| Topic: |
Religions > Bible |
| User: |
"Carl" |
| Date: |
22 Aug 2007 06:23:51 PM |
| Object: |
The Attributes Of The Spirit |
The following is a part of a series Dr. Jeremiah wrote about what the Bible
teaches about the Holy Spirit. It is an excellent article and I urge
Christians to take the time to read it.
May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/
---
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SPIRIT
by David Jeremiah
A woman was trying to teach her Sunday school class the doctrine of the
Trinity. That's quite a challenging subject to tackle with adults, let alone
primary children. But she happened to be a very creative lady, and she felt
sure she could come up with a visual aid to help them grasp this difficult
concept.
She decided on a pretzel.
Why a pretzel? Well, she reasoned, it's made up of one strand of dough but
is so intricately interwoven that it possesses three distinct holes. So she
brought a pretzel on Sunday morning, held it up in front of her class, and
pointed to the hole at the top. A dozen sets of little eyes followed her.
"Children," she said, "this is like God the Father."
No one challenged that comparison. If the teacher said God the Father was
like a hole in a pretzel, she must know something about it. "Just think of
this first hole as the heavenly Father," she told them. After letting that
sink in for a moment, she pointed to the second opening. "This is like God
the Son. Think of this second hole as our Lord Jesus. Then here, this hole
down at the bottom, is like God the Holy Ghost. And just as this pretzel is
made up of one piece, yet there are three separate holes, so the Trinity is
one God with three separate persons."
It wasn't a bad illustration in a pinch. But had it made the desired impact?
She asked the children to repeat what she had taught them: "God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Ghost." When she was all done, she asked one of
the children, a little boy, if he could stand up and repeat what he had
learned. Rather reluctantly, he shuffled to the front of the class. Holding
up the pretzel, he went through this miniature catechism-just as he
remembered it.
"This hole here on top is God," he said. "I mean, God the Father. And then
this hole right here is Jesus. And this," he concluded triumphantly, "is the
Holy Smoke!"
Well, two for three isn't so bad, is it? His answer reminds me of one of my
favorite stories, about a little girl who'd never been to a Baptist church
before or observed what they did there. She was especially interested in the
way they baptized people.thoroughly.
When she went home, she thought she would try that. Her mother heard the
water running in the bathtub upstairs and went up to investigate. Her little
girl had all her doll babies lined up next to the tub. She was going to do
what she saw in church and make sure her little brood was thoroughly
baptized. Her mother stood at the door watching.
The little girl took the first doll, put it in the water, looked up at the
ceiling, and solemnly repeated these words: "I baptize you in the name of
the Father, the Son, and in the hole you go."
Children aren't the only ones who feel confused about the Holy Spirit. Often
when people try to describe the person and ministry of the Spirit, they
become mystical, vague, tentative-and maybe a little uncomfortable. The way
you view the Holy Spirit is very likely colored by your tradition, the
teachings and attitudes you've grown up with.
In this book you hold in your hands, I would like to do more than just
dispel confusion, important as that may be. I have a great desire in my
heart to see the church of Jesus Christ embrace the wonderful,
life-transforming truths about this mighty third person of the Trinity-this
forgotten God, the Holy Spirit.
I'm convinced that we have put the church at a great disadvantage because of
our unwillingness to proclaim these all-important truths.
The forgotten God needs to be remembered.
Without Him, We Have Nothing
One day it hit me all at once that just about everything we count important
to us in doctrine and practice is rooted in some aspect of the ministry of
the Holy Spirit.
As I searched the Scriptures, I encountered an amazing series of "can'ts"
relating to His touch on our lives. Consider this.
You can't be saved without the Holy Spirit
In John 3, Jesus entertained a night visitor. In my mind's eye, I picture
the Lord and Nicodemus standing together at the edge of a rooftop, under a
sky blazing with stars. The cooling night wind whispers in the leaves of the
olive trees, and Jesus turns to His distinguished guest with a statement
that must have seemed utterly shocking.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God.. Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, 5).
Jesus told Nicodemus that one of the indispensable ingredients for salvation
was the Holy Spirit. (I personally believe the reference to water is a
reference to the Word of God. We'll look into that more carefully a little
bit later.) But don't miss the crucial truth here: There are two important
aspects regarding salvation, the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Nobody
finds salvation without the Spirit of God.
