I Have Faith. Why Don't I Experience the Holy Spirit?

“If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” -Galatians 2:25

Do you ever find yourself asking that question above? You’ve heard that you have spiritual gifts if you are a Christian. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Jesus seems to say that the great works of the Holy Spirit done through you depend on your faith. Just look at Mark 11:23 - “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” (Have you ever tried to move a mountain? I can’t be the only one who’s tried that.)

So if we truly believe that we will experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, then why do we almost never actually experience him? I think we have misunderstood this. Let’s look throughout the bible at some examples of the great power of God’s Spirit acting through people of faith.

In 1 Kings 18 Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal about their idolatry. In this instance, he calls down fire from heaven. He truly believes that it will happen, and it does. In the previous chapter, Elijah prays that a woman’s dead son would be raised back to life, and it happens. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas command a demon to come out of a woman, and it does. After that, they are thrown in prison for it, and the Lord sends an earthquake and an angel to allow them to get out of jail. The jailer was so scared that he asked Paul and Silas how he could be saved, and he accepted Christ on the spot. In Acts 8, Philip hears the Spirit tell him to go talk to the Ethiopian eunuch who happens to be struggling with interpreting a passage from Isaiah.

And of course, there are countless other examples of the Holy Spirit doing great things through people. And yet, how often do we actually experience this kind of stuff? When was the last time the Holy Spirit performed a miracle through you? When was the last time you felt the Spirit urging you to go somewhere? When was the last time that you truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit?

Let me ask you this: what do all of the people that I mentioned above have in common? They were actually out DOING SOMETHING. Too often we sit in our nice, comfy Christian churches or our Christian concerts and wonder why we didn’t experience something supernatural. It’s because you aren’t actually living out your faith!

James 2:17 says that faith without works is dead. It is not enough to just have faith in order to experience the supernatural move of God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t exist to make us feel good or to make us jump around and sing louder. The Holy Spirit exists to change our hearts, make us more like Christ, and to advance the Kingdom of Heaven.

GET OUT AND DO SOMETHING! Live out your faith. Walk in the Spirit. Do more than just go to Christian things. Share the gospel. Put yourself in situations that require a move of the Holy Spirit. This is what truly being a Christian is about. If you are not living out your faith, then consider your faith dead.

Experience the Holy Spirit. You will find hope, joy, life, and salvation, and you will spread the same to others who need Christ.