What is Essential for Life?
- Christine DiGiacomo
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Like, really - what is EsSenTial?
When it comes to life and living,
the ‘essential’ involves doing whatever
it takes for a healthy life and longevity.
Several years ago, I did something extreme
to ensure both … radio-iodine therapy,
post thyroid cancer.
To call it a crazy experience would be a serious understatement. It was frightening, anxiety-producing, lonely and altogether surreal, but nonetheless, necessary. In my hospital stay, I was completely isolated from folks for more than 48 hours, seemingly having been relocated to Area 51, not just the end of an isolated hall. A nurse, clad in a hazmat suit, carried in a container that resembled a car battery, and out of a smoking cannister, pulled a tiny capsule I had to swallow. Almost immediately, she produced a geiger counter to measure my radiation, as I took in the loud beeping. So bizarre - I looked around my room with every surface protected, even the windows covered in plastic. After that pill, no one came in, and I could not go out; my food was slid under the door.
‘Ha, that sounds like Heaven!’ a young mom said to me. Not for this girl. I thrive on people—their energy, love, thoughts, words and ha, yes, even their smell. There was none of that, plus a whole lot of unpleasantness. However, my aloneness gave me a lot of uninterrupted time to study this all-important subject of the person of the Holy Spirit, and the truth about Him.
[hmmm... does it take such extreme circumstances for you not to be distracted??]
The Holy Spirit. It is interesting, okay maybe a little disturbing, that so many of us have been content to be confused about the Holy Spirit, just leaving the topic alone. Particularly as believing people, that means we.are.missing.out.
Simply, the Holy Spirit is God. He is not an "it." He is not a divine influence. He is not a fleecy white cloud. He is not a ghost or a concept. He is a person possessing a will, intellect and emotions. He is God -- with all the attributes of deity. He is the third person of the Trinity -- co-equal with God the Father and God the Son.1
For years now, I have been inexplicably drawn to the Holy Spirit.
However, my church experience clouded my understanding of Him. Raised more or less in the Baptist church, there was little teaching about His unique personhood or powerful presence. But at 12 years old, I played the organ on Sunday nights at an Assemblies of God church where all of the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit were present, including speaking in tongues and prophecy. I learned a tremendous amount. But then, at 15 years of age, I was invited by school friends to a church in Oakland, California, right next to Bible Study Fellowship's headquarters, and the venerable Mrs. Johnson.2
When I became a member of the Conservative Baptist Church at 16, there was a meeting with the pastor, and I remember him saying, 'Since we have the complete canon of Scripture, God no longer speaks directly to us. And there is no longer any need for the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, including healing, tongues or prophecy.' (This is a doctrine called cessationism) Hmmm.
Okay - so check it--at a young age, I had the teaching that the work of the Holy Spirit was mostly before we had the written word of God on the one hand, but then I had the real-life experience of seeing the people of God filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, with the interpretation right on its heels. Then I had the Baptist pastor tell me that was not of God. Who was right?
Your attention please:
-->Knowing and believing TRUTH is essential.
You and I must search out theTRUTH about God.
We ought not depend on Sunday sermons or homilies,
nor should we blindly believe the stance of our denominations.
(heresy? I think not)
We are a people blessed to hold the Bible in our hands;
we have the technology at our fingertips to research
the history of the people of God from
Creation to the inception of the Church,
learning how Father, Son and Holy Spirit work as One
to draw us, redeem us and equip us to live
what Jesus called the abundant life.3
Don't miss this: abundance always includes joy.
What I understand and believe to be true about the Holy Spirit comes from my searching and researching of Scripture, in both Old and New Testaments. While the denominational beliefs and doctrines about the Holy Spirit are varied, as noted earlier, the Scriptures must be our guide.
In 2024, I was blessed to be able to lead a group of people in the footsteps of Paul. We started in Thessaloniki, Greece, and on the first day went to the picturesque historic town of Berea. Please consider with me what is recorded in Acts, penned by the historian Luke:
"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."4
From our perspective, it is funny to think of people testing what Paul had to say-in particular because the only scriptures they had to examine were those of the Old Testament-and even then, it would mostly be a searching of what they had memorized, as folks did not own their owns sets of scrolls or parchments!
But we learn from the Bereans:
->not to be spoon-fed key beliefs/truths of our Christian faith and practice
->and in this case, to learn what the Bible has to say about the Holy Spirit's existence, personhood and practices because understanding Him is critical to our Christian life and personal experience. I would be so bold as to say knowing the Holy Spirit of God is essential to life and living, especially if we are to live with joy.
And I always bear in mind what Jesus taught his best friends in the whole world about Who and what was to come when he left them, recorded in John 14:
"I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate
[an advocate is a person, not a thing, not a force]
to help you and be with you forever- the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him [a person-and yes, masculine in nature] ,
because it neither sees him nor knows him.
But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. " 5
Holy Spirit ... person, not thing.
Truths spoken from Jesus' own lips.
Oh, how I love the Word of God!
The Holy Spirit is key to living well in this life, and
especially in knowing the supernatural peace of God.
Oh and my thyroid cancer? I never even thought about my thyroid until I was rear-ended at a red light by San Clemente High School in 2015, damaging 7 discs in my neck and back. The diagnostic MRIs showed something else besides damaged disks, something unexpected--nodules on my thyroid. 'Better get those checked out,' the doctor commented. Yeah, I guess so! Once again, I heard the 'C' word. Hmmm... was the car accident orchestrated by God so I could find the thyroid cancer before it was greatly advanced? Hmmm...
Stories? O, I've got em. But who cares? They have no place or relevance here unless they reveal something about the character of God, such as this one does -
that with an unseen hand, he guides the paths of his children,
that he is trustworthy, and
that the Christian life is the Greatest Adventure on earth.
Truth. Essential truth.
And, like the person of the Holy Spirit . . . truly essential.
Listen: You Know What I Need by my favorite, Pat Barrett:
So glad to be on the journey with you,
Christine
Holy Spirit: who or what? no.5
3 - John 10.10
4 - Acts 17.11
5 - John 14.16-17
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