CONTROVERSY X: What about the Holy Spirit?

(This is a new article series that I am "trying out" with my readers. These are intended to be thought-provoking. Please see their Intro Article: Jan. 26, 2008)

What are your thoughts on the manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? Do you take the same stance as many scholars that, like the event of the Law at Mt. Sinai, it is a "one time event"?

I guess I can agree with that there was a “one-time” initiation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Law had a one-time initiation on Mt. Sinai, and the glory of the Lord fell on that first day in wind, fire, and earthquake, enacting the Old Covenant. Likewise, the Spirit fell on the apostles in the Upper Room, manifested in fire, wind, tongues, embarking the age of the New Covenant. I thought Unger made a very good correlation there.

But I have to disagree with this philosophy that the Holy Spirit came only once, and does not continue to manifest Himself on His people in the miraculous today, i.e. prophecy, tongues, miracles.

I do not believe that Sinai was a “once and for all” event (although the initiation of the Law was), for the glory of the Lord descended upon and ascended from the tabernacle, filling the Holy of Holies, on multiple occasions, depending on God’s directive in moving His people throughout the wilderness. He ceased His movement when He found His resting place at Jerusalem in Solomon’s temple.

The Lord had entered into His rest until the time of the Exile, when He left His resting place until another appointed time, which is still to come. Thus, the presence of the Lord in the Old Testament moved from place to place, yet God was still omnipresent throughout the universe simultaneously while He was present with this “moving manifestation.”

Likewise, the Spirit is present in this world at all times, but His presence falls in many places and manifests in a multitude of evidence, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, and even miracles. The Spirit finds His resting place in the believers’ hearts, but He continues to move until the coming of the third age, which is Christ’s return.

Yet some contest about the “presence” of the spirit. Some have stated that “such things as tongues and miracles are primarily to help in the advancement of the Gospel. Now that we have the Bible, there is no use for such things.”[1]

However, the Bible is not available everywhere, for one, and two-even though it is, you cannot understand it unless it is revealed to you by the Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:10-15).

Also-if you look throughout the evangelism in Acts, how were so many persuaded of the Gospel's authenticity, and won for Christ? By the manifestations of the Spirit, in prophecy, signs, tongues, etc...

Even we, who are apart of Christ's Body, need His Spirit's encouragement to continue running our race and to get to know Him better. Our relationship is developed through His Word, through personal encounters with Him, and through community with His people. I can't tell you how many times the Lord has used the "gift of knowledge" through a complete stranger to grace me with the courage to continue walking the unending road of illness. WOW! You talk about an awesome way God uses to comfort His kids!

We need Him to manifest Himself to us in all sorts of ways, in "rhemas," in signs, and in His Body of believers. We can't make it through this life victoriously without it.

I don’t think I always believed this way…it has come from being exposed to and experiencing the miraculous signs of His presence. When I was first baptized, I did not speak in tongues. But that did not make me any less of a sold-out believer in Jesus than someone who did. That’s another topic that I won’t get into, but the point I’m trying to make is God is always moving and yet He is always there; you can sense when His presence falls in a room, and yet, at the same time…He is always present, as if He'd never moved. We can’t figure it out…He’s just…God!

[1] Anonymous, citation from theological forum.