The point of the New Testament is the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament is full of prophecies about the coming of the Spirit and of the Shepherd, which was Jesus. When Jesus said “I am the good Shepherd” He was saying that the rain of the Spirit was coming and that blessings would fall all around – which means blessings to everyone. We should be constantly praying for this rain, because the Holy Spirit loves to be wanted, invited, desired, thirsted and hungered for. He is the very breath-life of Jesus, of God, the third person of the Godly Trinity. He is singular – THE Holy Spirit. He is Holy – holiness is the white-hot heat of righteousness. He is Spirit – operating in all of the awesome dynamics of the spiritual realm. In order for us to respond intelligently to the Holy Spirit, it is vital to understand who He is and what His role is. The Holy Spirit is a person, even as God is a personal God. God could not get more personal with us than by living in- and through us by His Spirit. Because He loves us, He is deeply interested in being involved with us, in other words He is Emmanuel, God with us. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit there was great power and a responding great grace was upon all. What happened to Ananias and Sapphira however, showed that the grace of God does not spell out that God is lenient towards sin but on the contrary, The Spirit of Grace enables us to withstand it. More grace means that more responsibility to walk in holiness. Walking in honesty, integrity and truthfulness is the way to receive more of the power of the Holy Spirit. Character is important! Do not lie by your behaviour or tempt God by trying to serve Him in your way, disobey the Holy Spirit, grieve or quench Him – that is not the way to be blessed and continuously filled with the Spirit. You cannot NOT serve God and expect God to serve you. We need to live the life of integrity and holiness in order to have the life of power. God cannot bless that which is not His will. Through the Holy Spirit everything that God has for us has been sealed and through that seal we are certified and approved as genuine and God’s own possession.
