Luke 1:39-45

Luke 1:39-45 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

The above verse reveals once again there is no substitute for being filled with the Holy Spirit. Many people try to live the Christian life without acknowledging that the Holy Spirit is an essential part of the Christian walk. When we take the supernatural aspect of the Holy Spirit within us away from our Christian belief, we quickly descend into a rational, temporal thought pattern. In the above passage, in the natural we could easily explain the movement of the baby in Elizabeth's womb by claiming the baby moved because Elizabeth was extremely thrilled to see Mary. Also, if we desired to, we could explain away John the Baptist's ministry by saying he was a recluse with aberrant spiritual tendencies. In both cases we could claim they were just ordinary people with weird ideas. However, the Bible says they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were people who had the Holy Spirit richly indwelling their beings.

Notice, that Elizabeth responds quickly to Mary in spiritual terms. She did not say, "Hello, Mary, how have you been lately?" No, she understood right away that Mary was pregnant with the Lord, and she responds accordingly. Her response must have been encouraging to Mary, for Elizabeth affirmed what Mary believed in her heart about her pregnancy. Elizabeth performed the Lord's work that day because she was filled with the Holy Spirit. When we remove the Holy Spirit's involvement from our lives because of unbelief, we curtail the Lord's work within us. Then, we become VERY NATURAL, very ordinary, depending entirely on our own human wisdom, insight, and knowledge to inspire people to believe in God. If the Holy Spirit is not a real entity within us, Christianity is very delusional, expecting a different outcome, a different life, from ordinary or natural circumstances. Also, we do not believe Jesus words, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

Well then, Christian, what kind of life should we live? We should live a life expecting the Holy Spirit to talk to us, to comfort us, to inspire us, to motivate us, and to lead us. Any other life is not a Christian life. If you desire to know what Christianity is all about, look up Holy Spirit in your concordance and see how many times the Holy Spirit is mentioned in Acts. This is very important, for Acts describes how the church moves through this world. You will see that the Holy Spirit is front and center in all the activities of the church. Many people are afraid of allowing the Holy Spirit more freedom in their lives and in the church because they have heard too many people say some weird things or believe some weird things about the Spirit of God. I have heard some outlandish things by people claiming "the Holy Spirit moved" them or "the Lord told" them, but, as indicated in first Corinthians, we can judge all things whether they are of God and are confirmed by Scripture. We do not have to believe everything people say to us about what the Lord has told them. We can always measure the truth of every statement against the Bible. If you thought the Lord told you, you were going to be a millionaire, I am going to be somewhat skeptical, for Jesus said there would not be many people of wealth and status among us. The Bible gives me the right to be skeptical of that kind of statement. But, because of some errant beliefs, I am not going to throw the baby out with the bath water as the saying goes.

The Holy Spirit does talk to us, and I happen to believe He is talking to us all the time; we just don't have faith to believe that. Oftentimes, this world is hard for Christians. The Bible says we are aliens here. The world's environment is not conducive for our growth or for our survival. Therefore, we need the COMFORTER with us; we need his constant companionship. We need his words of comfort and counseling in our ears at all times to help us and to guide us. Do you hear those words? Are you attuned to his frequency? If not, you are missing out on an essential aspect of living a Christian life. If not, you will always be spiritually anemic. You will have difficulty living a victorious Christian life. The comfort of the Lord will escape you when you need him the most. No one else can truly comfort you except the Holy Spirit. He alone knows you from the inside out. He alone knows your fears and doubts and accepts you just as you are and gives you the strength to overcome. He alone can say, "CHILD, I AM HERE. YOU ARE NOT ALONE."