Under the InfluenceSample

Day 1: Under the Influence:

Welcome to day 1 of the Under the Influence Plan! I’m Troy Maxwell, and I hope that over the next seven days, you gain a deeper understanding of who the Holy Spirit is and how He operates. Today, we’re discussing what it means to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

When we talk about the influence of the Holy Spirit on our lives, we must look at the first time we see His influence at work after Jesus was raised from the dead. In Acts 2, the disciples prayed in Jerusalem as Jesus instructed. They were waiting for this promise He had told them was coming (Acts 1:4). They didn’t necessarily know what was going on or what was going to happen. As it turned out, they were about to experience something powerful, supernatural, and maybe a little crazy.

Let’s set the scene. The whole city overflowed with people who had come to celebrate the Passover. The disciples of Jesus were in this house in the city, on the top floor. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit—this promised One Jesus told them about—came and shook the house, filling each waiting disciple. Then, they all started to pray and speak in languages they didn’t know. When the crowd saw this, they “were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘Whatever could this mean?’ Others mocking said, ‘They are full of new wine’” (Acts 2:12–13).

They knew something had happened, but they couldn’t explain it. Then Peter stood up and delivered an incredible message to everyone in earshot. He said, “For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day” (v. 15).

He told them, “It’s only 9 a.m.!” (In those days, this time of day was called “the third hour”.) Yet many in the crowd of thousands thought they were under the influence of alcohol—stumbling around drunk just after breakfast.

Pause a moment: This is one reason I love the Bible so much—it’s so honest about how people behave. God was moving powerfully in these men and women, and many bystanders thought they were drunk. I don’t know about you, but I laugh out loud when reading this. These disciples were under the influence, for sure, but it was the influence of the power of God, not alcohol. It was the Holy Spirit.

When you become a Christian, you open yourself to a life far beyond what you see, hear, feel, and touch. You are now a candidate for living a supernatural life—a life led by God through the influence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, before going away, Jesus used His last words with His disciples to talk about the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:8-9.

Jesus’s final words before ascending to heaven emphasized the critical importance of receiving power “when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” Like the disciples, we must heed this instruction. He is our prototype and example. We can’t say, “I’m OK without that aspect of the Christian life,” and expect to live as Jesus did. Honestly, I don’t believe we can live as Christians today without the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.