Here’s an experience that I’m sure that we can all identify with. While shopping at an outlet mall store, you discover an item that you have previously seen and considered buying at either a department store like Macy’s or Dillard’s or at a home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowe’s. From all appearances, the items are identical. Even the packaging appears to be identical. It’s a no-brainer. Of course you’ll snatch up the item at the outlet mall. After all, who doesn’t love to save money!

Here’s the hazard of outlet mall shopping. Often, the items sold are seemingly identical in appearance but inferior or different in quality. Unbeknownst to the unsavvy shopper, the thread count or stitching for clothes can be vastly different. For tools, the features might be slightly different or more limited. Pardon my grammar, what looks the same ain’t always the same. From experience, let me warn you to shop cautiously and know that the qualities and features of what you are buying might not be what you are expecting.

holy-spirit1Concerning the Holy Spirit, let me put your mind at ease. Contrary to the way that many act and think, there is only ONE Holy Spirit. There isn’t a Jesus’ model Holy Spirit who is loaded to the max with all kinds of features and bells and whistles and a different outlet store quality, less powerful, features-missing Holy Spirit model that lives inside of you. We know this because …

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.”
Romans 5:11 (New Living Translation)

You can rest assure that the Spirit living on the inside of you is not a weaker, watered-down,  feature-limited Holy Spirit. It’s the one-in-the-same Spirit of God that enabled Jesus to do everything that He did in His earthly ministry.

To keep this reality in front of you, you might just want to place Post-it Notes around your house with the words “ONE Holy Spirit” to constantly remind you to quit acting as though you are limited in your life and ministry. You have everything that Jesus had. You are lacking in nothing! That same all-powerful, life-changing, devil-bashing Holy Spirit is ready to cause you do everything that Jesus did and even greater works.

Now go do the work of the Lord!