Thoughts On the Holy Spirit

A few facts from scripture that speak of the Holy Spirit.

1. John 16:8-11

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

He came to convict us. Both believers and non-believers, about sin, righteousness, and judgment.

2. Ephesians 4:30

Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

We grieve the Holy spirit when

A.) we do wrong - Sin

B.) don't do what's right - righteousness

C.) fail to see that we are not living as we should - judgment

3. 1 Thessalonians 5:19

Do not quench the Spirit

This may be the greatest failing in the modern church today. Our faith is based on the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who is working in us to do God's work. No, we cannot believe all spirits, but must test all things to see if they are from God. But we must not ignore the fact that we are indwelled by a supernatural power that gives each us a gift and that gift transcends our natural abilities.

Our God is a God of power and the Christian faith is to be lived out in the supernatural power of God. But to fully walk in the power of the Holy Spirit we must let Him do the work in us. We must let Him have control. We must decrease; He must increase. When we are weak; He is strong.

Replacing Fear With Power

This past Sunday, I heard a sermon in which the pastor was reminding his congregation of the way in which we Christians, so often sort of put the Holy Spirit in the background of our faith, both in our church and in our personal walk. He preached from the text of 2 Timothy 1:7-8. As I have meditated on that passage since listening to him, I find myself drawn deeply into thoughts of the second verse of that letter to Timothy.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

I love the Word of God. I never cease to be amazed at how it works in my life. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “…the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The more I mulled over this statement from 2 Timothy, the more it began to judge the intentions of my heart, many of which really don’t demonstrate that I am allowing the Holy Spirit to change the way I live, as much as He wants to.

The first aspect we see here, is spoken of in the negative. We have not been given a spirit of fear. As a man, I don’t ever want to display a sense of fear in front of my fellow man. Neither do they, yet most of us, men and women, live out our Christian lives in fear. This is what hinders our witness and why we so often dim the light of Christ in our lives. If we let the Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, pierce deeply into our joints and marrow, judging the intentions of our heart, can we honestly say we consistently speak out in sharing Christ?

In response to the fact that we do not have a spirit of fear living within us, we then see that we have power. For those of you who remember the old TV show, Home Improvement, you will recall that Tim the Tool Man Taylor, was always talking about more power. He was constantly tinkering with everything he could get his hands on and tweaking things so that they would have more power. Wouldn’t we all like to have more power. Guess what? God has given us a spirit of power and that power is complete in itself. It does not need to be tweaked in any way; it simply needs to be exercised. A power tool is completely powerless unless you turn it on and use it. We simply need to exercise our faith and when we do, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, lives in us.

It is this power, which enables us to attain the fullness of the Christian life, by which we must walk. Galatians 5:16 instructs us to “walk by the Spirit” and if we do that then we “will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” The desires of the flesh are selfish desires. But as our text from 2 Timothy tells us, we have been given a spirit of love. Again, if we turn to the Word of God, in this case from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, we learn that love “does not seek its own.” The Holy Spirit empowers us to love as God calls us to love. The love that God calls us to is not speaking of itself as an emotion, which emanates and is manipulated by our feelings, but it is a love that is dictated by our choice to act. Love is a choice. The Holy Spirit empowers us to make choices that override our selfish desires and our own feelings. This is how we can, with all our being, love our enemies. It is how we can forgive the unforgivable.  It is how we shine the light of Christ, who took upon Himself, the horrible payment of our personal sin.

Finally, we see that we have been given a spirit of self-control. There is no limit to the effects of the power God has given us in changing our lives. This Holy Spirit power enables us to overcome addictions. 2 Corinthians 10:4 is clear, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Read that again. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Addictions are strongholds. We have been empowered to overcome them by the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer. We have the power to say no to sin. We have the power to live a disciplined life in Christ, one that reflects to the world, His light. Yes, every single believer has this power, this spirit. Again, open the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

If we are truly Christ’s. we have this power living in us. We have the power to have self-control and choose what we do, how we act, and what we think. We have the power to love as Christ loved. We have the power to overcome all fear.

Yet, we fail so often. What do we do about this? The answer lies in the verse before the one I am speaking of.

2 Timothy 1:6
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

The Spirit lives in us, but like a power tool that remains unplugged and turned off, His flame will burn low and be ineffective. God calls us to action. Like any fire, if we want it to burn brightly, we must fan the flame, kindle the fire, stir up the coals, and keep it ablaze. We do this by staying in God’s Word, being in constant prayer, by worshipping God, and by meeting with other believers though our local churches. We must get up and walk in the Spirit.

Open your Bible, ask the Spirit of God to help you flame the fire of the gift of God. If you do, you will find the spirit of power, love, and self-control warming your heart to action and will be restored to the joy of your salvation.

