He Will Be In You
Excerpts from Pastor John’s Hardie’s sermon
“Who is the Holy Spirit?”
May 8, 2022
When I was entering into ordained ministry, I had some deep disappointments, and some setbacks. I often felt frustrated, depleted, and overwhelmed. I came “that close” to quitting. It was the Holy Spirit that lifted me out of despair. For years I had known I needed more Holy Spirit – and I prayed for Him to fill me, with not much happening that I could tell. But in 1984, when I was hungriest for help, and humbled, suddenly there were people who prayed for me, and my relationship with Holy Spirit was ignited. It had the effect of moving my relationship with God from being based in my mind and imagination and moved it into the depths of my spirit where all my most beautiful and best suspicions about the nearness of God come from. And suddenly there was this sense of closeness, of immediacy. I could tell I had a spirit! And with Holy Spirit’s help I could worship God and experience Him all at the same time.
“And we know that the Spirit helps us in our weakness,” Paul wrote in Romans 8. He knew it, and now I know it, too. Now, when I am yielding to the Holy Spirit, I can tell that God is living in me.
The founder of the religious order my sister belongs to wrote this:
A wise and loving guest can transform the whole atmosphere in a house. Nothing, however, can compare with the transformation wrought by the Holy Spirit if we open ourselves to His power and presence as the Spirit of joy, love, counsel, comfort, grace and life. M. Basilea Schlink in Ruled by the Spirit
It's one thing to live in the Age of the Spirit. It’s another to truly connect personally with the Holy Spirit. This morning I am simply asking each of you: Have you been giving Holy Spirit a wide berth? Or are you seeking Him. What is the atmosphere like inside you these days? Are you playing host to fears and frustrations? Some things in us would be “better out than in.” Would you like to learn more about what it means to offer the home of your heart to the Wonderful Guest, the Holy Spirit whom Jesus and the Father are able to send? Be sure, then, to join in this year’s journey to Pentecost.