1. Searching for the Answer

I spent much of my childhood and adolescent years trying to prove I was normal even though I didn't go to movies or dances. In the Pentecostal church I attended, movies and dancing were considered horrible sins.

Since I couldn't join my friends in their worldly activities, I asked them to attend church with me, for we were constantly being exhorted to witness for Christ by bringing friends to church. The problem was that almost every Sunday the pastor would warn of the evils of Hollywood, dancing, drinking, and smoking. He used to say, "If God wanted man to smoke, He would have put a chimney on top of his head." Besides this, the service was always interrupted by two or three "messages in tongues" and interpretations.

Many times as I was seated with my unsaved friends that I had brought to church, Mrs. Newman would start breathing funny. I had learned that this was the prelude to her speaking in tongues, so I would quickly pray, "Oh, God, please don't speak in tongues today; my friends won't understand." Either God wasn't hearing me or Mrs. Newman wasn't listening to God, because she would stand up, shaking all over, and deliver God's message for the day in a loud, high-pitched voice. I would die inside as my friends giggled beside me. I hoped they weren't committing the unpardonable sin.

I was always tense after the service as I waited for my friends to ask the inevitable question, "What was that?" I had a hard time explaining it because I didn't fully understand it myself.

As a child I couldn't help but wonder about these "messages in tongues" that I heard. Sometimes a short message was followed by a long interpretation or else a long message was followed by a short interpretation. At other times I would notice repeated phrases in the message in tongues and wonder why there weren't correspondingly repeated phrases in the interpretations.

The Mounting Questions

There were other things that bothered me about the church I attended. I wondered why, if we were the most spiritual church in town and had the most power, the other churches had so many more members. I was told that most people were looking for an easy way to heaven, and that the other churches were larger because they told the people what they wanted to hear. If our church did that, it would be full too - of people bound for hell.

Another problem I had with our church was its lack of love. I knew that the fruit of the Spirit is love, so I couldn't understand why there were so many church splits. It seemed that there were always some members who wanted to get rid of the pastor and others who supported him. People left our church so often that, if all the former members of the church returned, we would have had the largest church in town!

Somehow, leaving our church was tantamount to leaving the Lord. Those who had left had surely backslidden in their search for an easier way to heaven. However, I often found myself wishing I could go to the Community Church or the Presbyterian Church. Then on Sunday night I would feel convicted for my desire to "backslide," and I would go forward to the altar and get "saved" again.

I tried to prove that I was normal by excelling in school. I worked to be the smartest kid in the class, the fastest runner in the school, and the one who could hit the ball farther than anyone else. Unfortunately, most of the other kids in my Sunday school class tried to prove they were normal by smoking, drinking, and running around with the tough gangs at school. Very few of them remained in Sunday school past junior high. Through the grace of God, and with deeply committed parents, I somehow survived.

The Results of My Quest

As strange as it may seem, I am convinced today that the dead orthodoxy of many churches could be enhanced by the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation within the body. Not the unscriptural excesses I observed as a child, but the gifts exercised in a solid, Scriptural way, with the Word of God as the final authority guiding our faith and practice.

With this in mind, I began a search of the Scriptures for a sound, balanced approach to the Holy Spirit and His work in the church today. There must be a middle position between the Pentecostals, with their overemphasis on experience, and the fundamentalists, who, in their quest to be right, in too many cases have become dead right. The results of my quest are recorded in part in this book, which I pray that God might use to lead you into the fullness of the Spirit-filled life.

Charisma is a beautiful, natural anointing of God's Spirit upon a person's life, enabling him or her to do the work of God. It is that special dynamic of God's Spirit by which a person seems to radiate God's glory and love.

Charismania is an endeavor in the flesh to simulate charisma. It is any effort to do the work of the Spirit in the energies or abilities of the flesh - the old, selfish nature of a person. It is a spiritual hype that substitutes perspiration for inspiration. It is the use of the genius, energy and gimmicks of man as a substitute for the wisdom and ability of God. It can be demonstrated in such widely divergent forms as planning and strategy sessions, devising programs for church growth, raising funds for the church budget, or wild and disorderly outbursts in tongues that disrupt the Sunday-morning message. Whatever lacks a sound Biblical basis and demonstrates a lack of trust in the Holy Spirit to accomplish His purposes in the church apart from the devices and abilities of man is the work of the flesh.

The Balanced Position

This book will seek to present a Scripturally balanced position between the detractors who say, "The devil makes them do it" and the fanatics who say, "The Holy Spirit made me do it." It will also show who the Holy Spirit is and will describe His proper work in the world, the church, and the life of the believer.

We do not ask you to blindly accept all the premises, but we encourage you to search the Scriptures to see if these things are so. "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21).

 

2. The Holy Spirit is God

Since the purpose of this book is to bring you into a full, personal, and soundly Biblical relationship with God the Holy Spirit, we need to first show that the Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the I Godhead.

The church has accepted throughout its history that there is one God who exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Scriptures we find Them working together in total harmony for the redemption of man. Paul confessed to Timothy that the Godhead was a great mystery; for us to try to fully comprehend it is a futile expenditure of mental energy.

Many cult groups (such as Jehovah's Witnesses) take advantage of this gulf between the finite and the infinite to attack the triunity of God by denying the deity of Jesus Christ and passing off the Holy Spirit as an essence. Other groups deny the existence of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and say that Jesus alone is God. One of the common marks of every cult is a denial of the deity of Jesus Christ and the Person of the Holy Spirit.

The Triune God

Because this is one of the areas that the enemy constantly attacks, we must affirm not only the fact of the deity of the Holy Spirit, but also why we believe in His deity. The word "trinity" is not found in the Bible, but it is a convenient term that theologians use to describe the three Persons of the one God. Perhaps the term triunity would more accurately describe God. He is not 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but 1 x 1 x 1 = 1.

In Genesis 1:1 we read, "In the beginning God" The Hebrew word translated "God" is Elohim, which is plural for El (God in the singular). In Hebrew there is a x singular, dual, and plural tense. "God" in the singular is El, in the dual is Elah, and in the plural is Elohim. There can be no denying that the word "Elohim" at least suggests the triunity of God.

Continuing in Genesis 1:2 we read, "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Holy Spirit is the first Person of the Godhead to be identified separately in the Bible. In Genesis 1:26 we read, "And Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." He did not say, "I will make man after my image." In other words, the three Persons of the Godhead were speaking jointly.

The Attributes of the Holy Spirit

To establish that the Holy Spirit is God, we will first show that attributes which can be ascribed to God alone are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. One of the divine attributes is the eternal nature of God. He has always existed. In Hebrews 9:14 we read that Christ through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God. If the Spirit is eternal, and this is an attribute that can only be ascribed to deity, then the Spirit is God. Notice also how the three Persons of the Trinity are linked in the verse.

Another attribute of God is His omniscience. God knows all things, as James said in Acts 15:18: "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world." This attribute is also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. In I Corinthians 2:10,11 we read, "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Here the knowledge of God is attributed to the Spirit of God.

Another attribute of deity is omnipresence. God exists everywhere in the universe at once. In Psalm 139:7 David asks, "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?" God exists in the heavens, in hell, and in the uttermost parts of the sea. The Spirit is with me now where I am, and at the same time He is with you wherever you may be reading this book right now. God is omnipotent. This is a word used to express that He is all-powerful. When Sarah laughed at the announcement that she was to have a son in her old age, the angel of the Lord asked, "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14). Jesus said, "With God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). In Luke 1:37 He said, "With God nothing shall be impossible." The angel said to Mary when she questioned him on how she, a virgin, could bear a child, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee" (Luke 1:35). Here the Holy Spirit and the power of the highest are used synonymously.

The Works of the Spirit

Not only are divine attributes ascribed to the Holy Spirit, but so are divine works. One of the divine works is that of creation. The entire Trinity was active in creation. In Genesis 1:1 we read, "In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth." In John 1:1-3 we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." The Spirit was also an active force in creation. In Genesis 1:2 the Spirit is described as moving over the face of the waters. The Spirit was in conference with the Father and the Son when God said, "Let us make man in our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). In Psalm 104:30 we read, "Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created."

Another work of God is that of giving life. We recognize that God is the Giver and Sustainer of life. In II Corinthians 3:6, as Paul was referring to the letter of the law, he said, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." In John 6:63 Jesus said, "It is the Spirit that [maketh alive]."

The Bible was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, yet we properly refer to the Bible as the Word of God. Second Peter 1:21 tells us, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." In II Timothy 3:16 Paul declares, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Peter says that the writers were moved by the Holy Spirit and Paul says that they were inspired by God. Thus the Spirit is recognized to be God.

This is why many Scriptures in the Old Testament which declare that the Lord spoke are attributed to the Holy Spirit when quoted in the New Testament. In Isaiah 6:8,9 the prophet said, "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, 'Here am I; send me.' And He said, Go, and tell this people, ye hear indeed but understand not; ye see indeed but perceive not." When Paul quoted this passage in Acts 28:25,26 he said, "Well spoke the Holy Spirit by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, saying, 'hearing ye shall hear and not understand; seeing ye shall see and not perceive.'" Isaiah said the Lord spoke; Paul said the Holy Spirit spoke. They can both be right only if the Holy Spirit and the Lord are one.

The Trinity Working Together

In Acts 5:1-11 we have an interesting account of discipline in the infant church as God was seeking to preserve its purity. Motivated by love, many Christians attempted to establish a Christian community by selling all their possessions and turning the proceeds over to the apostles, so that the Christians might have all things in common. A certain couple, Ananias and Sapphira, sold their property but together decided to hold back a share of the price for themselves. When Ananias brought his portion to Peter, Peter asked, "Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep part of the price of the land? While it remained was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own power? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God" (Acts 5:3,4). Peter said that Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit, then declared that he had lied to God, thereby making the Holy Spirit and God one.

Throughout the New Testament we see the Trinity working together or coupled together. When Jesus commissioned the disciples to go out and teach all nations (Matthew 28:19,20), He told them to baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. These three names distinguish the three Persons of the one God.

In II Corinthians 13:14, in his apostolic benediction, Paul said, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." Here again the three Persons of the one God are linked together.

