Revelation 1:4: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.

What do we have when we have the Spirit? We have everything. This is no exaggeration. He is the sevenfold Spirit who works through the seven days of creation, and throughout the week of history. He is the Gift from the Father and the Son, the Gift above all gifts, the Gift containing all other gifts. All the treasures of God, hidden away in the depths of God from before the foundation of the world, become ours through the Spirit of Pentecost. At Pentecost, God gives us God Himself: What more can we ask? At Pentecost, we receive the seven Spirits of God: How can we possibly say enough about the Spirit?

What do we have when we have the Spirit? The Spirit is the Creator Spirit. The Spirit hovers over the waters to form the formless emptiness into the ordered beauty of the cosmos. When Israel was a dry and thirsty land with no water, Yahweh poured out His Spirit to make the wilderness a fruitful field and the fruitful field a forest. The Spirit hovers over the womb of Mary and recreates humanity, and the Father breathes the Spirit onto the corpse of Jesus to raise Him to resurrection life.

God put His Spirit in us when we were dead in transgressions, so that we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law, so that Eden is restored. The Spirit hovers over the bride, like the eunuch sent to beautify Esther, and then joins the bride in prayer, so that both the Spirit and bride say “Come.” The Creator Spirit descends on Bezalel and Oholiab so they hover over gold and bronze, linen and wood to shape a microcosm of the Spirit’s creation. It’s the Creator Spirit who makes each member of the church a creative builder to edify the new humanity that is the church, each a Bezalel, each an Oholiab.

The Spirit is the Warrior Spirit. He clothes Othniel and Gideon, Jephthah and Samson and Saul, and trains their hands to fight. He descends on Jesus like a dove, then drives Him to the wilderness to battle Satan in the howling waste. By the Spirit, Jesus heals. By the Spirit, He casts out demons. By the Spirit, He cleanses lepers. By the Spirit, He topples Satan’s kingdom. By the Spirit, He binds the strong man and plunders his house.

The Warrior Spirit falls on the disciples, and Peter boldly calls the Jews to repentance for crucifying the Prince of Life. The Spirit makes war against the flesh, as the flesh wars against the Spirit, but the Spirit will be the victor. It’s only through the Spirit that we can trample Satan underfoot. By Him, we put on the armor of God to fight principalities and powers and wickedness in high places. The Spirit is a sword that circumcises hearts rather than flesh, and the word is the sword of the Spirit that divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. The Warrior Spirit stirs our spirits, filling us with battle rage, with holy blood wrath. By the Spirit, each of us become one of God’s beserkers, a meshuggah who drives with the zeal of Jehu which the zeal of Jesus.

The Spirit is the Spirit of tongues. He reverses the confusion of Babel and gathers the nations to confess one Lord with one mouth. He is the Spirit of prophecy, who goes from Moses to fill others, who catches up Saul, so that everyone asks “Is Saul also among the prophets?”, who comes at Pentecost so that old men will see visions, young men dream dreams, who fulfills Moses’ wish, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets.” By the Spirit of tongues, we can say “Jesus is Lord.” Filled with the Spirit, David speaks in rhyme; He is the Spirit of poetry, the Muse of the Triune God. Relying on the Spirit, the apostles speak before kings and governors; He is the rhetoric of God. Filled with the Spirit of tongues, Mary, Zechariah, and Simeon break into; He is the music of God.

What do we have when we have the seven Spirits of God? We have creative wisdom, power, effective speech. And more.

The Spirit is the breath that gives life. He is the fiery blast of God’s nostrils that melts mountains and consumes the earth like a torrent of brimstone. Without the Spirit, our life is but a breath, and we live only as long as we have God’s breath in our nostrils. He is the breath of the Bridegroom, fragrant as apples to His bride. Idols have no breath in them, but our God lives. By the breath of God, all that have breath praise God.

The Spirit is the wind that blows away the waters of the flood, and the scorching east wind that brings famine to Egypt . He is the wind that opens dry land in the midst of the sea, and the wind that breaks the rocks of Horeb. He is the wind that brings dry bones to life, and the wind that drives chaff away. God’s Pentecostal wind blows where He wills; you hear its sound but can’t tell where it comes from or where it goes: So are all who are born of the Spirit.

He is the oil flowing from the head of the new Aaron, down his beard, down to the skirts of His garments, anointing us as priests and kings in the greater Melchizedek. He is the oil that burns in the lampstand set on a hill to shine in the darkness, and He is the flame of that oil. He is the fragrant oil mixed with frankincense that makes us an aroma of life unto life and death unto death. He is oil from beaten olives, who flows only when olives are crushed. He is the cooking oil, and the oven, that makes us bread for the world. He is the fatness in a land of grain and new wine. He is the inexhaustible oil in the widow’s cruse.

The Spirit is the rain from heaven, raining down to make the desert bloom like a rose. He is the water of Meribah that bursts out when Moses strikes the Rock that is Christ. Moses’ words drop as rain and distil as dew, and the king who walks by the Spirit is like rain upon the mown grass. The Spirit rains from the throne of God, and becomes a river that turns the Dead Sea fresh. From the cloud of the Spirit comes the torrential rain and hail that destroys the grain of Egypt . We are born again of water and the Spirit, the rain from heaven, so that we can see and enter the kingdom of heaven.

What do we have when we have the seven Spirits of God? We have the breath of life; we have God’s wind that tears down and builds up; we have God’s anointing oil of joy and gladness; we have God’s rain, who refreshes the wilderness.

If this is what the Spirit gives and brings, nothing can be more important than to keep the Spirit of Pentecost.

So: Don’t grieve or quench the Spirit. Don’t lie to the Spirit. Don’t test the Spirit. Don’t insult the Spirit of grace. Don’t let your anger and bitterness, your grumbling and complaining, your hardness and your unforgivingness, drive the Spirit from you. Don’t fall short of the seven Spirits of God. If we lose the Spirit, we have lost everything.

< p class="MsoNormal"> Instead: Follow the Spirit. Walk in the rhythm of the Spirit. Sing in the Spirit. Pray with the Spirit. Be filled with the Spirit. Sow to the Spirit. Reap from the Spirit. Preserve the unity of the Spirit. Be borne by the Spirit. Cling to the Spirit. Breathe in the Spirit, and breathe Him out. Drench yourself in the Spirit. Be anointed with the Spirit. Drink the Spirit, and be drunk by Him.

The Spirit is the Pentecostal Gift of God, and if you have the seven Spirits of God, you have everything. So: In all your getting, get the Spirit, keep Him, and trust Him to keep you.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.