6.1 Who is the Holy Spirit?

I always loved going on holidays as a kid, I hated driving there! While on the way to one of the Irish holiday destinations, 'Courtown', my parents would always end up arguing over maps that were nearly the size of our green Nissan Micra! Today, I never go anywhere without google maps in front of me. It's smaller, more reliable, but it does have its flaws like making up roads that don't exist or leading tourists to landmarks in the middle of nowhere. Every journey needs a reliable guide, you know, someone to help you along the way. Jesus said that his followers will receive help on their faith journey when the Holy Spirit comes and dwells within them and guides them. He said, 'But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit dwells in you and you will be my witnesses' (Acts 1:8). And you know, this is one of the very last things that Jesus said when he was on earth so it must be important. Now, I'm sure you've heard of the Holy Spirit before. We sometimes start or end our prayers by saying in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Or you may have heard of the Holy Spirit when attending a church Baptism or at a wedding. But who is the Holy Spirit? What can we really know? Like, we all know Jesus the Son of God, he's the one who does the awesome miracles and we know God the Father, the one who makes everything happen, but flicking through the scriptures, it seems like one minute the Holy Spirit's a dove then a tongue of fire? Like what's going on there? And an even better question, what's the Holy Spirit got to do with me? Firstly, the Holy Spirit is there at the beginning of time as we read in the book of Genesis hovering over the darkness before the Father says 'let there be light'. The holy spirit is part of that three-way conversation when they decide to make humans in their image. Then the Holy Spirit is the power of God working in the heroes of the Old Testament. Let's take Samson as an example. He's a guy who's got incredible strength really long hair and we read about him in the book of Judges. He did some incredible things. Like in self-defense, he tore a whole lion in two with his bare hands, and then when an army tried to defeat him, he grabbed a nearby donkey's jawbone, fought them off because it was the only weapon that he could find. But at the time people thought that his strength was all in his hair but it was actually the Holy Spirit that gave him the strength. It's written time and time again that the Holy Spirit moved in Samson which gave him that supernatural strength. His long hair was just devotion to God. And then there's Deborah. The Holy Spirit gave Deborah super- natural bravery to lead a small band of God's people against an entire army that wanted to defeat them. There is no way that they would have been able to survive without the help and power of the Spirit. And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit is all about. With the Holy Spirit, the impossible becomes possible. We see the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, too. The Holy Spirit is the dove at Jesus' Baptism is present during Jesus' ministry and then after Jesus' resurrection, he tells his disciples, both men, and women 'to go and wait in the city to receive the Holy Spirit in a new way.' (Luke 24:49) This powerful event which was foretold hundreds of years previous by God's prophets was known as Pentecost and Acts chapter 2 explains it like this. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. This is who the Holy Spirit is, the power of God working in the world, working in people like you and me. The Holy Spirit inspired these ordinary fishermen and tax collectors to boldly preach and perform miracles in Jesus' name, and the amazing thing is this power is available to everyone. We have this power in us but we need to stir it up to be fully charged.