In I Corinthians 12:4-6 Paul says, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who works all in all." In verse 4 he refers to the Spirit, in verse 5 to the Lord (Jesus), and in verse 6 to God (the Father). So, though there may be diversities in the gifts and in their operation and administration, there is a unity because God is behind it all.

Access Through the Spirit

At this point you may be thinking, "Well, what difference does it all make whether the Spirit is God or just an essence from God?" Because the Spirit is a part of the Godhead, it is proper to worship Him, and we are correct when we sing, "Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." God has ordained that we relate to Him through the Spirit. It is in the realm of the Spirit that man can touch God. It is my spirit brought into union with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). Paul also said, "His Spirit bears witness with our spirits" (Romans 8:16). If I am to have communion with God, I must recognize the Holy Spirit and realize that He is the One that makes this fellowship possible.

Man has never had direct access to the Father; this is a common fallacy among people who forget the awesome holiness of God. When God manifested Himself on the Holy Mount to the Jewish people (Exodus 19), He had them set boundaries around the mountain so they wouldn't get too close to the manifestation of God and be put to death. When the people saw from afar the awesome demonstration of God, they said to Moses, "You speak to us and we will hear, but don't let God speak to us lest we die."

The veil in the tabernacle demonstrated the separation that must exist between the Holy God and an unholy people. This veil could only be penetrated after an elaborate cleansing and sacrifices by the high priest, and this only one day in the year, and by the one man, the high priest.

Jesus said, "No man comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). Jesus told the Jews that they really didn't know the Father. He also told them that Moses would be the witness against them. They do not follow the prescribed way to God that was given to Moses by God, but today seek to approach Him on the basis of their good works without sacrifice. Sin has always been the barrier between man and God, and until something is done about man's sin, there can be no approach to God. In Isaiah 59:1,2 we read, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your inequities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." Jesus provided a way to cleanse us from our sins, thus making the approach to God possible. Through faith in Jesus Christ my spirit is made alive, and thus can be united with God's Spirit. In this way God and man are joined in the Spirit.

 

3. The Person of the Holy Spirit

Because we want you to have a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, we will next show that the Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit is a Person, rather than merely an essence, force, or power. You can have raw power without personality, such as electricity, but it is difficult to have an intimate, close relationship to such impersonal power.

The word "spirit" in Greek is pneuma, which is in the neuter gender. Because of this, in early church history a brilliant theologian named Arius began to promote the idea that Jesus was less than God, having been created by God, and that the Holy Spirit is just the "essence" of God. This became known as the Arian heresy, and it still exists and attracts a wide following. The Nicaean Counsel stripped Arius from his position and branded his teachings as heresy. The Holy Spirit is more than just an essence or force; He is a Person. You shouldn't worship a force or essence. Can you imagine singing the doxology, "Praise Father, Son, and Essence"? He is a Person, and as one of the Persons of the Godhead He is worthy to be praised. If we do not believe in the personality of the Holy Spirit, we deny Him the praise and worship due Him. If we do not realize that the Holy Spirit is a Person, we find ourselves in the position of seeking to relate to a force or essence. We would be saying, "I need to yield my life to it," or, "I need more of it in my life."

Knowing, Acting, Feeling

That He is a Person is clearly shown in the Scriptures. Characteristics are ascribed to Him that can only be ascribed to persons. A person is a being with a mind, will, and feelings. If in the Scriptures these characteristics are ascribed to the Holy Spirit, then it must be concluded that the Spirit is a Person. In I Corinthians 2:10,11 we read, "But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God." Here reference is made to the Spirit possessing knowledge. Raw force or power possesses no knowledge. It would be absurd to replace the word "essence" for "Spirit" in the text, for you would have the "essence" searching all things!

In Romans 8:27 Paul says, "And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." Here reference is made to the mind of the Spirit, a characteristic not associated with just an essence. In I Corinthians 12:11 Paul, concerning the gifts of the Spirit, says, "But all these worketh that one and selfsame Spirit, dividing to each man severally as He wills." So the Holy Spirit possesses a will, a trait associated with personality.

In Romans 15:30 Paul associates the emotion of love to the Spirit. A force or power cannot love. You do not associate love apart from personality. It is interesting that, although I have read or heard scores of sermons on God's love, or the love of Jesus Christ for us, I have yet to hear a sermon on the love of the Holy Spirit. Yet this must be one of the chief characteristics of the Spirit, as this is the fruit He produces in our lives. The Holy Spirit does possess feelings and can be grieved, because Paul in Ephesians 4:30 admonishes the church not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Think how foolish it would sound to say you have grieved the essence.

The Personal Words

Throughout the Scriptures personal pronouns are used to refer to the Holy Spirit. In John 14:16 Jesus said, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." Here the pronoun "He" is used for both the Father and the Spirit. If you believe in a personal God, you should also believe in a personal Spirit. In that same passage Jesus went on to say that the world could not receive the Spirit because they did not see Him or know Him; Jesus said that you know Him, for He dwells with you.

Notice how many times Jesus uses the personal pronoun for the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7-14 Jesus repeatedly uses the personal pronoun to refer to the Holy Spirit. "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: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is 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. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." In the Greek, the personal pronouns "He" and "Him" are used for the Spirit over and over in Scripture.

The Spirit in Action

Personal acts are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. In Acts 13:2 we read, "The Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Again, to insert "power" or "essence" for the Spirit is incomprehensible. How can an essence or power speak? In Romans 8:26 we are told that the Holy Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Again, try to conceive a mere force making intercession! If the Holy Spirit were just an essence or force where He is mentioned in Scripture, you should be able to insert the words "force" or "essence" and do no damage to the meaning of the text. But such a thing is obviously impossible, because the Holy Spirit is a Person. The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus Christ in John 15:26, and He teaches the believers and brings things to their remembrance in John 14:26. In Acts 16:2,7 the Holy Spirit forbade Paul and his companions to go into Asia and would not allow them to go into Bithynia. In Genesis 6:3 we find that the Holy Spirit strives with man.

The Holy Spirit can receive treatment as a Person. He can be offended. It is impossible to conceive of offending "the power" or "the breath." Your breath can be offensive, but you can't offend your breath! In Ephesians 4:30 Paul exhorts, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." The Holy Spirit can be lied to. This is the accusation that Peter brought against Ananias: "You have lied to the Holy Spirit." It is also possible to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that this was such a heinous sin that there was no forgiveness for the person who did it. He said, "You can blaspheme me and be forgiven, but not the Holy Spirit." Here Jesus makes the distinct separation between Himself and the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is identified with persons. Paul said, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28). Try making sense by inserting wind or power in this verse!

The Holy Spirit is a Person; He is not just the essence of God. You need to come into a personal relationship with Him so that you might begin to experience His love and His power working in your life as He guides you in your spiritual walk.

The Power of the Spirit

Have you ever felt that you should share with a person his or her need to accept Jesus Christ, yet you didn't have the nerve to bring up the subject? Have you ever gone past a college, observed the thousands of students, realized that most of them are lost, and then wondered how they could possibly be reached for Christ? Do you ever think of the billions of people who have never received a true presentation of the gospel, and then wonder how it might be accomplished?

To Peter, who denied his Lord on a one-to-one basis with the young maid, and to the rest of the disciples (who fled when the going got tough) the commission of Jesus to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature must have seemed a totally impractical as well as an impossible command, and indeed it was. There is no way that 11 insignificant men from Galilee could reach the world for Jesus Christ. That is why Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the Holy Spirit, for it was by this power that they were to be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the world.

Is this experience of the power of the Holy Spirit something that God intended only for the early church? Do the Scriptures indicate that the time would come when we did not need to depend on the power of the Spirit, but through our perfected knowledge of the Scriptures we could do God's work on our own? Is the church that was begun in the Spirit now to be perfected in the flesh? What is the answer to the church's impotence? Why has the church failed to stop the mad downward plunge of the corrupted world around us?

Paul warns us in Hebrews 4 to fear that we do not come short of receiving the promise of God to enter into His rest. Is it not also appropriate for us to fear that, if God has given us a promise of power in our personal lives and power in the corporate body of the church, we might come short of it?

The Promise of the Father

In Acts 1 we read that the disciples were with Jesus in Bethany, from where He would soon be departing from them and ascending into heaven. The clouds would receive Him out of their sight. He was giving to them their final instructions, which were of the utmost importance. In Acts 1:4 Jesus told them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, He said, "You have heard of me." In Luke 24:49 Jesus said, "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high."

In both places Jesus referred to the promise of the Father, which is no doubt a reference to Joel 2:28,29, where God promised, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit." This is confirmed in the second chapter of Acts, when the crowd that had assembled as a result of the supernatural phenomena accompanying the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was asking the question, "What does this mean?" Peter in explanation replied, "This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel," and he quoted the prophecy of Joel. The promise of God was that the day would come when He would pour out His Spirit, not just upon special individuals, but upon all flesh.

The Promise of the Savior

Jesus had also promised the Spirit to His disciples in John 14:16,17, where He said, "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not neither knoweth Him; but ye know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you." When Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, He referred to Him as "another Comforter." The word translated comforter comes from the Greek word parakletos, which literally means "to come alongside to help." This is the basic ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer. He is there to help us. Up to this time Jesus had been alongside His disciples, helping them. They had rightly come to depend upon His help. He was the Master of every situation.

When the storm threatened to sink their little boat, Jesus rebuked the winds and the waves, and there was a great calm. When the tax collector was demanding unjust taxes, Jesus told Peter to go down and catch a fish and take the coin out of its mouth and pay the taxes. No matter what situation arose, Jesus was always alongside to help.

Now He has told them that He is leaving them. He won't be with them as in times past. Their hearts must have been troubled by His words, and they were afraid to face the future without Him. So He promised that He would not leave them without help, that He would ask the Father, and He would send them another Comforter or Helper to abide with them forever: the Spirit of truth. For our Christian walk, we are completely dependent upon the help of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible to do any worthwhile Christian service apart from His help.

