Holy Spirit and the Brain

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Pinky: “What are we going to do today Brain?”

Brain: “The same thing we do every day Pinky, try to take over the world!”

Warner Brothers “Pinky and the Brain”

What do the human brain and the holy spirit (sent from heaven) have in common?

• We don’t use either one of them enough.
• God isn’t sending any more.

My wife likes to use this phrase when confronted with human idiocy. “Why don’t they use the brains God gave geese?” As you know, sometimes geese don’t seem to have enough brains as it is. (She often uses “common sense” as well). Yet sometimes we go through life not even using that much. Geniuses use 9, maybe 10 percent at best. Wile Coyote, a Super Genius uses 10.5% So we get on our knees and ask God for more brains.

A while back, I have been confronted with the idea that there is a "second phase" to the holy spirit gifts: The holy ghost. That is supposed to be the second power or special gift God gives to those that are holier than others, I think.  An example I was given was the apostles asking the people who among them were filled with the holy spirit (holy ghost in the KJV) to be raised as deacons to serve the widows in the church. (Book of Acts)

Personally, I just think these people are picked out, not because they were given a second gift or experienced a “holy ghost” thing.   Personally, I just simply think they are using the holy spirit in their lives, participating in the work God gave them to begin with. The people recognized their faith and life as being in line with God’s plan for them. The others are just receiving what they are serving already. Basically speaking, they were already doing the obvious work of deacons so they were called out and recognized for this purpose.

We sometimes find churches calling out for the holy spirit (holy ghost) to “come down” and expecting an “experience” of the holy ghost. As if, for some reason, the holy spirit was not at church at that moment! If the holy spirit has to be called down, then what is the Church up to this point? So far, I have not seen any examples of that happening in the bible except where the holy spirit was first sent to the disciples in the upper room where they waited as Christ asked them to. Then later in a gentile location, a church who have not heard of the holy spirit was given a sign of the power when given to the whole church at that location. In fact, nothing was “called down” nor was the holy spirit invoked. It was just simply given by God in a unique way.

We are given (not get) the holy spirit/ghost by God when Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father as promised. What are we expecting? An experience? He never promised that.

Jesus came to earth once. Jesus became human once. Jesus lived, suffered, died and was raised once. (He died once for ALL of humanity) Jesus ascended to heaven once. We are baptized once. And he sent the Holy Spirit once.

So what do we do now? Ask God to help us use what he has given already, to use the fruit of the holy spirit (see Gal. 5:22) in our lives now. Make ourselves open, vulnerable and naked before God to allow him to work with us where we are now. Faith is putting our trust (what little we have) in God to do what he wills in our lives. Let God open our brains (the other 90%) to recognize the holy spirit and all that it has at work in our lives already.

Pinky: "So how does one get more holy spirit?"
Brain: "The same way you get more brains, Pinky, you use what you got!"!

“If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains” – Jesus