Fearless One Episode 12 - Be Filled With the Spirit Hello Fearless One. Last week, we talked about hearing from God. We unpacked Habakkuk 2 and the importance of becoming still, taking your position, watching for what God will say and writing down what He gives you. But there is another part of that conversation. How does God speak to us now that Jesus is no longer physically walking the earth? How do we receive direction, understanding and power for the work He has called us to do? The answer is the Holy Spirit. I promised to do a special episode on being filled with the Spirit, and I did not want to put it off too long because hearing from God and learning to live by the Spirit belong together. You were never expected to fulfil your purpose with human intelligence, determination and willpower alone. God gave you His Spirit. ## More than a feeling The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity. He is not a lesser part of God. He is not an assistant standing somewhere in the background waiting for Jesus and the Father to give Him something to do. He is God. The Father is God. Jesus is God. The Holy Spirit is God. They are distinct, but equal. It is also important to understand that the Holy Spirit is not merely a force, a feeling or an atmosphere in a worship service. He has a personality. He speaks. He teaches. He leads. He comforts. He reveals truth. He can be grieved. He distributes gifts according to His will. I sometimes think of the Holy Spirit as my power pack. If you are a Marvel fan, you may think of something like an Infinity Stone, an object carrying extraordinary power. But the comparison can only take us so far because the Holy Spirit is not an object we possess or a power source we control. He is a Person with whom we have a relationship. We do not use the Holy Spirit. We surrender to Him and allow Him to work in and through us. ## Jesus promised the Holy Spirit Before Jesus returned to the Father, He told His disciples that He would send another Comforter. In John 14:16, Jesus says: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you.” Depending on the Bible translation you read, you may see the Holy Spirit described as the Comforter, Counsellor, Helper or Advocate. The original Greek word is *Parakletos*. It carries the idea of someone called alongside you to help. Think about what that means. The Holy Spirit is the One called alongside you. He is not watching your life from a distance. He is present with you. Jesus, in His physical body, could only be in one geographical location at a time. The disciples could walk with Him, sit with Him and ask Him questions, but when they travelled to different parts of the world, they would no longer all be able to experience His physical presence at once. Through the Holy Spirit, God could live within every believer, wherever they went. That is why Jesus could send His disciples into all the world. They were not going alone. Neither are you. ## Clothed with power This connects to the passage from Luke 24 that I mentioned in the last episode. Luke 24 does exist. It is the final chapter of Luke, and in verse 49 Jesus tells His disciples: “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Notice that Jesus had already taught them. They had watched Him perform miracles. They had heard His sermons. They had seen Him after His resurrection. They had been personally commissioned by Him. Still, He told them to wait. Information was not enough. Experience was not enough. Even receiving the assignment directly from Jesus was not enough. They needed power. Acts 1:8 records Jesus saying: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses.” The disciples were not told to wait because God wanted them to procrastinate. They were told to wait because their assignment required a capacity they did not yet possess. Some of us are trying to do God-sized work with human strength. We have the plan. We have developed the skill. We have created the website, registered the company, prepared the presentation and written the strategy. But we are exhausted because we are trying to produce spiritual outcomes through human effort alone. You need skill, preparation and discipline. But you also need the Holy Spirit. ## The source of fearlessness In Chapter 1 of my book, *Live Fearless: A Christian Entrepreneur’s Guide to Life and Business*, I call the Holy Spirit the source of our empowerment. Fearlessness is not dependent on your natural ability to be brave. It is not a personality trait. It is not about being extroverted, daring or unaffected by what other people think. Before you can live fearlessly, you must take fearless action. Before you take fearless action, you must know that you are fearless. You must know who you are and who lives within you. Genesis 1:28 says: “God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it.’” God created us with identity, purpose and authority. We were made to create, cultivate, multiply and steward what He has placed in our care. But He did not give us that mandate and then leave us to figure it out alone. The Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfil it. Acts 1:8 tells us that we receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. That power is not symbolic. It is empowerment to execute the assignment God has given you in your home, your business, your ministry, your relationships and your community. The Holy Spirit gives you wisdom for decisions, boldness for conversations and discernment for situations that are not as straightforward as they appear. He empowers you to live your Genesis 1:28 mandate. ## Who is the Holy Spirit to us? Let us look at some of the ways Scripture describes the work of the Holy Spirit. ### He is the Comforter There will be times when you need more than advice. You may be grieving, frightened or carrying something you cannot fully explain to another person. The Holy Spirit brings comfort that is not dependent on your circumstances immediately changing. Comfort does not always mean that He removes the problem. Sometimes He strengthens you in the middle of it and reminds you that you are not alone. ### He is the