The subject of the Holy Spirit is a very complex issue, with many aspects, but is a very important manifestation of God. Unfortunately, God’s people are not well-informed about the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and what they can expect from its presence. Many view the Holy Spirit as a separate entity apart from God and speak of it as having a subordinate position in the Kingdom of Heaven, but that belief is far from the truth and is a result of not understanding the scriptures.
The Holy Spirit has made it’s presence known throughout the course of history, from the time of the creation, down through the times of the prophets and apostles and continues to be a presence in the world today. While the Holy Spirit is continuing to do the same work today as it did in the days of the prophets, it is today working through many of God’s people instead of just selected individuals, as was the case then.
This exposition of God’s Word concerning the Holy Spirit is being written so to better inform God’s people about it and what they can expect from it’s presence in their lives. The many aspects of the Holy Spirit can be best explained by grouping together in a series of questions and answers those scriptures that reveal the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. We will begin by asking the following questions and answering them as we proceed through the scriptures.
1. What is the Holy Spirit?
2. Why is the Holy Spirit given to a person?
3. When is the Holy Spirit given to a person?
4. How does a person know they have the Holy Spirit?
5. What are the gifts of the Spirit?
6. What signs can be seen indicating that a person has it?
7. Can the Holy Spirit leave you once you have it?
8. What is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
9. Is speaking in tongues evidence of the baptism?
10. What is the meaning of the term “Christ in you”?
11. Is the Holy Spirit still present and will it always be?
In order to answer these questions in an accurate and truthful manner, it is necessary to set aside all that we have been taught and depend upon the answers coming from only the scriptures. For only the scriptures contain the Word of God and this is where the only truth that exists about the Holy Spirit is found.
If we look to any other explanation or interpretation of those scriptures dealing with the Holy Spirit, instead of letting the scriptures interpret themselves, we leave our understanding open to error and untruths. As the scriptures say: Romans 3:4: “let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged.” Amen
Throughout the course of this study, the terms Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit are used and are both referring to one and the same person. The reason that it is called the Holy Ghost in one place and the Holy Spirit in another, is because the men who translated the scriptures into English came across the Greek word in the scriptures, one chose to use the word ghost and the other chose the word spirit. The Greek word “pneuma” in the New Testament scriptures can be translated into the English word ghost or spirit and be correct in both cases. My preference when referring to the Spirit of God is to use the term Holy Spirit instead of Holy Ghost. The term ghost in this modern day is thought of as the disembodied spirit of a dead person that goes around haunting people and the term spirit is thought of as a supernatural being related more to the spirit of man or the Spirit of God. But, as I said before, it is only a matter of individual choice which term is used and for the basis of this study should not be made an issue, as in both cases it is speaking about the Spirit of God.
What is the Holy Spirit?
The first question to answer is; what is the Holy Spirit? To do this let’s look at some Scriptures.
Matthew “Now the birth of Jesus Christ came about in this manner: When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.”
Luke 1:35 “And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God.”
In Matthew, the first chapter, it testifies that the child being conceived in Mary was of the Holy Spirit and this is what the angel told Joseph in the 20th verse. Then in Luke 1:35, the angel told Mary that the child was the Son of God. So, if the child was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was the Son of God, then the Holy Spirit and God are one and the same.
For Jesus said in John 4:24, that God was a Spirit.
John “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
Why is the Holy Spirit given?
As to why the Holy Spirit is given to a believer, we will start by looking at what the prophet Joel said and what Peter said on the day of Pentecost.
Joel “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh”.
God was not pleased with His people in the early days, with the sacrifices and offerings made under the Law that Moses gave them. The people continually broke His Laws and rebelled against those men that God sent to them to make His will known. So, God speaking through the prophet Jeremiah said that He would make a new covenant with the people and instead of dealing with them through selected prophets, He would deal with each person on an individual basis by putting His Spirit in each of them. Then, on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter said that the new covenant and promise of God was beginning to come to pass. What was being witnessed was the effect of the Holy Spirit on the apostles.
Hebrews 10:6 “In burnt offerings and <sacrifices> for sin you have had no pleasure.”
Jeremiah 31:33 “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said the LORD, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” {34} “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, said the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Acts 2:14 “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said to them, You men of Judaea, and all you that dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and hearken to my words”: {16} But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; {17} And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh”:
The promise of God under the new covenant was that He would give eternal life to all who would believe in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son. One thing I would like to point out here, is that the use of the term “everlasting” and “eternal” life are interchangeable, both meaning the same thing. The Greek word “aionios” was translated into both English words, eternal and everlasting, due to the personal choice of each of the translators of the Bible.
John “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Now the method that God uses to give eternal life to a person is by putting His own Spirit into them. Only the Spirit of God is eternal and without that Spirit being a part of man, he will perish. Jesus said that a man must be born again of the Spirit, to obtain eternal life (John 3:5). Paul said in his letter to the Romans, that the gift of God is eternal life. Remembering also that God and the Holy Spirit are one, thus the gift of the Holy Spirit must also be eternal life. Peter proceeded to tell the people what to do to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Romans “And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
John 3:5 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
Romans “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Acts “Then Peter said to them, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.”
So the answer to the question of why God gives the Holy Spirit to a person is so the person will live forever. Paul said in Romans chapter 8, that the Spirit of God that is in you will give life to you. The word Paul uses is “quicken” and means to give life.
When is the Holy Spirit given?
As to the question of when is the Holy Spirit given to a person, we turn to the following Scriptures. First of all, John says, in the book of 1st John, that if we keep God’s commandment, we can be sure that His Spirit is in us. God’s commandment is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ.
I John 3:23 and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1 John “And he that keeps his commandments dwells in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.”
The Apostle Peter gave a commandment on the day of Pentecost concerning what needed to be done to receive the Holy Spirit and eternal life. Peter said to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Chris t. If a person believes that Jesus is the Son of God and follows what Peter has here commanded to do, they will receive the Holy Spirit. God is duty bound to fulfill His promise of the gift of the Spirit, right at that time, if we obey His commandment of believing in His Son and demonstrate our faith by being baptized in His name.
