Day 48 of 49
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ezekiel 36:25–27
John the Baptist told the people that when the Messiah came, he would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire. He expected to be one of the ones baptized with the Holy spirit and fire, instead he baptized Jesus Christ.
John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Lk 3:16.
Having the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean tough times won’t come. John the Baptist had the Spirit from the time he was in the womb (Lk 1:15), and Herod beheaded him (Mk 6:27). The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted.
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Mk 1:8–14.
Jesus spoke to his disciples about the Holy Spirit. He told them that when they faced persecution and stood trial, the Holy Spirit would give them the words to speak. They did not have to be afraid.
And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.
And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death.
And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Mk 13:11–13.
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
Lk 12:11–12.
He told them the Holy Spirit was a good gift from God. The Holy Spirit has a purpose. Jesus called him a Helper. He helps to remember the Word spoken by Jesus, and he teaches so we can understand.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Lk 11:10–14.
Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Jn 14:24–27.
After his resurrection, while he walked among them, he breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It brings to remembrance that God breathed on Adam, and gave him life.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Jn 20:22–23.
then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Genesis 2:7
At his ascension, his last words told them how they would be able to accomplish the great commission, the Holy Spirit would do it through them.
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Ac 1:7–11.
The disciples waited in the upper room. It says that they were all in one accord…a miracle in itself. They devoted themselves to prayer. They voted on a new apostle. They waited some more.
When I became a follower of Christ, I had no idea what he had in store for me…and my unknown future is in his hands.
I know that the Spirit will bring his Word to mind and give me understanding.
I know the Spirit will give me boldness to witness about the hope that is in Jesus Christ.
I know that the Spirit will enable me to walk in obedience.
I know that when I face persecution and trials, that he will give me the right words to say.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:14–21
TRICIA LATHROP 