Spirit

Acts 1:8 - What you'll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world."

We've all talked about highs and lows. We've gone down to the "valleys of death" and risen again to experience a fresh start, a new lease on life. Maybe we're in the valley right now. Maybe we're climbing out. Maybe we're floating on a pink cloud, thinking life just couldn't be any better than it is right now. "If only we could stay like this," we think to ourselves.

I've had my share of ups and downs. Sometimes, they mesh together. One area of life that once was a constant struggle now seems a success, but another area of life seems to be going downhill fast. 

I remember the first feelings I experienced after I took my last drink of alcohol. The feelings themselves were a brand new concept. After years of flushing them down, I finally experienced sadness, pain, happiness, and peace. I didn't know what to do with them, but I felt them nonetheless which was a bonus in itself.

Throughout the scriptures, there is this concept of a Holy Spirit, or Spirit. It's referred to in many different ways:

Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss.

The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.

. . . the Spirit that brings wisdom and understanding, The Spirit that gives direction and builds strength, the Spirit that instills knowledge . . .

Yes, weep and grieve until the Spirit is poured down on us from above And the badlands desert grows crops and the fertile fields become forests.

And that's just the beginning: After that-- "I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters. Your old men will dream, your young men will see visions.

  

"I live in the high and holy places, but also with the low-spirited, the spirit--crushed, And what I do is put new spirit in them, get them up and on their feet again."

Time and time again, the authors of the scriptures described this phenomenon of Spirit pouring and filling and refreshing and giving and instilling.

Even Isaiah the prophet told the Israelites to weep and grieve until the Spirit poured down to break the deadly drought they were in.

What the Spirit meant to the authors was this gift that rained down from the heavens, this energizing, refreshing gift from the gods that seemed to refresh and create new life in people. And then, Jesus entered the scene.

He tells the disciples that soon the spirit would come on them, that they'd be able to do things they'd never imagined. They would be awakened to things they'd been asleep to for a very long time. They'd have new breath inside them.

But, this was just the beginning. The concept of Spirit changed from the way it was used in the Old Testament. You almost had to catch it. You almost had to be in the right place at the right time, and somehow the stars would align, and you would start saying things that made everybody think you were a loon. 

Even in the days of Joel, thousands of years before, it was forecasted that God would "pour out His spirit on all people." And so, it's happening. What was originally reserved for the special, chosen ones of God, was now meant for everyone. Everyone got a piece of the pie now. 

And that brings us back to highs and lows. To capture that awakening sense of relief and refreshment after experiencing a day, a month, a year, or multiple years of turmoil is to capture the Spirit of God at work.

What's been poured out on us, or instilled in us, or given to us, or rained on us, is this piece of God, this spirit, this breath, that is constantly breathing new life and new hope. When we awaken to it, and pay attention to it, it gives us the ability to do things we'd never thought possible. Some of those things are simply tapping back into the things that once brought us life and energy. Some of those things are really hard, and we never thought we'd have the courage or the stamina to live them out. 

But, one things for sure. This piece of God called the Spirit gives us something that we couldn't get on our own. That courage, or that joy, or that stamina to sit through that conversation, or that overwhelming sensation of freedom that overcame you at the Mumford and Sons concert. When we start paying attention to that, and trying to capture that, we find energy we didn't think we had and abundance that we formerly thought was nonexistent.