| How can I receive the Holy Spirit? |
| In my search for the Holy Spirit, it was revealed to
me that the Spirit was a gift. You cannot buy a gift for yourself
and you cannot steal it either. Someone has to gift it to you. In
Acts 1:4, Jesus told his disciples, “Do not leave Jerusalem,
but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my father promised.”
Romans 5:5 says about, “The Holy Spirit who is God’s gift
to us.” So I begged Jesus for the Holy Spirit, which is God’s
gift to mankind. |
| Jesus showed me Mathew 7:12: “Do for others what
you want them to do for you: this is the meaning of the Law of Moses
and of the teachings of the prophets.” So the teachings of all
the prophets were compressed in 11 words for me: “Do for others
what you want them to do for you.” This was again a fresh revelation
for me. |
| So if I needed the Holy Spirit, I had to pray for others
to be gifted with the Holy Spirit. So I stopped praying for myself
and started praying for others. |
| In Luke 11:11, Jesus asks, “Would any of you
who are fathers give your son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or
would you give him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? Bad as you
are, you know how to give good things to your children.” Jesus
continued “How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” |
| Jesus was highlighting that for people like me “good
things” mean material objects. But for God, a good thing means
the Holy Spirit. So the Father in Heaven would give the “good
thing”, the Holy Spirit, to His children. |
| Romans 8:14 says, “Those who are led by God’s
Spirit are God’s sons. For the Spirit that God has given to
you does not make you slaves and causes you to be afraid; instead,
the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s
power we cry out to God, “Father! My Father!” God’s
Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s
children.” |
| When Jesus revealed that God will give the Holy Spirit
to his children, I asked who God’s children were. |
| He took me to Mathew 5:43, “You have heard that
it was said,” Love your friends, hate your enemies.” I
replied, “Jesus this is what I am doing. Loving my friends,
and hating my enemies.” Then he continued. “But now I
tell you: love your enemies.” |
| I was shocked and the order seemed nonsensical to me.
For 12 years I was trying my best to get rid of my hatred. And for
this I had prayed, fasted, gone to spiritual retreats and meditated.
But my hatred had only increased. Now Jesus was asking me to love
my enemies! How was this possible? I had tried and failed. |
| From that day, I stopped reading the Bible and praying.
After a few days I began to read the Bible from Mathew 5:46, skipping
verses 44 and 45. But a bigger shock awaited me. |
Mathew 5:46 said, “Why should God reward you
if you love only the people who love you? Even the tax collectors
do that!” So I was like a tax collector, loving only those who
could repay my favours or assistance. Jesus continued, “And
if you speak only to your friends, have you done anything out of the
ordinary? Even the pagans do that!” So I was an opportunist
and a pagan!
Thoroughly shaken, I had a desire to talk to and love the person I
hated. Then with the help of Jesus Christ I started to read the Lord’s
word in Mathew 5:44: “But now I tell you: love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may become the sons
of your Father in heaven.” |
| This was a message of blessing for me. I never dreamt
of becoming a son of the Father because I thought it was an honour
reserved for saintly people. But Jesus was telling me that even a
sinner like me could become the Father’s child if I prayed for
those who persecuted me. |
| Almost immediately I started to pray for the person
I hated. I blessed him and thanked God for filling him with the gift
of the Holy Spirit. I thanked God for revealing the truth about God,
about sin and about God’s judgment through the Holy Spirit to
his spirit. |
| Now I had no problem praying for the person I hated.
Earlier it was impossible for me to pray for him. I really do not
know how to explain this, but within days I was able to purge this
hatred from my mind. Soon, I started to enjoy peace. For 12 years
I had forgotten how to laugh. From the moment I expelled hatred I
started to laugh freely again. |
| Jesus had spoken to me through Luke 11:13, “God
shall give the Holy Spirit to his children” and Mathew 5:44,
“When a person starts to pray for his enemies, he becomes a
child of God.” So when I started to pray for the man I hated,
with the help of the Holy Spirit, Jesus took away the hatred in me.
It was the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit within me. It
was not at all my effort. |
| If it had been my effort, then I would have got rid
of my hatred even before I knew Jesus. But I was able to pray like
this only after I started to see God through Jesus. My fears of a
punishing God were gone. I now believed in a loving God. |
| I was also reassured through Ezekiel 36:25-27, “I
will sprinkle clean water on you and make you clean from all your
idols and everything else that has defiled you. I will give you a
new heart and a new mind. I will take away your stubborn heart of
stone and give you an obedient heart. I will put my spirit in you
and I will see to it that you follow my laws.” |
| The Father had mapped out the changes he made in me.
First He helped me see Him through Jesus. Through Jesus, He helped
me get rid of my misunderstanding that God is a punishing God. A loving
God was revealed to me. Then God gave me an obedient heart. This helped
me pray for the people who persecuted me. Then God gave me his Spirit.
With the help of the Spirit, Jesus helped me destroy my hatred of
others. So I was able to forgive others and love God, myself and others. |
I know it is difficult to understand my experience.
I met a sanyasi during a train journey and share my experience with
him. After hearing Mathew 5:44, he said, “How is it possible?
How can you pray for your enemy? If that happens, God will come down
from heaven.”
|
| Yes, it is true. It is solely by the work of God’s
Spirit that I was able to get rid of my hatred. |
