Not many people have warm and fuzzy feelings when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Let’s face it: the Holy Spirit is a bit weird. He’s unpredictable, has no consideration for schedules, He might cause us to do a bit of dancing, and He has a totally different language that makes us feel like we’re babbling babies. We just can’t seem to get a handle on who He is and what He does, so we put Him in a box.
I have a love-hate relationship with boxes. I love them because they store things in a neat, orderly way. They protect my belongings when moving from one place to the next – even from country to country. They fit together – stacked according to size and shape – like a puzzle. But I have a bit of a rebel side. If someone tells me I have to fit in a certain type and size of box, there’s a voice inside that rises up and says Oh yeah? And who do you think you are? Then I start focusing my attention on making sure I don’t fit into anyone’s box. I don’t like being put in a box.
This rebel side has led me into trouble a few times in the past, but that’s for another day. Today, I want to look at the box the Holy Spirit is typically confined to – and by extension, God. Makes me wonder if the Holy Spirit is a bit of a rebel, too.
The Holy Spirit is described in numerous ways, but His most popular descriptors are comforter, advocate, helper and counselor. This helps us fit Him into a box a bit more easily. He comforts us, He offers us peace, He translates for us by communicating to God in a way that God can understand, He guides us in making decisions, and He convinces God to not get angry with us.
Raise your hand if you noticed something not quite right in all that. But that resembles the box we tend to put Him in, and it’s – sadly – how many people think God feels about us. God is not angry with His children, He knows better than we do of what we need and when we need it, and He keeps His promises every time.
Like the Father and the Son, there are not enough words to describe the Holy Spirit. We’re not going to understand, but it’s time to open the box and learn to trust.
We’re not going to come close to having a full revelation of the Trinity, and that’s okay. But who are we to think we can place limits on Him and make Him out to be smaller and less powerful than He is? He’s the Creator of everything! He is Holy and dwells inside us… this is only possible because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. We are literally housing the great I Am! But we’re trying to explain Him away so that we feel like He fits inside us instead of us growing to better accommodate Him. A bit backwards if you ask me.
It’s pretty easy to take hold of 1 or 2 attributes of the Holy Spirit and call it good. Having a Comforter is great – who doesn’t need more peace? And having Someone else tell us the path we need to take is a real Godsend (pun fully intended). But that’s not all the Holy Spirit was sent to do. That’s only a part of His job description.
The Holy Spirit is meant to always point us to Jesus. Every time we make a mistake, He’s there… pointing us back to Jesus. When we’re crying out for help, He’s there to point us back to Jesus. As humans, we have very short memories. We easily forget the times that God was actively pulling us through, but the Holy Spirit is there to bring those memories to the forefront. It’s like He’s always telling us that it will be okay, just look to Jesus. He’s our supply. He’s our hope. He’s the One who produces the good through us.
That good stuff produced in and through us is also known as the fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We want those in our life so much that we focus our efforts in seeing our lives yield those fruits. We focus on the fruits instead of Who gives us the strength and means to produce them. There we are, living life with the Holy Spirit mostly boxed up, and we’re putting in every effort we can muster to show the world a fruit we can’t produce on our own.
We’re focused on trying to come up with and follow a formula that will explain how to be an effective Christian, will give us a sense of accomplishment and validation, and we’ve been duped into thinking we can do it with the Holy Spirit boxed up.
If we allowed the Holy Spirit to be out of the box and lead us, we might be held liable for not just the fruits of the Spirit, but also the gifts. These aren’t as popularly taught on because they’re the weird ones. These are the ones that rarely get a lot of time and attention because they can’t be explained in our humanness.
There’s the gift of prophesy, healing, speaking in tongues (top 3 reasons the Holy Spirit is doomed to life in a box), interpreting the tongues spoken, miraculous powers, and discernment between spiritual beings. These are the gifts that we want to only unwrap if we know how they work… and if we know how they work, wouldn’t it be just like us to try to take some form of credit for it?
Some of the other gifts of the Spirit include wisdom, knowledge, mercy, encouragement, leadership, giving, serving, teaching, and having a strong faith. Not to knock these because these are substantial in their own right, but in some ways, they can be measured by man. You have wisdom and knowledge, leadership and teaching – perhaps you had an exceptional education. Serving and giving – must be your love language and you’ve cultivated it for all to see. Faith and mercy – you must spend a lot of time in your Bible.
Many people aim for the fruits and disregard the gifts, and almost everyone views them as rewards for good, diligent behavior. They’re called gifts of the Spirit, not rewards of the Spirit, and who said we have to choose between the fruits and the gifts? We work really hard to yield the fruits (or even just one of them) but fail to recognize that if we are walking out who God says we are, those fruits will naturally come – all of them and not just one.
Jesus promised the disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came (Acts 1:8). He didn’t tell them that they would get a few chill bumps, use persuasive words to convince people to follow God, and struggle though life. They would receive power. Power to do the will of God. Power to produce signs and wonders that can only be from God. That hasn’t changed because my God hasn’t changed. We’re to receive the Holy Spirit and the power that comes with Him. That’s how we walk out the gifts and produce the fruits. It will not be something that happens by accident, but it will most certainly not be something I can take any credit for.
The fruits and manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit do not happen just because we accept Jesus. A strong marriage doesn’t happen on accident either. We have to be purposeful in our relationship. This means spending time with God. Reading His Word, prayer, and praise and worship. I am, however, opposed to the emphasis being on my efforts. My efforts are not very powerful. I get sidelined by my desire for coffee.
If the Bible tells us to lay hands on the sick and they will recover (Mark 16:17-18), that’s what we should be doing. The Holy Spirit living on the inside of me is just as strong and mighty today as He was when disciples first received Him. The Holy Spirit is God and God does not change (Malachi 3:6, Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 13:8, Romans 11:29). What He did then, He will do now. What He does for one person, He will do for another.
The Holy Spirit will make His home in anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord – no matter if you’re kicking a drug habit, sitting inside a prison cell for a heinous crime, a Sunday school teacher, or the average Joe. And when He moves in, He brings with Him everything for you to be able to live a life of power and influence, walking out the fruits and gifts of the Spirit so that your light is shining in a dark world.
There’s no formula, but we need to burn the box. It’s time to tell the Holy Spirit to have His way in our lives. It’s tough to trust, but life lived inside a box is no life at all. As you open the box to let the Holy Spirit out, you’ll find out that you were existing inside the box as well. It’s time to trust that God is good and has your very best in mind. Burn the box.