You can't have assurance without the Holy Spirit
In Romans 8:16, Paul told the Romans, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God."
Wherever I travel across this country, people ask me, "How can I have
assurance of salvation? How can I know that I really belong to Christ?"
There are many Scriptures to which we can point, but the bottom line is
this: if you have the Holy Spirit living within you, that Spirit testifies
with your spirit that you are a child of God. It is the inward witness of
your faith.
Most of us have had the experience of saying to people, "I don't know
exactly how to explain it, but I know I'm a Christian."
"Well, how do you know?"
"I just know inside."
We know inside because the Spirit of God is there, witnessing to our
assurance. Somewhere within us, a voice whispers, "You are Mine. You are not
your own. You belong to Me."
You can't become holy without the Holy Spirit
The book of Galatians tells us that the characteristics of holiness are
ninefold. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians
5:22-23).
It isn't your fruit; it is the fruit of the Spirit. It isn't something you
go out and try to do. You can't sit in a chair and try to work yourself up
to peace or love or patience or goodness. It grows within you-a natural
product of the Holy Spirit living within you. He produces these qualities in
your life.
You can't understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit
Does that surprise you? Years ago, I remember hearing Campus Crusade founder
Bill Bright teaching on the Holy Spirit. In his message, he told about a man
to whom he'd been witnessing. One of this man's problems with the Christian
faith was that he'd tried again and again to read the Bible but couldn't
make any sense of it.
Then the man received Jesus Christ and came back to visit Dr. Bright a week
later. He had an amazing story to tell. During that week's time, he said, it
was as though somebody had rewritten his Bible. Suddenly the Scripture came
alive to him. Understanding broke into his thoughts like quick lightning
strikes.
How had it happened? The Teacher had taken up residence within him. What had
once been obscure and confusing now pulsated with meaning, encouragement,
and hope.
I read about a man who carried a tiny little folder in his Bible case.
Inside the folder was a microfilm reproduction of the entire Bible. All
1,245 pages and 773,746 words were printed in a space just a little more
than one square inch. But the man couldn't make out one word of it! Holding
it up to the light or putting it against a dark background wouldn't help.
Only with the aid of a high-powered microscope could it be read. This need
for an outside source of help to read a microfilm reproduction of the
Scriptures reminds me of the difficulty people outside of Christ have in
understanding the Bible.
Listen to what Paul said to the Corinthians: "The natural man does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians
2:14).
Just prior to this verse, Paul wrote, "Now we have received, not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things
that have been freely given to us by God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). That means
that Christians, who have the Spirit of God living within them, have an
inward interpreter who helps them to understand what the Bible means.
A companion.
A tutor.
A private instructor.
He illuminates our minds. The scales fall off our eyes, and all of a sudden,
the Spirit of God makes it possible for us to understand God's truth.
You can't understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit. What's more.
You can't pray without the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 6:18 (niv) instructs us to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests." Romans 8:26 says, "Likewise the
Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray
for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered."
Yes, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God
(Romans 8:28). But within that same context we are told that we don't even
know how we ought to pray. What was Paul saying? He was telling us that
although we can be sure of the ultimate, there will often be times when we
don't know what to make of the immediate.
We know that all things work together, but sometimes on the road to the "all
things" we find ourselves so confused or filled with pain that we don't even
know how to pray.
I heard a story about a pastor who frequently visited a woman who was dying
from cancer. One day she told him, "I'm so often racked with pain that it's
hard for me to gather my thoughts to pray. Even when I rally a little from
the influence of the medication, my mind is still so dull I can't
concentrate for any length of time."
He looked at her a moment and said, "Well, you can groan, can't you?"
"Oh yes," she replied, "my days are spent doing that."
"Well, never mind that you can't formulate prayers," the pastor told her.
"The Holy Spirit translates your groans into eloquent petitions and presents
them to the Father!"
Can you remember moments in your life when your heart was so heavy or your
thoughts seemed so confused that you couldn't even find words to speak to
God? Sometimes, even though we're on our knees in an attitude of prayer, we
can only manage to sigh or groan or whisper the Lord's name. And in those
moments, according to Paul, the indwelling Holy Spirit takes our sighs and
our groans and brings those prayers to God. He understands the inward
turmoil in our life. He is the searcher of our hearts, and He knows us
better than we know ourselves.
