Day 5 - The Holy Spirit Is God

Acts 5:3-4

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Have you ever heard of wind shear? Wikipedia says that "wind shear affects sailboats in motion by presenting a different wind speed and direction at different heights along the mast. Wind shear occurs because of friction above a water surface slowing the flow of air."

If we continue our analogy of the Holy Spirit being the wind and we are the vessels, then if I (the vessel) create a friction that slows the wind (the Holy Spirit), something bad will happen unless we can get rid of the friction.

Are you familiar with this story in Acts 5? In the previous chapter, a man named Barnabas (the same guy who goes on mission trips with Paul later on in the book of Acts) sold a piece of land he owned and gave the money to the apostles for them to use for the church as they saw fit. The Bible doesn’t tell us anyone’s reaction to this event.

However, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, it tells us, also sold a piece of land. They gave part of the money to the apostles, just as Barnabas had. Apparently, though, they wanted the apostles (and the other Christians) to think that they gave all the money to the apostles. Clearly their unholiness created friction with the Holy Spirit.

Peter called them out. He point-blank asked Ananias why he had lied to the Holy Spirit, and then told him he hadn’t lied to them (the apostles), but to God. It did not end well for Ananias and his wife.

In this scripture, Luke uses the Holy Spirit and God interchangeably. Can you do that?

Can you think about the Holy Spirit as God?

What would make Him real to you?