Teacher Jesus said in John 14:26 that the Holy Spirit would teach us all things and remind us of what Jesus had said. The Holy Spirit can bring a Scripture back to your mind at the moment you need it. He can help you understand something you have read many times but never truly grasped. He can show you how biblical truth applies to the decision in front of you. ### He is the Spirit of Truth John 16:13 says that the Spirit of truth will guide us into all truth. The Holy Spirit helps us recognise what is true beneath appearances, pressure and manipulation. That matters in relationships. It matters when you are negotiating a contract, choosing a business partner, hiring someone or considering an opportunity that looks impressive but does not feel right. Discernment is not suspicion. It is the ability to perceive clearly under the direction of the Holy Spirit. ### He is our Guide A guide does not necessarily reveal the entire journey at once. A good guide helps you navigate the part of the path you are on. The Holy Spirit may give you a clear next step without explaining what will happen five years from now. He may tell you to call someone, wait, decline an offer, study a subject, change direction or return to something you abandoned. Our responsibility is to listen and obey. ### He is our Advocate and Helper There will be moments when you do not have the language, strength or confidence to represent yourself. The Holy Spirit helps you. He can give you the right words in a difficult meeting. He can help you remain calm when someone is attempting to provoke you. He can show you when to speak and when silence is the wiser response. ### He is our Intercessor Romans 8:26 says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we do not always know what we ought to pray. That does not mean we never use our understanding when we pray. It means that prayer is not limited by what our natural minds can recognise or articulate. God knows what is happening beneath the surface, what lies ahead and what His complete purpose is. The Spirit helps us pray within that reality. ### He gives us power Second Timothy 1:7 says: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” The Holy Spirit does not make us reckless or irresponsible. His power works with love and sound judgement. That matters because boldness without love can become aggression. Spiritual language without wisdom can become foolishness. Confidence without self-control can cause harm. The Holy Spirit gives us power, love and a sound mind together. ### He develops fruit in us The evidence of the Spirit’s presence is not only what happens during prayer or worship. Galatians 5 speaks about the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. If I say I am filled with the Spirit but I am dishonest in business, cruel to my team, impatient with my family and unwilling to exercise self-control, something is wrong. Gifts demonstrate what the Spirit can do through us. Fruit reveals what He is developing within us. We need both. ## Speaking in tongues When the believers were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The people gathered in Jerusalem heard them speaking in their own languages. We see tongues associated with receiving the Holy Spirit again in Acts 10, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on Cornelius and his household, and in Acts 19, when Paul ministered to believers in Ephesus. Within Pentecostal and many Charismatic traditions, speaking in tongues is understood as the initial physical evidence of being baptised in the Holy Spirit. Other Christian traditions interpret these passages differently. I want to acknowledge that because the Bible also asks in 1 Corinthians 12:30, “Do all speak in tongues?” in a section dealing with the public gifts used within the church. I believe it helps to distinguish between the public gift of tongues, which should be interpreted when used in a gathered church, and praying in tongues as a personal prayer language. Paul discusses both dimensions in 1 Corinthians 14. He says that the person speaking in a tongue speaks to God. He also says: “For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful.” That does not mean your mind becomes evil or completely disconnected. It means your prayer is not being generated or understood through your normal reasoning process. This can be particularly helpful when your mind wants to analyse, edit, question or rationalise everything. You choose to pray, but you surrender the language. ## What does speaking in tongues sound like? Sometimes the language may be recognisable to another person, as it was in Acts 2. At other times, the speaker does not understand what is being said. The Bible does not give us a detailed linguistic classification of every kind of tongue. What it makes clear is that the language is supplied by the Spirit rather than learned by the speaker. Yes, it may sound like gibberish to you at first because you do not understand what you are saying. Think about a baby beginning to imitate the sounds of parents and siblings. The baby does not begin with a polished vocabulary. The sounds come before fluency. In the same way, you may begin with a few syllables or repeated sounds. Your natural mind will want to interrupt. Am I making this up? Does this sound silly? Is that Spanish, Italian or some language I once heard on television? You have to surrender the need to understand everything before you participate. Faith does not mean pretending. It means responding to God without demanding that your natural mind control the entire experience. ## My experience of receiving When I was seeking to be filled with the Spirit, God led me to Luke 24. From there, I continued searching and found myself in Acts, reading Peter’s explanation of what was happening on the Day of Pentecost. Peter quoted David: “My heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad.” That phrase helped me understand something about receiving from the Holy Spirit. If you have ever had a good laugh that seemed to bubble up from somewhere deep inside you, that is the closest comparison I can give. As I believed that I had received, I