A Prayer to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit
By Kyle Norman
“You will be filled with power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” - Acts 1:8
In my first year of ordained ministry, I met a man named Curly. Every week I travelled to his house to lead a service for the small group of men who met for prayer and bible study. At the time of meeting Curly, he could no longer walk and was on 24-hour oxygen. The hose that supplied his oxygen ran throughout his house. During one visit, I arrived at the house to see all the gentlemen seated around Curly. I took a chair, moved it beside Curly, and began to lead the service. At some point during our prayers, it was clear that Curly’s disposition had changed. He seemed to labor for breath, and his complexion seemed to grow increasingly pale. The gentleman and I exchanged glances of concern.
Deciding that an ambulance needed to be called, I stood up from my chair. When I did so, Curly took a huge breath inward, and the color quickly returned to his face. Apparently, when I arrived, I had accidentally placed my chair on his oxygen hose! (Not my finest hour of ministry)
What cuts you off from the Holy Spirit? Is there something in your life that dampens your experience of the Spirit’s power? Jesus desires to breathe the Spirit into the lives of all his followers, but we need to be open to the Spirit’s presence. Internally, we need to be receptive to the Spirit and open to the Spirit’s work.
This is what we see on the day of Pentecost. The disciples are all together in one place. They had witnessed Christ's resurrection and ascension, but they still had many questions. They don’t know how everything fits together. And they had yet to step forward in ministry. Suddenly, without warning, they hear a sound like a mighty wind. Tongues of flame appear to fall from the root top, resting on each one of them. The Holy Spirit – who has always been present but not always recognized – now descends upon them in a powerful way. Such is the exterior frenzy of the day of Pentecost.
But the true power of that day happened internally. Internally, the disciples feel the inner vibrancy of faith pulsating within them. With the Spirit comes clarity about Jesus. Now, there is a certain power and force to their prayers as the Spirit moves through their words to affect people around them. And if that were not enough, the disciples seem to have an inward strength and boldness to step outside of their zones of comfort and let other people know the good news of who Jesus is.
The disciples didn’t quench the Spirit’s work, and they didn’t resist it. They began to witness to others, not because they had a plan or a strategy, but because they were following where the Spirit was leading. The prayers they prayed were fueled with power and effectiveness, not because they uncovered secret phrases and systems but because they allowed the Spirit to work through them. This was the Christian life the disciples lived, and it drastically changed the world around them.
Sadly, many people mistakenly think that Pentecost is just a past event and that the Holy Spirit is not as present with them as with other, more seasoned people of faith. The pulse of the Holy Spirit is a reality for the person of faith. We can no more deny Christ's resurrection than we can deny the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives. The Holy Spirit's bestowal isn’t dependent upon us, our skills or aptitudes, our holiness, or our religious efforts. No, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is promised by Christ himself, given as a gift in testimony to Jesus's Lordship.
The same reality that was present for the disciples is present in our lives. This means that the fire of the Spirit, and what the Spirit did for the early disciples, is also available to us. The Spirit is always available to us, and if we need a fresh reminder of the Spirit in our life, all that we need to do is reach out and ask.
Let’s pray:
Almighty God, I thank you for the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. I know that the Spirit is always present, always working. But the stresses and struggles of life can mean that I don’t recognize the Spirit; I may even close myself off from the Spirit’s work. But still, in your grace, you promise that the Spirit is given to me, a testimony to the covenant you made with me in my baptism. I pray that you renew me and my faith with the power of your Spirit. Send the fire of the Spirit over me, as on the day of Pentecost. In faith, I open myself to the Spirit’s work in my life. O Holy Spirit, work through me. Guide me into all truth, lead me deeper in faith, inspire my prayers and work forcefully through those prayers, and stretch me beyond my comforts to the places of ministry and witness. Come, Holy Spirit, come. Fill me anew. Set me afire. Breathe in me and work through me. Amen.
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