Power and Presence

Tomorrow in the church calendar is Pentecost or Whitsunday. In church history it celebrates the day the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit with a miraculous display of God's power working in them. God's presence through the Holy Spirit brings character change and development to us. I love the fruit of the spirit because they are the character work that God does in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. That character development grows the ability in me to have inner peace when it wouldn't be expected or patience when I used to be impatient. I can love more and more without any strings attached. These are not my human goals or achievements but rather the work of God that happens by allowing the Holy Spirit to be more and more the genuine presence in my soul.

Pentecost or Whitsunday however is more about the power of God to accomplish through us what we are unable to accomplish in our own abilities. A whit is an old name for a spirit. We are always keenly aware of our senses, and give great preference to those things that can be measured by our senses. The growth of science elevated the importance of our biological senses, but we retain the vocabulary that provides evidence of the past value given to our spiritual resources. The spelling of whit became wit and we all know we need to keep our wits about us, or we might come to our wits end. And if we do something completely foolish we might be called a dim wit. So many times I have known what to do because of the Holy Spirit. People sometimes say to me how did you know, and my answer is only that I know because I know. I have somehow learned to sense the leading of God's spirit, which is his desire for us all, and I just know because I know. When you know you have to tell a young woman who has been struggling with an inability to get pregnant that God says she will be pregnant very soon just because you know God really wants her to know it can get a little scary. I told she and her husband with some fear and trembling. What would she think and what if I was wrong, but I knew because I knew and indeed she was pregnant very soon. Example after example could be given of places I went and things I knew I needed to do because of the Holy Spirit. I celebrate tomorrow because the reality of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life has been amazing and more amazing. What a gift freely offered to us all.