Category: The Holy Ghost

For In This We Groan #2

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

“For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” (2 Corinthians 5:2 KJV).

Having been stricken with a bacterial infection of the sinuses and eyes for the past week, I can give a hearty “Amen!” to today’s Scripture!

In this world where Satan and sin reign, sickness is a part of life as well. Our “groaning” in today’s Scripture is further explained in Romans 8:22-25: “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

Paul writes in the context of today’s Scripture, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1). This is the “redemption of our [physical] body” of Romans 8:23, when “the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ… shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body…” (Philippians 3:20,21).

When the apostle pens, “Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 5:5), what he meant was, “[Christ] In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13). “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

This sealing by and with the indwelling Holy Spirit is God’s promise that He will one day deliver our (ailing) physical bodies from sin just as He has already delivered our spiritual bodies from sin….

To Whom Are We to Pray?

Thursday, May 9, 2013

“Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 KJV).

The Bible says we should be praying constantly, but to whom are we to pray?

Why not let God through the Holy Bible tell us how to pray?

“Giving thanks unto the Father” (Colossians 1:12). “I thank my God…” (Philippians 1:4). “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). “For through him [Jesus Christ] we both [Jew and Gentile] have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18). “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ… that he would grant you…” (Ephesians 3:14).

Firstly, whom did the Apostle Paul address? He directly addressed Father God, not Mary or any other deceased saint, in prayer.

Secondly, how did Paul reach Father God? “In whom [Jesus Christ] we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him [Jesus Christ]” (Ephesians 3:12). “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

We approach God the Father through the merits of Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork. Jesus Christ has a perfect standing before God, and we have His righteousness because we are in Him (if we are members of the Church the Body of Christ). We cannot approach God on our own merits; thus, we must come through Jesus Christ. This is what it means to pray “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20). Interestingly, when we pray, we are actually praying with the help of the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Romans 8:26-27). The indwelling Holy Spirit links us to Father God in heaven, and when we pray, we are using the “mediatorship” of Jesus Christ.

So, we address God the Father in prayer, but we are using the merits of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit helps us pray when we are “at a loss for words.”

For additional insight about prayer in the Dispensation of Grace, please study the four model Pauline prayers—Ephesians 1:15-23, Ephesians 3:14-21, Philippians 1:9-11, and Colossians 1:9-12.

You can also see our study “Praying with Paul.”

A Doxology of Doctrine During Distressing Days #6

Saturday, April 6, 2013

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” (2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV).

A brief, light annoyance—an everlasting, much heavier weight of praise and worship….

It is very difficult not to focus on our temporary suffering. After all, we see it. It is equally hard to focus on the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. After all, we cannot see it… sort of. In reality, we can see it! The verse following today’s Scripture reads: “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (verse 18).

How do we “look…at the things which are not seen?” Hebrews 11:1 tells us: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). When we place our faith in what God’s Word says about suffering in the Dispensation of Grace—which would be the contents of Paul’s epistles of Romans through Philemon—then we, by virtue of spiritual eyes, see what God sees. He is manifesting the very life of Jesus Christ in our mortal body (2 Corinthians 4:10,11). “…Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (verse 16).

The spiritual fortitude and edifice of sound Bible doctrine that God the Holy Spirit is constructing within our inner man, is eternal, for the inner man (soul and spirit) is everlasting. Our physical body experiencing the present sufferings is temporary, for the physical body is temporary. Actually, the same word—“moment”—used to describe the duration of our present suffering (today’s Scripture), is equivalent to the split-second rapture that will one day catch us members of the Body of Christ up into heaven’s glory (1 Corinthians 15:52)!

By allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us as we believe this sound Bible doctrine, it brings God praise now… and forevermore….

A Doxology of Doctrine During Distressing Days #4

Thursday, April 4, 2013

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” (2 Corinthians 4:17 KJV).

A brief, light annoyance—an everlasting, much heavier weight of praise and worship….

In the context of today’s Scripture (4:1–6:18), the Apostle Paul discussed the ministry we have as “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20). He lists various afflictions that he and we Christians suffer, but concluded: “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The verse preceding today’s Scripture reads: “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (verse 16). These physical bodies, these “earthen vessels,” these “outward men,” will eventually return to the dust from whence they came (Genesis 3:19). Thus, the issue is not the “vessels,” but rather the substance, the “treasure,” they contain. This treasure is the life of Jesus Christ present within us members of the Church the Body of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:10,11).

