ON THE VANGUARD

NOT DEAD
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
Acts 2:4

I remember growing up in the church. At the age of five I was baptized in water in a Baptist Church, but it wasn’t until around the age of ten that my family began attending a Non-Denominational Church where I was introduced to the Holy Spirit. It was at that church that the worship of God in song moved from hymns in the hymnal to more carefree and intimate songs displayed on the wall by an overhead projector. One of the songs I remember even still was titled, “God’s Not Dead”. Now since you cannot hear me sing it to you, I will write out for you a few of the lyrics.
God’s not dead (no no no no), but He’s alive
God’s not dead (no no no no) but He’s alive
God’s not dead (no no no no) but He’s alive
I feel Him all over me
I can feel Him in my hands, I can feel Him in my feet
I can feel Him in my heart, I can feel Him in the street
I can feel Him in the air, I can feel Him every where
I feel Him all over me, oh no no no no no no
God’s not dead (no no no no) but He’s alive
Such great memories come back to life thinking about that song and my young beginning years with the Holy Spirit. But even though I was making strides in my relationship with Christ, another question was being debated. Was the Holy Spirit still alive and active today or did He die out with the disciples?
It seems like this question is answered differently based on our denominations. Within the Baptist Church I grew up in, the Spirit was dead. But within the Non-Denominational church I later attended, the Spirit was alive. How was it possible that if both churches were reading from the same Bible, that two different answers were understood? And how was it that if Jesus was indeed the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8), that He would give the Holy Spirit to the disciples that followed Him and not give it to His disciples like me who came many years later? Wouldn’t that make Jesus out to be a liar?
In all my years of studying the Bible, both in personal study and throughout college, I have never once found a verse nor indication that the Holy Spirit died out with the disciples. In fact, when I read of the Holy Spirit being given in the book of Joel, God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on ALL people” (Joel 2:28). Are you and I not part of the word ALL? Does that not include us? We see the words of Joel fulfilled in Acts 2:4, where ALL of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues. I am pretty sure there was quiet a gap between Joel’s prophecy of the Spirit and the fulfillment of the Spirit and yet it came to pass. And also I question, are we not living more in the end times now than ever before. When Peter preached His Spirit empowered message on the day of Pentecost, he quote Joel and reiterated that God said, “In the last days,” the Spirit would be poured out (Acts 2:17). How can this same Spirit which was promised to follow Jesus’ ascension to heaven and promised to us in the last days be dead?
The truth is the Spirit is not dead, but rather very much alive and active as it was on the day of Pentecost. But keep in mind that the Spirit can be quenched by our actions. Paul knew this was possible and gave believers the following instruction. “Do not put out the Spirit’s fire” (I Thes 5:19). If it was not possible would we have needed a warning? And I also want to point out in closing that speaking in tongues is only one manifestation of the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost, while Israel was remembering and celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses years before, as well as thanking God for the harvest, God was doing something special to a band of followers who had forsaken all to follow hard after Him. The same Spirit that rested on them longs to rest on us. The dead have no relationship with the living. Therefore, throw off the dead weights holding you down and cry out to God for His Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is not dead, (no no no no), but is alive!