ‘true’ Catholic life is a life ‘in-the-Spirit’ and not the kind of lives most of us live today.

The Saint, Cure d'Ars said, "Those who love the Holy Ghost experience every kind of happiness within themselves. The Holy Ghost leads us like a mother leads her little child, or like a -person with sight leads a blind man. Those who love the Holy Ghost find prayer so delightful that they cannot find sufficient time to pray."

 On Devotion to the Holy Ghost Pope Leo XIII wrote...

"These sublime truths, which so clearly show forth the infinite goodness of the Holy Ghost towards us, certainly demand that we should direct towards Him the highest homage of our love and devotion. 

Christians may do this most effectually if they will daily strive to know Him, to love Him, and to implore Him more earnestly; for which reason may this Our exhortation, flowing spontaneously from a paternal heart, reach their ears. 

As it may be there are still to be found among them, even nowadays, some, who if asked, as were those of old by St. Paul the Apostle, whether they have received the Holy Ghost, might answer in like manner: "We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost" (Acts xix., 2). At least there are certainly many who are very deficient in their religious practices, but their faith is involved in much darkness. Wherefore all preachers and those having care of souls should remember that it is their duty to instruct their people more diligently and more fully about the Holy Ghost..."

(From the forthcoming book "THE HOLY SPIRIT: BRINGING HEAVEN DOWN TO THE EARTH". )