THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME (4)

“And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJV).

                                                                                                                                                                   
The Holy Spirit is given to the believers to inspire them to act for and on behalf of God.  His presence in believers should signal the end of their dormancy and redundancy in the church because He comes with such a force that would not let any person continue to be a mere spectator in the work of God. The presence of the Holy Spirit dispels every fear and fills the believer with holy boldness to confront the enemy and throw him out of God’s inheritance. The Apostle Paul exhorted Timothy, “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:6-7 NKJV). Fear is a spirit –a contrary spirit from the devil. The Greek word translated fear in this verse basically means timidity with the deeper implication of cowardice. The Holy Spirit did not come to make us cowards but to imbue us with heaven-made courage that spurns the devil and demonstrates the power of God. As believers, we are the righteousness of God in Christ (1 Cor 1:30). “The righteous are bold as a lion” (Provbs 28:1 NKJV).

The Bible affirms that fear is a manifestation of the spirit of bondage. “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15 NKJV). The spirit of bondage is the spirit of slavery, of repression, and of oppression. When people are in any of these conditions, they live in fear. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption into the sonship of God.  He reveals God to us as our Father and inspires us to cry out to Him “Abba, Father.”  A child knows no fear in the presence of his or her father. Likewise, as children of God there should be no room for fear in our hearts. The most fundamental job of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers is to establish them in the love of God as their Father. The spirit of fear is paralysed anywhere in our lives that experiences the revelation of the love of God. John the Beloved declared, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18 NKJV). God’s antidote to fear is the revelation of His love.

God’s love is perfect because it is unconditional.  He loved us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:6). He did not wait until we could earn His love. He knows we will never be able to earn it. Hence, His love for us is not subject to who we are or how we behave. He loves us not as reward for any meritorious input from us but undeserved gratuity based on our acceptance of the Jesus as Saviour and Lord. The Father loves us because He loves His Son in whom we believe for our salvation.  The Holy Spirit comes to help us respond appropriately to the Father’s love –“because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5 NKJV).  Therefore, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19 NKJV). We could not love God except as a response to His love, which the Holy Spirit unleashes in us when He fills us. Boldness, which implies absence of fear as we stand in ministry as Christ’s representatives, flows directly from our awareness of this unspeakable love of God for us in Christ. Knowing the love of the Father is the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91:1). Dwelling in this secret place is what gives us boldness to speak up and out for Christ.

When the church prayed from the secret place, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31 NKJV). All who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke the word of God with boldness. The Holy Spirit emboldened them to act on behalf of God. They did so because they felt secure in the assurances of the Father’s love. The Holy Spirit fills us to speak boldly for and on behalf of God.  We take the initiative and begin to declare our faith in Christ wherever we are. We should not live merely in reaction to the devil because that would mean that he determines our agenda. We should rather take him by surprise by acting and speaking as people who are standing in the secret place of the Most High. With Holy Spirit upon us, let us declare operation down, down satan as we turn our city upside down for Jesus. Don’t agree to keep silent again. Share your faith with boldness and be counted among those who are bringing in the great harvest into the kingdom. SILENCE, NO MORE!