The Bible often uses pictures to help us to understand God. The Holy Spirit is described as wind, fire, water and as a dove to help us to understand more of His nature and purposes.

Spirit, wind, breath

The Hebrew word for spirit (ruach), like the Greek word (pneuma), can also mean wind or breath. The Holy Spirit is often likened to breath (which we associate with life, because when we stop living, we stop breathing and vice versa!) or to wind. In Acts 2:2, we read ‘a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.’ The Holy Spirit is, in many ways, ‘like a breath of fresh air.’ He brings life and newness and freshness to all that we do. Job says that ‘the Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life’ (Job 33:4), and we need the Holy Spirit as breath or wind to give us life. Jesus used this metaphor when talking to Nicodemus (John 3:1-8) and reminded us that we need the breath of the Holy Spirit if we are to be born again as God’s children. Our prayer is ‘breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew’ every day. Not only does the Holy Spirit breathe on us when we first come to know Jesus, He continues to breathe on us and make us spiritually alive as we continue our journey of faith.

Fire

On the Day of Pentecost, ‘they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.’ (Acts 2:3) Fire is wild and uncontrollable and can seem terrifying to us. It is often used to describe God (who is a ‘consuming fire’ Heb 12:29) and speaks of purification and purging. It also symbolises the energy and fuel for our service. Rom 12:11 tells us ‘never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour, serving the Lord’, allowing His energy to burn within us.

Living Water

Jesus said ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink’ (John 7:37) and told people ‘Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ (John 7:38), a reference to the Holy Spirit. God is the only One who can satisfy all our longings and our thirsts. We often try to find satisfaction in all kinds of ways, but God wants us to know that He will never disappoint us, never let us down, never abandon us or forsake us. The crowds were bewildered by what they saw and heard on the Day of Pentecost, to the extent that they made fun of the disciples, thinking they were drunk! God’s life is better than wine, better than anything we can ever imagine. He wants to give us living water that satisfies.

Dove

When Jesus was baptised, ‘heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.’ (Matt 3:16; see also Mark 1:10-11, Luke 3:21-22, John 1:32-34) The dove was a symbol of gentleness and peace, but to the Jews it was also a sin offering which the poor could give to God if they could not afford to give a lamb. (Lev 5:7, Luke 2:22:24) Jesus’s sacrifice paves the way for us to be reconciled to God (see Heb 7:27) and because of this, we have peace with God. The dove is the symbol of peace, a peace God brings which transcends all understanding (see Phil 4:4-7). The Holy Spirit is able to give us peace even when all around us is in turmoil and our hearts are anxious and fearful.

Many Christians are very familiar with the idea of God as creator and Father; the parables of Jesus often look at this aspect of the Godhead. We are also familiar with the idea of Jesus being God’s Son, for the gospels show us much about His life and ministry. But we are often less familiar with the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.

Pentecost (which will actually be celebrated next Sunday) is the festival when we remember the Holy Spirit coming upon the first believers and equipping them to be witnesses to all God had done through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. (Acts 2:1-13) The Holy Spirit’s arrival as a mighty rushing wind and with tongues of fire marks the ‘birthday’ of the church in many ways, for it is clear that until this point, the disciples had been a disparate group not really achieving very much. After the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, they were changed irrevocably, just as Jesus had predicted (see Acts 1:4-5, 8). The Holy Spirit became the fire and fuel for their witness, enabling them to speak in other languages to proclaim the wonders of God to all who had gathered in Jerusalem to worship God. Over three thousand people became Christians on that day as Peter preached about Jesus with power and boldness and the church grew in numbers and power.

We know that the disciples were meeting together in obedience to Jesus’s explicit command, even if they were not entirely sure what was going to happen. Obedience is key to receiving God’s blessings. We often don’t know what God is going to do or how He is going to do it, but we are sure that He is working and creating and saving! As we wait on God with expectation and longing in our hearts, He is able to move in power amongst us.

Last night’s ‘Churches Together’ service looked at the importance of Pentecost and the person and work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Jesus’s followers.

We had an activity focussing on some of the descriptions of the Holy Spirit:

Mark describing what we needed to do:

Groups working on their pictures:

Group 2 completed the task most quickly and then all the pictures were viewed:

This was the winning entry:

Don’t forget the ‘Churches Together’ meeting on Saturday 16th May at 7 p.m. at GPCC. We’re excited about all the local churches joining together to celebrate Pentecost and reflect on how the Holy Spirit is moving in our churches today. Come along and share in the worship, activities, Bible teaching and fellowship… not to mention cakes and buns!

Last Sunday we celebrated two April birthdays of peo9ple who had not been in church for a few weeks:

This week is ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’, and whilst having such ‘named’ weeks does not of itself solve any problems, it does at least help people to talk about things which may otherwise be deemed unsuitable for discussions and raises awareness of these vital issues. Since 1 in 4 people in the UK will statistically suffer from a mental health illness over the course of a year, it is surprising that we find it so difficult to address these topics and for many Christians there is also the (often unspoken) feeling that it is not ‘spiritual’ to suffer from mental health problems in a way that people who are physically ill may not feel.

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s daughter (Katharine Welby-Roberts) has written about her problems with depression and anxiety in a moving blog post here. In it, she says ‘the point of mental health awareness week is to make us aware of mental health, the fact that we all have it (emotional needs to be addressed), we all need to care for it and there are many ways in which it can go wrong.’ She goes on to describe the debilitating battle with depression and anxiety which she faces every day: ‘The cycle of negative thoughts in my head is pretty non-stop, and this leads into my exhaustion. I fight the thoughts (as often as I have the energy) whenever they appear, but this takes up the majority of my mental capacity.’

It can be difficult for those who have never experienced the torment and torture of these negative thoughts to imagine what this is like, but to those who face these battles, it is helpful to have them articulated in such a way that others can begin to see the effects of these invisible illnesses. She goes on to say ‘I am exhausted by the fight. I feel like I am drowning in my own mind. I feel lost and broken, weak and hopeless. This is what mental health means to me. This is the life that I live, and the fight that I fight,’ yet ends ‘despite it all, I have learnt compassion, empathy, joy and hope through journeying through the darkest places my mind can offer. I am happy with my life. I would prefer it depression and anxiety free, but for now – this is where I am at.’

Such honesty is refreshing and helpful to all: to those who suffer in the same way, it is helpful to know that they are not alone in their struggles and to those who do not suffer in this way, it is helpful to be given insight into someone else’s way of thinking. As we are all urged to fit ‘every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ’ (2 Cor 10:5, The Message), let’s take this opportunity to find out more about mental health and to explore the impact of faith on our mental health. The ‘Mind and Soul’ website is a useful resource for those interested in these issues.