Waiting in Jerusalem

Because the words "tarry in Jerusalem" are used in Luke's Gospel, many Pentecostals have established "tarrying meetings" as the way by which the power of the Holy Spirit is to be received in the believer's life. It should be noted that the command was to "tarry in Jerusalem," so to be entirely Scriptural, the tarrying meetings should all be in Jerusalem!

It is obvious that Jesus was not establishing a universal method by which the Holy Spirit would be imparted to believers in all ages. He was only encouraging them to wait for just a few days in Jerusalem until He sent the Holy Spirit as a gift to the church. Once the Holy Spirit was given on the Day of Pentecost, it was never necessary to tarry for Him again, and we do not find in the book of Acts any tarrying meetings, nor are they advocated in the New Testament as the method by which the gift of the Holy Spirit is to be received.

Dynamic Power for You

In Acts 1:8 Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them, and that through this power they would bear witness of Christ to the uttermost parts of the earth. The Greek word translated "power" is dunamis. Our English word "dynamic" comes directly from this word, and that describes what the Holy Spirit is to be in us - the dynamic by which we live and serve God. Without this dynamic the Christian life is impossible and service is fruitless. What glorious new dimensions the power of the Holy Spirit brings into the believer's life - the power to be and to do all that God wants!

It is not God's will that your life in Christ be dull and drab, or that your service be a chore. God intends that your walk with Him be full of joy. He wants you to have power and victory in your life. If your life in Christ is not dynamic and victorious, God has something more for you. The promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit is "to you and to your children and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

 

4. The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Life of the Believer

What is the intended work of the Spirit in the life of the believer? As we have already noted in John 14, His name "Comforter" indicates His coming alongside us to help us. I have not found my Christian walk to be easy. I find that my flesh fights me all the way. With Peter, I too have often discovered that the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. I understand what Paul was talking about in Galatians 5 as he spoke of the warfare between the flesh and the spirit. If God has help for me, I'm ready for it; I want all the help I can get! I never want to set limits on what God wants to give me, or what He wants to do in my life. I do not want to be guilty, as were the Israelites in the wilderness, of limiting God (Psalm 78:41). By the same token, I am not looking for experience for experience's sake; I want only the genuine work of the Holy Spirit, but I want it all.

Trusting the Spirit

In the discourse of Jesus to His disciples, beginning in John chapter 14, He is seeking to prepare them for His departure. He is talking much about His leaving them and returning to the Father. He also speaks much to them of the provisions which the Father and He had made for them by the power of the Holy spirit. He would be there to help them. As they had learned to trust in Jesus for any situation or emergency that might arise, they must now learn to trust in the Holy Spirit. He will now be their Helper.

Jesus spent His three years with His disciples teaching them the truth of God. Now their Teacher is departing to return to the Father, but the students will not be on their own; this Helper, the Holy Spirit, will now teach them all things and will recall to their remembrance all the things that Jesus had said to them (John 14:26).

Perhaps you've had the experience of sharing the gospel with someone when he or she asked a question that immediately stumped you; but as you began to answer, the Scriptures started coming into your mind, and you were pleased and satisfied with the answer you gave the person. This is the recall work of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the things of God. Many times I have been frustrated in an attempt to explain some spiritual truth to a non-believer. It seems so clear and obviously evident, yet he or she cannot seem to grasp it. If you are dealing with things concerning the Spirit of God, the natural man "receives them not, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2:14).

Dead Versus Living Spirit

While attending college I had a sociology professor who believed in the dichotomy of man, and I believed in the trichotomy of man. Many times we expressed our differing views to each other. I was frustrated that he could make no distinction between the soul and spirit of man, but believed them to be synonymous. One day as I was leaving class frustrated after another discussion in which he seemed to have deliberate blindness, it was as though the Holy Spirit brought I Corinthians 2:14 to mind. Then I realized that as an unregenerate person his spirit was dead, so I was speaking to him of mysteries which he could not know. He did not and could not know of the spirit of man until he was born of the Holy Spirit. In I Corinthians 2:15 Paul says, "He that is spiritual understands all things, yet he himself is understood by no man."

Anyone who lives only on the body-conscious plane is living on the animal level of existence. His mind is ruled and dominated by his body needs; he does not understand the things of the Spirit, for his own spirit is dead. No wonder he seeks to relate himself to the animal kingdom, for he is living as an animal, a body-dominated consciousness. When a person is born again by the Spirit, his own spirit comes alive and, now joined to God by the Spirit, he is encouraged through the Word to live a Spirit-dominated life. As he does, he begins to have a Spirit-dominated consciousness.

Letting the Spirit Lead

As we live after the Spirit, our thought patterns are different because we are now thinking of God and how we might please Him and serve Him. The mind of the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6). What a tremendous help the Holy Spirit is to us as He teaches us the things of God and helps us to understand them! The Bible seems to come alive with meaning and excitement as Scripture after Scripture seems to almost jump off the page to minister to us.

In John 16:13 Jesus promised His disciples that when the Spirit of truth had come He would guide them into all truth, and would show them things to come. It is so necessary to have that guidance of the Holy Spirit into all truth. Jesus warned of false prophets that would be wolves, yet appear in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15). There are men who come among the flock of God and appear to be part of it, but whose main motive is to prey upon the flock. They bring in damnable heresies and seek to draw men after themselves. In Acts 20:29,30 Paul warned the elders of the church in Ephesus, "For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

Peter warns in II Peter 2:1-3, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."

Sensing the Phony Prophets

Note one of the marks of the false prophet: "with feigned words make merchandise of you." I regularly receive computer-typed letters from noted evangelists that fit Peter's description perfectly. These letters will say such things as, "Benny, God laid you on my heart this morning, and I have been in prayer for you. I just can't get you off my mind, Benny; is everything all right? Is there some special need that I can pray about? Please write me immediately, because I love you, Benny, and I want to help you! Incidentally, my ministry is in one of its greatest financial crises ever. We are going to have to close down some of our great works for God unless we get your help immediately. If you don't have 50 dollars to send me, maybe you could borrow it elsewhere and help me keep God's faith work going. Plant your seed of faith today. God will help you repay the loan you get. Your partner in faith."

My name is not Benny, but somehow that is the way it has gotten on their mailing lists. These types of deceitful letters seek only to make merchandise of the people, and on the authority of God's Word I do not hesitate to call their authors false prophets.

This is charismania in one of its most blatant forms and is practiced by most of the charismatic evangelists, especially those who emphasize divine healing. I always marvel that they can have such faith for my healing and so little faith for their own financial needs.

It is beautiful to see how the Spirit will warn you when someone starts to get off in his doctrine. Quite often you cannot pinpoint the error immediately, but you know that something isn't quite right. The Spirit has been given to the believer to guide him into all truth.

Learning Things to Come

The Holy Spirit also shows us things to come. When Daniel was seeking a fuller understanding of the time of the end and the things he had written, he was commanded to "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4). As Daniel persisted in his questioning, again the Lord said, "Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand" (Daniel 12:9,10).

It is by the help of the Holy Spirit that a clearer understanding of the coming again of Jesus Christ has been given to the church. Paul the Apostle was shown by the Spirit some of the things that were to come upon his life as he said to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20:22,23: "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Spirit witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me." Later, as Paul continued his journey toward Jerusalem, Agabus the Prophet took Paul's belt, bound himself with it, and said, "Thus saith the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" (Acts 21:11). Here is a classic example of the Holy Spirit showing Paul the things that were to come into his life.

Another example from Paul's life of this work of the Spirit is found in Acts 27:21-24: "But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me and not have loosed from Crete and have gained this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee."

The Mighty Hand of God

In a small prayer group we decided to pray one for another; we had the person to be prayed over sit in a chair in the center of the group. When it was my turn to be prayed for, someone spoke a word of prophecy by the Holy Spirit declaring that God's hand of blessing was going to come upon my ministry in a great way, that the people would come to hear the Word in such numbers that there would not be room in the church to contain them. The prophecy went on to declare that I was being given a new name which meant shepherd, for the Lord was going to make me a shepherd of many flocks.

Up until this time I had been struggling for almost 17 years in the ministry with such limited success that I was contemplating leaving the ministry for some other type of work. The church I was then pastoring was running around 100 in attendance in spite of all our efforts to increase its size through giving free hamburgers to everyone who brought a friend to Sunday school. As these words were being spoken, I was in my heart much like the man upon whom the king leaned - who, when he heard Elisha's promise of God's bountiful provision to come upon the starving inhabitants of Samaria, said, "If God should open windows in heaven, could such a thing be?"

Fortunately, God was merciful to me, for my fate was not the same as his; I have both seen the fulfillment of the prophecy and have been able to partake of it as we see the greatly expanded church facility filled to over-capacity, not just once but three times on Sunday mornings, and as we minister by cassette tapes and videotapes to hundreds of Bible study groups all over the world.

Power to Conquer

The work of the Holy Spirit in your life if you are a believer is to give you the power to be a witness for Jesus Christ, to give you the power to be all that God wants you to be. One of the most frustrating things in the world is trying to live the Christian life in the energy of the flesh. The Bible speaks of the frustration in Romans 7, where Paul speaks of how, when he tried to keep the law of God and to do good, he found that "when I would do good, evil is present with me. And the good that I would I do not. And that which I would not I do. Oh wretched man that I am!" Paul describes in Galatians 5 how the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and how these two are contrary to each other. Jesus said to Peter, "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). Because of the weakness of our flesh, we cannot live the kind of life that the Lord would have us to live and that we ourselves would like to live before the world.

God desires that your life be a true representation of Him in this world. God wants the world to see Jesus Christ in you. He wants your actions and reactions to reflect Him. He wants you to be His witness, representing Him. But if you attempt to be His witness, if you try to react like Christ, you'll find how difficult and frustrating it is to do this - in fact, how impossible it is because of the weakness of the flesh.

The Perfect Witness

Many Christians find themselves in that frustration of knowing what is right and wanting what is right, but somehow not doing what is right. The Bible says of Jesus Christ that He was the true and faithful witness; He was a witness of the Father. If you want to know what God is like, just look at Jesus Christ, because He was the true and faithful Witness. When Philip cried out, "Lord, if You'll just show us the Father, we'll be satisfied," Jesus replied, "Have I been so long with you, and yet hast though not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me? Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also" (John 14:9-12). Jesus then gave the promise of the Holy Spirit to them.

