All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
(Acts 2:4)
There are different theological arguments for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, realistically, it seems that the effort needed to drill down into its exact conceptual meaning is not too meaningful. In the book of Acts 2, the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ is depicted as a state of being ‘filled with the Holy Spirit’ (cf. Luke 24:49, Acts 1:5; 2:4). Starting from the book of Acts chapter 2, the Bible says that Jesus’ disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit whenever they prove their faith by working energetically and dynamically. Further, Ephesians 5:18 commands to believers that they must continuously pursue being filled with the Holy Spirit.
“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,.”
Always being filled with the Holy Spirit, this is what God ultimately desires from us. Knowing God’s ultimate desire from us frees us from puzzling theological arguments. It also makes it clear what we must pursue and obey: ‘becoming completely one with the Holy Spirit God’. This is what we are aiming for at the Memorial day retreat: becoming one with the Holy Spirit in love. We will pour our hearts to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit will give us everything he has. His heart and power will overflow within us and we will live in His love and light. We will understand the true meaning of joy, freedom, hope, and love. Once you reach this point, we will understand why God passionately wanted to give us life filled with the Holy Spirit: we will realize that it was all for us.
What is important is that God does not fill people with the Holy Spirit in order to prove himself through physical experience. Physical experience is just an additional happening that is caused by the presence of the Holy Spirit. The state of being full of the Holy Spirit is not just a mere physical experience. It is important to know that physical experience is secondary because of two reasons. First off, it is crucial to know that the purpose of meeting the Holy Spirit is not to experience an ability or phenomenon— really, meeting the Holy Spirit is a full-on personal experience. In order to attain a good relationship with someone, we need to set aside time with them to sit down, open our hearts, and talk to each other. This goes the same for developing a relationship with God. We need to hear the story of God’s love and share the confession of our hearts. During this conversation with God, we could stand in awe of God’s mesmerizing love, or even fall to tears after noticing how much we knowingly ignored God’s love in the past. I pray that this retreat could serve as a time where we pour our hearts to God, and God pours out his heart to us.
Secondly, we need to make sure our prejudice and misunderstanding about physical experiences do not prevent us from meeting God. Since God is a trandesecent (supernatural) being, trandesent phenomenons or experiences could follow meeting God. Like the word trandesecent itself, this experience may seem unfamiliar or even awkward to us. In fact, in Acts 2:4, it states how Jesus’ disciples were “filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues ]as the Spirit enabled them.” Talking in tongues was an awkward and unfamiliar experience for the disciples themselves. God will always provide us with the grace and experiences we need on our journey. Instead of restricting God in our comfort zone, I would like for all of you to trust the Holy Spirit who loves us, and follow Him in whatever direction He leads you. (To be continued..)
Following the shepherd
Pastor Jiwon Choi
마음을 담아 드립니다.