by Faith Eury Cho
I will never forget the first time the Holy Spirit touched me.
My body physically felt the warmth of His Presence and I was utterly moved to tears. I knew it was supernatural. I knew it was real. And after the moment was over, I had a hunger to know how to return to that encounter, to know how to sustain it for even longer. I wanted more than a moment with Him. I wanted a relationship.
As a pastor, I think one of the most common questions I’m posed with is, “How do I grow in my relationship with God?”
As a child, I always imagined that a close friendship with the Spirit meant that all your prayers were answered within the second and that you have this powerful best friend you can tangibly sense at all times.
However, in the earlier stage of my Christian walk, I actually experienced the contrary. It was almost as if He was a flaky friend rather than a good one. It seemed like He only came when He wanted to come. He moved only when He wanted to move. He didn’t always answer prayers in the way I asked. He didn’t always speak in loud, obvious ways.
Later did I realize that it was not that my standards were too high for God. Rather, they were just too narrow. In fact, God cannot be boxed by the limitations of my soul.
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and He will come near to you…”
This is a promise. If you take a step towards Him, He will not deny you. In fact, in all my years in ministry, I have never seen God reject someone who genuinely, earnestly desired to know Him.
However, there’s a second part to that verse that is significant, and it says, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
This is not a challenge for Christians to earn their proximity to Jesus. It is not a command to pay the price for intimacy. Your spot at the King’s table has already been paid for at the cross. The Holy Spirit is already within you, with you, and will never, ever leave you (John 14).
But the person you want to befriend is a King, and you must make way for the King within your heart.
In fact, if you want to invite anyone to become an essential part of your life, you must make room for that person, like in a marriage.
My husband and I have been married for 9 years. We made an everlasting covenant at our wedding. Our place in each other’s lives were sealed since then. However, through those years, did our souls have to go through a journey to be able to better know and love one another? You bet they did. During the first 2 to 3 years of our marriage, so much of our inner biases, assumptions, and lies had to be cleared away. We were always tied together in promise, but we had to make way for each other as well — for the sake of intimacy.
Same goes with our friendship with the Holy Spirit; He’s sealed with you forever (Ephesians 1:13). But in order to have a friendship with Him, you must not be offended by the process of clearing your heart of anything that could kill that friendship.
In that journey of seeking His Presence, you may face at least one of these two things: pain and waiting. The pain is because that’s what the world gives you when you hunger for more than it has to offer. The waiting is because our timing isn’t always God’s timing. But the thing about pain and waiting is that they are the great revealers of the soul. They will reveal all the character issues, wounds, bitter roots, and any other blocks that hinder you from having a healthy, fruitful friendship with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 3:16-19 says, “I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
To a people that already had the Holy Spirit, Apostle Paul was praying that they may be strengthened so that they could carry the fullness of God. They were already sealed with the Presence, but in order to grasp the depth of His love and experience His fullness, their souls could not just remain as they were, which is why Apostle Paul prayed for them so fervently.
If the Holy Spirit is like a waterfall, but your soul has the strength of a dixie cup, you will not know how to carry the weight of His glory.
Do you hunger for a deep and genuine friendship with the Holy Spirit?
Then welcome to a life-long journey that will require all of who you are. Do not worry about the scum and lack that surfaces. He’s willing to take that too. Because He is good, He will deal with your soul. But, because He is love, He will never leave you in the process.
