But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
The Basic Bible Truth
All that we do must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. In and of ourselves, we are incapable of doing very much at all alone. And we have been given a tremendous gift. The Holy Spirit lives inside each of us who are Christians. He is the seal that we received guaranteeing the promises of God would be upheld by Him. A careful reading of the Gospels will show that Jesus worked through the power of the Holy Spirit during His ministry here on earth. An example for us of how we too should operate—relying totally upon the Spirit’s power.
The Object
A Standard Hair Dryer A Ping Pong Ball Or Two
Turn the hairdryer on the highest fan speed setting to blow as much air as possible, but do not turn on the heat. You will melt the ping pong ball if you do. When you place the ping pong ball in the middle of the stream of air, it will stay in place nicely, even with the hair dryer tilted a bit.
The Lesson
I am not going to even pretend that I have an understanding of the Trinity. I don’t. And I seriously question anyone who says they comprehend the idea. I am constantly amazed at the complexity of our incomprehensible God. I fall on my face in awe in response to what He has shown us in the pages of the Bible. The concept of the Trinity is elusive because we have no parallel with which to compare. God the Father is spirit and cannot be seen by our physical sense of sight. God the Son, who we know as Jesus, came to this earth and made Himself like us. We could touch and talk to and see God in human form. And then there is God the Holy Spirit, also a spirit. He is a person of the Trinity, just as the Father and Son are and is not just a force as in the Star Wars concept of “may the force be with you”. God has said through the Bible that the Three work in such perfect unison and agreement that we can call God One. Three unique, separate, distinct, beings and yet, they are one!
At the moment of salvation, God places His Holy Spirit in the life of every believer. He lives inside of us, comforting, teaching, guiding, and always pointing us towards the person of Jesus, showing us the perfect example of what our lives should look like. He is a spirit and therefore, invisible. But He is there. So the question then becomes, “How can I know that He is there if I can’t see Him?” I’m glad you asked. The answer…by His power. When we push ourselves out of the way and allow God to work through us, we can see the results around us as God accomplishes His perfect plan. Jesus is the perfect example of how a Christian should operate and live by the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything Jesus did, He accomplished through the Spirit. The many miracles were result of the Holy Spirit doing what He does best. Pointing to Jesus and proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Messiah.
Even though it is essentially invisible, there is a force at work when this hair dryer is on. We know that is true because we can see the results of its effects on the world around us. Allow me to demonstrate what I mean. When I aim the hair dryer straight up into the air and turn it on, you can hear sound, but you cannot see anything out of the ordinary going on. There is air moving at a fairly high velocity from the nozzle of the dryer. You have to take my word for it because it is invisible. But when I introduce a ping pong ball into the air stream, you know immediately that there is indeed something going on here. You can see the Bernoulli Principle at its finest. Notice how the ball seems to defy gravity when the dryer is tilted. The physical forces at work here keep it centered nicely.
So it is with the Holy Spirit. God is constantly at work in our world, affecting everything towards His perfect plan. We often miss the Holy Spirit at His finest, His power at work around us. It is when we get involved, when we put ourselves into the stream of air that we realize just how much He is doing. This ping pong ball has nothing to add to make itself light enough to fly like this, or to hang out into the air and seemingly defy gravity. It is the power of the stream of air that is completely responsible for the levitation trick that you see here. When we allow ourselves the courage to step out get involved in what God is doing, is when we will experience the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives. But, remember one very important fact. It is His power at work and not yours.