Have you ever asked someone to pray for you because of a crushing heaviness
you felt in your life, but didn't even know how to word your request?
Sometimes what we feel inside seems so hard to explain. Sometimes we're
embarrassed to admit to an old problem or habit that has been with us for
years. But we don't have to explain anything to the Spirit of God. We don't
have to search for words. He knows very well what plagues us and burdens us
and worries us and presses in our spirit. And He spreads those very things
out before the Father's throne.
You can't serve God without the Holy Spirit
The Bible says that when you're saved you not only get the Giver, you get
the gift! You receive the Spirit of God, but you also receive the gift of
the Spirit. Every Christian, at the moment of belief, is immediately endowed
with a special gift of ministry. You will find those gifts listed in Romans
12, in Ephesians 4, and in 1 Corinthians 12.
Paul writes:
There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different
kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each
one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
(1 Corinthians 12:5-7, niv)
In other words, every believer has a gift of the Spirit. We are to exercise
that gift so that everyone else profits. I exercise my gift, and it helps
you. You exercise your gift, and it helps me. And all of us using our
giftedness help the whole body to grow.
But you can't do that without the Spirit of God. The whole concept of
service is based on the spiritual filling of the believer. No wonder so many
of God's people are running around with their tongues hanging out trying to
figure out how to survive! Do you know what we're trying to do? We're trying
to accomplish a supernatural task in the energy of our own weak flesh. It's
insanity, but we do it all the time! We run like crazy trying to keep up
with everything, trying to dot every i and cross every t, and we fall into
bed at night totally exhausted. There is no human way for us to do the work
of God in the energy of the flesh. If the Spirit of God doesn't fill us with
His power, we're attempting the impossible.
Please read these next words very carefully: The Christian life isn't hard;
the Christian life is impossible. And unless the Spirit of God indwells us,
we can't serve.
You can't witness without the Holy Spirit
Remember how the disciples waited in the upper room? They were waiting
because they were told to wait. Jesus had said: "But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses" (Acts
1:8).
I would hate to measure all the damage done in the church throughout the
years by people who tried to witness in the energy of the flesh without the
Holy Spirit. I could chronicle a few of those disasters if you'd like the
sad details. We literally drive people away from God by our own self-effort,
however well-intentioned. Our presentation may be pleasant, our statements
may be doctrinally sound, and our logic may be seamless. But unless we move
and speak in the power of the Holy Spirit, our words will ring hollow. We
will have nothing to share.
When some people make up their mind to witness, it's as though they were on
some sort of quota system. Every Thursday night they set out to gather so
many scalps in the neighborhood. I'm not saying we shouldn't have goals, but
I am telling you that attempting to win people to Jesus Christ without the
empowering of God's Spirit is an impossible task.
Carl Lawrence relates the eyewitness account of two young Chinese ladies in
their early twenties who came to faith in an underground church in China.
Just a week or so later, the pair reported that God had called them to go
minister on Hainan Island off the southern coast of China-thousands of miles
away.
Other believers cautioned them to get some training before they went, but
they felt compelled by the Spirit to go right away and just trust God to
lead them. The elders of the house church finally agreed to give them their
blessing and sent them out.
Two years later the young women came home and reported to the church. They
reluctantly got up and apologized for their "unfruitful work." It seemed
they had won only three thousand people to Christ and started only thirty
house churches. The astonished leaders asked what method they had used. All
the women could reply was, "Every morning we just read God's Word and
prayed, asking the Holy Spirit to teach us what to do. Whatever God's Word
spoke to us, that is what we did. We only obeyed."
The Holy Spirit is the very center and the energy of all witnessing.
I could give you many more "can'ts." These represent just a few core
thoughts. We have an indwelling source of power in the person of the Holy
Spirit, who empowers us to live the Christian life. Without Him, we're about
as useful to God's kingdom as an unplugged toaster.
Don't Be Ignorant about the Holy Spirit
J. Vernon McGee used to love to quote verses that began like this: "Be not
ignorant, brethren.." The venerable old expositor used to say that the
largest denomination in the world was the "Ignorant Brethren."
