Unwrapping The Spirit

Unwrapping the Spirit

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After excitedly opening up all her presents on Christmas morning, a little girl sat back a little dejected and sad. Her mother, noticing the change asked, “Didn’t you get everything you wanted for Christmas?”

The little girl sat there for a second and said, “No, but then its not my birthday.”

At Christmas very few of us truly get what we really want.

• We dream of a brand new car, but only end up getting a plaid tie

• We dream of something beautiful from Tiffanies, only to get a General Electric can opener

• Or we ask for a new tool, or 5” platform shoes only to get a package of underwear instead.

We never really get everything we want. In this life we are constantly searching for significance, satisfaction, and happiness, and it seems that we’re always moving but never arriving.

But there is a gift given to us by our heavenly Father on that first Christmas that when we unwrap it, we will truly find what our souls so desperately long for, and that is the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.

When we unwrap this unbelievable gift, and invite Jesus Christ into our hearts to be our Savior and our Lord, then we will find that significance, satisfaction, and happiness, along with that sense of arriving where we were always meant to be.

There is also another gift that has been given once this decision for Jesus Christ is made, one that is given to every believer in Jesus Christ, but for many, it unfortunately remains wrapped up and unopened.

It’s the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, my hope is that by the end of our time together, most of us will be able to see just how far we’ve come in this unwrapping process.

But I also know that there are some who have already started to tune me out saying, “I’ve already ben baptized in the Holy Spirit, even got my gifts and spiritual language.”

But if I could, let me say that there still remains some of this precious gift that remains wrapped up, or in some cases, has become re-wrapped.

This is why we will be having the upcoming seminar on discovering our spiritual gifts on January 10th and 11th, and it is my hope that everyone signs up, because then we’ll begin to see God move in our lives and in the midst of our church.

Let me share some questions that will help determine if and how much the Holy Spirit is wrapped up in our lives.

• How much have we changed over the past year, and is our transformation evident to everyone around us?

• Do we come to a worship service genuinely expecting to hear from God, or has it become something routine, or has it just become a Sunday morning ritual?

We may be 100% saved, but less than 50% effective in our walk with God. And that’s because we’ve left unwrapped the gift of the Holy Spirit.

I’d like to begin our study by looking at that point when Jesus gave to us this gift. It was on the evening we celebrate as Easter, that is, the day of Jesus’s resurrection.

“Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” (John 20:19-20 NKJV)

“Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:21-22 NKJV)

Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” after He showed them the crucifixion marks on His hands and side and they came to belief in Him. We know this because later when Jesus showed Thomas, whom we know as doubting Thomas, saying, “‘Do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:27-28)

It’s like when God blew His breath into Adam at the beginning of creation making Him a living soul, so Jesus breathes into us, and makes us alive in Him through the Holy Spirit, at the beginning of our becoming a new creation in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And so the gift of the Holy Spirit is given when we come into the saving knowledge of what Jesus Christ did for us upon the cross, as He died for our sins. And it is then by grace through faith as we, like Thomas, proclaim Jesus as our Savior and Lord.