The Holy Spirit is Not Your Goosebumps

After Jesus rises from the dead, he spends his time teaching and preparing his disciples for the next major movement in the salvation story: the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Luke sums up the period between Easter and Pentecost like this:

Jesus spends his time proving that he is alive, teaching about the kingdom of God, and stirring faith in his disciples for the coming of the Holy Spirit — a Gift he promised multiple times during his ministry on earth.

Here’s what I want to propose today, and how I personally am focusing my prayers in this season: Jesus has not stopped proving that he is alive.

He loves to do it.

I don’t know how your church celebrates Easter, but I know for my local community this past Easter Sunday, we were met with a tangible sense of the presence of God in the room — for many, the presence of the Holy Spirit was undeniable. Jesus was proving himself alive through the Holy Spirit.

In many ways, these verses serve as Luke’s introduction to the book of Acts — just as his former book, Luke, focused on the life, teachings, and miarcles of Jesus, the book of Acts continues to do so, it’s just that now Jesus’ presence is mediated through the Holy Spirit.

Put simply, the work of the Holy Spirit is to prove that Jesus is alive.

In addition to this, Jesus tells his disciples:

The work of the Holy Spirit is also to empower us to be witnesses until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of God.

He comes to help us bear witness to Jesus—or, rather, to join Jesus in proving that Jesus is alive! That’s the whole point of the Book of Acts and our life in the kingdom of God — we have been given supernatural power to demonstrate that Jesus is alive!

How has your understanding of the Holy Spirit been shaped? Has he been talked about, taught about, or forgotten? Has he been worshipped and prayed to, or mentioned as “God” without any real response in the prayer and worship of your church? Has he been reduced from the Third Person of the Trinity to an emotional experience?

Today, as we continue this season of preparation for Pentecost, these fifty days in between the Resurrection and the Pentecostal Coming of the Holy Spirit, I want to invite us to ask God to reveal himself again through the Holy Spirit — God in his fullness among us.

But first, I’d love to invite us to reconsider and reorient any ways we might have thought about the Holy Spirit.

I’d love to offer us three challenges about what the Holy Spirit is not, why, and how he comes:

1. The Holy Spirit is not your goosebumps.

Especially in circles of the church where the experience of the Holy Spirit is highlighted, we can be tempted to think that the experience of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit himself. That he’s somehow more (or only) present when we feel goosebumps.

Although we may experience him, he is not an experience. He is God.

The Holy Spirit does not primarily come to give us experiences, he comes to give us power to demonstrate that Jesus is alive.

2. The Holy Spirit is not your emotions.

The Holy Spirit is not our emotions; he is not a feeling. While tears, laughter, and other strong emotions can be evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit, they are not the Holy Spirit himself.

The Holy Spirit does not primarily come to give us emotions, he comes to give us power to demonstrate that Jesus is alive.

3. The Holy Spirit is not your gifts and skills.

Just because someone has a gift or a skill does not mean that the Holy Spirit is on someone. A skillful church service does not equal anointing; business success does not equal anointing; and no amount of financial or relational favor automatically means anointing. Someone who has a particular spiritual gift, even if it is a supernatural gift like the gift of prophecy, does not have any more of the Holy Spirit than someone with a spiritual gift of administration or wisdom.

He does not primarily come to give us gifts or skills, he comes to give us power to demonstrate that Jesus is alive.

(Please note that the Holy Spirit can and will give gifts and skills that give us power to demonstrate that Jesus is alive, but the gifts are not to be worshipped — only Jesus is!)

Have you perhaps confused the Holy Spirit with an experience, an emotion, or a skill? Could this Pentecost season be an invitation for you to turn again to the One who gives us power to be a witness to Jesus’ resurrection, to join Jesus in proving that he’s alive to a world longing for healthy and authentic power?

I’d love to invite you to pray today:

• Begin to take a few deep breaths. Perhaps as you breathe in, pray “Come,” and as you breathe out, pray “Holy Spirit.”

• I’d love to invite you to pray simply today. Open Acts 1, and simply pray:

  • Jesus, would you prove your resurrection in my life?

  • Holy Spirit, would you give me the power to bear witness to Jesus’ resurrection?

  • Holy Spirit, would you rearrange my thinking if there’s any way that I have cheapened who you are? Would you reorient me to who the Book of Acts says you are?

If I can ever support you in your journey of coming alive and living in love with Jesus, please don’t hesitate to hit “reply” on this email and let me know.

-Ryan

P.S. It is one of the greatest joys of my life to help people come alive and live in love with Jesus, especially by waking up to the continual conversation we get to enjoy with God. Our team is working on creating some beautiful prayer resources this year, starting with a daily prayer journal designed to help you grow in your ability to hear God’s voice. Please consider becoming a founding partner with us to receive every resource we create in 2025 completely free!