A Slice of Daily Bread: weekly selections from Daily Bread

Filled with the Spirit

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak…” —Acts 2:4

Luke’s faithful narrative reports that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost, not as a cozy comforter-blanket, but as a burning fire. It appears that the Spirit, often referred to as a comforter and guide, was much more than our domestication of it often allows. In this account the Holy Spirit simply blows the disciples clean out of their minds!

Consider this: Isn’t the very idea of a doctrine of the Holy Spirit a seeming contradiction in terms? How does one render a flame into a thesis? It seems that this is done only through domestication and, perhaps, a loss of imagination brought on by our rational, enlightened world. In the Hebrew Bible [Old Testament] the Spirit is seen as that creative power that overwhelms prophets and fills them with inspiration, which they are called to proclaim imaginatively. They represent the imaginative, creative, redemptive, liberating, and reconciling God whose word is let loose on the world.

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit again spoke God’s imaginative word, inviting disciples to know, share, and participate in the wild and wonderful work of God. According to Luke, the gathered throng was “filled with the Holy Spirit,” and from the overflow of God’s own presence through Christ, the disciples began to speak. God’s word gushed forth! It breathed on the crowd, and all were covered with an imaginative word that enabled each one to hear in their own language. And a new order of things erupted as the Holy Spirit gave utterance.

Prayer Thought: Breath of God, rest upon us and transform us through your presence.

Renew your spirit daily — Order Daily Bread