Pictures of Holy Spirit

 I love being a grandma. I’ve had two of my grands this weekend. It was awesome! Ashlyn got sick–that was no fun for either of us. But we still got to make some crafts and eat yummy potato cheese soup.

Here are some of the pictures of my doll babies.

I love showing off their pictures and telling their stories–sharing with you the joy of being a grandma!

But there is a joy that exceeds the joy of being a grandparent. It is the joy of knowing and experiencing Holy Spirit.  I have no greater joy than my relationship with Him! I wish I could share it with you, like I can pull an orange apart and hand you half and watch you as the sweet juice dripped off your chin. We’d laugh together like little kids. Oh, I wish I could show you a picture of Holy Spirit. But I can’t share Him and I can’t show you a picture because He is a spirit. That’s not weird or spooky, just a reality that can keep us from getting to know Him.

But God wants you to know that aspect of His personality too! That’s why God shows us His photo album in scripture, pictures not of what He looks like, but of His nature and personality so we will recognize Him and know what He is like.

Maybe you’d rather listen than read.

Here’s a ten minute clip from my sermon, “Pictures of Holy Spirit.” from a church services.

Or view the clip on YouTube

The pictures that God has given us in Scripture of precious Holy Spirit  are painted with bold strokes and illustrated by the natural world around us, to help us clearly  understand  what we can not experience with our natural eyes.

Holy Spirit is like the Wind

It is no coincidence that the sound of heaven like a wind filled the room on the day of Pentecost, because Holy Spirit is like the wind Act 2:2. God was deliberate in using this picture.

Wind or breathe brings life. If someone has an accident, the first thing we do is check to see if they are breathing. Holy Spirit gives life to Scripture that makes it come alive  and productive in a heart of a believer. Holy Spirit gives life to believers, energizing them to live victorious and fruitful lives.

You can’t see the wind, but you can see the effects of the wind. We can’t explain God’s ways.

John 3:8 NLT “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”

Holy Spirit is Like a Fire

Fire is another picture that is strategically provided in Act 2:3.

Fire is used to purify as in smelting and refining gold. It’s used as an adjective to describe love and commitment. Fiery passion. Fiery lover. Intense. Enthusiastic. One of the works of precious Holy Spirit is to help us love.

Rom 5:5 NLT  “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Holy Spirit is Like Water
Jesus used this picture on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles in John 7:38-39 NIV” Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” ³⁹ 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.” 

Thoughts of hot summer days and a refreshing plunge into a cool, mountain stream can only begin to connect us with the refreshing benefits of water.

Or if you’ve visited the desert you see the barrenness of water’s absence or the abundant life that grows along the banks of a river that twists and turns through it’s valley. Again, water is a picture of Holy Spirit.  He brings life. He nourishes. He refreshes.

Still my “Granny Picture Album” doesn’t begin to tell you how funny Brayden is or how smart Keira is or how loving Ashlyn is. Even when I describe Brayden by telling you he is the family clown, you know about him, but you don’t know him.

God loves sharing His pictures with us, not so we have some abstract knowledge to repeat or parrot back, but so we can experience the benefits that come with living Spirited filled, Spirit influenced lives. He wants to fill believers and like oil, permeate everything we touch! Don’t miss what He has for you. Lean into His presence to hear His voice, to experience His love and His hope. Saturate your mind and attitudes with His Words to become the person He intended.