Acts “Then Peter said to them, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Some teach that you do not receive the Holy Spirit right when you obey that commandment, but that it comes later. Some say that just as the apostles were told to tarry at Jerusalem
Others believe that the words in Peter’s statement: “and ye shall” means that you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit later. But those words “and ye shall” were not a part of the original scripture, they were added by the translators and should not be there. According to the original scripture, before being translated into English, it should read as follows:
Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In his letter to the Romans Paul said: “if you believe with your heart and with your mouth confess the Lord Jesus, you shall be saved.”
Salvation comes with receiving the Holy Spirit after you believe with the heart, confess with the mouth, and demonstrate your faith by being buried with Him in baptism, for the Lord said that you must be born again, by the water and the Spirit.
Romans 10:9 “That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” {10} “For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
John 3:5 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God
So, the bottom line is that you receive the Holy Spirit immediately after you fulfill Peter’s commandment in Acts 2:38.
How do you know that you have received the Holy Spirit?
The evidence of your having received the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life is based upon faith in God’s Word being true. Hebrews 11:1 tells us that “faith is the evidence of things not seen.” If we have believed God’s Word as the verification that we are saved by the blood of Jesus, then why shouldn’t we also believe His Word as evidence that we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit? The Apostle Peter said that we would receive the Holy Spirit if we obeyed the commandment he gave in Acts 2:38. Is there any doubt in your mind that he had God’s authority to say what he did?
Jesus told Peter in the 16th chapter of Matthew that because he believed that Jesus was the Son of God, whatever Peter bound on earth would be bound in Heaven. In other words, whatever Peter said, would receive God’s approval. Do you believe this? Does Jesus lie? So, if Peter says to repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Chris t and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, do not you believe that God approved of what he told the people? He did give Peter that authority.
Then if a person has fulfilled all of that, God has surely kept His promise and given the Holy Spirit to them.
Let’s look at what one Scripture says:
1 Corinthians 12:3 “Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.”
The Scripture says that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, unless he has the Holy Spirit. This means that unless you have received the Holy Spirit, you cannot truthfully say that Jesus is the Lord. Since it is obvious that any person can just say, “Jesus is the Lord,” no matter if they are saved or not, this scripture has to mean more than what is written. In the translation of “no man can say,” the word “say” has a deeper meaning than to just speak or verbalize. The Greek word translated to “say” has a base meaning of “to affirm or assert to be true.”
Before a person is converted, they can say they believe that Jesus is the Lord, but until you have received the Holy Spirit, you are not convinced with any degree of certainty. Only after you have received the Holy Spirit, can you say without any doubt in your heart, that Jesus Chris t is the Lord. So, the evidence that you have the Holy Spirit is the absence of any doubt in your heart and is based upon your faith in God’s Word.
Jesus said in John 6:44, “that no man can come to me, except the Father draw him.” The drawing power of God is manifested in the desire a person has in their heart to come to Jesus. When you have that desire and come to Him, He will then come to you in the form of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God dwelling in your heart gives you an inner assurance that He has fulfilled His Word.
Everyone desires to have some external or physical evidence to convince themselves and others that they have received the Holy Spirit. Some believe that unless they speak in tongues or manifest some other spiritual gift, they have not received it. Some think that just because they have not lost all of their physical desires, nothing has happened. The Holy Spirit does not force a person to do anything. When you are first born of the Spirit, you are just a babe in Chris t and you must grow. As you let His Spirit lead you, you mature and develop into the full stature of a Spirit-filled Chris tian.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
When believers receive the Holy Spirit, they become a member of the body of Christ and as a member of that body; they receive one or more gifts of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul says in First Corinthians 12:7 that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every person.
1 Corinthians 12:7 “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with.”
The word manifestation means demonstration or operation. So every believer is given a manifestation or operation of the Spirit, in the form of a spiritual gift, so the church can profit from them and this demonstration of the Spirit working through a believer demonstrates and validates that the Spirit of God is still working in the church and has become one with those believers who have obeyed the commandment of Christ.
Now every believer does not receive every gift of the Spirit. Nor do all believers receive a certain gift, like speaking in tongues, which some churches teach as their doctrine. As Paul states in verses 8 through 10 of the 12th chapter of first Corinthians, to one person is given one gift and to another is given some other gift.
1 Corinthians 12:8-10 “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; {9} To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; {10} To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues”:
Paul also states in the 29th and 30th verses of this same chapter that all do not receive any certain gift such as the gifts of healing or of speaking in tongues. As Paul asks the question about these gifts in these verses, the obvious answer to each one should be “No.” All do not receive the gift of speaking in tongues.
The gift of speaking in tongues is the easiest one to imitate, since the people listening, not being familiar with other languages, cannot tell if the speaker is speaking in another language or not.
It would be considerably more difficult to manifest one of the other gifts, such as the gifts of healing, or miracles or prophecy. When the apostles spoke with tongues on the day of Pentecost, they spoke in other languages which they had not learned, and it was obvious to the hearers that it was a work of God and not someone trying to appear holy or righteous by babbling off in an unknown language that no one could recognize.
Paul says that there are different gifts and different offices and different operations or effects, but they are the result of the Holy Spirit working through each believer. The Spirit divides these gifts individually to every believer as God determines the need for the church.
1 Corinthians “But all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
If a church does not have one or more of these Spiritual gifts in operation, it means one of two things. Either the members of that church have not received the Holy Spirit, or they are not letting the Spirit operate these gifts through them. Paul says in First Corinthians 14:32: “the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.” This means that a person having one of these gifts can use it, or not use it according to their own will.
The Holy Spirit does not take a person over, controlling their body and cause them to do something they do not want to do. A believer must recognize that they have received a gift and permit that gift to operate through them.
