Holy Spirit

I love this Bible Study I’m doing with a group from church. Our assignment has started off with the book of Acts (and Luke) and learning about the nature of the early Christians and Church. And it has been so inspiring to learn about!

What a wonderful time it was full of sharing of everything, no possessing anything of themselves, love expressed by everyone, physical healings happening naturally and easily, not discriminating anyone but openly accepting anyone into the Christ spirit.

And I love how after healing the lame man, Peter and John deny that it is themselves that are doing anything. Anytime they spoke or addressed people, it says they were “filled with the Holy Ghost”. And when the people in the temple attempted to worship or marvel at them, Peter corrects them saying, “Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?”. He goes on to attribute all power to God, which he learned through Christ Jesus’ teaching and example.

It is an incredible selflessness that they exerted and not accepting or attributing any power to themselves. They knew that by a sense of personal power they were denying Christ and therefore God and forsaking real spiritual power. And it talks about the terrible results of the 2 Christians who attempted to hold back some of there belongings and not to give fully to the group as everyone else was doing. This is a time of true selflessness. That is the biggest quality I see everyone expressing and facing. And look at the result – everyone’s needs were met, no one was suffering from physical disease, and everyone was so full of love and joy.

What a comparison to our churches today! Are churches really doing this same thing? And shouldn’t this constantly be the model we are striving for? It was evident that these early Christians were carrying on the works of Christ Jesus. When and how did this stop? Well there are a few significant events in history, which attribute to this change, but can’t we get back to this model? I think we can. When I read about this, it was such a craving to be part of an environment that was like this and doing these same things. So I am inspired to move forward and onward in continuing to follow and live in the Christ spirit here and now. It isn’t dead but it is alive! And we can feel it and be possessed of the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost ourselves right now, everyday!