A Person to Know

The evangelist, R.A. Torrey, said, “Before one can correctly understand the work of the Holy Spirit, one must first of all know the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person.”

I had been a born-again Christian for ten years when I met Ron in the hospital operating suite where he worked as an orderly, and I had newly come to work as a nurse. A mop of afro-styled, bright red hair, and wire-rimmed glasses spoke to me of his hippy life-style. Yet the first time I saw Ron, he was on his coffee-break from his janitorial duties, leaning against a pile of full laundry bags and pouring over a small New Testament.

I asked him if he was a Christian, and so began a friendship that would lead me to powerful changes in my life as a believer. I invited him to a Bible study my husband and I were involved in, and he became a regular member. Ron had only been a Christian for two years, having come to the Lord through the “Jesus Movement” in California in the 1970s. But his knowledge of the Scriptures and ability to explain them was astounding to me.

It was through Ron’s testimony that I came to know the Holy Spirit. As a believer, the Holy Spirit was living in my heart, but I had never really met Him. In fact, I was a little bit afraid of Him—there was in some circles what seemed like a fanaticism about the Holy Spirit, and I didn’t want to be a part of that. But Ron’s example of a Spirit-filled life was so powerful that I found myself wanting what he had. I began longing and yearning for that intimate relationship with the Spirit that I saw in Ron, but I was bound up inside with fear, and that blocked me from Him

In fact, fear ruled my life—intensely shy, I was afraid of people and what they thought of me; tongue-tied, I was afraid to even speak the name of Jesus. But through Ron’s influence, the Holy Spirit drew me to Himself. At the same time, a book I was reading, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” by Brother Lawrence, was creating a longing in me to live in the awareness of God’s Presence as this 12th Century monk described as his own experience.

After eight months of struggling, longing and feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I finally was able to lay down my fears and give Him full access to my heart. What I found was that an intense Sweetness surrounded me and infused me. He is Love personified—Love, Beauty, Wisdom, Power and Grace, all in One. He is the very Spirit of Jesus. A very real Person!

Coming to know the Holy Spirit has brought power over the fears that ruled me, but that is not the best part. The best part has been finding the intimacy with the Lord that I so longed for—it is living in the awareness of His Presence day in and day out. It is hearing Him whisper to me through His Word, and move through me as I obey Him.

“Throw your heart open to the Holy Spirit and invite Him to fill you. He will do it. Make your heart a vacuum and the Spirit will push to fill it.”

~A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God