1 Corinthians “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.”
Paul says in his letter to the Thessalonians, for them to not quench the Spirit, but let it operate as God has the need in the church. So, with this statement you can see that it is possible to prevent the Spirit from operating a gift through you.
1 Thessalonians “Quench not the Spirit.”
If we are believers and have received the Holy Spirit, it is necessary that the gift we have received operates in the church. For, if Spiritual gifts are not in operation in the church, there will be nothing to draw the unsaved in to hear the Word and learn the plan of salvation.
What drew the people in mass numbers to Jesus? It was the signs and wonders that followed His ministry, due to the Holy Spirit working in Him.
Certainly it was, for it was those signs and wonders being performed that convinced the people that God was at work through Jesus. How was it possible that three thousand people were converted on the day of Pentecost? Without a doubt it was because of the signs and wonders being performed by the Holy Spirit through the apostles.
When John the Baptist was in Prison and sent his disciples to Jesus to ask Him if He was the promised Messiah, what did Jesus say to them? Go and tell John about the signs and wonders that are occurring. The proof of God working in the church is the signs and wonders that occur because of the power of the Holy Spirit working through man as a result of Spiritual gifts being in operation.
Luke “And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.”
Matthew “And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem , and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan
Acts “And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.”
Matthew 11:4-5 “Jesus answered and said to them, Go and show John again those things which you do hear and see”: {5} “The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Nothing has changed, it is the same today. It is necessary for the power of God to be working in the church, by way of the Spiritual gifts operating, to draw the unsaved into the fold. God has always worked through man and continues to do so today. But man must have the faith to allow God to work through him, by the operation of the gifts of the Spirit.
Paul says in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians that we should desire spiritual gifts:
1 Cor 14:1 “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that you may prophesy.”
We should earnestly desire these gifts and ask God to manifest them through us for His glory and for the profitability of the church. Paul also says that we should covet or desire the best gifts so we can be more effective in our ministry for Him.
1 Cor “But covet earnestly the best gifts”
Why are the gifts of the Spirit not operating in the church like they were in the early days of the church? I truly believe that it is a lack of faith on the believer’s part that is the problem. First of all, the majority of believers do not think they have received the Holy Spirit. They think this because they have not had an experience like the apostles had on the day of Pentecost. One must remember that the apostles had physically walked with Jesus for a number of years and they had witnessed His resurrection before the Holy Spirit came on them, so the level of their faith was very high. They had separated themselves and had been in prayer for a number of days waiting for the promise that Jesus spoke to them about to come. Since your conversion, how many days have you spent in prayer and fasting? Without a doubt not much prayer and fasting occurs because of the distractions of our everyday lives. But that was not the case with the apostles, as the scripture says: Acts 1:14 “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication”. And when the day of Pentecost came: Acts 2:1 “they were all with one accord in one place.”
In order to have a close meaningful experience with God, we must get down to business and earnestly seek His will in our lives with the study of His Word and as much prayer and fasting as we can do. That is, if we are really interested in becoming a vessel that He can use in the church.
According to the words of Peter on the day of Pentecost:
Acts “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Now if you have fulfilled the requirement of repenting of your sin and have been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, then God was honor bound to give you the Holy Spirit, and if you can believe His Word, then you have already received that Spirit. Don’t let anyone cause you to doubt this; this was the Word of God and the fulfillment of His promise to those that believe.
And since you have obeyed God’s commandment, which He gave to Peter for us, you have received the Holy Spirit and are eligible for the gifts of the Spirit operating in your life, just as they were in the apostles; for God is no respecter of persons, what HE did for the apostles, He’ll do for you.
Now as I stated before, even if you have received the Holy Spirit, the gifts will not manifest themselves unless you permit them to operate. Since God has given us a free will, it is necessary for us to submit ourselves to Him and invite Him to operate His gifts through us as He has a need in the church.
Let us just for a moment examine ourselves. Do you have the gift of faith? Is your faith strong enough to completely depend on God to fulfill all your needs without doubting for a moment that He will? Or have you heard the unscriptural saying that “God helps those that help themselves?” Have you received one of the gifts of healing? When was the last time you prayed and laid hands on someone for their healing and believed without doubting that they would be healed of their infirmity? Do you have the gift of prophecy? When was the last time you were sure that God showed you something that was going to occur and you announced it to the church so God could receive praise and glory for it? How can you say that you have not received any gifts of the Spirit if you have never given Him the opportunity to work those gifts through you? You must submit yourself to Him and allow Him to use your body.
But a word of caution is necessary. If you prophesy and it doesn’t come to pass, then it was not received of God. Or if you speak in tongues, which is an unlearned language and it is not interpreted as being a message for the church, it was not a gift from God. These two gifts are imitated a lot in the church world and God is not necessarily in them.
Unless you surrender yourself to God and allow His Spirit to work through you, you will never be certain of the gift He has given you. As the scripture says in First John 4:1: “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God”: If you do not allow the Spirit to work through you, you may never be certain of the gift He has given to you.
As these last days come to a close, and the time of the Gentile dispensation is about fulfilled, the Lord is preparing to take His Bride from the earth (the Bride being those who are members of His body). If we say that we are in Him, then we should walk as He walked and do those works that He did. It is not us who does the works, but God who does the works through us.
How can you tell if someone else has the Holy Spirit?
Are there any signs that you can look for to determine if someone else has the Holy Spirit or not? In order to determine if some other person has the Holy Spirit and to determine what their relationship with God is, we put ourselves into a rather judgmental position. The Lord said in Matthew chapter 7, that we should not put ourselves into judgment of another person. And asks us about what our motive is for doing this. But the Lord does say that we should beware of false prophets, those who come to us in the name of the Lord, but are not doing His will. The Lord does tell us to judge these men by their fruits, or the product of their efforts.
Matthew 7:1 “Judge not, that you are not judged.”
