Word: Acts
As the book of Acts begins, Jesus does some after resurrection check-in with his homies and then flies away to heaven. For three years, the disciples continually misunderstood Jesus' message, one of them sold out Jesus for some bling, and the rest of them deserted Jesus when he was crucified (Peter even denied he knew him). Jesus was the only thing holding this group of punks together and now he's gone? They're in trouble.
The Holy Spirit makes travelling so much easier
The disciples have never really been what you might call "brave." In fact, they sorta seem like sissies. Before he left, Jesus tells his homies to hang tight and wait for a "gift." They chill for a while and then one day, it gets really windy, fire rests above each of them, they start talking in different languages that they don't know and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. From that point on, they are no longer sissies. They tell everyone about Jesus. It doesn't matter if people get upset, throw them in prison or start killing them. They just won't shut up about Jesus. Whatever that "Spirit" is that filled them, I want me some of that. Traveling to foreign countries would be so much easier if I knew how to say "where is the bathroom?" in every language. (Being on fire for Jesus would be pretty cool too.)
The Holy Spirit is weird
So I've heard about the Holy Spirit before. It's the Spirit of God, resides inside us, empowers us be Christ-like and occasionally causes bodies to hit the floor. And don't get me started on how the Holy Spirit is somehow both God and Jesus but not really because they are not the same but in a way they are and then the Spirit spins a totem, but you don't see if it keeps spinning or falls over and then Jesus is like "this is all a dream" and God says "it's actually a dream within a dream... in other words it's reality... yet a dream".... What I'm trying to say is that my knowledge of the Holy Spirit is pretty abstract and weird.
Let's work popcorn into this post
What does the Spirit actually do? If I'm eating some awesome cheese popcorn from Candyland and I see someone I know who really likes white cheddar popcorn from Candyland and I offer them some, is that the Spirit working in me? Or if I'm at the mall and I see someone getting dangerously close to the Thomas Kinkade store and I run over, leap in the air and tackle them just before they were about to enter, was that the Spirit enabling me to be Christ-like?
Can anyone give me some stupid simple ideas of what exactly the Spirit is and does? (Emphasis on "stupid" and "simple." Pretend you are explaining the Holy Spirit to Homer Simpson.)