THE Ultimate Sacrifice

.

There is no doubt in any Christians mind that what Jesus did while on the cross was a pivotal point in history. We stand in awe of our Creator God, who was willing to hang on a cross after a severe beating, until dead. He even went so far as to forgive his tormentors and murders while they were still mocking him and spitting at him.

We call that the Ultimate Sacrifice. And we all benefited from that history changing sacrifice.

But was that The Ultimate Sacrifice? It is written that he died once for our sins, so we can only assume that if there was another sacrifice, it wasn’t one of death. It would have been one of a physical life.

John 1:1-10 tells us that Jesus was the Word that was with God from the beginning. Jesus was the God of the Old Testament that spoke to the prophets and spoke the universe and all that was in it, into existence. When God spoke, it happened.

For Jesus to become human, he first had to come up with that idea, to think it through, and then be willing to strip him self of the glory he had from eternity, and become not only human, but a helpless child in a womb of a very young and inexperienced mother who was still a card carrying member of the broken human family.

Of course, the Holy Spirit, God, was with him the whole time. There was never a time Jesus was not in constant communion with the Father. But to allow him self to be divested of all things God, that was a sacrifice for humanity of galactic and biblical proportions! It was unheard of, never before attempted! Knowing he will die by the hands of humanity, he still allowed him self to be “down graded” to human, to a fetus, to be carried and born a child of a poor family. From a being who owned it all, literally, to owning nothing.

So what does that mean to you and me? Everything! We praise God left and right for his sacrifice on the cross, and he should be praised! But with Christmas coming up, I think there is a lot more to his first coming as God/Man than we first see. It’s a sacrifice worth paying attention to!

If Jesus had not become fully man, we would never have a God that came down all the way, and he would not have died on the cross. So he had to become fully man, he had to die on the cross. Death had already called his name the day we sinned. Actually, earlier than that if you read Revelation 13:8: “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (or cosmos).” He decided to become flesh and die, so we can put on immortality and live.

Now why do I call it The Ultimate sacrifice? It is true that he made that death sacrifice on the cross, but the ultimate one? Is death the ultimate one? As a human being, we see death as permanent, so we think of it as an ultimate sacrifice (if we made that sacrifice). Or in some cases, we call it a “permanent solution to a temporary problem” we have trouble facing.

What makes it ultimate to God? After all, death was not permanent, but a beginning to eternal life! Resurrection was just a few days away! He was to become immortal again; back to his old glory he had once before! Then what was so “ultimate” and for that matter, “sacrifice” about that?

And what is so ultimate about his becoming humanity? Because, though he died, he did live again, with more glory, but when he became human…

Pay attention now….

Read this carefully…

Ready??...

HE NEVER STOPPED BEING FLESH; HUMAN!

That’s right!! Though he was resurrected back to incorruptible glory, he was still human even after he was raised again!

WHAT?

Remember, he told the disciples and specifically to Thomas in Luke 24:39 “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

The Message bible says it this way: “Don't be upset, and don't let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands; look at my feet—it's really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn't have muscle and bone like this." As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet.”

Muscle and bone? Flesh? Jesus, with what we would consider as "corruptible" flesh? Apparently so. Jesus' flesh is, of course, incorruptible, and we will share in that incorruptibly of Jesus at his coming! Does that mean that Jesus has a naked human form like us? Yes. And does that mean that Jesus sits at the right hand of God naked? I have no idea. But he could if he wanted to I suppose! But it sure does bring up an interesting thought of humanity and our reality of our created being.

So we have the good news that Jesus is still human, still flesh, yet he is still fully God. God has always been with us the whole time! (Emanuel, God with us) Look at the humanity around you. Do you now see a different humanity? You should. Jesus became human, flesh, for our sake, made that Ultimate Sacrifice, making a permanent solution to an eternal problem. He brought humanity; flesh, to sit at the right hand of the Father. And the Father is sitting right next to Humanity in Jesus’ humanity!

Wow!

When the Father looks at Jesus (His son in whom he is well pleased) he sees humanity. And when he sees humanity, he sees Jesus!

Now what do you see in the manger? Jesus? God? Humanity? Yes, all three. He is the creator of all the created order, so when we see this baby in a manger, we see all of creation in one place, though he was not created.