Jesus faithfully represented God in every action. He demonstrated to us that God is interested in the physical, emotional, and spiritual welfare of man. God is interested in your sufferings; God is interested in your sorrows. God is interested in your pains; God is interested in your weaknesses. Jesus never came upon a sorrowing scene without bringing victory and joy to it. He never faced the weakness of humanity without imparting the strength of God.

The Great Helper

God wants to help you in your weakness, so He has sent another Comforter, one to come alongside you and help you. Jesus said, "Ye shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you." You will receive this dynamic. When I think of the power of the Holy Spirit, it is first the power to be what God wants me to be, and this extends into every area of my life: power in my prayer life, power for a holy walk, power to be and do. Here the promise is power, and it is related to being a witness for Jesus Christ: "Ye shall be witnesses."

We make a mistake when we think of witnessing as something we do; in reality it is something that we are. So often witnessing is associated with passing out tracts on the street corner, or going door to door to declare the gospel, or sharing the four spiritual laws with our neighbor over a cup of coffee. These are all forms of sharing our faith, but doing them does not make us witnesses of Jesus Christ. Being a witness is more than speaking words; it is living a life. The word "witness" comes from the Greek word martus, which transliterated into English is martyr. We think of a martyr as one who dies for his faith; however, it is really one whose life is so totally committed to his faith that nothing will dissuade him from it, not even the threat of death. His death does not make him a martyr; it only confirms that he was truly a martyr. Many Christians testify of Jesus Christ without ever being a true witness.

More Than Just Words

What a person says is often meaningless because he is not living a life that backs up what he is saying. If you are trying to share with someone the love that Jesus brings, yet your life is filled with hatred, bitterness, and jealousy, he will not respond to what you are saying because your life is contradicting what you are saying. If you go around saying, "You really need to know the joy of Jesus Christ; He'll give you such joy," but you're always depressed and pessimistic, your life isn't a witness of what you're saying. People will observe your depression and discount what you said. If you say, "You need to know the Lord so you can have real peace in your heart, the peace that passes all human understanding. Receive Jesus and have peace" - but your life is torn up and you're constantly nervous and worried and filled with anxiety, people will look at your anxiety and worry and won't hear what you're saying about peace. Your words can be totally drowned out by your actions. It is more important that the activities of your life be a witness for Jesus Christ, and then your words become meaningful. If your words aren't backed up by your life, your words really have no good effect at all.

A lot of people think, "I'm a witness for Jesus - I go down to the beach and pass out tracts. I share the four spiritual laws wherever I go." That doesn't make you a true and faithful witness. Your life must be in full harmony with God, so that when people look at your life they say, "There's something different about that person." Saying it doesn't make you a witness; living it does.

The Lord wants to give us the power to be a witness. He will empower us through the Holy Spirit, for in our own selves we are weak and failing. God wants us to be strong. God wants us as witnesses for Him.

Peter As a Failure

In Mark 14:53,54 we read, "And they led Jesus away to the high priest; and with Him were assembled all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. And Peter followed him afar off, even into the palace of the high priest; and he sat with the servants, and warmed himself at the fire." As we follow the story through to verse 66 we read, "And as Peter was beneath in the palace, there cometh one of the maids of the high priest; and when she saw Peter warming himself, she looked upon him and said, 'And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth.' But he denied, saying, 'I know not, neither understand what thou sayest.' And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew. And a maid saw him again, and began to say to them that stood by, 'This is one of them.' And he denied it again. And a little later they that stood by said again to Peter, 'Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech agrees to this.' But he began to curse and swear, saying, 'I know not this man of whom ye speak.' And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him: 'Before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice.' And when he thought thereon, he wept" (verses 66-72).

Earlier that evening Jesus had said, "All of you are going to be offended tonight because of me." But Peter had replied, "Lord, though they all be offended, I will never be offended." And Jesus had responded, "Peter, before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times." At this point Peter began to get very vehement, and he said, "Lord, even though they slay me, I would never deny You!"

Peter thought he was a true martyr, and I believe he was perfectly sincere. I know exactly how he felt when he made his boast to the Lord, for his spirit was willing and he really felt he had all it took to die for Jesus if necessary. But when the chips were down, Peter didn't have it; when this young maid asked, "Weren't you with Jesus?" Peter responded, "I don't know what you're talking about!" Later she said to a group standing there, "He is one of them," and Peter denied Jesus again. Then those standing by said, "Surely you are one of them; you have a Galilean accent." Then Peter began to curse and swear, saying, "I don't know the man!" Then came the reminder of what the Lord had predicted: the rooster began to crow. when Peter heard this he went out and wept. How many times I have wept over my own weakness and my own failure! I didn't want to fail the Lord; I didn't want to let Him down; I really wanted to stand for Him. But the pressure was too great, and I was not a witness - I failed. How bitter is that failure; how hard it is to realize, "Oh Lord, I failed You again." We get to the place where we don't even want to promise Him anything anymore, because we just know we'll fail Him again.

I can identify with Peter; I know exactly how he felt when he heard that rooster crowing. I know exactly that misery - "Oh, God, I'm so sorry I failed You again." Must we go on forever in our Christian experience failing our Lord? No. Thank God we don't have to go on failing - He has promised to us the power to be what we could never be through our own strength or strong wishes.

Peter As a Witness

A few weeks later Peter faced the same group of men who had incited the murder of Jesus: "It came to pass on the morrow that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, and Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst [that is, Peter and John and the lame man] they asked, 'By what power or what name have ye done this?' Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, 'Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole, be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:5-12).

When they saw the boldness of Peter they marveled (Acts 4:13). This is a different fellow from the one who a few weeks earlier stood on the porch of the palace and denied his Lord. What a different man! Reading the two accounts, you wouldn't believe it was the same person. What made the difference? The difference lies in that little phrase "filled with the Holy Spirit." Jesus had said to His disciples, "They are going to bring you before the magistrates and the judges, and when they do, do not worry about what you are going to say. Don't make any little prepared speeches, for in that hour the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and it will be the Holy Spirit who speaks through out. You shall receive power; you shall be witnesses." The Holy Spirit is the Helper, the One who helps you to be all that God wants you to be - a true and faithful witness of Him.

The Only Source of Power

The Holy Spirit gives us the power to be a true and faithful witness of Jesus Christ - the power of truly representing Him on the job, in the home, or in the classroom - so that when people look at us they will see the love, the peace, and the beauty of Jesus Christ in our actions and attitudes. They will see a person who is at peace in the storm. That is the power that we need if we are to be His witnesses, for we cannot be a true witness of Him in our own strength or ability; without the power of the Holy Spirit we will fail every time the real issue arises and the pressure is on. It is not until we learn to rely completely on the Holy Spirit that we experience this power.

One of our most common mistakes is that when we see an area of weakness in our life we immediately try to compensate for it and to correct it ourselves. We say, "I'm sorry, Lord; I'll never do that again. I promise you, Lord." We mean what we say, yet we do it again. The problem is that we are trying to correct the issue ourselves, thinking that somehow, if we will only work at it a little harder or try a different approach, we can change and correct the weaknesses of our own character and nature.

It is not until we are brought to the total desperation of the helplessness of ourselves, and give up and surrender, that we know the joy of His victory. It wasn't until Paul cried out, "Oh wretched man that I am!" that he recognized the truth about himself and no longer looked for "Who has another program that I can try?" "Who has another formula?" Paul gave up and cried out for a power outside himself: "Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me? I can't deliver myself." He gave up trying to deliver himself and he recognized that he was wretched.

Then he answered his own question: "Thanks be unto God that, through the promise of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, God has provided for my victory." As we move into Romans 8 we read all about the Spirit-led, Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-empowered life. Paul concludes the chapter by saying that we are "more than conquerors through Him who loved us."

What a different story from the defeat and sad despair of the weakness of the flesh in chapter 7! What a glorious cry of victory - "More than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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!" (Romans 8:37-39).

That glorious cry of victory is possible because of the empowering of the Spirit when I give myself up and turn myself over to God and receive that power, that dynamic from God. At this point I allow the Holy Spirit to do His work within my life, the work that God has designed for Him to do.

Not My Own Power

The effect of this is that I cannot stand up and boast to you about what a wonderful person I am or about the wonderful witness I am for my Lord or about the wonderful way I react in tough situations. All boasting is now in God's work through His Spirit. I am still a wretched man, but thank God I have been delivered from my wretchedness through the power of the Holy Spirit. When I face a pressured situation now, and things are pushing in on every side, thank God the pressure doesn't even build up anymore. It's almost like sitting on the outside and watching the Spirit work rather than being involved. All of a sudden I say, "Thank God! That's not me; that's not the way I react!"

A retired naval officer accepted Jesus as his Lord a while ago. He had a foul tongue, as many military people do. After he accepted the Lord he was really all-out for Jesus. When he was about six months old in the Lord, he was out in the backyard mowing the lawn with his power mower, whistling as he bubbled in the joy of the Lord. As he was busy mowing and not watching very closely, he went under a tree and a limb caught him right in the forehead and laid him on his back.

As he lay there on his back, all of a sudden he got excited. He went running into the house, grabbed his wife, and said, "Honey, guess what happened to me!" She looked at his bloodied face and asked, "What happened to you? What did you do?" He replied, "That's not what it is; it's what I didn't do! When it happened I didn't cuss! Not even one bad word!" She responded, "Honey, do you know that I haven't heard you use a bad word in six months?" He asked, "You haven't?" The Lord had taken away his foul tongue without his even realizing it, until a situation came along that was so apt to arouse the old nature that suddenly he realized that God had given him the victory.

Changed on the Inside

That's the beautiful way of the Holy Spirit; He works in such a way that many times the work is already accomplished, and we don't even realize it. We're changed from within; that's the method of the Spirit. It's the change from within that comes out, which is exactly the opposite of the method by which we have been trying to do it. We have been trying to force the changes from the outside in. We can sometimes be successful in changing the outside, but if the inside isn't changed, what is in will eventually come out.