The Bible tells us again and again not to be ignorant:
We're not to be ignorant concerning God's righteousness. (Romans 10:3)
We're not to be ignorant about the future of Israel. (Romans 11:25)
We're not to be ignorant regarding spiritual gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:1)
We're not to be ignorant about the destiny of believers who have died. (1
Thessalonians 4:13)
Sometimes we're asked questions like the one found in 1 Corinthians 6:19:
"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?"
In essence, Paul was saying to the Corinthian believers, "Don't you know?
Haven't you heard? Hasn't it sunk in yet? Are you ignorant that the Holy
Spirit dwells in you?"
The book of Acts takes us through a time of transition from Old Testament
thinking into the concepts of the church, the body of Christ. In Acts 19:1-2
(niv), Paul came upon some Ephesian disciples in desperate need of
instruction.
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and
arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, "Did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered, "No, we have not
even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
When I read those verses recently, they hit me with a whole new meaning. It
occurred to me that those words could be written over a large section of the
church: We haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. There's nothing
wrong with not knowing.unless you have a chance to know and don't try to
know! But the Bible has been given to us so we can know, and the whole Book
is filled with truth-both in picture in the Old Testament, and in actual
practice in the New-of the Holy Spirit's ministry in the believer's life.
There is no reason to be ignorant!
Don't Be Indifferent toward the Holy Spirit
Some people aren't necessarily ignorant, they're just indifferent.
"Don't talk to me about the Holy Spirit. I haven't got time for that kind of
stuff. Just give me the basics. I'm a meat 'n' potatoes Christian. I don't
want any exotic vegetables or salads or fancy desserts. The teaching on the
Holy Spirit is out there on the edge somewhere. People are always arguing
about it, and I don't want anything to do with it. It's too controversial."
Some time ago I heard about a woman who came home one evening and rushed
breathlessly through her front door. "I've got it!" she hollered at her
husband. "I've got it!"
The man of the house peered over the top of his sports pages. "What did you
get?"
"I got the Holy Spirit."
"Martha," he said, "you left the motor running in the car, and gas is now at
a buck-forty-five a gallon." That was his Spirit-filled response to his
Spirit-filled wife. His thought was, "Don't tell me about the Holy Spirit.
The real issue is the idling car engine and the price of gas." That's the
way a lot of people feel about the Holy Spirit. They just don't want to be
bothered.
Don't Take the Teachings to Excess
When we hear that the pastor is going to talk about the Holy Spirit, some of
us get a little nervous. Why? Because most likely we've run into people who
have a problem with overindulgence on that subject. They get wild and crazy.
They go on and on about their experiences. While we may be a little
apathetic toward teaching on the Holy Spirit, they're out in the ozone
somewhere. And you say, "The Holy Spirit! Man, I don't want any of that!
That's weird stuff."
No, it isn't.
It's sad when people take important truths like these to unbiblical excess.
It has the effect of driving us away from the very teaching that will give
us the greatest joy and fulfillment in our lives! The Holy Spirit was given
to us to help us grow into Christlikeness. He belongs to all of us.
The Attributes of the Holy Spirit
Who is He? Who is this mysterious "third person" of the Trinity? First of
all.
The Holy Spirit is a person
Now, when I say that, you might reply, "I thought you said He was a spirit."
I did say that. He is a person, and He is a spirit.
"Wait a minute," you reply. "You can't be a person and a spirit."
Oh yes, you can! Think about it. Perhaps you've recently lost a loved one to
death. What do you say about that person? You say, "he died" or "she died."
But that person didn't die. That person's body died. The individual who
lived in that body went on into eternity, either into the presence of the
Lord or away from His presence. If that person knew the Lord, and you know
the Lord, you will be reunited one day. Why? Because the person isn't the
shell that the person lives in. The person is the individual within the
shell.
When the body goes into the grave, the person goes to be with the Lord. That
is why Christians have great hope at a time of death. That man didn't die.
That dear woman didn't die. That boy or girl or little baby didn't die. He
or she simply retired their old house and went to be with God. That is our
hope. That is what sustains us when sorrow threatens to crush us. Paul says
that we do not "sorrow as others who have no hope" (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
When my father-in-law passed on, my wife, Donna, and I went to the funeral
home with Donna's mother to view his remains. Before we walked into the
viewing room, I felt the need to remind this dear lady of something she
already knew. "Annie," I said, "we just have to remember that Bernard isn't
in there. He's not in that room. He's not in that coffin. He's already with
God. What we'll be looking at in there is just the empty house where he used
to live."
