The Water and the Fire of the Holy Spirit

Short Reflection


Acts: 10:44 While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.

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It is not only that Mother’s Day is today, but we are approaching the Pentecost Sunday as well, which is the feast of the receiving of the Holy Spirit. What is the characteristic of the Holy Spirit we should pray for? When God told Solomon, that whatever you ask, I will grant your request, Solomon prayed for the Spirit of wisdom.

Once upon a time it happened during the reign of King Solomon that two women stood before his judgment seat. The one woman said, Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. It happened the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also; and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it. She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while I slept, and laid it in her bed, and laid her dead child in my bed. When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore.

The other woman interrupted by saying, No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son. This woman said, No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son. Thus they spoke before Solomon. Then said the king, Get me a sword. They brought a sword before him. The king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. This will be equal justice to both parties. The other woman said, it shall be neither mine nor yours; just divide it.

Then spoke the woman whose the living child was to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it. Then the king answered, Give this woman the living child, and in no way kill it: she is the mother of it. All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the spirit of wisdom of God was in him, to do merciful justice by the Holy Spirit.

Regarding the character of the Spirit we should pray for, it also happened when Jesus entered a Samaritan village, they did not receive him. When his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?" But he turned and rebuked them, "You don't know what kind of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man didn't come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." We have to learn from Jesus, the Spirit of compassion.

When the Apostle Paul went to Ephesus, he found there a group of disciples who had been already baptized. He asked them whether they received the Holy Spirit , as well. They didn't know about the Holy Spirit. Paul said that "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism." Paul said, "John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, on Jesus."

However in the Gospel, John added, that I baptize with water, but Jesus baptizes with the fire of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus himself told Nicodemus that no one enters Heaven unless he or she will be born again by the water and the Spirit, aka the repentance and faith.

May the Lord bless us with the repentance that turns away from all mundane ways of this world, to live an awakened new life with Jesus in our heart. May he bless us with perpetually burning enthusiasm toward the kingdom of God, to whom may praise be given, for ever, AMEN.