The Symbol of the Holy Spirit (I)

By Pastor Young Joon Park

June 6, 2010

 

We meditated the name of the Holy Spirit (the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ and the Comforter) last week.

God also spoke to us on the seven sins against the Holy Spirit.

 

Through the Word of God, God represents the Holy Spirit to us as several different symbols and the Promises of the Holy Spirit in our life.

 

The symbols of the Holy Spirit:

Fire, Wind, Oil, Dove, Water, Rain, Wine,

 

The special functions of the Holy Spirit in our life

The Seal and the Pledge

 

I. The Symbol of the Holy Spirit

 

Throughout the entire the human history, people have been using the symbolic pictures, signs¡¦ for the special meaning. You can even find many iconic pictures of symbols in your cell phone. When I purchased a cell phone, I had to learn the meaning of each symbol.

When I see the symbol ¡°human¡± from my cell phone, I know that there is some message from someone.

 

There is very special meaning and message for us when our God represents the symbols to us. We need to understand the meaning of these symbols. Especially our God represents us the Holy Spirit in many different symbols, so we need to understand the Holy Spirit through the symbols.

 

We are going to meditate four symbols of the Holy Spirit today and the rest of them for the next Sunday. It is very important for us to understand what these symbols mean in our relationship with the Holy Spirit. God wants us to receive the impartation from the Lord instead so many information alone.

 

1. Fire

Matthew 3:11b

¡¦ He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire.

 

1) Fire is God¡¯s Presence

Moses¡¯ life – the Burning Bush, the Fire of Pillar, the Fire of the Mountain

Elijah (1 Kings 18:) – Sacrifice on the altar (water and Fire)

 

At the Pentecost Day, the Holy Spirit rested upon each one of 120 saints as tongues of Fire.

(Acts 2:1-4)

Many times people saw fire or felt heat when Holy Spirit present to us.

Sometimes you felt like that you are on fire over entire your physical body, hands or feet.

One day I saw one young man was received a ministry from a pastor, and suddenly from his face was full of sweat like a fountain. He kept saying, ¡°I am hot.¡±

 

Sometimes we feel the fire, and sometimes we do not, but there will be a great revival through the Holy Spirit eventually, because God is with you and working among you.

 

John 14:16

¡¦ He may abide with you for ever;

 

Holy Spirit is with us forever from the moment forward forever that we believe in Jesus. He is always with you with His Fire, no matter whether you feel Him or not. You are in Him and He is in you.

 

Our Holy Spirit who is God is with you all the time, then you do not worry or fear anything.

Our enemy satan¡¯s major attack is to make us to live in fear, in worry and in intimidation.

 

We just need to rely on Him and His Leading no matter in what situation you are. We cannot be mature Christians in one day, but we will mature through relying on the Holy Spirit everyday in every situation.

 

I had a fear of the thunder and the lightening when I was very young, and I always I ran to my mother or father, and I found myself in peace when I was with them.

 

Matthew 28:20 ¡°¡¦I am with you always, even to the end of the age.¡±

Jesus promised to be with us even to the end of the age.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. (Romans 8:9)

It is time to realize that He is with you always and to practice to rely on Him everyday.

 

2) Fire consumes to clean and to purify

The best method of the sterilization is to burn it by fire.

The consuming fire will cleans all the disease and ugly things and to clean them and purify.

Our God is consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29 ¡°for our God is a consuming fire¡±).

The Holy Spirit is dwelling in each of us to consume our sin.

We cannot make ourselves to live in godly life without the Holy Spirit.

 

Many times, we made a decision to live godly life, but we failed eventually, and we get disappointed at ourselves. We have to understand that we do not have any capacity to live in godly and pure life by our own way.  We can live in godly life only through the Holy Spirit.

 

It does not mean that we are going to live in godly life through the Holy Spirit automatically.

We have to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and submit to His Will.

 

We need to confess that we do not have any ability to live our own strength, and submit to the Holy Spirit to follow His Way alone.

One of our common problems is that we expect that the Holy Spirit will help us for our plan, but we have to follow His plan alone.

 

3) Fire gives light

In the wilderness Israel people were led by the pillar of the clouds in day time and by the pillar of fire by night. This picture means that God¡¯s presence is with His People. The Pillar of Fire had lit Israel people who were in a dark nighttime in the wilderness, so they can see even in the dark.

 

The Holy Spirit gives the light in the darkness of sin.

The Holy Spirit came to our life who lived in the darkest sinful life to give the light of the Kingdom of God to us to see the secret things in heaven.

 

We have to seek the light of the Holy Spirit.

 

4) Fire gives heat and power

We cannot live without heat.

I watched DVD on how to catch king crabs in Alaska. Sometimes fishermen actually go into the icy cold Alaska Bearing Seas and die in a short while due to the fact they were not able to maintain body temperature.

 

Heat is very useful from the cooking to various civilized living.

 

This fire ignites our burning zeal to follow the Lord. Our own zeal will fade away, but the zeal from the Lord will never fade away.  

 

You drive your car by burning fuel in the engine. This fire gives supernatural power.

 

Acts 1:8

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth

 

We can do any ministry for the Kingdom of God with only the Holy Spirit.

Without the Holy Spirit there is no way anyone can do any ministry for the Kingdom of God.

That is why God sent the Holy Spirit to us as our Helper.