Now that does not mean we are God of course, but what a wonderful position humanity has been put in to! The moment Jesus became a physical human being, all of humanity had a physical connection to God, the Creator of the universe! In fact, all of creation now has a connection!

So believe that. Take seriously the part in your connection to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for Jesus has overcome the world! The whole world! When Jesus as man did not sin, Man (in Jesus) did not sin! Though we (man) do sin, Jesus became that Man for us, in our stead, to be a sinless being. That is why God does not hold sin against man, because Man (The Second Adam; Jesus) did not sin for God to hold it against him! 2 Cor. 5:19 “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.” Notice, reconciling was to the world, not to just certain men.

Because of The Ultimate Sacrifice, all I can say now is:

“Merry Christmas to all of humanity, and to all of humanity, good night”

The Second Adam

1Corinthians 15:21-22

"So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life." New Living Translation

"For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Revised Standard Version

"For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." New King James Version

Bible Verses Bold; Quotes from the Bible in Light Blue; Jesus words in red.

Jesus was in so many ways referred to as a "second Adam" or the "other man".

Adam in Hebrew simply means "ruddy" or "red", "man", "mankind". Why call him red? Reminds me of people who used to call me "Red" because I'm red headed, well, was anyway! The earth was probably red clay that God made him from. I would say that is a good a theory as any!

The important question is, why was Jesus associated with Adam? Was it because Jesus was red? I don't think so. He might have been, but I doubt that was the reason.

It says in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (I am paraphrasing here) that Adam brought death into the world, Jesus took death in our stead for sin. If we, coming from Adam are sinful, then we again coming from Jesus are cleansed from sin. So sin, the curse of Adam, is no longer a part of our lives as a way of life. We can sin (without Adams help), and unfortunately do sin, but we go to Christ for our forgiveness, which overcomes anything that the original Adam (or we) has done.

Both the original created Adam and Jesus (born of God) came to this world in a sinless state. But Adam sinned for all of humanity, whereby the Second Adam, Jesus took the sins away from humanity. Adam's sin has been taken away for all of humanity.

See also 1 Corinthians 15:45 "And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." (NKJV)

The New Living Translation says "The Scriptures tell us, 'The first man, Adam, became a living person.' But the last Adam--that is, Christ--is a life-giving Spirit."

Of course, this last verse was talking about our resurrection into life as spirit as well as a renewed life in the flesh. That does not mean that the flesh or human body is somehow evil or that Jesus is ashamed of our bodies. In fact, just the opposite! Jesus did resurrect back into his original (human) body, though he had eternal spirit life.

So where does that lead us?

Again, like the original Adam, Jesus was found in the garden the day of his resurrection. It appears he likes gardens, since it was in the garden that he prayed before his crucifixion. He could have gone anywhere, but decided to stay in the garden. Unlike those paintings where it shows Jesus coming out of the tomb while all of his followers looked on, they were actually off somewhere else. So he stayed around and waited until the women showed up. They first went to the tomb where they discovered that he was resurrected. Then as they went out to tell the others, they found whom they thought was the gardener. After questioning him of the whereabouts of Jesus' body, he revealed to them that he was Jesus himself! You can read this in John 20:1-18. Matthew, Mark and Luke each gives a slightly different perspective of the account. The important message, good news or gospel, (which were first given by women) was that Jesus is risen and alive!

There are some similarities in the four gospel accounts as well as differences. One account has Jesus in the Garden, while another has him walking to Emmaus. One says that Jesus came up to Mary from behind.

The similarities show the angels all wearing white robes, even though there was only one angel mentioned in one account and another says two angels. But they all do agree that they (the angels or "men") were wearing white robes.

It is interesting that none of the accounts mentioned what Jesus wore. They all did agree that he left his linen wraps and face cloth behind...neatly folded of course.

In Luke 24:12 Peter had to go see for himself. He ran to the tomb and found "the linen cloths lying by themselves".

Hmmm, I wonder...if Jesus left the cloths behind and no one mentioned what he wore, could it be possible that He may have worn nothing? Can that even be possible? If so, then how? And if not, then why? I do realize that just because it is not mentioned, that it does not necessarily mean that he wore nothing.

