Compelling Reason #2: We need to pursue a deeper filling of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit grows our confidence in Whose we are, and who we are, in Christ.
Jesus tells us, in John 4:21-24, that the Father seeks worshipers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. In other words, He seeks worshipers that are genuine, who know and love Him personally. The Holy Spirit enables us to cry, Abba, Father. As Paul writes, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children (Romans 8:15). Through the indwelling Spirit we can know God, not as an abstract concept, but as an amazingly wonderful Person.
I came to Christ during my senior year of college. It was around Christmas time when Jesus stepped out of the Bible and into my heart. I found out that God is real. I felt His enormous love, and wept on and off for days. Experiencing God’s love for me changed my life forever. I had been a party guy, living a horribly reckless lifestyle, caring only about myself. But God loved me anyway. As He melted my heart, I wept over the realization that He loves everybody – people of every race and nationality and creed. God was no longer an abstract concept or theological syllogism. No, God is my Dad. He’s my Father, and I feel His loving presence. In His great love, He has given me identity, meaning, and purpose. I love Him, and have learned to trust Him.
The Holy Spirit enables us to know Whose we are and who we are in Christ. He convinces us that we are sons and daughters of our Father in heaven. He is the One who empowers us to transcend the stifling expectations of other people. He enables us to rise above the dehumanizing experiences and the boxes and categories people try to shove us into. When we suffer debilitating wounds and rejections, He comforts and restores us. By His power we rise above the stereotypes and judgments other people try to put on us – the comparisons, jealousies, the traps of one-up-man-ship and never-matching-up that we often fall into. He reveals to us our true value and identity, as beloved children who are cherished and affirmed by our Heavenly Father.
Being filled with the Spirit makes it all real to us. He opens the eyes of our hearts to know not only our identity, but also our authority as believers in Christ. We have been made alive and raised up with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5), and we are seated with Christ at the right hand of God in the heavenly places (spiritual dimension) – the place of favor, authority, power, and victory (Ephesians 2:6). What joy it brings us to see people at our Holy Spirit conferences become aware of these amazing truths and experience enormous breakthroughs in their lives.