 

You have already received power from the Holy Spirit, and we have to use it continually.

If the Holy Spirit gives you desires in you, obey to Him without having any doubts.

I had a very respectable aunt who served the Lord as assistant pastor in Methodist church as a single woman for the rest of her life. She is now with the Lord. One day she gave me a regretful testimony how she did not submit to the Holy Spirit even He gave a desire to pray for one young sick man.

 

2. The Wind

John 3:8

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

 

1) The wind is everywhere

God spoke to us that one of the aspects of the Holy Spirit is Omnipresence.

He is everywhere, and you cannot get away or hide from the Holy Spirit at all.

 

Jesus promised us that He will not leave us as orphans, and He will come to us.

John 14:18

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

 

The Holy Spirit is always with you 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

I want to be with Holy Spirit all the time, so we have to welcome Him in our life all the time.

 

 

2) The wind is blowing without ceasing

The wind is a flow of air that flows from the high to low pressure air everyday throughout the earth without ceasing.

In the same way the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of God is working without ceasing

 

We could see that the Holy Spirit created the universe from Genesis 1:2.

Holy Spirit not only created the universe in the beginning and worked on the Pentecost Day 2000 years ago, but He is working among us today. 

 

The Holy Spirit is working toward the spiritual low air pressure that is full of sin, infirmity, and sorrow and hopeless with good news today.

He wants to work in you and in this church today.

We have to come to the Lord with repentance and confession, and then we can experience the Holy Spirit.

 

3) The wind blows where it wishes

The wind blows by itself, and we cannot control the wind direction at all.

 

The Hoy Spirit is not following us, but He is doing His Will according to the Will of God.

So we have to flow with the Holy Spirit where He is working, and follow Him wherever He leads us.

4) The wind brings the fresh air

We feel so good when the cool and fresh air blows in hot day.

If your room is full of smell with dirty air, then you open all the windows and any doors.

Why?

The wind blows away the bad air and brings the clean air.

 

We can easily to fall into depression when we do struggle in many things, but the Holy Spirit comes and changes our heart with full of hope and joy.

 

 

3. The Anointing Oil

1 John 2:27a

As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you ¡¦

 

1) Consecration

God consecrated all the priests, the furniture and tools of the tabernacle with anointed oil.

God consecrated His Children through the Holy Spirit

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a Chosen Generation, a royal Priest, a Holy Nation, a people for God¡¯s own possession ¡¦

 

You are Chosen one, You are a Royal Priest, you are a Holy Nation, you are God¡¯s possession, because God anointed you with the Holy Spirit.

 

Without the Holy Spirit there is no consecration at all.

 

2) Revelation

In the Tabernacle, there is one golden lamp with a lamp holder on each branch that have 7 branches.

There are no other sources of light in the tabernacle.

Only source of light is the golden lamp to make bright to see clearly in the tabernacle.

 

The Secret things of Heaven will be revealed by the Holy Spirit alone.

 

John 16:13

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

 

3) Healing

Jesus¡¯ parable of the good Samaritans

¡°Pouring oil and wine on them¡±

The healing and restoration come from the Holy Spirit.

Why do we have many problems in our life?

We do not have much relationship with the Holy Spirit.

We have to drink the Holy Spirit, like as w have to eat Jesus¡¯ flesh and drink His Blood.

 

 

 

II. You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise

 

Ephesians 1:13

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,

 

1. No one can break

To seal means to close or make secure against access, leakage, or passage by a fastening or coating and no one without special permission can open it. 

 

Like Pilate sealed Jesus¡¯ tomb.

The Roman soldiers will kill anyone who come close to Jesus¡¯ tomb because of the seal.

 

In the same way, we all believe in Jesus and became His Children through Jesus¡¯ Blood for the redemption. From this moment on, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise.

God separates us from the perish and the world, protects us from our enemy satan by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and from the enemy¡¯s intrusion with His Authority.

 

The Holy Spirit came to us, dwells in us and protects us from committing sin and the devil. We have to keep our mind and the life holy through the Holy Spirit, so that we rely on the Holy Spirit against the devil and to please Father God.

 

2. The special ownership

To seal means to declare the permanent ownership to the public legally.

This legal ownership is the immovable our Salvation, and we belong to the Lord forever. No one can separate us from our God forever.

 

Our Father God will not tolerate whatever satan tries to deceive and destroy us.

Our Salvation was paid with incomparable cost of Jesus¡¯ Blood who is the Son of God.

You are very expensive.

 

We have to live on earth with humble heart, to obey His Will, to live the Glory of the Lord, because our God is our protector and our refuge.

 

3. The authority

Seal is the same as signature.

We have the right of the Children of God when the Holy Spirit sealed us.

The miracles and wonders were performed to Jesus¡¯ Disciples when they were with Jesus, however, they failed their faith in Jesus and caught up with fear and depression.  

After Jesus¡¯ resurrection, their joy was recovered, but it was not fully until the Pentecost Day.

 

On the Pentecost Day they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and from that moment they were in power with authority.

Their life was shifted up to the new level of authority in which they never had before.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Ephesians 5:8

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

I believe that He died for my sins and that He rose from the dead.

Thank you that I am Your Child.

Jesus, You are the Baptizer and I ask you to baptize me in the Holy Spirit and give me the power to be a strong witness for You .

I will speak in tongues as the Spirit gives me the words.

In Jesus Name,

Amen