However, we have this human idea that somehow our bodies are evil and must be at all times hidden from view of any other person. That is a Gnostic belief that Paul had to resist and teach against. In our human perspective, Jesus cannot possibly be naked! "Not MY Jesus", we say self-righteously.! Is that true? Is it even biblical? Would Jesus allow himself to be caught without clothing? Let's ask it another way: Is Jesus in need of clothing at all? After all, he was sinless and clothing will not help him resist sin. We think we have to wear clothing because we sinned. He did not sin, so why should he? He overcame the world and it's ways and thinking. Then did he have a body to hide?

Luke 24:39 "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have."

(Again, he was resurrected with a human body, flesh and bone, without robes)

This reminds me that Jesus was not ashamed to wear the body of a human being, before or after his resurrection. He is not a sinner, and he is worthy to take away our sins, even as a naked man made of flesh and bones. Since Jesus is not ashamed of the human body, why are we ashamed? Are we to become like Jesus? He said that he has overcome the world. The very reason we should not fear is because of Him. John 16:33 "...but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love."

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Why do we still live in fear? Wasn't that the exact sentiments of Adam? Gen. 3:10 "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And we have been afraid ever since then.

God of course was not pleased with them. He wanted Adam to come out and spend time with Him. He was expecting Adam and Eve to be exactly as He left them, which was naked.

Since we have accepted Jesus' love and mercy, then how can we live in fear?

We now come back to Jesus in the Garden. When Jesus left the tomb, he left behind the cloths that covered his body. As we have just read, He was resurrected back into a human body, with flesh and bones. The disciples can see and feel that he is flesh and bones.

Here is another clue that we can use. The women thought in one gospel account that he was a gardener. John 20:15 "Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?' She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, 'Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.' "

Now what in the world does being a gardener have anything to do with this? Lets take a look at another clue: John 21:7 shows Peter fishing on the boat and was naked because he "stripped for work." Or we can put it another way, Q: "Why was he naked?" A: "Because he was working."

Jesus was thought to be working in the garden. Therefore they thought he was a gardener. Again, the original Adam worked in the garden and he was naked.

History shows that working nude in the day of Jesus was quite common. Men in the fields were known to work nude. Carpenters worked nude on hot days. (Wasn't Jesus a carpenter?) Slaves often worked nude. (Weren't we called to be slaves of Christ?) Women were known to work with just a cloth around their waist, with their breasts exposed. Women openly breast-fed their babies in public (Motherhood was honored in those days). Nudity was not considered a crime. So to see a carpenter, field worker or a gardener working without clothes was not uncommon or shocking. (This does not imply that everyone worked nude, but as a whole, is not uncommon either)

Now being God, as Christ was and is, do you think he really needed clothing? No, of course not! He was born of the Holy Spirit, which came from God and not from the Adam who sinned.

So to see Jesus as a second Adam, restoring the relationship between man and God, thus removing the clothing that hid us from the beginning, is not a stretch of anyone's imagination. Adam brought sin into the world and Jesus removed sin. Adam hid from God; Jesus removed the covering for sin.

When Jesus died, the curtain or cloth in the temple tore from top to bottom. This is symbolic in several ways. Matthew 27:51 "Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split." A custom of the day when someone died and family or friends are in great grief, they would tear their garments or "rend their garments" as they would say, by tearing it from the top down to the bottom leaving themselves in a sense or even literally, naked. So the first symbolism is that God the Father "tore his garments" in grief at the sight of His firstborn son dying. The second symbolism is that God opened up the way to Him by removing the cloth that separated us from Him in the Holy of Holies. The third is that God never put them back on! It is still open to this day. In fact, God does not even live in a man made temple anymore. He lives in us by using us as a temple. 1 Corinthians 6.19: This passage refers to the body as a temple. Our naked bodies, as God created them, are His temple. Then why do we keep our clothes on as a symbol of shame? Is it to separate us from God and each other? Is it to hide God's glorious temple? God removed His cloth, why can't we remove ours?

Are we still stuck in our man made temple of cloth?