Matthew “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” {16} “You shall know them by their fruits. “
Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
We should probably first consider that it might be more probable to identify a person that obviously has not been filled with God’s Spirit, by noting that they have not submitted to the commandment of Peter as recorded in Acts 2:38. Or even more so by their denial that Christ is the Son of God and/or their refusal to believe that the Bible contains the inspired Word of God. These would be very obvious indications, but not indicative of the majority of those who do not have the Holy Spirit. Satan has become a lot smarter over the many years since first deceiving Eve in the garden. His methods of deceiving people today are considerably more subtle than they were then, for instead of now denying the truth of God’s Word, he simply deceives people into believing that it means something other than what it actually says.
But if we must position ourselves in a seat of judgment, let us consider what the Word of God says about a person that has received the Holy Spirit. First and foremost, speaking in tongues is not a sign that someone has the Holy Spirit, for Paul the Apostle said in no uncertain terms that all do not speak in tongues.
Paul asks the question in the 12th chapter of 1st Corinthians, do all members of the body of Christ have all the gifts of the Spirit and the obvious answer is no, they do not. Then he says in the 11th verse, “the Spirit divides these gifts to the members of the body, as He wills,” or as He sees fit.
1 Corinthians “Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret”?
1 Corinthians “But all these work that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.”
So, the scriptures tell us that we cannot look to a person having any particular gift of the Spirit to determine whether or not they have the Holy Spirit. Since some of the gifts cannot be detected by observation and others are of the nature that they cannot always be verified. Looking for a Spiritual gift in operation is not always reliable.
One might say that you can tell that a person has the Holy Spirit by the way they act - by dressing a certain way, or going to church on a regular basis, or by the good deeds that a person does, or how a person acts or talks, but these are not good indicators.
Those who have not received the Holy Spirit are not necessarily unbelievers, so can one look into another person’s heart to see if they are truly a believer? Or can you testify to the fact that they have repented or have been born again? I think not.
Jesus said in the 16th chapter of John, when the Holy Spirit comes to you, He will guide you into all truth. So, does this mean that if a person believes God’s Word the same way that you do, then they must have the Holy Spirit because you know that you have it? Not really, because you can both be guided into the truth of God’s Word only as you submit to the guidance of the Spirit. False teaching throughout hundreds of years has obscured the understanding of many of us to the point that we are blinded to the whole truth. The revelation of God’s Word can only become a reality when we decide to put that Word before any man’s interpretation of it.
John “How is it when he, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”
Paul says in the 5th chapter of Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance. So, if a person does not exhibit these qualities, does this mean they do not have the Holy Spirit? Not really, for when a person is first converted and brought into the body of Christ, there is a growing process as we submit ourselves to the leading of the Spirit to become more like Christ.
Others will not instantly see all of these characteristics or fruits. As Paul says, in the beginning of our Christian life we are like babes in Christ, being nourished by God-sent teachers to bring us into the full stature of a Christian.
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, {23} Meekness, temperance: against such there is no Law.”
1 Corinthians 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.”
1 Peter 2:2 “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby”:
Ephesians 4:11-14 “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; {12} For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: {13} Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: {14} That we henceforth are no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; “
So having the Holy Spirit of God in your heart is a personal relationship between you and God. It is best to heed the Lord’s word of not sitting in judgment of another’s relationship with Him. As Paul told the Galatians, just let every man prove his own work and not look to another’s. When the people of Corinth
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove your own selves.”
Galatians 6:4 “But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.”
If God has given you the gift of discerning of Spirits, you may be able to recognize another who also has the gift of the Holy Spirit. Or if you witness a gift in operation, such as the gifts of healing, working of miracles or prophecy, that without a doubt could only be in operation by God’s Spirit. It probably is a sign of one’s position in the body, but the majority of those who have the Spirit would not necessarily have these particular gifts in operation.
But as a last word on this subject, it is best to consider your own relationship with God and be led by His Spirit which is in you and not attempt to judge another person’s standing with God. Remember that man can only see the outward appearance, which could be misleading, but God judges according to the content of the heart.
Once you have the Holy Spirit, can you lose it?
As to the question of the Holy Spirit leaving a person once they have received it, I offer these observations. Paul the Apostle, in his letters to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians, stated: A believer is sealed with the Holy Spirit, which preserves them until the day that Christ redeems them.
Ephesians “In who you also trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in who also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,”
Ephesians 4:30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now He which established us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God; {22} who has also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”
But there are some that would challenge this and say it was only true if you continued to walk in the Christian way and obey God’s commandments. Some also say that this would mean you have eternal security, which is not possible, for if after you received the Holy Spirit, you might commit sin, and lose your salvation.
The Apostle John says that someone who has been born again cannot commit sin because he has the Spirit of God in him and is under justification because of the shed blood of Christ.
1 John 3:9 “Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Does this give a case then for predestination for eternal life? Absolutely not! This would mean that God determined in advance who would or would not be saved and makes void the idea that man is a free moral agent, able to choose to accept good or evil. If God was going to predestinate a person to eternal life, the person would have been filled with the Holy Spirit in the beginning and that would have precluded the necessity of accepting Christ as their Savior.
But did God not say that whoever sinned against Him would have their name blotted out of the Book of Life? Yes, that is true, but to sin against God means to reject or not believe His Word. But those who are sealed with the Holy Spirit have believed His Word and obeyed His commandment to believe on His Son. Once a person’s name is put in the Book of Life, it will remain there unless that person then rejects that Word as truth. If he does, then his name will be blotted out of the book.
Revelations 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Exodus 32:33 “And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.”
Paul said that nothing can separate us from Christ once His Spirit has become one with us.
Romans “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword”? {38} For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, {39} Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Again, there are those who would quote Hebrews 6:4 through 6, saying that the scriptures here say that a person who has received the Holy Spirit can fall away, and cannot again be forgiven.
