Message by Pastor Maki Umakoshi
October 22, 2023
When my daughter Reika was still very young, she once drew a family picture in her preschool class. She drew herself and her mother beautifully, but her father seemed nowhere to be found.
I remember the preschool teacher giving me a psychological explanation on the picture. She says “children’s drawings often reveal their subconscious state of mind, and that fact that you’re not on this picture kind of indicates that your presence is felt very weak by your daughter.”
That hit me hard. I asked myself, what was I doing wrong? Well, I knew what I was doing wrong. Looking back, I was always working and I was neither a good husband or a good father.
Maybe some of you can relate to this. Even when we are living under the same roof, some families lack meaningful conversations. The father is always scrolling on his phone, while the kids are quieting doing their thing. Even though it may seem like the husband and wife have happy marriage from the outsiders, in truth there is very little communication. This kind of distant relationship can occur even when we are in the same room! It’s something we don’t want to experience but that’s the reality.
Speaking of rooms, there’s a special room mentioned in the Bible – it’s the room within our hearts. Using somewhat complex terminology, it’s sometimes referred to as a “temple.” And the Scripture says that before we met Jesus, this room was incredibly dirty. If you want to get an idea of how dirty it is, you’re welcome to come visit my room. There is clothes all over the floor, coffee cups on the table. My wife often says, “How can you work in such a place?”
In any case, we all have a dirty room in our hearts. But after we believed in Jesus Christ, our sins are exposed, and that room becomes clean. It becomes a holy temple. But that’s not all – just like in the Old Testament, when God came into the tabernacle or the temple and dwelt there, when we believe in Jesus, the Holy Spirit resides within us! All those who believe in Jesus Christ experience these amazing transformation. Today, for those of you who believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the divine presence, dwells in you whether you like it or not, He is in you! That’s the beautiful truth.
BUT, there is one problem. Even though the Holy Spirit is in the room of your heart, you may not know Him that much, because you hardly recognize Him, you hardly speak to him. The relationship has grown cold just like couples in troubled marriage.
I think there are many Christians like this. They have faith, but they somehow feel distant from God. They serve in church, but it feels awkward. How about all of you? Do you sometimes feel distant from God?
What I want you to consider today is that no matter how well we may know God as the Creator of this world or Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us, if we don’t understand the Holy Spirit who resides in our hearts, we will feel distant from God. Because the Holy Spirit is the gateway to knowing God. Without going through the Holy Spirit, we cannot know God. It’s like the old telephone systems where you had to connect through an exchange to talk to anyone. The Holy Spirit is that exchange.
So today, I want to talk about the Holy Spirit. The issue is not whether the Holy Spirit is in your heart; all those who believe in Jesus Christ have the Holy Spirit. The issue is, where in your heart’s room is the Holy Spirit?
Now, some of you today, may not believe in Jesus today, which means that you don’t have the Holy Spirit in your room. That’s okay! I hope this will be a good opportunity to think about what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit and what it looks like to have the Holy Spirit in your hart.
Before we begin, let me pray.
According to the Bible, God is one nature and three persons. This is called Trinity. God is one existence in nature, but He can be described as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is a whole another topic that I could perhaps talk about if there is another opportunity. But thinking about Trinity, most people can grasp the image of God as the Father, He is the one who created the world. And most people can picture God the Son, Jesus, who came for us to die on the cross to forgive us of our sins. But I’m aware that many struggle to understand who the Holy Spirit is.
So today, I’d like us to think together about the nature of the Holy Spirit. Since not everyone might be familiar with the term “Holy Spirit,” let’s start with some basics. The word Spirit comes from the Hebrew word “Ruach” and in Greek it’s called “Pneuma”. Interestingly, they both have the same root meaning, which is “wind” or “breath.” The Bible beautifully likens the Holy Spirit to the wind, something invisible yet palpable. This kind of makes sense when you think about how the wind works. We can’t see the wind itself, but we can feel its presence through the movement of trees or the sensation on our skin. Similarly, we can’t see the Holy Spirit, but we can feel its power and influence.
Now, Jesus spoke about this in John 3:8. He says, ”The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
In this passage, Jesus is saying that when someone is born of the Spirit, it doesn’t change their outward appearance. You can’t see it from the outside, but when you talk to them, you can sense a difference. He used be an angry person, but after he became a Christian, he still looks the same, but he’s acting a little differently! That how’s the Spirit works.
Now, let’s talk about when the Holy Spirit makes its first appearances in the Bible. Do you know where the Holy Spirit first mentioned? Well… don’t be surprised, it’s present right from the very very beginning! In Genesis 1:1-3 it says:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”
The Spirit of God was hovering it says! The Old Testament mentions the Holy Spirit right from the beginning. There are some other passages such as:
19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, (Ezekiel 11:19)
3 as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, (Job 27:3)
So, the Spirit existed from the very beginning. But the Holy Spirit’s significant manifestation began in the New Testament era. One pivotal moment was the Last Supper, where Jesus prophesied about the Holy Spirit’s coming. He said in John 16:7-8:
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: (John 16:7–8)
Jesus is prophesying how the Spirit will come after his death and resurrection. And he’s saying that it’s a good thing that Jesus is going away. Why? Jesus we’ll miss you! Why is it a good thing that the Helping is coming? Well, it’s because the Holy Spirit can come.Now, I’m going to digress from the main point a little bit, but have you wondered why the Holy Spirit and Jesus could not come at the same time? I mean, why can’t they just come together, while Jesus was on this earth?