If someone were to ever see me casually naked, he or she might possibly ask, "Have you no shame?" My answer would have to be "No. My shame was taken on the cross and never to enter my life again."

Jesus is the second Adam, who got it right.

An afterthought: After reviewing this article before publishing, I started thinking: in view of the above idea, is calling a preacher a "Man of the cloth", an oxymoron? Sounds to me like they want to stay hidden behind the cloth, rather than ripping it off like God did.

Original copy of this is located at The Second Adam on Boyd Allens Christian Naturism

Is Nudism a Religion?

Many wonder why I'm a nudist, a Christian Nudist at that! (And some just don't care)

In reality, I'm a nudist, not because of some religious dogma, but from a lack of it. Simply put, I just don't like to wear clothing.

So why are we making a "religion" out of it? We aren't. All we are doing is answering the religious zealots who insist on making a religion out of wearing clothing. So we have to drag religion into it to make sense out of it. To answer their condemning questions.

To help you out a bit, below is an excellent article called Acceptance by someone who is not a nudist, and who is not promoting nudism, but who does know I am a nudist (I told him when we were talking at a meeting one time) and found it very "interesting".

This Acceptance is about God willing to accept the reality of what happened in the garden of Eden and though does not approve of their broken ideas, accept that reality and work from that point forward. It helps explain our understanding of why humanity wears clothes even though God never made that a command.

I hope to hear some comments from here and there as well.

Boyd

I Am Afraid of What Others Might Think

.
.
I heard that many times in life, and have found myself using it as well. That has stopped many people from enjoying life, moving forward and taking risks. Including me.

But what does this mean when we look at it in the reality of who and what we are in Christ?

I will go over each word individually, but also as part of the whole. For every word spoken in this sentence, adds more problems exponentially.

I: "I" is a big word.  It is all about Me.  Me, myself and I.  MeMeMeeee! The first thing we do is start off with “me” when we should be starting off with the Triune God.  So we say “I” instead of saying “Our Father”.

I am:  Like Adam, we begin to replace God, the Great I AM, with our own version of “I am”.  (Gen. 3:10) We have ideas of what we are outside of who and what we are in Christ. If we start with the true “I AM”, the Trinity, then we would not be so focused on this broken "I am".

Afraid:  Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). So right off the bat, we are not using the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love.  The very first words of Adam to God after he took of that forbidden fruit were, “I was [am] afraid”.   Fear sums up all of the troubles and sins of humanity.  And the first victim of that fear was God.  Adam and Eve found a new fear and hid themselves from God.   But Jesus Christ removed that fear.  So why are we still hiding from God and from each other?  We still hold on to that fear because we are still seeing ourselves as “I am” rather than seeing God.

Of What:  Yes, of what?  What are you afraid of?  An unknown?  “I am afraid of what” is a good question.  We too often don’t even know what we are afraid of, so we lash out against God and everything and everyone else. 

Others:  That committee of others.  Whoever they are. Like the “what”, we don’t even know "who".  We have yet to meet them.  So we just call them “others”.  What is so detrimental about this is that the “others” might be your family, friends and neighbors!  Why are we afraid of them?  What have they done to deserve such a critical view of them?  It shows how critical and accusing we have become.  Again, like Adam who blamed God and Eve for his fears and troubles.

Might: Not will, just “might”. We are not even sure that they will think or not think. We just stop our lives in mid stroke just based on a “might”, a "maybe", a “not sure but just in case”.  There is no reality to this fear except our own.

Think:  Not do, just "think". Now when did the thought of others actually hurt you?  The only way the thoughts of others can hurt you is when they act or speak out those thoughts.  But we have not gotten that far yet. We are still just on “think”.  Maybe they did think these things (whatever it is that we think they thunk), and IF they did, they may have changed their thoughts immediately and started thinking right (called repentance). Or maybe their thoughts were very good towards you (Like God’s thoughts towards Adam and Eve were good), but we are afraid of them anyway, even though they may not have thought them at all.

Put them all together and you are revealing a whole mess of broken theology at work in your lives!