Hebrews 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, {5} And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, {6} If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
But this is not consistent with Paul’s statements of being sealed until the day of redemption. So, as I looked at the translation of the Greek scriptures and made note of the added words that the translators used I determined that the intended meaning of this scripture had been altered by the addition of the three words shown in italics “If they shall”. In short, I observed the meaning of this to be: ---That it is impossible for those who had received the Holy Spirit, to fall away.
Therefore, in putting all the scriptures in context, once a person has repented of their sin, been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and received the Holy Spirit, they are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day Christ redeems them. No power in the world can cause them to fall away, separating them from the love of Christ and His Spirit, which has become a part of them.
What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
Much has been taught down through the years about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Just how much is scriptural, we are about to uncover with the help of the Word of God. The question becomes, what is the baptism of the Holy Spirit?
John the Baptist said in the gospels, he who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. In the Book of Acts, in the 1st chapter, Jesus said to his Apostles, you shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes and you will be witnesses unto me in the whole world. When He told this to His Apostles, He also told them to wait before they started their ministry, until the Holy Spirit came upon them.
The scripture in John tells us that the Holy Spirit could not be given to believers until after Jesus had been glorified.
Now there is a lot of false teaching in the churches today concerning being baptized with the Holy Spirit. Believers are being taught after conversion that they need to be baptized with the Holy Spirit in order for them to be able to overcome the devil in their day-to-day life. Because of this teaching, their spiritual growth just stops, as they sit around waiting for God to give them something more. But what they should be teaching is that every born again believer already has the Holy Spirit of God in their life to help them overcome. All that is needed is to listen to what the Spirit tells them to do and obey it. Then Spiritual growth will increase and the power of God will become effective in their lives.
There is a real baptism of the Holy Spirit and a real anointing and God gives these gifts. Some churches teach that speaking in tongues is the only evidence to having been baptized by the Holy Spirit, but that is not true. Paul the Apostle says in 1st Corinthians that all do not speak in tongues. Speaking in tongues is one of many gifts that God gives to his people, but for a reason other than to provide proof that a person has received the baptism. Remember what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 14:33, God is not the author of confusion. But the subject of speaking in tongues has caused more controversy and confusion in the churches than any other thing.
One scripture that describes the receiving of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is Acts 2: 2-3: “There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them”.
There is no doubt that something occurred here. The explanation might be difficult but something real happened and it was obvious to all present. Then afterwards the Lord confirmed their calling with signs, wonders and miracles following their ministry. There can be no doubt about this experience. You do not need for any man to tell you that you have it, or for any man to counsel you on how to receive it.
In 1st Corinthians 12:18 Paul says that God sets the members in the body, as it has pleased him. If you are truly converted, the Holy Spirit is abiding in you and willing to work in your life as you submit to Him. Do not make the mistake that so many make, waiting for the baptism to give you the power to overcome the things of the world. You already have that power. As James said, submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.
The prophet Joel prophesied that God promised to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh in the last days, and it is this promise that first came about on the day of Pentecost and is continuing unto this day. Peter said that God’s promise of receiving the Holy Spirit was for all that were called of God and obeyed Him (Acts 2:39 & 5:32).
Peter told the people, if they repented of their sins and were baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, they would receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). This promise and commandment was for everyone that obeyed from then on, for whosoever God called (Acts ). The truth then and continues to be today, that if you repent of your sin and are baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, God imparts His Spirit unto you.
No evidence is necessary to be sure that you have received His Spirit. If God promised it would happen, it has happened. People have been deceived to believe that if they do not experience what the apostles did on the day of Pentecost, they haven’t received the Holy Spirit and that is absolutely not true, it’s a lie of the devil. The only evidence you need of having received the Holy Spirit is in the scriptures. God promised it, Peter, Paul and John verified it by their witness, and all you need to do is accept it and believe it.
One must remember that just a short time before the apostles received the Holy Spirit; they had been with Jesus and witnessed the miracle working power of God first hand.
They had personally witnessed His dying on the cross and rising from the tomb after three days. After His resurrection they talked with Him, ate with Him and personally witnessed His ascension up into Heaven. Their faith was at that time very strong. Their faith was so strong that they obeyed His last commandment and waited at Jerusalem
Peter said to repent and be baptized and you would receive it. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 12:3: that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord unless they have the Holy Spirit. And he told the believers in Ephesus
There is a difference between receiving God’s Spirit when you are first converted and receiving the baptism of the Spirit. All believers, when they obey God and follow the conversion formula that Peter specified, receive God’s Holy Spirit. Then, as they develop in the Word and grow into mature believers, the power of God’s Spirit grows in them. When a believer is first born into the Body of Chris t, they are like babes and must grow into the full stature of a mature person. (1st Peter 2:2).
God said that in the last days He would pour out of His Spirit on all Flesh (Joel ). Jesus spoke of the gift of the Holy Spirit being given to those who believe on Him as rivers of living waters (John -39). He spoke of this same gift to the Woman at the well in Samaria Jerusalem Jerusalem
This receiving of the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming into the hearts of all believers, who believing in Jesus Chris t, have repented of their sin and are baptized in His name. There is no waiting necessary to receive it; Peter did not say that after you are baptized, you have to tarry to receive it.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it is the fulfillment of God’s promise, just believe it. When a new believer goes through the conversion process, he receives the promise of God, the Holy Spirit, immediately.
There is a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit as part of the conversion process and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Every believer receives the Holy Spirit when they first believe and are converted, but the Baptism of the Holy Spirit comes with supernatural power to accomplish a certain work for God.
More details about the baptism of the Holy Spirit will be covered in another message of its own.
Speaking in Tongues
The phenomenon of speaking in tongues, as being the evidence of having received the Holy Spirit needs to be discussed at this time. Speaking in tongues, or glossolalia, as some of the church world calls it today is very controversial among many churches. Some of the churches believe that God inspires it and some do not. Some churches believe that it is the sign or evidence that a person has received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God has bestowed this gift upon them.
