God wants you to Experience the Holy Spirit

Perhaps you are striving to live uprightly and correctly and to make God's truth known. This is good, but the people around you will only recognise God's truth if they see and feel God's grace and love in you.

You can live virtuously and speak of God's grace and love, but if you don't experience and enjoy God's love, others will only hear religious talk.

Some may respect your virtue, but it will not awaken a longing for God's love in their hearts.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jn 7:37–39 NIV

You can only pass on what you have received. If you have only received beliefs, you can only pass on beliefs.

Unfortunately, there are many in some churches who are satisfied with beliefs, but people in the world are not interested in beliefs at all. Many hunger and thirst for a reality that they can experience.

God did not send his eternal, infinitely loved Son into the world just to establish a religion. Do you want to experience God like the Lord's first disciples? Why not?

We already find models for our faith in the Old Testament.

Before the fall of man, Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden.

Then we see Enoch.

Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years.
Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. Gen 5:23–24 NIV

This man was certainly a hero of faith in a Bible story, but what does this have to do with us, ordinary Christians?

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Jn 7:38–39 NIV

This is how Jesus describes his intention for ordinary Christians, for us. How can this be anything other than an overwhelming blessing? If we don't experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit as a dramatic visitation, something has gone tragically wrong.

But for many Christians, being filled with the Holy Spirit is just a dry doctrine. That can't be!

Then we see Abraham.

To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. Acts 7:2 NIV

Abraham knew no doctrines. He experienced a visitation of God's glory. When he believed and obeyed God, the world changed for ever.

We must not throw away the doctrines in the Bible and seek only experiences.

But so many cling tightly to commandments and Bible texts and are afraid of visitations from God himself. This is a tragic mistake.

If you want to cling to biblical commandments, then you should take this Bible verse seriously.

Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, Eph 5:18 NIV

Many Christians think this means they should never have a glass of wine, and they don't drink, but they ignore the second part.

Drunkenness is a dramatic experience that has negative after-effects, but when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it should also be a dramatic experience, but with heavenly effects.

God wants to overwhelm you with all kinds of blessings because He loves you immensely and to bless those around you through your life.