When you really think about it (speaking of which), you will find that our fears are based on selfishness and believing that others are taking their valuable time and concern and negatively placing it towards you and that what they think are actually evil thoughts!   In reality, they are actually our evil thoughts towards them!  How dare we to stop living based on our misconceptions of our family, friends and neighbors. And who said they were thinking about you anyway you selfish “i am”?  They have their own concerns!

Who knows?  The "Others" may want to support you in your mission in life! And if they don't, that is their life, not yours.

“I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” John 10:10 Yes, Jesus said “might” (KVJ), but not because Jesus is holding back, but because we still allow our selfish, paranoid fears to hold us back from the reality of who and what Jesus is and our wonderful relationship we have with God.  We can now live back in His garden, living off of the Tree of Life, who is Jesus.

“I am afraid of what others might think” is so wrong on so many levels!

If Jesus thought like that, he never would have walked on water, or healed on the Sabbath, or picked grain on the Sabbath! He is the real "I AM" and I AM is not afraid of what others might think!

I will admit that some people do have broken relationships with someone thinking negatively towards them, but chances are, they are thinking negatively towards a lot more than just you and the life you are living in Christ. It is them, not you.


Boyd

Round and Round We Go!

 .

One of the things we need to question in our evangelical quest to “save as many souls as possible before all hell breaks loose" is, who, how and why.

But I keep going back to what Jesus Christ said about himself and the Father.  “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.”  John 6:65.

Well, that’s fine and dandy, except, what if the Father never calls this person?  What do we do then?  I suppose we tell them “Tough luck kid, I guess you’re going to be punished in hell for the next zillion years even though you didn’t have a chance to begin with!”

That doesn’t seem to be fair, especially from a loving God and for such a short, miserable life this person had. And how would we ever know if God is calling them later or not?  Should we give up? Try to save them ourselves?  Wait on the Lord as some would say? (Waiting is not a bad idea by the way)

But we are still in panic mode trying our best and hope to God all these otherwise nice people don’t go to hell.

What work we do! What love for these people we must have!  What commitment, zeal…and full of ourselves!  What a waste of time! And God seems to be doing absolutely nothing unless we act!

Seems foolish to me, considering how weak and broken I am.  So I am reminded of the foolishness of God which is still far wiser than mans wisdom. 1Cor. 1:25  Maybe we are missing something here.

Because yet another verse, which seems to contradict the first one, says, “No one can come unto the Father except through [Jesus]”.  John 14:6

Stop the car! Pull over! Let’s pull this map out and read it again!  First, we can’t go to Jesus unless the Father draws us to him, and we cannot go to the Father except through Jesus, whom we cannot go to unless the Father, (which we cannot access without Jesus) draws us to Jesus!! What gives?

If the only way we can access the Father is through Jesus and the only way we can access Jesus is from the Father invitation, then we can only assume we are already in contact with both, Father and Son!  How?  By the Holy Spirit that was sent by the Father through the Son!!  NOW we see the connection!   Because the Holy Spirit was sent to earth (and by default, to humanity) by Jesus, we are complete in Jesus if you understand that the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity as God, (Emanuel; God with us).  This was done already a long time ago!  There is nothing we can do!  If we try to save people thinking they have no access, then we are bypassing what Jesus AND the Father AND the Holy Spirit has done already!  We were not told that we can come to Jesus through evangelism, though by evangelism, we come into the knowledge of our existence in Christ.

Either we are already in Jesus because of what they did, or there is absolutely no hope for humanity: saints and sinners!

Now what is the evangelist to do? Or have we misunderstood what we are to do?  We think we are called to save souls.  Well, to a certain limit, yes, but for what, and for whom?  It isn’t a matter of saving people from, but for.  Isn’t our main priority to announce the Good News of God’s Kingdom which, if I’m not too far mistaken, Jesus is King of right now?  If Jesus is the King of a Kingdom, then we can only assume there are subjects (citizens) of that Kingdom. And Jesus’ Kingdom includes all of humanity. So the real question is, what are we “saving” them, or better yet, leading to them understanding, for? 

All we are called to do is to announce the Good News of this Kingdom and teaching all nations (peoples, who are already a part of this Kingdom) to observe and learn their role in this Kingdom! And to help people see who Jesus is, who they are in Jesus, and to help them receive (not get) the understanding (via Holy Spirit) and accept the “already done” into their daily lives.

