God The Holy Spirt


For so many people in the church today there remains a great misunderstanding about God the Holy Spirit. But current spiritual landscape dictates that we face head-on things of the spirit realm.  Strong delusions are coming to the church that will force us to agree with God and His "sent" ones to prepare HIs People for the close of the Church Age.


One doesn't have to search hard to find claims of Holy Spirit manifestations of healings, words of revelation, supernatural miracles, etc. Because of these claims we are forced to address head-on what we see and hear on TV, YouTube, latest books, radio, and what we read on the Internet. 

Without a clear understanding of God the Holy Spirit, we will be like a wave driven and tossed by the sea. We will miss the blessings that we need in order to do His Work in Our Time.

 


We must ask the question: 


Why has the doctrine or teaching on the Holy Spirit been so controversial? 


If just look at the word of God, nothing else, and most specifically the words of Jesus Christ and His apostles, I believe we can gain a very clear understanding of what the ministry of Holy Spirit is to accomplish for all those who have been raised to new life by faith in Jesus Christ - Our Messiah. 


In days before the advent of the Messiah, we saw how the Holy Spirit operated visually in the life of the nation of Israel. In the life of the priests and prophets, and more specifically in the life of David as oil being poured on the head which, I believe, foreshadowed the work of the Holy Spirit in our time.  

As a precursor to the full outpouring upon the Jew and Gentile world at the time of Pentecost almost 2000 years ago, we read in the days of Moses and Aaron, that God used a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night to guide His People to the Promised Land, the land promised to Abraham 500 or so years earlier. 


How many of us today could really use a cloud right about now? 

In order to receive personal leading and guidance in our lives, we must rid our minds of prejudice of any sort and humbly ask the Father through His Son Jesus Christ to show us what we need to know and how to gain the power and grace offered freely to us by Our Heavenly Father. Then and only then will we realize the fuller expression of His presence in our lives.

 


The most common mistake we make with the Holy Spirit is that we forget that He is God. And when we forget that the Holy Spirit is God and represents our only access point to the Father, we will hopefully gain a deeper appreciation of the importance of the Holy Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. 


Jesus told a very inquisitive religious leader of the exclusive Sanhedrin these very simple words:
 

5  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7  Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."John 3:5-8


In  our Lord's final words to His disciples listed in Acts 1, Jesus makes these very clear commands:

 4  And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; 5  for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6  Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7  And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8  But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Acts 1:4-8

When try to reduce the Holy Spirit to anything less then God we sin grievously against the person of the Holy Spirt.  I like to say often to people who allow this mindset to control them – He is a person and like you and me, the Holy Spirit can be grieved! 


When allow our minds to brush away any serious effort to know who and what the Holy Spirit is to be for us as born again believers, we immediately reduce our relationship with the entire Godhead a bare skeleton of what God has intended for us. 


When we  read the words: Spirit of Christ, Spirit of God, Holy Ghost, or the Spirit, the Scriptures reference the one and same person and being – God – the Holy Spirit.


We realize at the outset that we are in a unique time compared to the time prior to the advent of the Christ, we are in the time of the Promise of the outpoured Holy Spirit.


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As a serious minded christian and regular attender of a Biblical church, we have been trained to answer the question of the Holy Spirit from the Short or Longer catechism or doctrinal confession.


We seem at times to be more concerned about our words of confession rather then our experience with God the Holy Spirit! 


We do much better if we take the time to actually study the person and work of the Holy Spirit with a renewed mind and with a open heart.


I don't know how many times I have asked the Holy Spirit to forgive me for misunderstanding Him and misleading others about His desire to bring us closer to Christ! 


To lift us up into heavenly places.


To empower us to do things we just can't do without Him and His grace.


To know Christ romantically through the mediation of the Holy Spirit!


To operate in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our pursuit of sinners and in the gathering of His People to prepare for the Return of Jesus Christ!