It is important that the Spirit do the changing from within. When this happens, only God can receive the glory. Where is my boasting? It is excluded. There is no way I can boast, because what I was I still am. But thanks be to God for His grace: through the power of His Holy Spirit I am now a new creature in Christ Jesus. The old nature I count as dead. Does this mean that I never get angry? No, I wish it did. But it does mean this: whenever I do get angry and fail, I say, "Lord, let Your Spirit work. Give me the power, Lord; I can't do it. You will have to do it, Lord; give me the power." In one area after another in my life, when I yield that area of weakness to the power of the Holy Spirit, I begin to experience real changes as the spirit works within me and conforms me into the image of Christ.

Closing the Door?

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus made a very remarkable statement, one that must have puzzled those who heard it. In Matthew 5:20 He said, "For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." It is our desire, goal, and prayer that we might enter into the kingdom of heaven. But it would seem that Jesus was actually closing rather than opening the door of the kingdom of heaven when He made this astounding statement, for the Pharisees practiced being righteous. They spent their lives trying to interpret the right action, then sought to do it. When Jesus said to His disciples, "Except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven," I imagine that a sorrowful sigh went through them as they gave up hope of ever entering.

Then Jesus went on to close the door even tighter, because He began to give a series of illustrations to explain what He meant - illustrations of how the law was wrongly interpreted by the scribes and Pharisees. Then He contrasted that with how the law was originally meant to be understood. The basic flaw in the Pharisees' interpretation of the law was that they were interpreting it so they could fulfill it and feel good about it. They were interpreting the law to live comfortably with it - but you can't live comfortably with the law. They had begun to feel that they had fulfilled the law, and were going around doing their little righteous acts and thinking they were righteous.

But Jesus showed them that, though their actions were correct, their attitudes were wrong, and thus they were sinners, for the law was spiritual. The law wasn't intended to deal with just the outward actions of man; it was intended to deal with the inner attitudes of man. When the law says, "Thou shalt not murder," you can't really sit back comfortably and boast in yourself by saying, "Well, I've never killed anybody." If you feel smug and self-righteous that you have kept that law, remember that Jesus said, "The way God meant this is that you are not even to hate your brother." The attitude of hatred, Jesus said, was equivalent to the action of murder, as far as the violating of the law.

So it would seem that Jesus was closing the door to the kingdom of God. Finally we get to the last verse of Matthew 5, where it seems like He bolted and locked it, for there He said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."

I Give Up

All of a sudden I realize I cannot attain what God requires of me, because no matter how hard I try, I can't be perfect. I have failed, and there is no way I can fulfill God's requirement or the command of Jesus Christ. It's not that I don't want to be perfect. The Lord knows I'd love to be perfect, especially when I'm wrong. It would be nice to always do the right thing; it would be nice to always have the right reaction; but I don't. Many times I have a very wrong reaction to things, and that's when I wish I were right.

This is what psychologists call our superego - the picture of our ideal self, what we really want to be, and what we would be if circumstances were only different. In contrast to this is our actual self, our real self, our ego - that which we really are. Psychologists tell us that our mental problems are sometimes caused by the disparity between the two. If the real you is far removed from the ideal you, then you may have great mental conflicts. The closer together the ideal you and the real you are, the better-adjusted person you are.

If you go to a psychologist because you are mentally disturbed, he will attempt to discover what you really think you should be - the ideal you - and where in your actual self you are failing. Often he will then try to bring down your concept of the ideal you. He will seek to show you that your values are so high and pure that they are impractical. Often he will seek to lower your standards in order to remove your inner conflicts.

However, when the Lord works on us, He does the opposite. He tries to bring the real you closer to the ideal you. Man working on the problem would bring the ideal you down; the Lord working on the problem would bring the real you up to match the ideal. But God requires of us that which we cannot attain, that which we cannot give.

God's Provision

There is no way that I can fulfill the divine ideal for my life, so God, realizing that, has made provision for me. Knowing that I cannot attain to His divine ideal, God sent His only begotten Son to take all of my failures, all of my sin, all of my shortcomings - and to accept the responsibility for them and to die in my place. God, knowing that I cannot fulfill the divine ideal, has inaugurated a substitute plan so that now what God requires of me is only that I believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.

I can do that! Though I cannot be perfect as God has ideally required of me, I can believe in Jesus Christ, which is God's actual requirement for me. You see, God has now made the kingdom of God open and available to all of us because all it takes is for us to believe in Jesus Christ. When people came to Jesus and asked, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent." You cannot stand before God in that day of judgment and try to excuse yourself by saying, "Well, God, I just couldn't be perfect. I'm just human; I just had all these faults, and I just couldn't keep your requirements, so I just gave up because I figured there's no sense trying." God will reject your excuse because God has only required that you believe in Jesus Christ, the provision that He made for your failing and sinful self. God has made the kingdom of heaven available for everyone. You don't have to be perfect to get there. All you have to do is believe on God's provision through Jesus Christ.

But when you believe on Jesus Christ, and you open the door of your heart and invite Him to come in, then as the Spirit of God comes in He begins to work within you and change you. The Bible says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, and the old things are passed away, and behold all things become new." God's Spirit begins to work in your life to do in you what you couldn't do for yourself. God's Spirit begins His work of change in you, strengthening you, helping you, and conforming you into the image of Jesus Christ.

God's Ideal

As we look around us today and seek to understand God by His creation - God's purpose for man and what His intention was when He created man and placed him on the earth - we cannot discover this truth, for we do not see man fulfilling that ideal. The only place we can discover what God really intended man to be is in Jesus Christ. He is what God intended when in that divine council they said, "Let us make man in our image, after our own likeness."

What did God intend? Look at Jesus Christ and you'll know, for Jesus said, "I do always those things that please the Father." The Father said about Christ, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." As we look at Jesus Christ we see what God intended man to be. We cannot look at Adam, because Adam fell, even though God did not intend for man to fall. We cannot look at ourselves, because we have fallen, even though God didn't intend for us to fall. But if we look at Jesus Christ, there we find the divine ideal, that which God intended when He created man. It is the purpose of God that, through the work of His Holy Spirit in your life, and through the power of the Spirit to bring about changes in you, He will bring you into the likeness or image of Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 4:13 we see what God wants to do in us. Paul declares, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." That's what God is working in us today. That's the work that God seeks to accomplish in our lives through His Holy Spirit, bringing us unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In Romans 8:29 we read of the work of the Holy Spirit within us, conforming us into the image of God's Son. It is God's predestined purpose for us that He by the Holy Spirit might conform us into the image of His Son.

How It Works

In II Corinthians 3:6-18 Paul talks about the Old Testament period when God first gave the law. When Moses came down from the mountain having been there in the glory of God's presence, his face shone so that he had to put a veil over his face when he talked with the people (verse 13). But then in verse 18, in contrast to this veil, Paul said, "We all with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit the Lord."

It is when I look at God's divine ideal in Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit works in me, changing me from glory to glory into the image of Christ. I believe that this is a lifelong work. The Holy Spirit has not completed His work in my life by a long shot. But, praise the Lord, He's working. And, praise the Lord, I'm not what I was - I'm being changed! Those changes are taking place, though I confess that they're taking place too slowly for my own desire. I would love to have them made all at once.

Whenever the Holy Spirit shows me an area that needs working on, whenever He opens up the light and causes me to see my true self and how far it is from what God would have me to be, immediately I think, "Oh, let's get to it; let's conquer." I step in and try to be better, and I keep trying to be better, but the harder I try the worse I get, until I get to the place of defeat and giving up. Then I cry out, "oh God, I'm so wretched. I cannot do it." He replies, "Good. Now will you step aside and let me work? You've been in my way." He is not interested in my self-righteousness; He is not interested in my help. He wants to do His work in me unhindered by my fumbling efforts, because even if He used my fumbling efforts to help give me the victory, I'd be going around boasting in my fumbling rather than in my God. God lets me fail until in despair I cry out for help. As I yield myself to the Spirit of God and allow Him to do His work, He conforms me into the image of Jesus Christ.

I'm No Match

I must be brought to the place of acknowledgment and recognition that I cannot rid myself of the flesh or its desires or weaknesses. I'm no match. As long as I'm struggling and trying, I cannot make it; I will fail.

We're sinners; we need to recognize that fact; there is nothing we can do about it ourselves. We have to call out for a power greater than our own. That's what Paul was doing in Romans 7 when he said, "oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (verse 24). He called out for a power greater than himself, and when he did so, he found the power.

When we with open face behold the glory of the Lord we are changed from glory to glory. God is changing us - changing our attitudes. By our Adamic nature we are very selfish and self-centered. It begins very early in life; you can see it in small children as they say "mine"; it's one of the first words they learn outside of "mama" and "dada." You see them clutching their possession, and you don't dare try to take it away from them or you will hear about it in no uncertain terms. If you take their bottle away, you've got a fight on your hands - screaming, hollering, and kicking. It's just fortunate that they are as small and weak as they are, or they would tear the crib to pieces! They are blessed little children, but they have the Adamic nature.

As long as I am selfish and self-centered, I am not what God wants me to be. God does not want me to be self-centered. God does not want me to be interested in my own welfare first. The Lord wants me to be interested in other people and to share what I have with them in their need. That is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 5 when He said, "Be ye therefore perfect; even as your Father in heaven is perfect." But this isn't natural; it's supernatural, and we can attain it only by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit coming in and changing our attitude concerning ourselves and our possessions.

Not only does He change the attitude (which is the most important thing), but the changed attitude changes action. Too often we try to do it the other way around. It seems that our philosophy is to change a person's actions and hope that by changing his actions we can change his attitude. Psychologists say that if we act out emotion we will get the corresponding emotion. But God is interested in truly changing the attitude of our heart, and this changed attitude brings the changed action of our life.

The Change from Within

The gospel and the Holy Spirit work from the inside out. My heart is changed and my attitude is changed, and thus my actions reflect the changed attitudes within. The Holy Spirit working in me is changing me from glory to glory, bringing me into the image of Jesus Christ. How? By my looking at Him with unveiled face. How do I see Him? I can only see Him in the Word, and the Spirit makes the Word alive to my heart.