We believe that a person lives and goes on even after death. Therefore we
know that a person is a spirit being. The Bible says, "God is Spirit, and
those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24).
Some people think the Spirit of God is an "influence." They refer to Him as
an "It," as though He were some vague, impersonal force-like the earth's
electromagnetic field. No, the Holy Spirit is a person. Psychologists and
sociologists tell us that the attributes of personality are threefold. A
person must have intellect, emotion, and will. That's why animals aren't
"persons." You may think your cat has a great personality, but I need to
tell you that under the normal, true, psychological definition, your cat
doesn't have a personality. All right? I'm sorry if that comes as a shock to
you. You may think I'm just after cats. (And you may be right!)
Let me tell you how we know the Holy Spirit has personality.
The Holy Spirit possesses intellect
First Corinthians 2:11 (niv) says, "For who among men knows the thoughts of
a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the
thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."
The Spirit of God knows. Therefore, He has intellect.
The Holy Spirit possesses emotion
Listen to Romans 15:30: "Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus
Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me
in your prayers to God for me."
The Holy Spirit loves. Therefore, He has emotion.
The Holy Spirit possesses will
He has volition. Notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 12:11: "But one and
the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one
individually as He wills."
Just stop and think for a moment. The Holy Spirit is a person because He
thinks, He feels, and He wills. Those are the building blocks of
personality. The Holy Spirit is a person. But there is something that's even
more important than that.
The Holy Spirit is God
He is the third member of the Trinity, the triune God, one God in three
persons. A lot of people don't treat the Holy Spirit like He is God. They
treat Him as though He was almost God.but not quite.
An important passage in Acts 5 illustrates His deity in a startling way.
Ananias and his wife had conceived a plot concerning some funds they had
accumulated. When they were questioned about their story, they had agreed to
"fudge" on the truth.
But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy
Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?. You have
not lied to men but to God." (Acts 5:3, 4)
Peter called Him the Holy Spirit at the top of the passage, and he called
Him God at the bottom of the passage. Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit is God. (And Ananias was in big trouble!)
The Holy Spirit is clearly linked with the Trinity in Scripture. In Matthew
28:19 we are told, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit." We are to bring those three persons of the Trinity together in the
baptismal formula, because all three are God. The Holy Spirit is
associated-on equal footing-with the other two members of the Trinity.
In Paul's benediction to the church at Corinth, he said, "The grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all. Amen" (2 Corinthians 13:14). What a ringing statement of
the triune God!
The Holy Spirit is God because He is actually called God. He is God because
He is associated with God in the Trinity. And thirdly, He is God because He
does the actions of God. Everything God does, the Holy Spirit does.
God creates. The Holy Spirit creates.
God performs miracles. The Holy Spirit performs miracles.
How did Jesus get into this world? The angel told Joseph, "Joseph, son of
David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been
conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:20, nasb). So the virgin
conception is of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, the Holy Spirit has all the attributes of God. He is omnipotent, He
is omniscient, He is omnipresent, He is holy, He is wisdom, He is love.
Everything you say about God, you can say about the Holy Spirit.
I want you to know who it is I'm talking about! He is a person, and He is
God. And we had better treat Him that way when we talk about Him. We had
better treat Him with reverence. We had better understand that the One who
indwells us is God living within us.
The Advantages of the Holy Spirit
So we have all of this biblical teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit.
But why should we care? Why should we devote all these pages to talking
about Him? There must be some better topic to discuss.
If this book were on the family, many people would respond because everybody
needs help with their families. There are whole shelves of books in
Christian bookstores about how to be a great dad, how to be a loving mom,
how to relate together as father to daughter, mother to son, husband to
wife, and on and on. Yes, but.what will help the family more than anything
else is to have a father and mother and children who are filled with the
Holy Spirit, who understand more and more what it means to be controlled by
the Spirit of God. That would change families! That would revolutionize
family life.
