The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit was someone I heard little about as a child and teenager in church and the denomination I was raised in. No wonder there appeared to be little life, passion, and freedom in that church building on Sunday mornings. Even more so, no wonder the church went through a very ugly church split when I was fifteen years old. One of my biggest prayers for myself is based on Jesus’ words in John 4:23. 

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 

John 4:23

Personally, I want nothing more than to be a true worshiper, who worships the Father in spirit and truth. I believe the conjunction in that phrase is equally important as the spirit, and as truth. True worship only happens when both are present. Not Spirit only. Not Truth only. Spirit AND Truth. The apostle Philip demonstrated the fact that he was a true worshiper in Acts 8 when the Holy Spirit anointed his message of Truth and multitudes heeded his words. Philip performed miracles, cast out demons, and healed the paralyzed and lame according to Acts 8:6-8. 

Before we go any further into the Holy Spirit and Truth working mightily in Philip’s life, let’s look at his background story that led up to Acts 8. 

Philip in the Gospels

Philip the apostle’s story began in John 1:43 when Jesus “found Philip and said to him, ‘Follow Me.’”  Immediately Philip found Nathanael, told Him about Jesus, and about believing Him to be the Messiah. (FYI - Nathanael and the apostle Bartholomew are thought to be the same person.) According to John 1:44, Philip, Andrew, and Peter were all from the town of Bethsaida. 

One thing I remembered from the gospels was Philip’s conversation with Jesus regarding feeding the five thousand. In John 6:5, Jesus asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?” Philip replied how impossible the task saying, “Two hundred denari worth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may have a little.” Two hundred denari equated to over half of a year’s wages and that would have bought only a minimal amount of food for each person. Definitely not a full meal deal. 

Now we know how that story ended, Jesus fed the five thousand with a young boy’s lunch of five barley loaves and two fish until “they were filled,” and the disciples still gathered twelve baskets filled with fragments of barley loaves (John 6:12-13). Greeks from Bethsaida came to Philip asking to see Jesus in John 12:20. Then Philip told Andrew and they both told Jesus.  

In John 14:8-9, Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be sufficient for us.” Jesus told him that he had seen the Father by knowing and seeing Him. While Philip isn’t personally named in any other gospel stories, we can know that he witnesses multitudes of other miracles done at the hands of Jesus. These stories simply lay out a background for what we see happen in and through Philip in Acts 8.

ACTS 8:4-8

In the Gospel recordings of Philip, he’s really not that impressive of a guy, but in Acts 8, once Philip is filled with the Holy Spirit, he is over the top impressive. Some Christians, even whole denominations, speak of being filled with the Holy Spirit as being evidenced by speaking in tongues. I am sure Philip spoke in tongues when the Holy Spirit came upon them all on the Day of Pentecost, maybe beyond that as well. 

However, in Acts 8, the evidence of Philip being filled with the Spirit doesn’t appear to wholly rest on speaking in tongues. I say wholly because he preached to multitudes in the city of Samaria and they “heeded the things spoken by Philip.” One of my past interim pastors, a professor of hermeneutics, and a friend, believes the disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and multitudes heard in their own language was a miracle at the ear. That makes so much sense when we read Acts 2:6. 

And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in their own language.

Acts 2:6

My point is not to debate speaking in tongues as evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead the point is to see the same thing very well could have happened on the day Philip preached to multitudes. Philip performed miracles, cast out unclean spirits from the possessed, and healed the paralyzed and lame (Acts 2:7)

And there was great joy in that city.

Acts 8:8

Acts 8:9-25

In the city that day was a sorcerer named Simon, highly impressed with the power of the Holy Spirit that he saw demonstrated that day. Simon determined that he wanted the same power displayed by Philip. 

Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.

Acts 8:13

This all sounds well and good until we begin to see Simon’s true heart and motivation. Simon never appeared to show need and repentance towards the Lord, but only a desire for power. So much so that in Acts 8:18 he offered money to the apostles to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter rebuked Simon saying that he was poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. Water baptism didn’t save Simon, neither will it you and I. The Holy Spirit knew the true heart of Simon and without the Holy Spirit, we will not be saved. 

One more thing I noticed about Simon’s story and then I will go back to Philip. When Peter called Simon out and told him to repent because his heart was filled with wickedness, Simon still did not repent. He still took no responsibility for himself, but instead told Peter to pray for him that none of the judgment he spoke of would come on him. This man did not want Jesus or salvation. Only power. 

Acts 8:26-40

After Philip returned to Jerusalem, an angel of the Lord instructed him to go to a road from Jerusalem to Gaza and then told him to overtake a chariot. So Philip ran fast enough to catch up to a chariot. The Ethiopian eunuch to the queen of Ethiopia read from the prophet Isaiah and Philip explained the Scripture to him. He wanted to be baptized. 

Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” 

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Acts 8:37

Philip baptized the eunuch and the instant he came up from the water, took Philip away and he was found preaching at Azotus. My Bible commentary calls this a miraculous transportation.

I really got stuck looking at Philip’s life. In many ways, I see myself like Philip in the Gospels, just an ordinary guy seeing things through an ordinary lens, but still following Jesus. Reading the miraculous way God used him once he was filled with the Holy Spirit made me look at my own life, at the church of today in general and wonder, What happened? 

Not Okay With Okay

Aren’t we supposed to do supernatural things in Jesus’ name where lives are touched, changed, and brought into the kingdom of God? I do realize the church, the body of Christ is doing that in many ways, but I also see apathy, a lack of passion, and just plain okay-ness. Okay with how we are. Okay with the church as it is. Okay with doing life with minimal power of the Holy Spirit. 

I will tell you, I am just not okay with that. I don’t know what that means or looks like for me, but I am praying Jesus rid me of myself so that I can be filled with the Holy Spirit, operating out of the power of the Holy Spirit, and making a difference in this world for His kingdom purposes. 

Every time I read the book of Acts it stirs me up. It makes me so aware that there is always more to living in the power of the Holy Spirit than I have experienced. There is more of Jesus, more to do, more to know, more to experience, more of a difference to make. I never want to settle for less than Jesus offered and intended. I’m sure you don’t want to either. 

So, let’s be the ones to start a fresh pursuit of Jesus and His Holy Spirit’s working in our lives once again. Let’s remember that the Holy Spirit who fills us is the same Holy Spirit who filled men and women in the early church and set the world on fire for God’s glory. 

Oh Lord do it again! And do it again in me and the beautiful child of God reading this!

Blessings!

Pat Domangue