In this post we will be looking into the Holy Spirit’s role in our walk as Believers.
Before Moses
God tells us :
Genesis 6:3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
Is God telling us that the Holy Spirit will cease striving with man who is flesh, when flesh ceases on the earth?
Genesis 41:38 Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?”
Here Pharaoh was speaking of Joseph–interpreting dreams.
Then under the Mosaic Law —
King Saul was given a changed heart. In 1Sam. 10:1,5&6,9&10.
He was told what would happen to him– but specifically that he would prophecy.
10:9 says:
Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day. Then there is evidence of Holy Spirit’s involvement in the prophets:
They PROPHESIED
That fact is confirmed in N.T.
1 Peter 1:10-11 As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
There are other evidences of the HS in the OT.
Numbers 27:18 So the Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him;
In Exodus 31:3. God tells Moses who He has chosen to construct the TABERNACLE. and says:
I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,
But they did what Paul warns us not to do
THEY GRIEVED THE HOLY SPIRIT
Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled And grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them.
In Matt 12, we are told that sin or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven in this age or the next.
The New Covenant. Jer. 31:31-34.
This was a covenant promise to Israel & Judah to change hearts & write the law on the hearts of God’s people.
–this also happens to be the covenant that you and I live under today
–and that Israel will live under when added back into the Olive Tree.
So what is the HOLY SPIRITS role today?
The challenge that charismatic believers are often confronted with is the statement from some saying: “I received all of the Holy Spirit that I will ever get when I was born again.”
So is there teaching in Scripture by the Holy Spirit about Himself?
In John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
Now what might that mean?
— faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
But is that what this means?
Is clean equivalent to salvation?
Paul says in:
Ephesians 5:25-26 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her,
having cleansed her with the washing of the word Ephesians 5:25-26
So we know that the Holy Spirit uses the word in our cleansing.
-truth of word brings faith
-Jesus is the Word.
-His blood cleanses
But
— this cleansing by the Word was before Jesus died for their sins
— the disciples were chosen and were being readied for ministry.
But — Were they ready?
Peter denied Jesus 3 times after being told he was clean by the word.
Jesus had taught them —
You deny me…. I’ll deny you.
Peter’s restoration following that denial is what we call amazing Grace. But his denial also occurred before the Holy Spirit was given.
John 7:37-38 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
Vs. 39 John says: But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
So what we understand is that the Holy Spirit was not given to believers in the same way that He would be once Jesus was glorified
— once the New Covenant was established.
So when was Jesus glorified?
John 12:12-13, 16 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.
Notice it was not until after He was glorified that they began to remember. And it was also after He would be glorified that they would receive the Holy Spirit.
Remember John the Baptist had said:
Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
SO THIS IS WHAT WAS TO COME, but in the interim we have
—Men who walked with Jesus for almost His entire ministry on earth,
—Who were chosen
—Who were made clean by The words He spoke to them,
—Who had seen and been part of His miracles
—Who believed that He was THE CHRIST.
YET THEY
—RAN AND HID,
—Having NO POWER
John 12:23-24 And Jesus *answered them, saying, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
SO HIS DEATH MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR HIS GLORIFICATION
BUT- men die every day and their not glorified with God. There is something else here that’s needed.
He also prayed a prayer for the disciples and even for us. In that prayer He said: John 17:4-5 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
So His glorification would come following His death and return back to the Father, but does that mean resurrection? And. When all this would happen He would be AS He was WITH THE FATHER before the creation.
SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
–He was the word of God
–He was with His Father in glory
–And He gave the Spirit to those whom He willed as we have already seen in the O.T.
AND HE HAD told Nicodemus–
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.
AND then He asked him “are you a teacher in Israel and do not know these things?”
Remember O.T. Men & Women had been Indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
We know that there was salvation in the O.T. (1Samuel 2:1; 2 Sam 22:3; 2Sam 23:5;
And we know that the Holy Spirit was involved in the lives of God’s people in the O.T.
BUT NOT LIKE WHAT WAS COMING.
THE NEW COVENANT PROMISE WAS COMING.
So when were the disciples born again?
John 20:16-17 Jesus said unto her, “Mary!” She turned herself and said unto Him, “Rabboni!” which is to say, “Master”. Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”
Mary was not to touch Him because He was not yet ascended to the Father? But she was to tell them that He was going to the Father.
Yet, later John records:
Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
John 20:27 NASB
Obviously Jesus has now been to the Father and is now glorified. So when were the disciples born again?
John 20:19, 21-22 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and *said to them, “Peace be with you.” So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit
Yet, the giving here of the Holy Spirit is not what was received by them on Pentecost. So when were they born again?
They received the Holy Spirit who is the giver of new birth?
-They were already believers
-They were discipled by Jesus
AND
-Jesus was now glorified.
Luke says in:
Acts 1:1-2, 4-5 The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen. Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
These men who were born of the Spirit now needed POWER FOR MINISTRY. This power from the Holy Spirit was also promised to all believers. THIS POWER WAS NOT NEW, but in the O.T. it was not made available to all believers as it is today.
