As we celebrate our year of Jubilee, a year of the Lord’s favor, it is important that we not only strengthen our ties to the past, present, and future, but we must also grow in our spiritual understanding of what it means to be part of God’s family.
Throughout the scriptures, individuals identified as part of God’s family have a strong connection to the Holy Spirit. The spirit of God descended on Jesus in the form of a dove at his baptism to declare His approval. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb. Moses was called the Man of God and the Friend of God, and Abraham spoke with the angel of the Lord. Judges like Samuel heard the voice of Lord. The prophets were His servants, doing what He told them to do, even if some grumbled about it.
So, this year as we focus on God’s family, we will focus on the Holy Spirit and its role working within God’s family. We will explore how the Spirit interacted with key figures in Biblical history, and do some personal soul searching about what level of involvement the Spirit plays in our lives, or to what extent we allow the Spirit to work within us. We claim to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism, but can it be said of us that we became strong in the Spirit, or the hand of the Lord was with us, or that we were moved by the Spirit to act for the Lord?
The Holy Spirit is a sensitive subject many Christians avoid to prevent misunderstandings and arguments within the church, but the presence of the Spirit is essential to being a living, breathing, growing, productive member of God’s family.
grace & peace, Charles.