When it comes to our human relationships, we're quick to put Band-Aids on
the sore places, aren't we? We're forever fixing this and fixing that. We're
always looking at the external and trying to respond to the most immediate
and pressing problems. Maybe one of the reasons why we have to keep doing
that all the time is because we're only addressing the symptoms and never
get to the source of the problem.
What is that source? We need wisdom beyond our own wisdom. We need power
beyond our own power. We need insights and perspective and balance and
persevering love beyond our own insights, perspective, balance, and love.
What we really need is God living inside us, guiding us, counseling us, and
pointing out the way we should walk.
What we need is the Holy Spirit.
Let me describe just a few advantages of having this wonderful resident
within us.
He permanently enters us
You don't have to ask, plead, or beg the Holy Spirit to come into your life.
You don't even have to wait, as the disciples once "tarried" in the upper
room. He permanently enters into our lives the very instant we believe.
The Holy Spirit isn't the second blessing; He is part of the first
blessing-the great blessing of salvation. He comes to take residence within
you the moment you receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. John 14:17 describes
Him as "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and
will be in you."
What a pregnant truth that is!
This is what Jesus was saying to the disciples before He went back to heaven
and before the Day of Pentecost. Watch carefully how Jesus spoke about the
old and new ways of relating to the Holy Spirit. He said first of all, "He
dwells WITH you." That describes the Spirit's ministry to believers before
Pentecost. But then Jesus added, "And He will be IN you." That was the
ministry He would have in their lives after Pentecost.
"The Spirit has been with you all this time," Jesus was saying, "but not
many days from now, He will be in you."
No wonder Paul said to the Corinthians, "Do you not know that your body is
the temple of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Why was He telling
them that? Because the Corinthians were doing things with their bodies that
were an embarrassment to the Holy Spirit. They were living lives divorced
from the awareness of His holy presence within them.
Perhaps you've found yourselves at certain crossroads recently where you
didn't know whether you should go to a certain place or participate in a
certain activity because you are a Christian. The fact is, where you go, the
Holy Spirit goes with you. So before you go, you'd better ask Him if He
wants to go. And whatever He tells you, you do it.
Many Christians don't even think about that. They just drag the Holy Spirit
everywhere into all kinds of things that are dishonoring to His first name,
which is Holy.
The Holy Spirit permanently indwells you. If you grasp that concept, it
could have a life-changing impact on you. He is there. He is in you. He will
never leave you.
He powerfully equips us
Acts 1:8 reminds us that we receive power when the Holy Spirit enters our
lives.
One of the terrible things we do in the church-whether through guilt, or
through secular methods of motivation, or through business techniques that
we pull right out of the world-is to try to do the work of God in the energy
of the flesh and with the world's methods. We don't teach people about being
powerfully equipped with the Holy Spirit. We secularize the church by taking
business administration principles, baptizing them, and putting them into
the church.
What do we end up with? Form without power. Empty instruction. A framework
that is as dead as old bones. I've had a hand in that sorry operation myself
at different points in my life. You probably have, too. Out of ignorance, or
maybe just out of our strong desire to make things happen, we undertake to
do something that belongs to God, neglecting to use His methods or seek His
empowerment. The end result will always be the same; we'll be left with a
sense of frustration and failure and fatigue. It comes with the package.
But oh, what a wonderful thing it is to step back from our busy and
sometimes frantic activities now and then and say, "God, by Your Holy
Spirit, You just take this and powerfully equip us. Enable us by Your power,
or we won't accomplish a blessed thing."
He personally encourages us
The Holy Spirit's other name is Comforter. That is my favorite name for the
Holy Spirit. The word comforter is a Greek word, paraclete, and it is the
same word that is translated "encourage."
The Holy Spirit is my Encourager. He comes and puts His arm around me when I
am discouraged, and He encourages me.
Yes, there are times when this pastor loses his perspective a little and
becomes discouraged. I may have actually slipped into depression once or
twice (not recently, thank the Lord). It's the same with anyone in
leadership; sometimes you feel as though there is hardly anywhere to turn.
You just have to get alone with your Bible, get down on your knees in
prayer.and then the Spirit of God comes to bring encouragement to your
heart. I've had that experience time and again. It is almost (almost!) worth
experiencing the dark and heavy times, because the encouragement of God's
Spirit is so sweet. I praise God that the Holy Spirit is my Comforter and
Encourager and Helper.