Be strong in the Lord Always.

Studies in the Psalms - Psalm 133

The message of Psalm 133 is a simple one, it is a call for unity amongst God’s people.

Psalm 133:1

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

Paul instructed us in Ephesians 4:1-3 to “…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”  Yes, there is a common unity we share as Paul states in Ephesians 4:4-5, “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” but the church today is splintered off into segments that cannot even agree on baptism and communion, which are meant to unify us under Christ. Serve in just about any ministry and you will see the dissension that often hinders our work. We need help. Jesus knew we would. The psalmist goes on to tell us what unity looks like.

Psalm 133:2
It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!

When Aaron was anointed high priest, oil was poured on his head. Oil in the Bible is symbol of the Holy Spirit and all believers have been anointed with the Oil of God’s Spirit. It is through the Holy Spirit by which we are empowered to humble ourselves and therefore we can dwell in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. It is only our sinful pride that prevents us from walking in the Spirit and being the functional body of Christ we are called to be.

Psalm 133:3
It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the LORD has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Just as oil is a picture of the Holy Spirit, dew symbolizes the Word of God. Dew refreshes the grass upon which it falls and God’s Word is the morning water we need each day.

Where is the “there” that this psalm says commands the blessing? For the psalmist, it spoke of Zion and Jerusalem, but for Christians it speaks of unity in the Body of Christ. And to dwell in unity we need the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Both come down from God, they are not things we can create within ourselves.

Yes, there is coming a day of perfect unity amongst Christians. When Christ returns and the New Heaven and the New Earth are in place, all will be right. But until that day, we have work to do. That work can be better accomplished through unity. Jesus tells us to die to ourselves and that is the key to living, working, and worshipping God in unity. It can be accomplished, but only if we devote ourselves to God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to be our guide and teacher.

I close with a great scripture reading to ponder today as we consider Psalm 133.

Hebrews 12:28-29
 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Without unity, our corporate worship falls short. So, let us worship Him with reverence and awe. Let us worship in unity.

How Do You Build a Temple? Follow the Blueprints.

In the Old Testament, we find that God took up residence in first, the Tabernacle, built under the supervision of Moses. Then later, in the Temple built this time, under the careful administration of Solomon. In both cases God took extreme care in providing the men chosen to build both these structures, careful and meticulous instructions in how they were to be built. The place where God chooses to take up residence is a holy place that commands reverence and respect.

When Jesus came to the earth, God walked once again amongst men. For the most part He was not revered, nor respected. The Jewish leaders led a campaign to not only malign His character, they plotted to kill Him. What they failed to understand, was that in His death would come resurrection. And through His death and resurrection, would come the means, by which sinful man could once again dwell in the presence of God. And though Jesus would return to sit at the right hand of the Father, He would not leave us alone. He explains in John 16:4-7 saying, “But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”

Since the day of Pentecost, as we see in the Book of Acts, all believers receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the mark of our salvation as Romans 8:9-11 explains, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”  

1 Corinthians 6:19
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.”

So, Christian, you are now the Temple where God chooses to dwell upon this earth. This must lead us to look long and hard at how we are building up ourselves. Do you honestly think that God, who gave such intricate and detailed instructions on how Moses and later Solomon should build His residence, doesn’t demand the same building process and the same maintenance plan for the new Temple, the Temple which is us?

God expects us to be holy. He expects us to build ourselves up in the faith and to become more like Jesus, every day. And the amazing thing about His plan for us, as His Temple, is that he empowers us to build that temple, just as He provided everything Solomon needed.

If you think God has not provided the same detailed blueprints He did for Moses and Solomon, you are wrong. He has; it is called the Holy Bible. And if you will look at those plans, you will see it is all there. But you must read and follow the blueprints. All of them, every little detail, for our God is a God of perfect detail. He leaves nothing out. And He expects us to use what He has given us to build His temple and that temple is for His glory, not ours. We don’t get to make changes on what God has already designed, simply because we don’t like them.

There is a second aspect to this situation. We must consider the church, for it is the Body of Christ, and thus God’s Temple is also found in our brothers and sisters in Christ. We also have a responsibility as set out in scripture to help each other build ourselves up in the faith. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up.” And please Christians, stop perpetuating this non-Biblical concept of “Don’t judge” for that is not our charge. Our charge is to admonish each other and to bring restoration to our brother when he falls into sinful behavior. This does require careful judgment. And It must be done under the strict methods of scripture and through the discernment of the Holy Spirit, which will define it as loving instruction.

We are the Temple of God. It’s time we got back to the blueprints God has given us and to build His temple. For His Glory. Read the prints. All of them and leave out no detail.

God Bless.