The Risen Christ Fills Us

These daily devos are free for you to enjoy!
If you are able to support the work Luke does, you can donate here.

This encounter with the risen Christ in the upper room was a pivotal moment in history—Jesus presenting Himself to His disciples, proving that He'd risen from the dead and giving them peace, joy, and purpose.

In John 20:22, we read that Jesus breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

The Spirit Given

There's a lot of controversy around this verse because the Holy Spirit only came in its fullness on the day of Pentecost, 50 days later. So what happened here? Was it the same occasion? It couldn't have been. It was too early.

Was it a kind of a partial giving of the Holy Spirit? Was it simply a promise of the Spirit that was to come? There are lots of different thoughts on this from different scholars.

Nonetheless, I want to point out that the risen Christ was with the disciples for a short time, but the Holy Spirit was with them for the rest of their lives. Jesus was always present with them through His Holy Spirit. And the same is true for us.

Life in the Spirit

Of course, we never got to see Jesus’ physical hands and feet like the disciples and Thomas did. We, friends, have the great gift of the Holy Spirit. The risen Christ is with us through the Spirit, because even though They are separate, They are One—the great mystery of the Trinity.

So a simple question: Have you received the Holy Spirit? Have you received the breath of God? Think of that old song: Breathe on me, breath of God.

Here's what Wesley Duewel said in his book Ablaze for God. He said: "The degree to which any Christian receives the anointing of the Holy Spirit and is conscious of it depends on the closeness of their walk with the Lord, and the extent to which by faith they appropriate it. The Spirit already remains in each Christian, but may not be powerfully active, as in all of Christian experience, faith is the appropriating means." In other words, if you've come to faith in Jesus, if you believe that He is who He says He is and you are following Him, the Spirit is in you. But you need to take hold of that Spirit’s power by faith every day. You need to appropriate it. That means to take hold of it and walk in that power. How often we don’t! How often we just forget about God and do our own thing instead of walking strongly in the power of the Spirit by faith, believing with all our hearts that the Spirit is in us—living life marked by the Spirit’s anointing. We can do it!

Fresh Anointing Needed

A bit later in the book, Duewel says: "As long as we keep open to the Spirit by obedience and appropriating faith, we can receive new infillings of the Spirit, new outpourings, new floodings of our inmost being from time to time, as we need it and as we ask God." And so do you need a new infilling of the Spirit? Do you need a new flooding of your soul from the Holy Spirit? Come in faith today and surrender yourself to Him completely and be filled.

Prayer: God, each of us listening now comes to You in faith. We come, Lord, acknowledging our shortcomings, repenting and turning away from our old lives. Oh, Lord, we know that You’ve loved us, that You’ve saved us freely by grace, and so we turn away from our old lives. Take off the old garments, take away our sins and throw them away, we pray O God! Cleanse us, let us be whole.

And O Holy Spirit, come and fill us now. Fill us from head to toe. We surrender completely to You—every part of our lives. Lord, every moment of our days belong to You and You alone. O God, let Your Spirit flood our souls. Let Your Spirit make us new. Let us go into the world Spirit-filled, freshly anointed, and ready to do Your will in every way.

We give ourselves to You, and we thank You for Your forgiveness and for Your empowering now.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.