Our “outward man” is temporary, and thus our suffering while living within it is also temporal (today’s Scripture). Nevertheless, the “inward man,” soul and spirit, is being “renewed day by day” as we walk by faith in sound Pauline Bible doctrine. The Holy Spirit takes that doctrine, transforms our minds, and thus manifests the very life of Jesus Christ in and through us! This brings such praise and worship to God, for nothing is more pleasing to Him than the life of Jesus Christ.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23). “[We] have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:10).

God manifests His power, love, and wisdom during our troubling circumstances… not by removing them, but by strengthening us to bear them….

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #8

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

Acts 2:4 summarizes the Holy Spirit’s relation to God’s Word: “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The Holy Spirit guided the words of God’s holy apostles and prophets. He not only selected the words they spoke (cf. Matthew 10:19,20, which describes believing Jews in the future Tribulation), but that which they wrote (2 Timothy 3:16,17; 2 Peter 1:20,21).

Not only did the Holy Spirit speak God’s Word before it was written, He also caused it to be written (inspiration). He not only caused it to be written, but He also preserved those very words so we could read them today (preservation). Not only did He preserve them, He translated them into the world’s languages (translation). Not only did He translate them, He also gives us the ability to understand those words of God when we study them (illumination).

To the person who has not trusted Jesus Christ alone as his or her personal Saviour, the Bible is “foolishness” (1 Corinthians 2:14). If we want to understand the Holy Bible, we need its Author, the Holy Spirit, and He is present within us who have trusted Jesus Christ alone as our personal Saviour.

Without the Holy Spirit, we would neither have nor understand the Holy Bible. Before the written, completed Bible, the Holy Ghost worked via believers with spiritual gifts, to proclaim the Word of God. In due time, the Holy Ghost caused God’s apostles and prophets to write the 66 inspired books of the Bible, the completed revelation of God. Throughout the centuries, the Holy Spirit worked through believers to copy, collate, and translate that written Bible so we could have it today, nearly 2,000 years after its canon was completed.

Dear reader, for this cause, may you never take your King James Bible for granted again! 🙂

*These previous eight devotionals are adapted from two large Bible studies, The Pneuma Hagion, and The Holy Spirit – Person or Force? You are encouraged to read them.

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #7

Monday, March 25, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

Without the Holy Spirit, we would not understand the completed Holy Bible.

The doctrine of Bible preservation is best described by Jesus Christ in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (cf. Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). God the Holy Spirit not only wrote God’s words, He also preserved them so we could have them today, and He illuminates our minds so we can understand them today.

According to today’s Scripture and its context, the Holy Spirit uses the Holy Bible’s words to teach us, “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (verse 12). Everything that God wants us to know, He tells us in the Holy Bible, that we may be “throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:17). The Holy Spirit takes those Bible verses we read and believe, and works in our souls to bring into our lives the reality of those doctrines. He takes the sound Bible doctrine He has inspired and preserved, the doctrine we read and believe, and He makes our lives the very life of Jesus Christ, the life the Bible describes!

This “filling with the Spirit” in Israel’s program empowered her regarding God’s will for her in her program (Acts 2:4; Acts 7:55). Likewise, God the Holy Spirit teaches us His will for us the Church the Body of Christ in our program. He enables us to do His will when we read and believe sound Pauline Bible doctrine (see Ephesians 5:18–6:9)—not to be confused with emotional highs, incontinence, gibberish, nonsense, or the other errors of denominationalism. When we prevent the indwelling Holy Spirit from using sound Bible doctrine to transform our inner man, we “quench [hinder] the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19).

In both Israel’s prophetic program and our mystery program, the Holy Spirit works using His Word, to publish His Word….

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #6

Sunday, March 24, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

Without the Holy Spirit, we would not have the completed Holy Bible.

The doctrine of Bible inspiration is best described by Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:4: “It is written [Deuteronomy 8:3], Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (cf. Luke 4:4).

In Acts 1:16, the Apostle Peter says about the Old Testament Scripture he is quoting, “which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake….” The Apostle Paul, also quoting the Old Testament, says in Acts 28:25, “Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers….” Jesus Christ Himself, when He quoted the Old Testament, commented: “For David himself said by the Holy Ghost…” (Mark 12:36). Our Lord Jesus asked, “Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God…?” (Matthew 22:31).

