Receive the Person!
Take hold of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered life.
For decades, the scene in John 20 has been meaningful to me: “Jesus took a deep breath and breathed into them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” I picture his exhalation inflating me and you. Note that this filling is with a person—the Holy Spirit—not a thing like gifts or fruit. Those are the overflow of the person. Receive the Person! The rest will come along naturally.
Receive in this text is a meaningful word that helps us see a faithful response to Jesus’ giving of the Spirit. Receive can be translated “take,” meaning to actively lay hold of something. It is the same word Jesus used at the Last Supper: Take—eat. One Greek dictionary says that the word is meant to highlight the notion of accepting with initiative; it emphasizes the will (assertiveness) of the receiver. Paul may have had a similar response in mind when he said: Eagerly desire the gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1).
The New Testament urges us to ask for the person and work of the Spirit to be loosed in our lives, to appropriately experiment, to try, learn, and grow, and to believe in and seek to cooperate with the Spirit.
Here are six practices that lean into cooperation with the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
1. Make Love Central.
Always interact with the Spirit in a way that does not call attention to ourselves but rather wills the good of others. I love this phrase that encapsulates making love central: Altruistic edification. In the power of the Spirit, altruistic edification is a selfless concern for the well-being of others that expects nothing in return.
Without love, Paul says his work would be nothing. Paul actually had rare talents, gifts, and experiences. Yet, Paul notes that without love, his talents, gifts, and experiences would have been useless, and all his efforts would be nothing!
2. Follow the Golden Rule.
In engaging with the Spirit, do not do to someone else something you would not want done to you—and never fail to do what you want done for you. For instance, never engage in hype, in falsifying by exaggeration what really happened. Never use the power of the Spirit to manipulate a person or a situation. Love is bonded with truth.
3. Be Naturally Supernatural.
Just be your natural self as the Spirit works supernaturally through you. Don’t take on airs of superiority. Don’t use a religious tone of voice. No posturing.
4. Act With Humility.
Jesus expressed the positional power and confidence he had in God, and the favor he possessed by washing his disciples’ feet (John 13) and said he was giving us a model to follow. Indeed.
5. Be Tentative.
Being hesitant is not a sign of weak faith. It is an acknowledgment that we don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist (1 Corinthians 13, MSG). Thus, we never bully with our words. We say, “I am not sure, but I think the Lord might be saying or doing….” This spreads agency throughout the whole body of Christ and keeps it in harmony with its individual parts.
6. Create and Respect Human Space.
We don’t impose ourselves or our gifts on others. No expression of the Spirit should take away the agency of another. We always want to leave people in charge of their lives before God.
Receive and take hold of the Holy Spirit. Persevere. Learn to recognize the Holy Spirit’s activity in and around you. This goes much further than simply being open. A confident welcome, an embrace of the Spirit’s life and leadership is the calling of the scripture.