The Apostles’ Creed ~ Part 9

This post will begin our closer look at the third article of faith contained in the Apostles’ Creed to learn more about what we affirm that we believe.

I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT,

the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

This article of faith may be the hardest to wrap your mind around.

I know it was for me. The Father was not that hard even though He was not visible. I knew in my knower that something or someone must have created the universe and populated our small portion with the human race, along with the animals and vegetation. I was told that someone was God, and He was our spiritual Father.

Yeshua was not difficult for me to believe in. After all, He was divinely sent by the Father in human form to explain the coming of the Kingdom of God. There is just way too much evidence through His teachings and performance of miracles not to believe that He is the promised Messiah. He revealed to us more about the Father’s plan to redeem His creation.

Now, the Ruach was a different matter altogether. Who was He? There was not very much taught about who He was or what His function in the churches I had attended. However, as I mentioned in my About the Author page, I attended a Faith Alive weekend encounter at the Episcopal Church we were attending at the time. Several other Episcopalians from around Southern California came to share their experiences as Believers.

On Friday evening, the leader laid out the schedule for the weekend, and from two or three who shared their testimonies before we broke up into small groups to discuss the ups and downs of our own walk of faith. This was all new to me.

On Saturday morning, we met in the homes of parishioners to focus on prayer. The one I attended was led by one of the sweetest elderly ladies I had ever met. Her extemporaneous prayers were something that I had never experienced before. All the prayers I had ever heard were from the Book of Common Prayer used in the church.

At noon, the guys and the gals had separate lunches where the testimonies centered around personal ministries of caring for the widows, orphans, and prisoners. That also had a significant impact on me because I knew that ministry was mentioned in the Bible.

That evening, we met back at the church for some more testimonies and small group discussions. As the meeting ended, I went back into the church and knelt at the altar to pray. My prayer was simple, “Lord, I don’t know what these people have, but whatever it is, I want it.” Although I felt warm and fuzzy and at peace, there was no outward manifestation of an answer to my prayer, so I just went home to go to bed. I was scheduled to be the Lay Reader the following day.

On Sunday morning, as was my custom as a Lay Reader, I read the assigned Psalm for the day. I wanted to make sure that I could read it with dramatic emphasis as if I were an actor in a play. That is when the Ruach hit me; I actually understood what I was reading for the first time. He had opened my spiritual eyes.

From that point forward, I have experienced many manifestations of His presence in my life. Now, I can truthfully say that I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.

In my next post, we will really begin to unpack the third article of our faith in the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) in the Apostle’s Creed.

Click here for the PDF version.