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20,21).

Thus, the Bible says of itself in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Interestingly enough, the root spir in inspiration means “breath, air.” The Greek word translated “inspiration of God” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is theopneustos. The root pneu forms the Greek word pneuma, meaning “spirit, air.” Pneuma is paired with hagion (“holy”), thus becoming pneuma hagion, translated as “Holy Spirit” or “Holy Ghost.” When we say the Holy Bible is “inspired of God,” did you know we are actually emphasizing the Person (the Holy Ghost) who gave it to us? Wow!

But, the Holy Spirit also plays a role in preserving those inspired words of God, so we could have them and understand them today….

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #5

Saturday, March 23, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

In the Old Testament, King David said, “The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and his word was in my tongue” (2 Samuel 23:2).

The Apostle Peter wrote of the Old Testament prophets: “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:10,11).

Peter elaborates in 2 Peter 1:20,21: “Knowing this first, that no scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”

In Bible days, there were both preaching prophets and writing prophets. Some would speak forth God’s Word (Elijah, Elisha, et al.), others wrote it (David, Joel, et al.), and some prophets spoke it and wrote it (Daniel, Jeremiah, et cetera). Regardless of their ministry, it was the same Holy Spirit working in all of God’s prophets. This is true in both the Old and New Testament Scriptures.

When speaking of the spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians 12:4,8,9,11 say: “Now there are many diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit…. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;… But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally [individually] as he will.”

The Holy Spirit gave believers spiritual gifts to further God’s Word before it was written down. Let us see how the Holy Ghost works today in light of the written, completed Holy Bible….

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #4

Friday, March 22, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

About a week after the Lord Jesus Christ left planet earth in Acts chapter 1, the Holy Spirit came to earth in Acts chapter 2 to take His place, as He had promised weeks earlier in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he [a Person, not a force!] shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

The Holy Spirit enabled Israel’s believing remnant to remember what Jesus Christ taught for three years, causing them to write the Four Gospels of His earthly ministry. Also, the Holy Ghost revealed to them additional doctrine regarding their prophetic (kingdom) program, which they would later use to write their other New Testament Scriptures (Hebrews through Revelation).

Eventually, the ascended Lord Jesus Christ initiated a new program—our Dispensation of Grace—by saving Saul of Tarsus and making him Paul the apostle of the Gentiles. God had now begun forming a new group of believers, the Church the Body of Christ, who would do in the heavenly places what the nation Israel would do in the earth. The Apostle Paul received the doctrine for this dispensation by a direct revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11,12; Ephesians 3:1-4).

Moreover, via Paul’s audible preaching and his written epistles, Romans through Philemon, the Holy Spirit was the Person of the Godhead responsible for revealing that secret (mystery) program and its respective doctrine to God’s holy apostles and prophets: “[The Dispensation of Grace] Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:5). Even today, the Holy Spirit enables us to understand God’s Word (today’s Scripture).

Let us see how else the Holy Spirit works….

The Spirit of God and the Word of God #3

Thursday, March 21, 2013

“Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13 KJV).

As today’s Scripture demonstrates, the Spirit of God never operates apart from the Word of God.

For approximately three years, the Lord Jesus Christ ministered throughout the land of Israel. After the Jews had crucified Him, and after He resurrected, another prophecy needed fulfillment—His ascension to His Father’s right hand (Psalm 110:1). Once He ascended, His apostles and disciples were to continue His work on earth by leading all of unbelieving Israel to trust Him as Messiah. These Jewish believers were just ordinary people, weak and fallible. How could they execute the work that Jesus Christ had started?

The Lord Jesus promised: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he [a Person, not a force!] may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16,17).

Jesus Christ asked His Father to send the Holy Spirit on this “little flock” of Jewish believers, thereby equipping them to carry on His ministry in His absence. The Holy Ghost—“the Spirit of truth”—would testify of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost would speak to unbelieving Israel via the believing Jews “bearing witness” (John 15:26,27). Christ explains: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:… when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth… He shall glorify me” (John 16:7-14).

When the Holy Spirit was poured out on believing Israel in Acts chapter 2, they were then able to preach God’s Word as Jesus Christ had done earlier….