The answer is found in the passage that we just read. The work of the Spirit is to “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgement.” This means that the role of the Spirit is to tell people about our sin, by pointing to the death of Jesus on the cross! This means, that until Jesus dies on the cross, and wins victory over death, Spirit cannot come, there must be a passing of a baton if you will.In other words, to wrap it up, we cannot receive the Holy Spirit unless we accept Jesus, because the role of the Spirit is to convict people about Jesus!
Sadly, in this history of the church, there have been many people who try to receive the Spirit without Jesus. In the book of Acts, you read about a man who tried purchase the Holy Spirit with money! But that was ludicrous! You cannot buy the Holy Spirit. It comes only as we receive Jesus.
So, I want tell you a good news today. Just as we read in the Book of Acts, the same Holy Spirit that raised the dead, cast out demons, healed the sick, and performed miracles is also given to all of you. When you believe in Jesus Christ and confess Him as your Savior, your dirty room becomes a holy temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells in your heart!
Now… nobody is clapping!
Why is no one excited?! That’s where I find it interesting: If I were to announce that Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt in their prime (I know they are getting old) are coming to your house, you’d probably get excited.
But how come no one is excited when I say the Holy Spirit has come to your heart’s home today! It’s a bit perplexing, don’t you think?
That’s really the tension that I want highlight today. For many of us Christians, the Holy Spirit is kind of pushed to the corner of the room. There is no excitement. There is no communication. He is just kind of sitting there as you scroll through the phone. How are you, the Spirit may ask, but you say, I’m fine thank you and you go on with your business. How sad is this! What is going on!
Let me give you one possibility why you might have a lackluster relationship with the Holy Spirit. It’s perhaps because for some of you, you view the presence of the Holy Spirit as some vague, mysterious energy, some strange power or an influence.
I don’t if you’ve heard of a Japanese animation called Dragon Ball. This was very popular growing up when I was a kid. In Dragon Ball, the main character had a special power to shoot a beam called “Kamehameha” wave.
As a kid, I really wanted the power to shoot the Kamehameha wave. It’s kind of embarrassing, but I used to practice this when nobody was looking. But no matter how hard I tried, it never worked!
We often find ourselves longing for extraordinary powers like this. Powers beyond human abilities, which is why superhero movies are so popular. We’re fascinated by the idea of tapping into an incredible energy source.
Perhaps some of you perceive the Holy Spirit as a kind of extraordinary energy, something you can control, like the “Kamehameha” wave. In reality, many Christians have this understanding of the Holy Spirit. Even some pastors share this perspective. For instance, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, there was a pastor who tried to blow away the virus by breathing heavily and proclaiming, “Corona, leave!” Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned.
But is a Holy Spirit mere energy? When we read the Bible, we discover that the Holy Spirit is not about power or energy but a person, He is a divine being. We see this in the Scripture all over the place, for instance, in Ephesians 4:30, it says,
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Do you see this? The Holy Spirit can be grieved! Because the Holy Spirit is a person, not an instrument. Instruments don’t experience emotions. Recently, I spilled coffee on my MacBook, but it didn’t shed a tear. I was the one who was crying, and I was crying because I am a person. In the same way, the Holy Spirit can grieve. When we understand that Holy Spirit is a person, not a thing or power, then our actions before God gradually begins to change.
Let me illustrate this point:When I was in college, at one time, I got drunk with some of my friends. We went to karaoke and didn’t go home that night. But during my tipsy state, my mother sent me a message on my phone. She wrote “God is grieving.”
That hit me hard. It’s one thing for my mother to say, “I’m grieving,” but it has totally different weight when she said “God is grieving.” It had a profound impact on me. God can be sad too. Since then, I haven’t allowed myself to get drunk (and I don’t drink anymore). It’s not because I was afraid of breaking the law against drunkenness, but because I don’t want to make my mother sad, and ultimately I don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit.
When you have a personal connection with the Holy Spirit, your relationship with God changes drastically. You begin to follow His words not because you feel like you have to, but because you desire to please the Holy Spirit, who loves us and guides us in the right direction. You want to make the Holy Spirit happy, just like I wanted to make my mother happy.
In Romans, Paul says:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. (Romans 8:26)
You see, only a person can intercede. Holy Spirit is not a thing, it is not power but He is a person who comforts, guides, and communicates with us.
So I want to ask you today. How close are you to the Holy Spirit today? Where is the Holy Spirit in your room? Is He sitting with you at the same table? or Is he sitting in the corner?
If you want to draw near to the Holy Spirit, if you desire to feel the warm breeze of the Holy Spirit in your everyday life, you need to start a personal relationship with Him.
Remember, the Holy Spirit is a person, who loves you dearly, and when you’re feeling lonely, He is always there by your side. Even if everyone else in the world were to betray you, the Holy Spirit would never betray you. When your heart is burdened with sin and becomes all dirty, it’s the Holy Spirit who gently reminds you that it’s time to go back to the cross, it’s time to clean up the mess in your room. It’s the Holy Spirit who generously pours water into your parched heart, refreshing your soul. Talk to him. Cling to him. Worship Him. Call out to Him.
Who is sitting on the throne in your heart? Is it you? Or is it God the Spirit? If the Holy Spirit is pushed to the corner of your room, I encourage you to welcome the Holy Spirit to the center of your heart today. Let’s go by the Spirit. We live in this crazy time. There is war happening in the world. There is chaos. But be at peace. Because the Spirit of God is in you. He will never forsake you. He will guide you to the end.
Let’s pray.