Listen:
Luke 1:59-60, 64, 66-68 And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father. But his mother answered and said, “No indeed; but he shall be called John.” And at once his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he began to speak in praise of God. All who heard them kept them in mind, saying, “What then will this child turn out to be?” For the hand of the Lord was certainly with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
He did not speak in tongues. He prophesied as King Saul had done. The Holy Spirit was not yet given as He would be when Jesus would no longer be with them.
Yet, when the Holy Spirit was given in the upper room; in Samaria and in Ephesus the gift of Tongues was the evidence of the baptism of the Spirit that Jesus had promised.
For whom was this Evidence given of the Holy Spirit’s falling on both the Jews and the Gentiles?
Was it for the recipient?
OR
WAS IT for the disciples?
Or was it for our understanding?
Or was it for all three?
My question now to you is this — even though the scripture is plain that every believer is born of the Holy Spirit just as the disciples were in John 20; it is also clear that Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Spirit as a gift from Jesus for all who believe. Does that mean that all believers will receive that gift? We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus is He who will baptize you with the Spirit. Even in the OT, He, the Holy Spirit, was the power of God given for ministry. He is not given for our glory, but for God’s. May the Lord bless you as you serve Him.
Jerry, your question is,
“My question now to you is this — even though the scripture is plain that the Holy Spirit is a gift from Jesus for all who believe, does that mean that all believers will receive that gift?”
It means that all believers will possess this gift – it was given to them.
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I wish Maria, that receiving was that easy. Do you really believe that every believer is open to all that God has for them? Why, for instance would Paul tell us not to grieve the Holy Spirit? As a group we can’t be as teachable as we should be. This is one of the reasons I personally believe in a future Millennium. There has to be this time eg future, but unless we write off everyone who doesn’t presently believe as we do, than we have to understand that things are not yet as God wants them. Or am I misreading what you are saying?”
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Jerry and Chris, company visiting. Will answer…
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Yes, we can grieve the Spirit, Jerry; yes, we sin. However this is a firm truth about every believer:
Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
This can’t be contested.
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Not sure I communicated well if you got that I believed otherwise. What my point was — is, is that the spiritual new birth, which is the indwelling of the Spirit is not the Baptism that the Disciples later received for ministry. Did I lose you? Sorry if I was not clear.
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Okay, Jerry!
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Ok, means? Agree? Or disagree?
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Maria, I left you and Jerry a comment, and I hope this will maybe clarify what Jerry seemed to be saying to me.
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I’m not clear which comment this is, Christian.
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on Jerry’s blog about the Holy Spirit
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okay, got it!
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In answer to your question, Jerry and maybe yours too, Maria, I have always been a believer. I always knew that God was real, that Jesus died on the Cross and rose again. For me that was never a question. I was baptized when I was 16 years old. My life didn’t change. My heart was still the same. I never could wrap my mind around how people felt “different”, I didn’t feel any different. I didn’t understand how God spoke to people, so that must have been for the people of the Old Testament and for the Apostles. As I struggled through a life of being as good as I could with an occasional “back sliding”, everyone I worked with knew I was a Christian. The Lord reached me through two bible verses, and when I truly got saved and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, I felt the difference. I can now hear the voice of the Lord, I live different, I feel different and Praise be to God, I am a different person. Why it wasn’t to be when I was 16 is beyond this believers knowledge, but it wasn’t. God chose to in-dwell me when He did, in 2014, I will never look back with a longing of what I am missing, because I know what I got saved from and what I got saved to. I will praise Him and try to only show His glory.
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Neat testimony. God has His own timing. Glad you are a brother.
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Thank you, Jerry for what I feel is such a beautiful article. I hope this will reach some of those that I spent my entire life not understanding.
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Thanks for the encouragement.
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You are so very welcome. I wrote a ‘poem’ on my site, inspired by reading your post today.
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Man that’s neat, I’ve been visiting your site. I didn’t see that one yet. But I will.
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Jerry, “okay” means I understand what you’ve said, “What my point was — is, is that the spiritual new birth, which is the indwelling of the Spirit is not the Baptism that the Disciples later received for ministry.” You think then that we too must receive what has been called “the second blessing”?
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I think that each believer should consider their need to explore what is being stated. I know that it’s another of the differences in the way Christians believe, and for good reason. The wild 😜 emotional seeking for an experience is not what I’m speaking about. And I’m not even sure it ends with just a second blessing. I see it as more of a yielding more of oneself to the Lord for His service. This post was something that I had written a long time ago, but had not posted, although I had taught a similar content.
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Jerry, this is an important topic in that we must be yielded, obedient. But if we are good trees we will necessarily bear good fruit. That is our assurance and encouragement. The Spirit of God indwells believers, leads us. We walk in the Spirit. He glorifies Jesus and speaks of Him to us. Unity of faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. This is mostly the things I know.
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I Like what you know. No problem. This was not for you as much as for others, including myself.
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I need what every other Christian needs, Jerry, to learn and grow. But some of my questioning has stopped and the Lord is giving me rest – a good thing for anyone, especially an older person.
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You can’t be any older than me. I’m old as Mathusala.
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haha! well. pretty much a senior citizen…
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