Receiving the Holy Spirit. If you throw a damp piece of wood in the fire it sizzles as the dampness is burnt off and evaporates, and that, if you like, symbolises the purifying of God. Attendees of the Alpha Course are taught that the experience is different for everyone… when people receive the Holy Spirit there is often – not always but often – some form of physical manifestation. All that can be said is that the Holy Spirit is predictably unpredictable. It’s not one size fits all, and for each person the manifestation can be a different experience. God is not in the business of off the peg. He is in the business of tailor made. When people are filled with the Holy Spirit…

• Some people have felt warmth or heat in their hands.
• Some shake like a leaf in the wind or they quake (it’s how the Quakers got their name.)
• Others rock to and fro as the ruach of God, the breath or wind of the Spirit ministers to them.
• Some experience the ‘weightiness’ of God’s love, maybe in their hands or feet. Often people feel the need to sit or lie down and just bathe or drink in the love of God.
• Some have experienced what they call a glowing feeling all over; a liquid heat or ‘a mild burning sensation in my arms when I wasn’t cold’ – often it coming in waves.
• Tears are another regular manifestation, even though people may not feel particularly happy or sad… and sighing or breathing deeply; like breathing in the Spirit.
• If someone has been profoundly troubled or wounded they can sometimes moan or wail as they receive the Spirit, and He minsters to their pain.
• Another frequent manifestation is a sort of tingling sensation in shorts bursts, similar to a mild electric current passing through your body.
• Or an overwhelming sense and assurance of God’s love.
• And very often the manifestation is the holy presence and peace of God resting on us.

Sometimes critics have suggested that explaining how the Spirit manifests Himself to people is autosuggestion; that people are psychologically conditioned and so that’s why they experience what they do. Well autosuggestion or not the fact is it happens; people encounter with God the Holy Spirit and the end result is that people’s lives are changed forever.