Just to be very clear. My intention in writing on this topic is not to take you through a scholarly exercise of biblical study, but rather, take you through my experience with this controversial topic as a man who resisted the work of the Holy Spirit for many many years.


I can assure you from all the struggles that I have had on this topic that Our Father in heaven really wants us to get a right understanding about the person and work of the Holy Spirit, especially if you believe you are being called to expand His Kingdom of God as a preacher of the Gospel. 


So what were my hinderances to a full reception of the work of the Holy Spirit. 


And might be some of your hinderances to the acquirement of the amazing grace and power of the Holy Spirit?


Here are some reasons I have encountered within my struggle and those closest to me:


1. Fear of the Spirit Realm – pneuma – phobia

2. Lack of Faith in God's Word and the simplicity of the work of the Holy Spirit.

3. Religious Pride and Self Reliance on our doctrine and viewpoint.

4. Satan's counterfeit works that make us reluctant to receive from the Lord the blessing promised through the Holy Spirit. Basically we throw the baby, the bath water, and the entire bathroom out just to stay clear of any supernatural connection with God the Holy Spirit. 

Satan does this kind of work deliberately to confuse you because he doesn't want you and I to get the power that will overthrow his government in the world and in the people he controls and the Lord Jesus will save.

5. Unpreparedness – no desire to have all that God wants for you.


These are just a few reasons, there are many more, but for now we will just leave these five reasons to form an offensive on the issues that trap many christians from coming to a place of seeing what is really going on in the spiritual atmosphere all around us.


What is it about the spirit realm that scares us?


The door to the spirit realm is Jesus Christ as He speaks to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.


All the other wacky but real spiritual doors are unlawful. These unlawful doors open our hearts and minds to work of the devil.


Our kids and most of us have been conditioned to accept these spiritual doors as part of the spiritual lexicon of our time but these are lies embedded in our culture on purpose to deceive God's people and those who live in our society. 


We are constantly bombarded with supernatural magic and spiritualism that is authored by the demonic realm. We witness these efforts to bring the demonic realm into everyday life just simply by reading the list of Disney movies that roll out year by year. 


So we will either come to grips with the spiritual nature of our world or we will be blind-sided by the negative results of not being able to identify what is true and what is false. 


What is righteous and what is unrighteous.


The people and their words that are trustworthy and those that should be avoided!


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It all starts out with a soft approach to us and our little ones while they are young and impressionable.


While they watch most Nickelodeon or Disney shows, and gradually, over a period of years, the subtle demands of these spiritual schemes keep increasing as our children become teenagers, and at last, by the time they are adults, our kids could either full-blown Satanists, or, they will stay in the church and bring this idolatry and witchcraft into our churches in various forms, many times unknowingly.


I'm not trying to scare, well, maybe a little, we must come to the Father of lights and ask His opinion about what is going on.


Paul said to the Corinthian church these words concerning the Holy Spirit:


13These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14  But 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. 15  But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16  For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.


I Cor. 2:13-16

 

In verse 15, Paul says these words, “spiritually discerned” the Greek word pneumatikōs which means in essence --by the aid of the Holy Spirit”


And faith must be present, a childlike faith, in order to receive the Holy Spirit into our lives at our highest point of potential.


So to alter our view of what we already know, either intellectually or what we feel religiously about a topic must past the test of the Word of God. 


Especially the words of Our Lord, most importantly when we face a contentious teaching. 


Our Savior said,  


"Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it." 


Mt. 10:15


If any teaching is contentious – Satan is heavily involved.


So we must stay child-like in every way, and put our religious pride in its proper place in order the come to a right understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.


Let's pray,

Father, we beseech Thee in the Name of Your Son and through the ministry of Your Spirit to guide us into all truth, as you promised us you would in Your Word. Please blow away any preconceived ideas in me and in the church that bears Your Name through the shed blood of Your Son - Jesus (Yahshua) Christ!

Amen.