In conjunction with the gift of speaking in tongues there also is a gift given to some members of the church called the interpretation of tongues. Paul the Apostle said in his letter to the Corinthians, if there is no interpreter of tongues in the church, the person having the gift of speaking in tongues should keep silent, for it would not benefit the church to speak without it being interpreted for everyone to understand. But in many churches today, people engage in speaking in tongues, as they call it, as a regular part of their worship service.
The phenomenon of speaking in tongues first originated on the day of Pentecost, and was bestowed upon the apostles as they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is recorded in Acts 2:4. While reading about this event it becomes very obvious that these tongues being spoken were actually other languages and visitors to the city, from other countries, recognized what was being spoken. In Acts 2:6-8; these visitors said that every one of them heard the apostles speak in their own language, in their own tongue, wherein they were born. So, these visitors were very much amazed because these men being from that region could speak all those different languages.
But other Jews being present, not knowing that these apostles were speaking in other languages and not knowing these foreign languages themselves, thought these apostles were drunk on wine and were just uttering crazy sounds.
Later on as the church was growing, the apostles visited some other disciples of the Lord who lived in other areas and as they preached the gospel to them, those people also began praising God and speaking in tongues, which were the languages of their native countries. The apostles witnessing this testified that these people also had received the Holy Spirit the same as they did in the beginning. Thus, the phenomenon of a person speaking in another tongue or language became the evidence of that person having received the Holy Spirit and was accepted by the apostles because of the experience they had.
There is a spiritual gift of speaking in other tongues or languages and a spiritual gift of interpreting other tongues or languages and it is bestowed upon someone when God needs to speak to a person of a foreign country or language through someone else. But God uses this gift for this purpose and not for the purpose of providing evidence that a person has received the Holy Spirit.
Paul the Apostle had trouble with the people of Corinth
He told them, as is recorded in 1st Corinthians 14:33, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” This church was apparently the only one that Paul had this problem with, as no reference was made to this in his other letters.
Many make reference to the words of the Lord in Mark 16:17 where He said “And these signs shall follow them that believe; they shall speak with new tongues”. This is very true, when there are needs for another language to be spoken for someone listening to receive the message from God, only then will God speak through someone, in that language, for the person to hear. So, speaking in other tongues is a gift of the Spirit endowing a disciple to speak in a foreign language. It has nothing to do with the unintelligible ecstatic utterances used by some as a manifestation of a deep religious experience.
But those apostles spoke in other languages for a reason, as a sign to those people from other countries that the apostles had received something from God. Remember that God always uses a sign to get people’s attention so they will listen to the Word. The only problem with what happened on the day of Pentecost was that the apostles, in error, also looked at speaking in tongues or other languages by other foreign converts as being the evidence of them having received the Holy Spirit.
Later on, when the apostles heard that some of the people of Samaria
Then again, when Peter went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea , and as he spoke to those seeking the Lord there, he testified that the Holy Spirit fell on them (Acts ). He certainly was telling them about his own experience on the day of Pentecost and they became so thrilled that they began to speak in another language that was not familiar to Peter After this had happened Peter stated that since they had received the Holy Spirit, they should now be baptized (Acts 10:47).
But you see, Peter should have known something was wrong. He had stated the formula on the day of Pentecost as being: first repent, second then be baptized, then third you would receive the Holy Spirit. But here he assumed they had already received the Holy Spirit because they spoke in tongues, even before they had been baptized. Again the speaking in tongues as evidence of having received the Holy Spirit had been misleading to those present.
When Paul asked the believers in Ephesus
Some of the church world today says that speaking in tongues is an unknown language and not one that is in existence today.
They get this term of “an unknown tongue” from the statement of Paul the Apostle in the 14th chapter of First Corinthians. But the original scriptures only speak of an unknown tongue as a foreign language that a person has not learned. Besides, in this 14th chapter the original scriptures did not have the word “unknown” in it. The translators of the Bible added the word “unknown.”
So, the doctrine of speaking in tongues had spread like wildfire. It wasn’t enough to accept the promise of God and the prophetic statement that Peter made on the day of Pentecost. They had to have some outward evidence.
The doctrines of man have developed and have been accepted down through the years and have resulted in blinding the people from the truth of God’s Word. But God is still looking for us to accept His promises and His Word, just as He gave it in the beginning, and it is unchanging.
Christ in you
This subject of “Christ in You” is one of the most important things for today’s believers to understand and be assured. In the early days, when God was dealing directly with the Israelites, the Spirit of God was in His prophets only. Everyone turned to God’s vindicated prophet to get the Word of the Lord for that day. If the nation of Israel
On the day of Pentecost, that changed. At that time God started dealing with more than one person at a time. When the Holy Spirit fell in that upper room, it fell on all who were present and God made Himself known in a personal manner to each one of them. As is witnessed by the writing in the book of Acts, many were chosen by God to be witnesses of His Word for that day. But God had predestinated it to be that way. It was the beginning of a new covenant, for a new people.
God spoke of the advent of this new covenant through His prophet Jeremiah, when He said:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 “Behold, the days come, said the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: {33} This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, said the LORD, I will put my Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (34) And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, said the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Again in the New Testament, in the book of Hebrews, the author of this book quoted Jeremiah also saying:
Hebrews “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
So, this served as the foundation for the concept that the Apostle Paul spoke of in the book of Colossians, when he spoke of a mystery of God being revealed in those days that had been hidden from many generations. This Paul said was “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Yes, Christ would dwell in the hearts of believers in these last days and would make Himself known to each one on a personal basis.
There are some very important scriptures that we are going to use as the basis or foundation for understanding the concept of “Christ in you.” The first of these is in Joel 2:28 and later quoted by Peter in Acts :
Joel 2:28-29 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: {29} And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.”
