Chapter Two.
We need to become like Jesus and take off the old and put on the new, and this can only be done through the Holy Spirit. Jesus came for us, and the Holy Spirit is in us, and enabling us to run the race serving Father God and pointing the way to Jesus.
Jesus has enabled us to change our lives, by becoming to him and taking him as your Lord and Saviour, you have opened yourself to Gods promises and the Holy Spirit can and will, if you allow him, to guide you into these.
Even in your daily walk, your employment, your relationships, your finances, your dreams and sleep, your every breath which we take, our hobbies and leisure time, there is no aspect of our lives where we ever need to be alone, and the Holy Spirit is there waiting to be your friend, counsellor and guide. (Make God your best and closest of Friends).
In the past, the uniting power of the Holy Spirit once flowed over our lands in great revivals, and after a time people like the Israelites forgot their God and miracles and blessings started to become fewer and fewer with people turning away from God.
In many schools, you can no longer be taught Religious Education, Prayers are forbidden, and one school banned a child for simply saying, “God Bless You”. Yet the Holy Spirit is still there waiting for those who believe and call on him.
I think it was Billy Graham who said. “By our ignorance, we have shorted the power of the Holy Spirit”. Now sadly some churches are uncertain just what the Holy Spirits power is.
Believing that life is dull and full of problems, yet other Holy Spirit churches are growing, some like the Martock Christian Fellowship in the United Kingdom, outgrowing their building and having to acquire another to run two services, such is the power and moving of the Spirit of God.
Many of these churches are a powerful base of love, unity and Holy Spirit ministries, look at Saddleback church, Gateway Church Texas, and Bethel, and we must never forget Andrew Wommack Ministries, as examples and there are much more. The members are loving, kind and happy people, reaching out in love to others.
I understand there is an element of contention with some of the above-named ministries and churches, yet there are others like Saint Johns Church in Somerton, Somerset, UK, which holds true loving worshipers and is alive with the love of Christ, and I could name many other such Church of England fellowships where the Holy Spirit is flowing in such love.
Jesus sent to us the Helper, the Holy Spirit who we should desire, respect and seek more than gold. God’s promises are real and therefore each, and every one of us who would but receive through the Holy Spirit.
In John 14: 18. Jesus said. I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you. And he did this through the Holy Spirit. God raised Jesus from the dead and gave him the promised glory.
1 Peter 1: 20-21. That Jesus came for the sake of you who through him are believers in God. Who raised him from the dead and gave him glory. So, that your faith and hope are in God.
Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost and a wonderful miraculous time that changed the world. Even today few can grasp the reality of what transpired that day and how two thousand years later lives are still been saved and changed.
In writing this book I was asked a question. “Who is the Holy Spirit and is he also the Holy Ghost?” While another person had no idea of there even been a Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a real person as described in the Bible and given to us as a part of the trinity.
The Father God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, three separate individuals yet from one. I can no more explain the trinity than the best theologians can, they cannot grasp the infinite power and true meaning in something with human finite minds. I know in my heart the reality and in faith, I believe, even when something is not seen.
Or is it seen? As in everyday actions of my life, I see with my other senses the actions of the Holy Spirit.
Please allow me to give an example. My 93-year-old mother is blind, yet she sees things with her other senses, she can touch a face and describe what it looks like.
The Holy Spirit is not an unspecified influence. He is equal to God and Jesus and assigned a purpose in your life to draw you nearer to Jesus, and teaching you, guiding you and showing you the way along the narrow path which leads back to Father God, by keeping the commandments and developing the fruits of the Spirit.
As for the question, is the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit? Yes, In 1 John 5:7,8 KJV. It states. “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth”.
There is debate among some Christians as to the accuracy of this statement. Professor Bruce M Metzger stated: “That these words are spurious and have no right to stand in the New Testament is certain,” (A textual commentary on the Greek New Testament).
It is important to study and seek guidance in your scriptural studies.
I guide you to (John 14:26, ESV) “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you (John 14:26, ESV).
The study of the Holy Spirit is called pneumatology, this derives from two Greek words, pneuma meaning “the wind,” “breath,” or ’spirit” and logos meaning “word,” or “logic.” Find yourself a copy of Bruce A Ware book: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance.
(www.crossway.org/books/father-son-and-holy-spirit-tpb/ )
Bruce A. Ware (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is a professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has written numerous journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, and has authored God’s Lesser Glory, God’s Greater Glory, and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Also, you can visit Church House Publishing at https://www.chpublishing.co.uk and find a wealth of good sure foundational study material.
Endorsements
(“Thanks to the clear thinking and biblically solid perspective of my friend, Bruce Ware, we are now blessed with this stimulating and edifying description of our God who is worthy of wonder and awe. Here is a theology that will launch your heart in worship as all good theology should!”
Joseph M. Stowell, President, Cornerstone University, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the remarkable accomplishment of one of the finest scholars in the land. . . Bruce Ware has succeeded in doing what many scholars can never do. He has written a thorough theological treatise that any biblically literate layman can understand. Finally, we have a volume that reaches beyond the academic community and into the life of the local church.”
Paige Patterson, President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“Many automatically equate theology with complexity and even irrelevancy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Dr Ware has the rare gift of making the profound accessible; he understands why theology matters and that it is the basis for true doxology.” Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author; radio host, Revive Our Hearts.)
I believe it is vital to establish factual evidence and that the Holy Spirit is not forgotten. When people often talk about God and Jesus, the Holy Spirit is sometimes neglected and this is wrong, as he plays a vital role in the trinity and salvation which I have found is fundamental to all our Christian lives.
The Scriptures also inform us that the Holy Spirit can be grieved (Eph. 4:30), “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The Holy Spirit has his own identity. Look at www.theopedia.com/person.
Person.
(“By ‘person’ we mean one who has his own identity or individuality as a rational being, conscious of his own existence. “In other words, a person is a particular being with generally one centre of consciousness. In the Being of God, there are three Centres of consciousness. A person is unique among beings in having capacities to reason and exercise the will.)
And while you are on the website look up also the following:
Essence, Being, Nature and Substance. You could also look up Epistemology and Ontology in the process of this study.
(I give you these as a means of backing up and laying a foundation from which I build my case, Ontology is the most fundamental branch of metaphysics. It is the study of being or subsistence, with strong concepts of reality.
While Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. For our studies, it is used in concurrence with the Holy Spirit. Scripture gives us a mass of guidance and reference to look up. If we were to want to learn the Titles of the Holy Spirit, we could learn the following: Holy Spirit – Holy Ghost – Spirit – Spirit of God – Spirit of Jesus – Spirit of the Lord – Spirit of truth – Comforter – Counsellor and Advocate.
Look up John 14:16-17a NIV). And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.
John 14:26 NIV. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 15:26 NIV. When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me.
John 16:7 NIV. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
John 16: 8-11 NIV. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment.
(9) about sin, because people do not believe in me;
(10) about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
(11) and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.) www.theopedia.com/person
Look up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraclete and click on External links Paraclete
Or http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11469a.htm
from the Catholic Encylopedia). In there you will find a host of reference material to aid you in your studies and draw you that much closer to discovering the truth of the Holy Spirit.
What about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Robert L. Thomas Professor of New Testament wrote an interesting article which is relevant to our studies. Take, a look by clicking on the web link. http://www.tms.edu/m/tmsja.pdf
Through the Holy Spirit, we can receive gifts which give revelation, protection and blessings, guidance. And we receive them to bring us in line in our lives with the will of God. The Holy Spirit gives us direction while developing within us the fruits of the spirit, the nature of Jesus the Christ.