Either we are going round and round trying to save people (just in case Jesus missed a few), or God has already resolved this circular puzzle.

May this circle be unbroken.

“Lord, please open our eyes to your Kingdom already at hand”

If at first you don't succeed, let Jesus do it!

I got this interactive analogy I like to use on people.

I pull out a set of keys or a quarter and lay it on my hand and then tell them to try to take it out of my hand.

They are expecting me to close my hand, so they quickly grab it. Since I did not close my hand, they easily got it, then I would say, “No, try to take it out of my hand”

So again, they would reach for it, and again, I don’t close my hand, and they easily take it out of my hand.

Again, I say “No, TRY to take it out of my hand”

By this time, they are confused. How can you try to take something out of someones hand when they don’t make it difficult? All they are doing is just taking it out of my hand, when I told them to TRY to take it out.

Naturally, they are confused because they expected a struggle and hardship, but realizing that it’s more difficult to try to do something that should come easily to you.

Like letting Jesus do the work and celebrate our existence in Jesus reality. We work too hard trying to "get saved" or saving others as if Jesus needed us to do it.

I think it takes more faith and more work just to trust Jesus to do it than it is for us to try hard. Maybe that is why so many work so hard for their salvation, they don't trust Jesus to take care of their salvation! They lack faith!

Do you really want more faith? Then quit trying so hard!

• “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try” ~Yoda

Boyd

Holy Spirit and the Brain

Pinky: “What are we going to do today Brain?”
Brain: “The same thing we do every day Pinky, try to take over the world!”

Warner Brothers “Pinky and the Brain”

What do the human brain and the holy spirit (sent from heaven) have in common?

• We don’t use either one of them enough.
• God isn’t sending any more.

My wife likes to use this phrase when confronted with human idiocy. “Why don’t they use the brains God gave geese?” As you know, sometimes geese don’t seem to have enough brains as it is. (She often uses “common sense” as well). Yet sometimes we go through life not even using that much. At best, geniuses use 9, maybe 10 percent at best. Wile Coyote, a Super Genius uses 10.5% So we get on our knees and ask God for more brains.

Lately, I have been confronted with the idea that there is a second phase to the holy spirit gifts. The holy ghost. That is supposed to be the second power or special gift God gives to those that are holier than others I think. An example I was given was the apostles asking the people who among them were filled with the holy spirit (holy ghost in the KJV) to be raised as deacons to serve the widows in the church. (Book of Acts)

Personally, I just think these people are picked out not because they were given a second gift or experienced a “holy ghost” thingy. I just simply think they are using the holy spirit in their lives, participating in the work God gave them to begin with. The people recognized their faith and life as being in line with God’s plan for them. The others are just receiving what they are serving already. Basically speaking, they were already doing the obvious work of deacons.

We sometimes find churches calling out for the holy spirit (holy ghost) to “come down” and expecting an “experience” of the holy ghost. As if, for some reason, the holy spirit was not at church at that moment! So far, I have not seen any examples of that happening except where the holy spirit was first sent to the disciples in the upper room where they waited as Christ asked them to. Then later in a gentile location, a church who have not heard of the holy spirit was given a sign of the power when given to the whole church at that location. Outside of that, nothing was “called down” nor was the holy spirit invoked. It just simply was given by God in a unique way.

We are given (not get) the holy spirit/ghost by God when Jesus ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father as promised. What are we expecting? An experience? He never promised that.

Jesus came to earth once. Jesus became human once. Jesus lived, suffered, died and was raised once. (He died once for ALL of humanity) Jesus ascended to heaven once. We are baptized once. And he sent the Holy Spirit once.

So what do we do now? Ask God to help us use what he has given already, to use the fruits of the holy spirit (see Gal. 5:22) in our lives now. Make ourselves open, vulnerable and naked before God to allow him to work with us where we are now. Faith is putting our trust (what little we have) in God to do what he wills in our lives. Let God open our brains (the other 90%) to recognize the holy spirit and all that it has at work in our lives already.

Pinky: "So how does one get more holy spirit?"
Brain: "The same way you get more brains Pinky, you use it!"!

“If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you can move mountains” – Jesus