One thing for sure.the world certainly isn't out to bring encouragement to
our lives. Have you noticed that? You go to church on Sunday for spiritual
nurture because if you don't come together with God's people, you just won't
make it through the week! Between Monday and Saturday the whole system is
set up to beat you up and beat you down.
Evangelist Miles McPherson recently spoke to my son's college football team.
Miles takes no prisoners. When he gives the gospel, he just gives it
straight. He tells people if they don't believe, they're going to hell. And
in a chapel service, the night before a big game, he asked those who wanted
to receive Jesus Christ to raise their hands. About 60 percent of the guys
on the team responded to that invitation.
The next day, they played the big game and lost by a single point. The
coaches blamed the loss on the religious chapel. The following week they
announced the beginning of Sunday morning practices. The kids would no
longer be allowed to attend church.
That's the world in action. Is that natural? No, that isn't natural. It is
unnatural in the sense that it doesn't belong to the kingdom of God. It
belongs to the kingdom of this world. So what do you do when things like
that start to gang up on you? You've got to encourage yourself by the Holy
Spirit. You've got to have the Holy Spirit within you to help you because if
you don't, you'll end up discouraged.
In the troubling days before David sat on the throne of Israel, when he was
still being chased from pillar to post by Saul and his troops, the young man
came to a day that was one of the darkest of all. While David and his men
were away from their home base, a band of raiding Amalekites swept into the
camp and carried away all of the men's wives, sons, and daughters.
In a move so typical of human nature, the men blamed David, the guy in
charge, for their loss. And David knew very well that his soldiers were
angry enough to pick up rocks and stone him to death. What would you do?
Here's what David did:
Then David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him,
because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and
his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
(1 Samuel 30:6)
David went with an empty bucket to the Well that will never go dry. You and
I have such a Well. We have a resource for the very darkest of days. It is a
resource that many of us don't know very much about, and I'm excited for the
opportunity to open Scripture with you and tell you more about that Holy
Spirit who lives within you. God gave Him to you, and the Bible says He is
the seal of your redemption.
He not only wants to be the resident in your life, He wants to be the
president of your life. When you get saved, He becomes the resident. But
there is a time when all of us get tired of trying to accomplish this
Christian life business in our own way and in our own strength, and we elect
Him president of our life. When that happens, the joy of His presence fills
us as never before.
How did Paul put it?
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so
that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans
15:13, niv)
In Europe some years ago, a young man and a young lady were walking together
along a river, discussing a mutual acquaintance. The young man said, "Mary
has what I call a radiant personality."
"That's right," his friend agreed. "But how do you account for it?"
Just then they came to a wide vista on the path, with a long view of the
river flowing along in the sunlight. Pointing to the opposite bank, the
young man said, "See that impressive old castle over there? When I was a
small boy I loved to sit right here in the evenings and look at it. I knew
what was going on inside by the number of lights that were burning. If only
a few people were home, just a faint glimmer filtered through the windows.
But when company came, many lamps were lit and the place became a thing of
beauty. One time when a member of the royal family visited, the entire
castle was illuminated! I've never seen such brilliance."
Then, turning to his companion, he said, "I think that's the only way I'm
able to explain Mary's personality. She's entertaining a Royal Guest!"
In the pages that follow, we're going to explore God's Word and learn more
and more about this tenant, this Royal Guest who has set up housekeeping in
the very center of our lives. If you are even half as encouraged and excited
as I am to open up these doors of truth, you will find it is well worth the
journey.
The forgotten God will never again slip from your memory.
.
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| User: "Glenn" |
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| Title: Re: The Attributes Of The Spirit |
22 Aug 2007 07:14:24 PM |
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Carl wrote:
The following is a part ...
Clip the opinion of men...
Carl, I'm wondering if YOU,
You,
You, Caral, can post any scripture which depicts, describes of defines
the Spirit of God as a person or a persona of a triune being.
Please not that all scripture you quote will be compared to the Greek
text to discover if words have been inserted or omitted to support the
false doctrine of a triune god.
Glenn
His witness
--
http://www.xprt.net/~servitum/
Note, the site at xprt.net will close 1Sept07 and open as
www.thelittlebookopened.org [Key words:] "The Little Book";
Glenn McClary, servitum, gaedhealic, oldwetdog
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