Peter tells us in his second epistle that God has given us exceedingly rich and precious promises, and that by these we are made partakers of the divine nature. It is there in the Book, but you must behold Jesus in the Book; you must look for Him there. Many people read the Bible with their faces veiled. It takes the Holy Spirit to open the Bible, to take the veil off their eyes so they can understand. The work of the Holy Spirit within us is so important. We cannot be what God would have us to be apart from the working of the Holy Spirit within our life.

No one knows me as well as I know myself except the Lord, and He knows me better than I know myself. A lot of things that I thought about myself I discovered were not true. Many of the things in my ideal self-image did not turn out like I thought they would. When I looked at myself through rose-colored glasses, I looked very rosy! But when the Holy Spirit broke my glasses, I was surprised. But He had to. He had to destroy my illusions of myself in order to deal with those areas of my life that I refused to acknowledge to Him. He had to bring them forth and reveal them in all of their ugliness so that He could then work to rid me of them.

A Son of God

I know that I am now a son of God, not through any righteousness of my own, but by my faith in Jesus Christ. "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on His name" (John 1:12). Because I believed on Jesus Christ, God gave me the power to become a son of God. So now I know I am a son of God, and that to me is absolutely glorious. If I am a son, then I am an heir. I am an heir of God and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ, and I do not know anything that could be more glorious than that.

God is working on my inner man by His Holy Spirit, but my problem is that though I am new on the inside, I am still the old Chuck on the outside. But the old Chuck is actually dead, so I have got to drag this old corpse around until the day that God finally delivers me from it. With my mind and with my heart I serve the Lord, but so many times with my body I am controlled by my own selfish desires. This old corpse gets heavy and hard to carry around There are times when I groan, desiring to be delivered, not that I would be an unembodied spirit, but that I might be clothed upon with that new body which is from heaven, that I might be like Him, as I see Him as He is.

I am a son of God. I have a renewed spirit in an unredeemed body. God is not going to take this body into heaven, praise the Lord! "This corruption must put on incorruption." A change is starting to take place now: "We with open face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed" This particular word changed in the Greek is metamorphoo. The word is used to describe a change of body, as when a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly. Paul said that all creation groans and travails together until now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, namely, the redemption of our bodies.

Like Christ Forever

I should never be satisfied with myself or with my present state of development until I am like Jesus Christ. David said, "I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness." The morning I wake up and take a deep breath of air, and there is no smog, and I feel so different, and I realize that this corruption has put on incorruption - then I will be satisfied, for I will be like Him, for I will see Him as He is. That is what the Spirit is bringing me to; that is the purpose of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. He will not be satisfied until He is finished and brings me into complete conformity to the image of Christ.

The final change will take place at the coming again of Jesus Christ for me, whether it be by death or the rapture of the church. At that time the old nature will be put off and the final change made, but I should not wait for that day. Even now, as I look to Jesus, the process of change is taking place. We should be closer to the image of Christ this year than we were last year, and next year than we are this year, for we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him, and the spirit working in us should be bringing us more and more into His likeness.

Mature or Just Old?

I love to be around saints who have been walking with the Lord for 50, 60, 70 years. I mean those who have really been developing in their walk. I know there are some who have been around 50, 60, 70 years but are still in their spiritual crib, and that is tragic. If you see a child that is just four or five months old, and his arms sort of wave excitedly, and he says, "Da da da" you think, "That's beautiful; look how smart he is - what a beautiful child!" But if your child were 21 years old, and when you walked into the room he was lying on the bed and started smiling and saying, "Da da," it would no longer be a thrilling, exciting emotion - it would be very tragic.

That is the tragedy about so many people in the church today. After 15 or 20 years they are still at the same level of development. They are still banging their cribs. They have still got the same petty gripes. They are still upset with the message of last Sunday, and they are still divided in their little factions. They have not progressed at all. They are spiritual monstrosities because there has never been any development, and the problem is that there are so many of these Christians that it isn't even novel enough to be a curiosity. They are all over the place. They just have not delved into the Word of God to really behold the face of the Lord. They have not allowed the Word of God to really penetrate and the Spirit of God to really teach and instruct them in the things of the Lord or to reveal Jesus unto them in the Book.

How Far to Go?

Oh, that we would yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit now, that He might do His work in us, conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ! How far does He have to go in your life? Do you ever take one of these little self-evaluation tests to discover if you are appealing or a social bore? In I Corinthians 13 is a very simple little self-analysis test that you can take to find out how far the Spirit has come in your life in just one area: the area of love, one of the most important areas. Beginning with verse 4, the definition of this word "love" is given: "Love suffers long and is kind; love envies not, love vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

You say, "What's that got to do with me?" Take out the word "love" and put your name there instead. Then read the list again. "Chuck suffers long and is kind. Chuck envies not, Chuck vaunts not himself, is not puffed up, does not behave himself unseemly, seeks not his own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, etc." To the degree to which the text seems to be incongruous, to that degree I have failed from attaining what God wants me to attain. God help me to yield myself to the Holy Spirit so that He might do His work in me, so that what I have tried to do and failed - what I want but cannot achieve or attain - might be accomplished for me by His power.

 

5. The Agape Love of God

If a person did not make it to heaven he could blame a lot of people or circumstances, but there is one Person he will never be able to blame, and that is God. Someone might say, "It's the church's fault - I tried the church but it just didn't do anything for me." He might blame some poor example of Christianity that he saw: "Well, he said he was a Christian; but I saw the way he lived, and I decided I wanted nothing to do with that."

But one Person you can never blame is God. When I think of all that God has done to bring us salvation, I realize what a fight it is not to be saved. The Bible says, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten son, and then God sent His Spirit into the world to convict us of our sins and to draw us to Jesus Christ. He points out our own helplessness, and then points to Jesus Christ as the Answer - the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Starting the Real Work

Once we have been brought to this point of coming to Jesus, and we say, "Okay, Lord, take over my life" - the moment we surrender ourselves to God - the Holy Spirit begins His work in us in earnest. The moment the door of our heart is open to receive salvation, the Holy Spirit comes into our life, and He begins to make those necessary changes within, conforming us into the image of Christ and empowering us to be the kind of person the Lord would have us to be. He gives us knowledge and understanding in the things of God, so that suddenly the Bible becomes a totally new book to us. As we start to read, it begins to come alive, because the Spirit begins to open up our understanding and fill our heart with God's agape love. But it first takes our coming to Jesus and submitting our life to Him.

Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me." It actually means "eat supper with him." In the Orient, the greatest method of communion with a person was to eat with him. In eating together with a person, you have created a unity or a bond. Since you have partaken of the same food, it now becomes part of both of you, and so you become part of each other. The people of the Orient placed great significance on the breaking of bread together and the drinking from the same cup, because it created an affinity, a unity. It is interesting to note that Jesus always liked to eat supper with people. He enjoyed that oneness, that identity with people.

It is significant that Jesus says, "I'm standing at the door knocking; if you will open the door, I will come in and eat supper with you." He will come into your life and you can begin that beautiful, intimate relationship with Him in which you become a part of each other. This is all done through the work of the Holy Spirit. The moment I open the door and believe on Jesus, the Spirit does a marvelous work for me and in me. In Ephesians 1:13 and following, we read about this work of the Holy Spirit in sealing the believer. Paul describes for us all the fantastic blessings that we have as children of God. He begins in 1:3 by saying, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings." Then he begins to list some of those glorious blessings with which God has blessed us.

Blessed Beyond Description

The Christian is actually the most blessed person in the world. God has just blessed us until we cannot take any more. And after He is all through blessing us here, He is going to receive us into the eternal glory, where He is going to bless us forever. Paul talks about the blessings of God: He has chosen us, predestined us, accepted us, redeemed us, forgiven us, made known to us the mystery of His will, and given us an inheritance. In Ephesians 1:13 Paul says, "In whom ye also trusted after ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after you believed."

It all begins with hearing "the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation." Paul said, "How can they believe on Him whom they have not heard?" It is necessary for faith that you first hear the message that God loves you with an everlasting love, and that because He loves you He sent His Son to take your sin and die in your place, so that which kept you from God could be put aside and nothing would hinder your fellowship with God.

God said through the Prophet Isaiah, "The Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot save; neither is His ear heavy that He cannot hear, but your sins have separated between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:1,2). That is always the tragic by-product of sin - separation from God. Sin in my life separates me from God. God did not want that separation, but sin had to be dealt with, so God sent His Son to take my sins - to die in my place - so that I would not have to be separated, and could come back into fellowship with God.

If you are born again, you heard God's good news for you, and you trusted after you heard. First there was the hearing and then the believing of what God said. Then, after you believed, after you opened the door, you were "sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."

God's Seal of Ownership

The seal was used in ancient days primarily as a stamp of ownership. The city of Ephesus was a major port where goods from Asia were brought and then shipped to other places, including Rome. The merchants from Rome would come to Ephesus to buy their goods there. Then they would seal those goods with their signet ring in wax. When the ship arrived at Puteoli (the port where they would land the goods going to Rome), the merchant would claim his goods, proving his ownership by his own personal seal. If someone else started to claim the goods, the merchant could say, "Those are mine. That's my stamp of ownership."

The beautiful Biblical truth is that, once I believed, God sealed me with His own personal stamp of ownership. He actually claimed me as His own possession, so that when the enemy would try to claim me, God would say, "Keep your hands off - he's mine!" That seal of God's ownership is the Holy Spirit. When you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into your life, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in your life is God's seal, God's mark of ownership by which He claims you as His own.

Treasured by God

I do not understand why God prizes me so highly, but He does. In Ephesians 1:18 Paul says, "...that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." He's saying, in other words, "May God open up your eyes to realize how much He treasures you!" I pray that God would open my eyes by the Spirit so that I might find how much God treasures me. That to me is glorious - that God would treasure me. For His own reasons God treasures us, and He has placed His seal on us. The Holy Spirit within us is God's seal. We are also told this in II Corinthians 1:22: "Who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." In Ephesians 4:30 we are commanded, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."

