The Holy Spirit, my friend!

Acts 2:1-4 “When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force—no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.”

When my grandfather Paulk began preaching about the Holy Spirit back in the early 1930s in South Georgia, he got a very rude welcome! Men with tar buckets went into the little “Brush Arbor” he had built and put tar on all the benches so that the people who came would have no place to sit. Another time a group of men waited in the bushes to ambush the skinny, but sturdy, little preacher man and his family as they made their way down the road to their meeting place. As the car stopped and Earl got out of his car, Addie Mae, with two babies in tow got out right behind him. He stood there, unafraid, as they brandished their wooden bats and shot guns, he was told they would let him go if he would get in his car and turn around, if he would quit preaching that heresy about speaking in tongues! He stood his ground, Myrtle clinging to her mother’s skirt, Earl Jr in her arms, so bravely that one of the men began to feel sorry for him and said so! With that the men got into an argument with each other and while they were fighting among themselves, Earl got his family back in the car and rode on to the revival. The message of the Holy Spirit was catching on, spreading like a wildfire in dry grass. These guys were infuriated! They went to the meeting to spy and while Earl was preaching  they took his car and put it in the creek upside down, which ruined it. 

Did that stop the unflappable Earl? 

No, and why?

Because he had a personal experience with the third part of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost Himself! John 14:15-17 “If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. The godless world can’t take him in because it doesn’t have eyes to see him, doesn’t know what to look for. But you know him already because he has been staying with you, and will even be in you! The battle was against the Spirit Himself, they didn’t know Him.

John 15:26-27 “When the Friend I plan to send you from the Father comes—the Spirit of Truth issuing from the Father—he will confirm everything about me. You, too, from your side must give your confirming evidence, since you are in this with me from the start.”

Because of the efforts of my grandfather and others like him, the message was spread; the Holy Spirit had come to South Georgia! 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the continent, my other grandfather had discovered that his old friend the Holy Ghost, was in America! He heard of him as he was walking down a street called Azusa! The Holy Spirit was there in such a mighty way that more than once, it was reported that a fire was coming from the roof of the building! 

You and I may both meet a person and we may both have two different opinions of them. I might venture to say to you, “You need to get to know them personally, then you’ll understand their personality and you’ll love them just like I do!” It is up to YOU to make the acquaintance of the Holy Spirit on your own. I was raised knowing of Him, but never got personally acquainted with Him until the year I was 21, when He came to comfort me in my time of a very broken heart and has never left me. He is my constant companion; I talk to Him every day, while I am drinking my morning coffee, when I am driving, or just working around my house. He doesn’t make me stop to talk, but when I want to hear His answers, I get alone and quiet, that is when He speaks to me.

He can also be your friend!!