Acts 2:17-18 “And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: {18} And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
God said, in the last days that He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. Now God was not saying that He would pour out His Spirit on everyone living, He was speaking of His people, those who called upon His name, and those whose names were written in the Lamb’s book of life and had accepted Jesus Chris t as their Savior and had been baptized. Now if a person was not a believer, if a person’s name was not in the Lamb’s book of life, why would God give those persons His Spirit? He wouldn’t, for the Holy Spirit is for His people only, those who are going to be witnesses for Him, those who obey His commandments, and those who will obtain eternal life because of the decision they have made.
Now some say that the outpouring of the Spirit was only for certain ones. But Peter said that it was for “as many as the Lord our God shall call,” “whosoever will.” The scriptures tell us that “God is not a respecter of persons” what He does for one, He will do for all.
If God gave of His Spirit to one because he believed in Him, He will do the same for all who believe in Him. And I say to you this day, He has. When the people asked Peter what they must do to become a part of this great thing that was happening, he told them:
Acts -39 “Then Peter said unto them, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. {39} For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
Peter did not tell those in Acts 2:38 to tarry. He said if they did those things they would receive and they did. The Holy Spirit does not come with feeling, the Holy Spirit will not make you physically feel any different than you are, you will be different because you know that you have received that promise of eternal life. You must have faith in His Word.
So many people think they have to wait for the Holy Spirit to come upon them and when it does, they will be changed into something different than what they are. The devil would like for everyone to believe that is the case and be deceived. If you have come to Him, He has come to you in the form of the Holy Spirit. You say then, why did the apostles do all those miracles after they received the Holy Spirit and I do not?
The reason might be that they believed the Word of the Lord and accepted it as fact and you are still waiting for something to happen that has already happened, but you haven’t accepted it. You must have faith that what He said, He will do. Without faith in His Word, you can’t be saved. Without faith in His Word, you can’t be healed. Without faith in His Word, you can’t accept the fact that His Spirit is in you.
Paul speaks of a mystery concerning the Gentiles in Colossians 1:27 which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is no longer a mystery, believe it and accept it. He tells the Galatians in his letter to them that “as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” by receiving the Holy Spirit.
Many more scriptures can be quoted to substantiate the fact that the Spirit of Christ is in the heart of all believers, so what more needs to be said? This is just more of the Word of God that we can choose to believe or disbelieve. Forget what you have heard my friends about having to tarry, speak in tongues, dance in the spirit, have hands laid on you or receive instruction on how to receive the Holy Spirit. If you have followed Peter’s instruction, as he taught in Acts 2:38, the Spirit of Christ is in you.
Need more scriptural evidence? Paul goes on to say that after you believe, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit. And your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you.
Ephesians 1:13 “In who you also trusted, after that you heard the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in who also after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,”
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Know you not that you are the temple of God
1 Corinthians “What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?”
With all of this evidence of testimony from the scriptures saying in no uncertain terms that if we have repented of our sin and have been baptized in Jesus’ name, we have fulfilled what God has said we must do and there should be no doubt that He has given us of His Holy Spirit. To deny this, would be to say that God lied to us. God cannot lie, but we can lie to ourselves by saying that we do not believe that we have received His Spirit because we do not feel any different. Salvation has nothing to do with feeling it is based on believing.
The next scripture we need to look at is Hebrews 13:8: “Jesus Chris t the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Chris t has not changed, what He did in the first century A.D., He can do today. The only difference is that today He is not in the flesh, but He is alive, in us. He conquered death and hell when He rose from the dead. He is alive today in a spiritual, supernatural form.
Now this is one of the most difficult things for modern man to believe. We are prone to only believe what we can see with our natural eyes. Spiritual beings, such as God, angels and Jesus normally cannot be seen with the natural eyes, unless they choose to reveal themselves in a physical form. But we do have some evidence that Jesus actually did raise from the dead and after a period of time ascended into Heaven. We have the testimony of many of those who saw Him after His resurrection. But again, do we choose to believe or disbelieve those witnesses who lived hundreds of years ago? If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then His disciples went through a lot of persecution and torture for nothing. If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead then our faith has no basis to believe that we will also be resurrected to live again.
Even one of His own disciples would not believe after the others had told him. For Thomas said, “unless I put my finger in the nail prints in His hands and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25) But when Jesus later appeared before Thomas and invited him to do what he said that he needed to do to believe, Thomas believed.
Thomas did not believe just because he saw the nail prints, but because Jesus knew without being present what he had said. And what did Jesus say to Thomas? Those who believe and have never seen Him will receive more blessings than Thomas will, because their belief will be based on faith.
Now the Word of God in Hebrews 13:8 tells us that Jesus Chris t is the same today as He was yesterday. Also in Malachi 3:6 God says; “I am the Lord, I change not.” If the Lord never changes, then whatever He could do, and did do, since the beginning of time, He can and will do today. Then if the Spirit of Christ is in you, He can and will do those things through you that He did back then. But we must have faith that He will, faith without doubting. We must believe that the Bible contains the Word of God, and that all of God’s Word is true.
The third scripture we should look at is in Philippians 2:5 which says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Chris t Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Let us just look at this and try to understand the meaning of this passage.
Paul says to us, have the same mind as Jesus had, understand as He understood, and be of the same opinion as He was. What is Paul referring to? The answer is about being equal with God. Now you say that it is a bold and terrible thing to say that a mortal man can be equal with God. But the scriptures themselves say in John 5:18, that if Jesus said God was His Father, He was making Himself equal with God.
Now if this is true, why would it be any different for all born again believers whose Father is God? If the Spirit of God is in us, are we not like or similar to God, being spiritual and having eternal life? And if the Spirit of God is in us, can we not do the same things that Jesus did? Yes we can. Not because we have the same power as God, but because His Spirit is in us, doing the works through us, and we have the authority to do these works.
Remember that God said in Genesis 1:27 that He made man in His own image, male and female. He did not make us to look like Him, but He made us spiritual in nature, as He is spiritual. And if He poured out of His Spirit on us, are we not a part of Him? And being a part of Him, are we not like Him in nature and characteristics? I believe the answer is: yes we are.
