Do You Even Want the Holy Ghost?

“Do you even want the Holy Ghost?”

“No.”

Over the course of four days at youth camp, I watched as various adults approached one of the campers, praying with her to receive the Spirit. This girl, often talkative and confident in other social situations, seemed to still and withdraw during altar calls. No matter how fervently someone prayed with her or over her, she didn’t seem affected. Curious if she was responding to each altar call out of pressure rather than personal choice, I found a way to bring it up in a private conversation with her on the last day of camp.

“Is there any specific reason you don’t want to get the Holy Ghost?”

“You have to cry to get it and I don’t like to cry in front of people.”

My heart broke at this confession. This young girl had somehow picked up a false idea regarding God, and that idea had hindered her from receiving the greatest of God’s gifts. By the end of our discussion, she discovered one does not, in fact, need to cry to receive the Holy Spirit, and that night she received it during the evening service.

Having served in children’s ministry for nearly 20 years now, few misconceptions people have about God surprise me anymore. Kids tend to pick up misinformation about God, whether through misunderstanding statements they hear adults make, or through hearing misinformation from others, sometimes from the adults in their lives.

Some of these misconceptions include:

“If you sin after you’re baptized, you can no longer be saved because baptism washes away your sins and you can only be baptized once.”

“You can only commit the same sin so many times before God will stop forgiving you.”

“Sickness is God punishing you for sin.”

Just as the girl at the youth camp had temporarily been hindered from receiving God’s gift due to misinformation, the kids and adults who carry these misconceptions may be hindered from experiencing the fulness of joy that comes with serving God. This is not because God Himself is not blessing them, but because they struggle to accept God’s gifts in light of their misconceptions.

The person who fears getting baptized lest they ever sin again may choose to not get baptized at all, missing out on a wonderful experience God has commanded of all who follow Him.

The person who fears God will someday stop forgiving misses out on the blessing of knowing the gospel as it truly is. Instead of feeling safe with God, they experience anxiety and often question God’s faithfulness to forgive.

The person who believes all negative life experiences are punishments from God grows to see God as an iron-fisted ruler rather than a loving Father.

So how can one be sure what they know about God and the Bible is true?

The key is to always go back to scripture:

• Read scripture on a regular basis to refresh what you know and pick up things you may not have noticed previously.
• When you have a question about something related to God or the Bible, look up what scripture says about it.
• If somebody asks you about a belief you hold, go back to scripture to ensure your beliefs are accurate.
• When someone presents you with a new point of view regarding God or the Bible, look it up to see if their view is scripturally sound.
• Whenever you hear a sermon preached, go to scripture to ensure it aligns.
• If you find that your current interpretation of a verse is not scripturally accurate, be willing to change your belief to align with God’s Word.

It is through knowing the Word that we can truly know God, and it is only through truly knowing Him that we can experience the fulness of the life He desires for each of us.

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Acts 17:10-11 (KJV).