Have You Misplaced the Holy Spirit?

Monday, June 15, 2020
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.  Ephesians 1:13

Have You Misplaced the Holy Spirit?
Are you missing the Holy Spirit’s power in your life? Maybe you lost it before you realized what was happening, but maybe you set it aside on purpose. In the sermon yesterday, Pastor Van spoke about some men who were building a house. It is a story full of symbolism that represents us losing the power of the Holy Spirit and how we can do nothing in our own power without Him. We need Him.

One man was swinging an axe and the axe head came off and it fell into the water. Well anyone can figure that an axe without an axe head is useless. You won’t chop down any trees with just an axe handle. In the story, he asks the prophet, Elisha, “What am I going to do? The axe was borrowed!” Elisha threw a stick into the water where the axe head sank and made the iron float to the top and Elisha told the man to reach out and grab it. Meanwhile, another man swings away with the axe handle, another man is in the forest measuring the trees, and then another polishes the axe handle to return it with no axe head.

The main point is that the without the axe head, the axe is useless, swinging the axe handle won’t do anything, polishing the handle is futile, and measuring the trees is pointless with nothing to chop them down. This is symbolic for us because many times we forget about the Holy Spirit, or we may put Him aside if He will be in the way of the things we want to do. Without the Hoy Spirit’s power, our work is futile. If we lay Him aside and endeavor to work in our own power, for our own desires, or for our own glory, we work in vain, just as trying to chop down a tree with an axe handle. There may be a lot of work going in, but the work is ineffective without the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Just as Elisha told the man to reach out and grab the axe head, we must reach for the Holy Spirit.  Relationships are two-way streets and our relationship with the Holy Spirit works the same.

We never tap truly tap into the power of God that is ours for the taking.  The minute we become His child we have the power of the Holy Spirit.  We have the power that caused the dead to rise. We have the power that raised a crucified Christ for our salvation. That SAME power is ours. If we ever prayed and believed in the power we have at our disposal, we would be truly amazed and overwhelmed at the work of God in our lives. We get afraid. We hear the enemy whispering in our ear – constantly – that is it not ours for the taking. He tells us we don’t deserve it, or that He would never want to help us because we are so unworthy.  Satan will hound us as long as we let him, which is as long as we believe the lies.  He will speak lies into our ear as we watch the axe head float away.

This week I challenge you to claim the power of the Holy Spirit that is yours.  Really pray and ask for the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. It is very exciting to believe and expect Him to work and then to wait and see what He does. It may not be instantaneous, or the way you think He will work, but He will work in your life. He already is.

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:38

Lara Cook

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