Understand each other

by Julie Swannell

I have been very interested to read about the Holy Spirit (or Holy Ghost as the KJV translators have it) in "Acts" and wonder if we today are as inclined to expect and identify the presence of the power of God in our lives.  At our testimony meeting tonight, someone suggested that we can feel the Spirit while singing the hymns together.  I agree; and also at a lecture or in a church service.  There certainly was a tangible sense of Spirit at Fujiko Sign’s lecture at Burleigh last night. 

And what about Mary Baker Eddy’s poem which asks “Saw ye my Saviour?  Heard ye the glad sound? Felt ye the power of the Word?” and later tells us that “’Tis the Spirit that makes pure, That exalts thee, and will cure All thy sorrow, and sickness and sin.”

Some Holy Ghost (Holy Spirit) examples in Acts are:

1.      1:5 ...ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence

2.      2: 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost...

3.      10: 44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.

4.      11: 24 For he (Barnabas) was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith...

5.      13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost.

6.      20: 22, 23 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city...

 

Often, this sense of Spirit is present, in Acts, when God’s Word is being shared, and – after being prompted by Fujiko to look him up – I was interested to find a 2003 interview with renowned cardiologist Bernard Lown – see “For the Love of Healing” in the Christian Science Sentinel February 2003. http://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/2003/2/105-7/for-the-love-of-healing  Dr Lown talks about the "power of the Word".

Here’s an excerpt:

In his 1996 book, The Lost Art of Healing, Lown writes, "I know of few remedies more powerful than a carefully chosen word."....

"The power of words so impressed itself on me early on. I see within myself a contradiction of tendencies. I'm sure every human being has it. On the one hand, I have a love for science—for the exact, the precise, [for] honestly claiming reality and not being afraid to face it forth-rightly, whatever the consequences. On the other hand, I realize the boundaries of science in terms of the particularity and unique qualities of the human being. Now those boundaries are being pushed back, and the illusion is that at some point we will 'know it all.' I think it's an illusion because the brain can know the brain, but it cannot comprehend the mind. There are limits."

Lown says that he realized early on that "what defines us as human beings is language. The Word. And that is captured in religion." He quotes Goethe's Faust (who was quoting John's Gospel): "'Im Anfang war das Wort!' .... In the Greek, it's Longos, you know, 'In the beginning was the Word,' the Word of God.

As we read Acts, we certainly get a feeling that something very powerful is going on; much more than just a fascinating and compelling story.  When our days, our work, our spiritual progress seem to be just going along in a ho-hum sort of way, perhaps we can turn to Acts chapter 2 and pray to be “all with one accord in one place,” to feel the fresh, inspiring “rushing mighty wind,” and be lifted up to that holy place where we understand each other.  Here is the place where we know God is at the helm and the result will surely be speeding healings, finished assignments, adjusted relationships, because we are in tune with the most powerful force in the universe, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love.