The Future Claim

God has put his stamp of ownership on you at this point because He is claiming you as His own, even though your redemption is not yet complete. That is why the merchants put their stamp of ownership on their merchandise - because they had not yet claimed their goods in the home port. So wherever these goods went they were marked; they had the seal of ownership. In the same way God has put His seal of ownership on you, though He has not yet claimed His purchased possession. Our redemption is not yet complete, but the Holy Spirit is that seal and "the earnest."

In Ephesians 1:14 Paul declares, "Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory." The Holy Spirit is not only the seal of God's ownership, but He is also the earnest, which means a deposit or down payment. God has every intention of completing your redemption. He has made the deposit or down payment - the Holy Spirit. God is declaring His intention of completing His transaction for you.

This redemption will not be complete until we are freed from this body. This body is the thing that is still dragging us down. Paul said, "We who are in this body do groan." In Romans 8:22 he describes how we "groan and travail." All of creation is actually groaning and travailing together until now. Romans 8:23 says, "and not only they but ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption [literally being placed as sons], the redemption of our body."

The End of the Old Body

Robert Service, in his poem "The Cremation of Sam Magee," speaks of hurrying on "with a corpse half hid that he couldn't get rid." It was lashed to the sleigh, but he couldn't get rid of it because he had made this promise on Christmas Eve. That is the way we Christians are. We have a redeemed spirit which is alive unto God, but we have to carry around this old corpse of our body. It hangs on wherever we go, until someday we finally get rid of our load. Paul said, "We who are in this body do groan, earnestly desiring to be delivered, not that we would be unclothed, but that we might be clothed with that body which is from heaven." (See II Corinthians 5:1-4.) That will be the completion of our redemption. That is what I am waiting for.

Some people are troubled to think they are going to get rid of this body. It doesn't trouble me. The Apostle Paul said, "We know that when the earthly body of this tent is dissolved, we have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." This body that I now possess has been passed down to me through my ancestry; all the gene factors have been passed down the line, so I am a composite of my ancestry. I have picked up all the inherited characteristics of man's failure, and so here I am in my groaning body.

The New Body from Heaven

The new body that I am going to have will not be passed down through failing man; it will be given to me directly from God. It is not going to be subject to pain or fatigue or gimpy football knees or so many of the other things I have experienced in this body. It is going to be coming to me directly from God. Paul calls this present body a "tent" in II Corinthians 5:4. You never think of a tent as a permanent place to live. If you have to live in a tent, it is all right for a few weeks in the mountains on vacation, but you do not like to think of it as a permanent place to live. It is so much better to move out of the tent into a real house. God is planning to redeem us completely.

The redemption includes not just a redeemed body, but a new body. With my mind I want to do the will of God. With my mind I want to turn it all over to God. Completely and fully I want to live the kind of life that God wants me to live. There is no problem with my heart and my mind. My problem is that my body keeps dragging me down. It keeps pulling me back and pulling me down, so that I do not always do those things that I want to do. I am pulled down by my body appetites. I cannot be all that I want to be, so I groan. All creation around us is groaning, waiting for the day of redemption, when God lays claim to that which is His. He has His stamp of ownership on it, and one day He is going to come down and say, "This is it." He is going to release my soul and spirit from my body and immediately incorporate it into that new body which is from heaven.

The Suffering World

The same is true of this world. Right now the whole world is suffering as the result of sin: "All creation groans and travails." Every thorn, they say, is an undeveloped blossom. Thorns have come as a result of the curse. And a thorn is just a mark of groaning creation - wanting to blossom out, but unable to. All creation suffers under the curse of sin, waiting for that day of deliverance, waiting for that day when God redeems what He has purchased.

Jesus purchased the world, but He has not yet claimed it. It belongs to Him, but He has not claimed it. It is still under Satan's control. But one of these days very soon He will come back to claim what he purchased. We read about this in Revelation chapter 5. There is a scroll in the right hand of Him who sits upon the throne. An angel declares in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals?" John responds, "I began to weep because no one was found worthy." The elder replies, "Don't weep, John; the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to take the scroll and to loose its seals." So John says, "I turned and saw Him like a lamb that had been slaughtered, and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sits upon the throne." This scroll is the title deed to the earth. Who is worthy to take it? Who is worthy to claim it? No one but Jesus, for He purchased it on the cross, and He is coming back to lay claim to His purchased possession. And I am His purchased possession!

My Assurance

The work of the Holy Spirit today in my life is that of having sealed me. So His indwelling gives me real assurance. When Satan comes and begins to badger me because of the weakness of my flesh and my failures, and begins to tell me that God is not interested in me and God does not love me and is not going to save me, I say, "Satan, you are wrong! I have God's seal; he has marked me; He has stamped me with His seal of ownership. The Holy Spirit indwells me. God has sealed me! He has given me the deposit, and He is coming to claim what He has redeemed."

When we get to heaven (either when Jesus comes for us at the rapture or when we die), we will have our redemption complete. The work of Christ will be finished in us, and we will share forever in the glorious kingdom of God without any further hindrances of this body. We will be able to love, to share, to give, and to relate with one another without any restrictions or limitations.

What a glorious day! What a glorious work of God in sealing us and giving us the earnest of the Spirit until that day of the redemption of the purchased possession!

The Agape Love of Christ

Another work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer is to bring us the agape love of Jesus Christ. Jesus said to His disciples, "By this sign shall men know that ye are my disciples: that ye love one another." The word translated "love" is the Greek word agape, which is rarely found in Greek outside the Bible. It is a word that was used by our Lord Jesus Christ to define a quality of love above an ordinary experience of love. The English language is restricted in some ways, and perhaps most limited in its ability to express love. The French say, "You Englishmen have one way to tell a woman you love her. We have a hundred." They are expressing how much freer and fuller the French language is than the English language in this respect. Within the Greek language are several words for love, but we are limited to just the word "love" in English. I love peanuts. I love Cracker Jacks, and I love my wife. I have to use the same word to describe my feelings for hot fudge sundaes as my feelings for my children. Yet what I feel toward hot fudge sundaes is entirely different from what I feel toward my children or my wife. I am stuck with the one word "love."

Love's Three Words

In the Greek language there is a word for love on the physical plane - the word Eros. It is easy to see the English words that we get from this Greek word, such as "erotic." It is love on the purely physical plane. This word has become vogue among young people today, and I guess older people, too. They say, "Let's make love," and by this they are referring to an Eros experience, which does not necessarily involve true love at all.

The Greeks have a second word for love, a love on a higher plane than the physical - the mental plane, an emotional relationship. The word is Phileo. This is far deeper than Eros, because this involves deeper interaction with another person. Phileo is developed by conversing and finding out that we like the same things. We have a lot in common; we appreciate each other, and through a mutual sharing we come into the Phileo experience of love.

Agape love is total love. It is love in the deepest area; it is true spiritual love. Eros is not true love. If I say "I love you" in the Eros realm, what I am really saying is "I love me, and I want you because I'm in love with me, and I need you." If someone says, "I can't live without you," that does not express deep love for you - it only shows that he is thinking of himself. Eros is extremely selfish. It is self-love.

Phileo love is reciprocal: "I love you because you love me; I love you because you laugh at my jokes; I love you because we like so many of the same things; I love you because we get along well together and have a lot of fun when we're together. I love you because you love me, and you're a pleasant person, and we have a great time together."

The Highest Love

Agape love remains loving even if there is not a return of love. It is a deep love that gives and asks nothing in return. The love is so deep and so great that it just keeps on giving. In fact, that is the chief concern of agape: giving. The word agape is such a vast, broad word that it is difficult for us to even define it in the English language. It is impossible for us to understand it apart from the Spirit of God and His revelation to our heart, because it is not a natural love; it is a supernatural love. The Bible says, "God is agape." It is a divine, supernatural love, and it is probably best defined for us in I Corinthians 13.

First of all, Paul points out the supremacy of this agape love. It is more important that you have this kind of love than that you have spiritual gifts. Paul said, "Though I am able to speak with the tongues of man and angels but have not this love (agape), I am become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal." You may have very powerful oratory; you may have a silver tongue; you may be able to express yourself extremely well. But if you do not have agape love, it is no more meaningful than just clanging on a cymbal. It is a meaningless sound.

Agape is more important than the gifts of prophecy or the word of knowledge or the gift of faith, for "though I could prophecy and understand all things, and though I had all knowledge and faith so that I could remove mountains, if I have not agape, I am nothing." Paul continues, "and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor" agape love is even more important than sacrifice. You may sell everything you have and feed the poor, and give your body to be burned, making the supreme sacrifice, but if you do not have agape love, it profits you nothing.

Now Paul goes on to define this kind of love. "Love suffers long and is kind." This means that agape love receives abuse and suffers long. It takes and takes and at the end of the taking is still kind. You have heard people say, "All right, I've taken and taken, and that's it; now I'm going to get even." That is not agape. Agape takes and takes and then is still kind. It is not crying for vengeance. "Love envies not. It vaunts not itself and is not puffed up. It does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek its own [does not insist on its own way], is not provoked." (The word "easily" was inserted by the translators. They could not quite understand "is not provoked.") "Love thinks no evil; it rejoices not in iniquity but in the truth; love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." Agape love "never fails."

Love's Two Signs

Jesus said, "By this sign shall men know that ye are my disciples, because ye love [agape] one another." This really becomes the most powerful evidence to the world that we are the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. This agape love should be working within our lives and making us one with each other, giving preference to one another, not exalting ourselves or forming cliques, but just sharing that oneness of love that makes us all one together. We should share together with one another the goodness and grace of God, freely giving as we have freely received of God's love and grace. As this agape love works within our lives, it becomes the sign to the world that we are truly Christ's disciples.

In I John 3:14 we read, "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." Again, the word agape is used. Not only is it a sign to the world that we are Christ's disciples, but it is a sign to us that we have passed from death to life. As God's love begins to work in my life, it becomes a sign to me that I have passed from death to life, because I have this love for the brethren, for those within the body of Christ.

