Homily Notes for Pentecost: How to Acquire the Holy Spirit

How to acquire the Holy Spirit

• Come to Church and follow the Orthodox Way. 
  • A fruit of the Orthodox Way is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
    • Won’t happen; can’t happen outside of Church.
    • Look at the icon; look at the scripture
  • It is not an individual gift, meant for our personal satisfaction.
    • Reinforces the point about Church: it’s not for YOU it’s for us;
    • You can know that God is anywhere and everywhere, but if you want to be part of Him and His plan, then it all begins here.
• The Holy Spirit cannot work within a heart that is filled with passions and false gods.  Repentance. 
• While the Holy Spirit will guide your conscience, that is not the main voice that it uses. 
  • Unless you have all the virtue of a saint, your conscience is as likely to be guided by your ego and brokenness as it is by God – and you will not know the difference.
  • The main voice that the Spirit offers – and the way to hear God’s will in life – is silence.
    • Story (me stuck in traffic, calling harried wife to complain).
    • Prayer and worship are the ways to train the heart to “be still and know”.
  • There is no greater gift in this world than to have peace in the middle of confusion
• The Holy Spirit is here. 
  • Our Orthodox experience allows us to encounter it noetically through prayer, worship, and the offering of ourselves to God and our neighbor
  • But it is also here in a more practical and tangible way: the teachings of the Church.
    • More reliable that your conscience (psychology!)
    • More reliable than an epiphany (has already been vetted and confirmed)
    • And all you have to do is ask!
• Conclusion.  The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22); acquire it and those around you will be saved. 
• • It brought peace and salvation to the Apostles 2,000 years ago.  It will bring it to us now.
  • They needed it.  We need it.
  • Let us open our hearts and minds to it so that we – and all those around us – may find peace.

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