So, Paul is saying to us, do not think it is wrong to think of ourselves as being equal with God. If we have the Spirit of God in us, we should have the mind of Chris t, and not only think as He thought, but do the works that He did, because God is in us and we are His children.
The fourth and final scripture to tie together with these is the one that gives us the authority I was speaking of and is in John 14:12:
“He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.”
Jesus Chris t himself said that believers would perform the same works that He performed when He walked the earth. What were these works? These were healing the sick, opening blind eyes, raising the dead, opening deaf ears, etc, etc. He did only what the Father showed Him, and we should be doing what He shows us to do, as well.
But you say how can we possibly do those things? I’ll tell you how. The Spirit of God is in the believer, the same Spirit that was in Chris t. If Jesus is alive, in spirit form, and is the same that He was yesterday, then He will do the same works through the believer, if we can believe His Word without doubting. Jesus said in Matthew 21:21 and 22: If you have faith and do not doubt, you will have whatever you ask for. Is this His Word? Is the Word of God true? Yes, this is God’s Word and it is true. All it takes is faith in the One who said it.
Now, let’s look at what the Word of God has said. If you are a believer, Chris t is in you. The Holy Spirit, Chris t Himself, is living in His people. Jesus Chris t is the same yesterday, today and forever. He can perform the same works and the same miracles today as He did before. We should have the same mind as was in Jesus, the same understanding, and the same faith, that we are the children of God the Father. And finally, if we can have faith without doubting, whatever we ask of Him, we will receive. The works that He did, we shall do also.
David, when he needed the Lord’s help, spoke the Word and received what he needed (Psalms 116:10) “I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:”
Paul speaks in the 4th chapter of 2nd Corinthians about the life of Christ being made manifest in the bodies of believers: and so since we have the same Spirit of faith, therefore as we believe, we should speak, so God can receive the glory because of our faith.
2 Corinthians 4:13 “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”
My brothers and sisters, if we do not lay hold on these promises as being the truth and being real and believe and exercise these characteristics in our lives, then we are missing out on a lot of the benefits of being children of God. We are not doing the works that the Lord said we would do.
It gets down to this in very simple terms. Do we really believe in God? Do we truly believe that the Bible contains the Word of God? Do we actually believe that Jesus rose from the grave and is alive today? Do we accept the fact that the Spirit of Christ is in us?
THEN LET’S LIVE OUR LIVES LIKE WE REALLY BELIEVE.
Is the Holy Spirit still being given to believers?
Is the Holy Spirit still being given to those who profess their faith in Jesus Christ? Will a time ever come when the outpouring out of the Holy Spirit on believers will cease? These two questions have been combined since the answer to either one will be the answer to both of them. In order to obtain an accurate answer to these questions, we must find some scriptures that would provide us with some signs or clues that point to the answers we are seeking.
The parable about the ten virgins that the Lord spoke of seems to be a good place to start. Matthew chapter 25 tells the story of ten virgins that were waiting for the Bridegroom to return, just as the body of Chris t or the bride of Chris t is waiting for Chris t to return.
25:1-12 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
In this parable the oil for the lamp represents the Holy Spirit that five of the virgins had and the other five did not. The five virgins which had no oil were called foolish since they did not do what was necessary to receive the Holy Spirit, but the five which had oil (The Holy Spirit) were called wise since they did. The theme of this parable is consistent with what will happen when the Lord calls His bride off the earth. Since the door was shut after the Lord took the five wise virgins with Him, this indicates that the Holy Spirit will not be given to anyone after the Lord takes His church off this earth.
In Revelations chapter 20 it describes events that occur at the first Resurrection. It is during this first Resurrection when the Lord takes His church from the earth to spend the next thousand years with Him.
These are the believers that stay true to His Word and have received the Holy Spirit. The sixth verse says that those taken in the first Resurrection have nothing to fear from the second death, so this means that the ones who remain on the earth do have a lot to fear.
If those who remain on the earth after the first resurrection must fear the second death, then they must be facing the white throne judgment. Only those people who have not received the Holy Spirit will face that judgment, since those with the Holy Spirit have been justified and redeemed by Christ.
Revelations 20:6 “Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
The scripture in Revelations 20:12 speaks about the second resurrection, where all the dead stand before God for the final judgment. This says to us that only those taken in the first resurrection were filled with the Spirit and none in the second resurrection were. This also tells us that until the time of the first resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit is available to believers. Now how can we tell if the first resurrection has taken place or not?
The thirteenth chapter of Revelations tells of the persecution of the church that occurs right before the first resurrection. It tells of the church being subjected to a power that’s called the image of the beast and not being able to buy or sell if they do not conform by receiving the mark of the beast. I believe this to be a worldwide movement of a religious organization causing all churches and Chris tians to join them or suffer extreme persecution. Since there is no indication that this has occurred as of yet, the first resurrection has not occurred and the Spirit of Chris t is still active on the earth.
Revelations 13:15-17 “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that, as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. {16} And he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: {17} And that no man might buy or sell, except he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
As the first resurrection is described in Revelations the 20th chapter, it speaks of those taken in that resurrection refusing to take the mark of the beast, so this persecution must occur while the Holy Spirit is still being poured out on believers.
At the time of the first resurrection and the start of the Millennium, the scriptures say that satan is bound for a thousand years, so as not to be able to deceive anyone. Does the condition of the world today appear that satan is still influencing people? Yes it does. Satan is the cause of all the evil occurring in the world today and is continuing to deceive the people about the truth of God’s Word. This tells us that the first resurrection has not yet occurred and there is still time to receive the Spirit of God in our lives.
According to God’s Word, as is recorded in the scriptures; this has been the truth concerning the Holy Spirit. If we will accept what God’s Word says instead of man’s interpretation of it as being the truth, then we will be obeying the commandment of God.
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