could almost hear the language internally. At first, it sounded like a train coming through a tunnel. It seemed distant, then became clearer as it came closer. I began to repeat what I was hearing. God did not seize control of my mouth. I had to choose to open it. That is important. The Holy Spirit does not normally force you to speak. Acts 2 says they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit supplied the utterance. They did the speaking. ## You are not required to lose control I grew up seeing people behave as if being touched by the Holy Spirit meant they had no control over their bodies. There might have been shouting, falling or rolling on the ground. I am not saying that every physical response is false. People respond emotionally and physically in different ways. Some people cry. Some laugh. Some kneel. Some dance. Some stand quietly. But dramatic behaviour is not proof that one person is more filled with the Spirit than another. First Corinthians 14:32 says that the spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. The chapter also teaches that God is not the author of confusion. The Holy Spirit does not need a performance. You do not become more spiritual because your response is louder. You can be standing quietly in the presence of God and be fully surrendered to Him. ## Prayer in a frightening season Between about 2013 and 2015, I travelled frequently for work. It felt as though I was boarding one of those tiny planes every few weeks. I love flying, but there had been several air accidents in the region, including a fatal accident on the route between Montserrat and Antigua. Suddenly, getting onto a seven-seat aircraft became stressful. Every bump could send my imagination racing through all the possibilities of what could go wrong. I found that praying in tongues brought me peace. It took my attention away from the turbulence and the stories my mind was creating. I was no longer trying to argue myself out of anxiety. I was allowing the Holy Spirit to help me pray when fear had taken over my thoughts. I still got on the plane. I still fastened my seat belt. I still followed the safety instructions. Faith did not remove practical wisdom. But praying in the Spirit helped me refuse to let fear control the journey. I have also found praying in tongues helpful when I am anxious, when I do not know what to pray and when a situation is too complicated for me to understand. Often, after praying, an idea comes. I receive a clearer sense of what to do or a knowing that helps me approach the challenge differently. ## A source of creativity Praying in the Spirit can also become part of your creative process. The Holy Spirit is not limited to what we call church work. He was present at creation. Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. When Bezalel was called to create the furnishings for the tabernacle, Exodus 31 says God filled him with the Spirit, wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all kinds of craftsmanship. The first person Scripture explicitly says was filled with the Spirit was a creative practitioner. That should change how we think about creativity and work. The Holy Spirit can help a writer see a story differently. He can help a strategist recognise a pattern. He can show an entrepreneur an unmet need. He can give a designer a new approach, a leader the right language and a scientist a question worth investigating. This does not remove the need to research, study, practise or test an idea. The Holy Spirit is not an excuse for laziness. He expands what becomes possible when prepared people are surrendered to God. Sometimes I pray or sing in tongues and later find myself articulating an answer in English. I may say something that sounds like knowledge I already possessed, yet I cannot identify when I learnt it or how I suddenly understood it. That is one of the ways I experience the Holy Spirit helping me. ## The gifts are tools for living First Corinthians 12 lists nine manifestations of the Spirit: * The word of wisdom * The word of knowledge * Faith * Gifts of healing * The working of miracles * Prophecy * Discerning of spirits * Different kinds of tongues * The interpretation of tongues These gifts are not spiritual trophies. They are tools for serving people. And they are not restricted to the four walls of a church building. A word of wisdom may help you find a solution when everyone else is stuck. A word of knowledge may bring something important to your attention that you could not have known naturally. Faith may give you the conviction to act when the circumstances offer no reassurance. Discernment may help you recognise what is operating beneath a proposal, relationship or conflict. Prophecy may bring encouragement, direction or confirmation, although it must always be tested against Scripture and handled humbly. Healing and miracles reveal God’s compassion and power. Tongues and interpretation can strengthen the gathered church when they are exercised according to biblical order. The Holy Spirit may work through you in a boardroom, classroom, hospital, studio, kitchen, workshop or community meeting. The environment does not make Him less present. However, spiritual gifts do not excuse poor preparation or allow us to make careless claims. If you say, “God told me,” you must be willing to test what you believe you heard. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He is not threatened by responsible examination. ## Pray with your spirit and your understanding Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:15: “I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.” It is not either-or. Pray in English or the language you understand. Tell God what you are feeling. Ask directly for what you need. Use Scripture in prayer. And pray in the Spirit. Sing in the Spirit. Worship in the Spirit. You do not need to turn it into a religious performance. Just as you speak with God throughout the day, you can pray in tongues throughout the day. Paul said he thanked God that he spoke in tongues more than the believers in Corinth. Yet when instructing the gathered church, he prioritised words other people could understand. That gives us balance. There is a place for personal spiritual edification. There is also a responsibility to communicate clearly when serving others. I believe Paul’s life shows what can become possible when a person consistently makes room for the Holy Spirit. He wrote extensively, travelled courageously, endured persecution, developed leaders and communicated the gospel across cultures. The Bible does not directly tell us that Paul accomplished these things because of how many hours he prayed in tongues. That would be an inference. But Paul clearly valued the practice, and his life demonstrated extraordinary spiritual endurance and courage. ## The greatest advantage The world is constantly looking for an advantage. People want the right technology, the right network, the right qualification, the right investment and the right information. Those things can be valuable. But as a believer, your greatest advantage is not a tool outside you. The Spirit of God lives within you. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you. That does not make you invincible or incapable of making a mistake. It means you do not have to face any assignment without help. You have the Comforter when you are hurting. You have the Teacher when you do not understand. You have the Guide when you cannot see the full route. You have the Spirit of truth when appearances are confusing. You have the Intercessor when you do not know how to pray. You have the Advocate when you feel alone. You have the Gift-giver when the assignment requires more than your natural ability. You have power to be a witness, power to serve and power to fulfil your purpose. Being filled with the Spirit is not about becoming more impressive. It is about becoming more available. ## Ask and receive Luke 11:13 says that the Father gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. You do not have to beg God to give you what He has promised. You can ask in faith. You may not experience the Holy Spirit exactly as I did. Do not become so focused on reproducing someone else’s experience that you miss your own encounter with God. Do not chase a feeling. Seek Him. If you desire to pray in tongues, ask the Holy Spirit to give you utterance. Then respond in faith. Open your mouth. Release the sounds that rise within you without trying to manufacture a language or force an emotional experience. You may begin with one sound. You may feel uncertain. Keep your attention on God rather than evaluating yourself every few seconds. And remember that speaking in tongues is not the finish line. It is part of a life surrendered to the Spirit. Continue to develop the fruit of the Spirit. Learn Scripture. Practise obedience. Love people. Grow in wisdom. Test what you hear. Use whatever gift He gives you to serve others. ## Reflection Before we pray, I want you to consider these questions. Where have you been attempting to complete a God-given assignment entirely through your own strength? Which role of the Holy Spirit do you most need to experience right now: Comforter, Teacher, Guide, Advocate, Intercessor or Spirit of truth? Have you reduced the Holy Spirit to an experience during worship rather than recognising His presence in your everyday life and work? What could change in your business, creativity, leadership or relationships if you regularly asked for His direction? Are you willing to surrender the need to understand and control everything before you obey God? ## Prayer to be filled with the Spirit Father, thank You for loving me and calling me Your own. Thank You for sending Jesus to restore me to the identity, relationship and purpose You intended from the beginning. Jesus, I confess that You are Lord. Thank You for Your death, resurrection and the gift of eternal life. Father, You promised to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask You. I ask You now to fill me with Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, I welcome You. Fill every part of my life. My thoughts, words, imagination, relationships, work, business, decisions and plans. Teach me what I do not understand. Remind me of what Jesus has said. Guide me into truth. Comfort me where I am hurting. Give me discernment where I am uncertain. Give me wisdom for every decision and boldness to obey what You show me. Develop Your fruit in me so that my character can carry the gifts You give me. I surrender my voice to You. Give me utterance and help me to pray beyond the limits of my natural understanding. I release the need to sound impressive or to understand everything before I respond. I receive Your power to live as the person God created me to be. Empower me to be fruitful, to multiply what You have placed within me and to steward my influence with wisdom, courage and love. I will not live by fear. I am created in God’s image. I am loved without condition, forgiven through Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. I do not fulfil my assignment alone. God is for me. God is with me. God lives within me. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Take a moment and remain in His presence. If you sense sounds or words rising within you, open your mouth and speak. Do not rush. Do not perform. Keep your attention on God and allow the Holy Spirit to help you pray. You can return to this prayer whenever you need it. Continue to make room for the Holy Spirit each day. Pray with your understanding. Pray with your spirit. Sing with your understanding. Sing with your spirit. Listen. Write down what He gives you. Then take the next faithful step. Thank you for listening to *Fearless One with Nerissa Golden*. If this episode has helped you, share it with someone who wants to deepen their relationship with the Holy Spirit. Subscribe or follow the podcast so you do not miss our next conversation. You can explore more about your identity, purpose and spiritual empowerment in my book, *Live Fearless: A Christian Entrepreneur’s Guide to Life and Business*. Remember, fearlessness is not about believing you are invincible. It is about knowing the One who lives within you. Live Fearless.