Why You Need to Know the Holy Spirit as a Person
When Rebekah’s family asked her if she were willing to go with the servant, she replied, “I will go.” Likewise, the Holy Spirit is looking for voluntary lovers who will say, “Yes, I will go with You! Yes, I want to know the Bridegroom King! I am willing to leave my family to follow You now.”
Rebekah didn’t know how to get to Isaac on her own. She didn’t know that she must travel hundreds of miles through the wilderness of varied terrain, through valleys, mountains, streams and pools. She had to totally trust her relationship with the servant to lead her to her bridegroom.
Rebekah was willing to leave her comfort zone. She didn’t know about the times of isolation she would face or the criticism that would come her way when others did not understand how the Lord was leading her. She was totally dependent upon the servant.
The Holy Spirit is jealous to bring a pure, lovesick bride to Jesus. He knows the fears and weaknesses we have. He knows the times our hearts faint, and He will protect us.
He takes away everything that hinders love—callousness, brokenness, unforgiveness and pain. He wants to do a radical work of healing, cleansing and deliverance so that we will mature into the beautiful bride we were created to be.
Every time we say yes to the Holy Spirit’s leading, our Bridegroom’s heart must leap as He sees His bride moving closer to Him in love. Jesus wears many crowns, but the one crown the bride can give to Him is her love (Rev. 19:12).
The Holy Spirit may express Himself through the phenomena of fire, wind and oil, but He is more than those attributes; He is a person, and we must develop an intimate relationship with Him to prepare us for our personal journey through the wilderness.
The Purpose of the Wilderness
Our individual wildernesses are unique. There are different types of mountains for each of us to cross. These symbolize the obstacles, persecutions and misunderstandings we encounter.
The Holy Spirit will lead you to the mountain of myrrh—the time of the dark night of the soul. This is akin to the time when He led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil (Luke 4:1-14).
When Jesus came out, He was filled with authority and with heavenly power. He was able to do whatever the Father told Him to do. Just like Jesus, we, too, will go through sufferings and temptations, but the Holy Spirit will be there with us.
He will walk with us over the hills of daily pressures where we will choose whether or not to continue climbing higher. But there will also be low times when we’ll go through the valleys, and our hearts will faint with despair.
In the valley, we won’t understand the way, and we’ll want to cry out: “Holy Spirit, are You still with me? I can’t feel You!” But He is always there. He is our skillful guide who alone knows all the terrain.
Actually, the wilderness isn’t all that bad. As we continue on our journey to meet our Bridegroom King, God establishes places of remembrance for us. These are times when we meet intimately with the Holy Spirit.
During stressful and painful seasons, the Lord invites us to meet with Him and make a holy covenant. Then, in the future, when we encounter hard times, we will be able to look back at this place and remember that we have met with God.
Prophetically, I believe the word to us for this hour is that we come to know the Holy Spirit as a person. We need to break outdated mindsets and paradigms of church culture that put limitations on the Holy Spirit.
Cultivate a personal relationship with Him. When we do not know Him in this way and aren’t experiencing seasons of renewal, we will feel alone and abandoned.
We must cry out to know the Holy Spirit better. As we learn to embrace Him as a Person, He will come to center stage because He is leading us to the Bridegroom King.
Each of us is responsible for maintaining an intimate relationship with our beloved guide, so that when we go through the despair of the wilderness, we know immediately to lean on Him. Yield to Him and come to know Him as the best friend of the Bridegroom.
As Rebekah was going through the wilderness, I am sure she was saying to the servant, “I’m nervous about this high mountain in front of me, please tell me more about Isaac. What does he look like?”
Only the servant knew Isaac intimately. Rebekah had never seen him face to face.
As they trudged along through the heat, the servant likely talked about Isaac to Rebekah, saying: “I have known him since the day he was born. He is wonderful, stunning, dazzling and full of light and compassion. This bridegroom is a good, tenderhearted man, and when he sees those who are broken, despised and rejected, he quickly goes to them. He is a tender shepherd.”