The Source of True Love

Because this is a divine love, its source is in God. It is not something I can generate. It is not something I can work up within myself. This has been one of the difficulties within the Christian community - knowing that we are to love all believers, but also knowing that there are those whom we do not truly love. So we try to work up an artificial love. We try to talk ourselves into it. But agape love does not originate with me; agape's origin is in God. God is agape. I cannot develop it; it is something that has to come to me as a work of God within my life. If I find that I am lacking in this love, I cannot really do anything about it myself; I must just confess this lack to God and ask Him to plant that agape within me.

Many Christians have been totally frustrated because they have tried to produce this agape. They have sought so hard to love with this divine love, but they cannot do it. Its origin is in God, and it has to come from God as a gift to you, and then it goes forth from your life. If you find yourself lacking in this agape, the only thing you can do is to ask God to fill your heart with agape through the Holy Spirit. Do not browbeat yourself and become defeated in your spiritual walk because you find that you do not have this agape as you should; just ask the Lord for it.

 

6. The Word of God Becomes Real

As we have been considering the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, we have seen how He gives us the power to be all that God would have us to be. Next we saw how He conforms us into the image of Jesus Christ: "We, with open faces beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory, even into this same image by His Spirit working in us." Next we saw how He brings to us the agape love of God, helping us receive it and then giving us the capacity to love with God's agape love, for the Holy Spirit has shed the love of God abroad in our hearts and in our lives.

Now we would like to study the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, making the things of God and the Word of God real to us.

Eye Has Not Seen

In I Corinthians 2:9 Paul wrote, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him." This scripture has often been misinterpreted. In fact, I think that of all the Scriptures in the Bible that have been misinterpreted or quoted out of context, this verse ranks near the top. You usually hear this Scripture quoted in regard to heaven. Heaven, we are told, is going to be so glorious, so marvelous, so beautiful that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him."

All the time in church as I was growing up, this is the way I heard this passage quoted, and so the first ten years in my ministry I interpreted it like this too. Then one day I read the whole context and realized that Paul was not talking about heaven. Paul was talking about the things that God has for His people right now - those things that God has for us because He loves us and we love Him. What is Paul saying? The natural man cannot see, he cannot know, he cannot understand those things that God has for us. That is what he is talking about. The natural man's eye cannot see, his ear cannot hear, and neither has it entered into his heart those things that God has for us because we love Him. Peter tells us that even the angels desire to look into the things that God has in store for His church. It no doubt amazes them that God would actually come and dwell within us.

Notice what the next verse says: "But God has revealed them unto us." Paul is not talking about heaven. He is talking about the present glories of the life empowered by the Holy Spirit. "God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him?" (I Corinthians 2:10,11). In other words, who really knows what is in your heart except you? You may be putting on a pretty good front; it could be that you are deceiving a lot of people. I really do not know what is in your heart. You know. You know what is covered and veiled and what you are hiding from everybody else. So, Paul is saying, "What man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:11).

The Revealing Spirit

There are things that God knows (for example, aspects of God's love) that man just does not understand; only the Spirit of God understands these things. Paul continues, "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God" (I Corinthians 2:12). The Holy Spirit lets us know those things that God has freely given to us. "Which things," Paul says, "we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (I Corinthians 2:13,14).

A lot of people have made the mistake of trying to discover what the Bible is all about on their own. They have read the Bible to discover its message, but they did it with only their human intellect. This usually ends in failure. They try to read, but they get nowhere. They say, "I've tried reading the Bible, but I can't see what anybody gets out of it. I just can't understand it." That's exactly what Paul is saying: "The natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit, neither can he know them." It is impossible for the natural man or the natural mind to comprehend the things of the Spirit because he lacks the capacity to do so. You could say with equal logic that a blind man cannot appreciate the beauty of the sunset or a deaf man cannot enjoy the music of a concert, because he lacks the capacity by which these things are appreciated and understood. Unless the Holy Spirit opens our heart and our mind to these things, we just cannot understand them.

Seeing and Not Seeing

One of the most difficult things is to have a clear understanding of an issue and wonder why someone else does not have the same clear understanding. It is so plain! It is so obvious! Why can't you see it? It is right there - look! But if they are not spiritually awakened, if the Spirit of God is not dwelling in them, they can look all day and still not see it. This understanding and this enlightenment must come through the power of the Holy Spirit to open up the things of God to our hearts. Paul prayed for the Ephesian believers in 1:17 that God might give to them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. The work of the Holy Spirit is to let us know that glorious grace of God bestowed unto us, that work of God in our behalf and that which God wants to do within our lives. How tragic it is that people are seeking to live the Christian life and to understand the Christian walk without the help of the Holy Spirit! It simply cannot be done.

God has made available unto us all that is necessary for life and godliness. God has not left a single thing out; no matter what the situation is that we might be facing, God has the way out for us. God has already made His provision. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of those things that God has already freely given us, so that we can then appropriate the work of God for our particular need and situation.

I do not sit down to read the Word of God without first saying, "Oh Holy Spirit, open my mind and my heart to receive and understand the Word of God." I dare not approach the Word of God with my own natural intellect. It will just be a blur. I need the help of the Holy Spirit to teach me what God has said. In I John 2:27 we read, "You have no need that any man should teach you, but that anointing which you have received shall teach you." So we can look to the Holy Spirit to teach and guide us as we study the Word of God.

Learning of Jesus

When we are talking with people who have just committed their lives to Jesus Christ, we seek to emphasize the importance of learning about Jesus. Jesus said three things: First, "Come unto me"; next, "Take my yoke upon you"; and then, "Learn of me." Salvation is more than just coming to Christ: it is taking His yoke upon us; it is submitting our lives to the mastery of Jesus Christ; it is turning the reins of our life over to Him. But then if I am to grow, I must learn of Him.

Many a person has failed to continue in the grace of God because he has not learned of Jesus Christ; he has not grown in his knowledge of Him. There is only one way you can learn of Jesus Christ, and that is by reading the Word of God. The Word of God is the only spiritual food for the new Christian, the spiritual babe; you cannot grow apart from the Word of God and the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ through the Word. It is vital for your Christian experience and for your Christian growth.

Which Way Is Right?

I am always instructing people, "Before you start to read, just pray, 'Lord, open my eyes and let me see, open my ears and let me hear what the Spirit would have to say through the Word.'" Some people say, "There are so many interpretations that I just get confused." I am not asking you to read some man's interpretation of the Bible. Just read the Bible itself. Some people ask, "How do you know your way is right? Maybe Joe Smith was right, or maybe the Jehovah's Witnesses are right, or maybe Mary Baker Eddy was right. Everyone has his own interpretation. How do you know you're right?" Let me say this: I am not at all worried what you will come to believe by just reading the Bible. I believe that the Holy Spirit is able to teach you - right out of the Bible itself - all that you need to know. I do not encourage you to read some interpretation of man. I encourage you to just read the Bible and let the Holy Spirit teach you what God has said.

I am not worried about how you are going to interpret the Bible if you just read the Bible alone. I am not worried about you getting off into some false doctrine or some weird trip if you are just reading the Bible. I am worried about the weird trips that you get on when you read some of the junk that is going around supposedly interpreting the Bible.

Learning and Recalling

Jesus said, "The Holy Spirit will come alongside you and help you; He will teach you all things and then bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have commanded you." Notice that He will bring all things to your remembrance. What does that mean? This means that the things have to be planted there in order to be brought to remembrance. He cannot bring something to your remembrance that has not been planted in your mind first. It is important that you read the Word of God. David said, "Thy Word, O Lord, have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee." You may not remember what you read five minutes after you read it, yet a crisis situation may arise in your life and all of a sudden a Scripture pops into your mind. What has happened? The Holy Spirit has brought to your remembrance that which had been placed there, and now in this moment of emergency the Holy Spirit has helped you.

In John 16 Jesus was talking with His disciples just before going to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He was to be arrested. This was the last night that Jesus was sharing with His disciples before His crucifixion. He said to them in verse 12, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." He had been with them for 3 1/2 years teaching them, and now there were many things that He still had to say to them, but they were not capable of receiving them. So He said, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and he will show you things to come" (John 16:13). Jesus was saying, "I have a lot of things to say to you; you can't handle them now, but when the Spirit of truth is come, He will lead you into all truth, and He will show you things to come." The Spirit of God is given to us to teach us the things of God; the Spirit of God is given to us to lead us into the truth of God, and then to show us things that are going to come.

Knowing What's Coming

Concerning His showing us things to come, the Apostle Paul said in writing to the Thessalonian church, "Ye are not the children of darkness that that day [that is, the day of the Lord, the rapture of the church] should overtake you as a thief, but ye are children of the light; therefore walk as children of the light." What is he saying? He is saying that the day of the Lord, the coming of Christ for His church, should not take us by surprise. It should not catch us unawares. If we are walking in the Spirit, if we are being led by the Spirit, He is showing us things to come and is keeping us alert as to the day in which we live.

I am really shocked at how blind many people are to this age in which we live. I was on a radio-show panel one night in Los Angeles when I mentioned the second coming of Jesus Christ - His soon return. All the other panel members (who were religious leaders) thought that it was horrible to think that the Lord is coming soon, and that we ought to be more interested in making this a better world. I replied, "You've been trying to do that for a long time, but we're in the worst mess ever." I am surprised that they are not discouraged; you have to credit them for that! When you try so hard to make a better world but it just gets worse and worse, if you are not discouraged by now, you have got some kind of grit. But I think a person has to be totally blind to look around today and say, "How lovely! Things are getting better!"

They are not facing reality. I am a realist. The church, in its endeavor to make the world a better place to live, has just about wiped itself out. The methods by which they are seeking to make the world a better place to live are things I do not understand. When some church groups support African terrorist organizations and the PLO, I hardly see how this can contribute to a better world.

The Tragedy of Blindness

The frustrating thing about walking and being led by the Spirit is that when the Spirit shows you things that are so obvious and plain, you just cannot understand why the next fellow cannot see them. But the reason he cannot see them is because the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit: "...neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." There are those who are such obvious counterfeits, yet people are deceived by them. It is like seeing the portrait of a smiling Abraham Lincoln on a five-dollar bill; it is so obvious that it is phony, and yet people are just as blindly duped and taken in. You think, "Can't you see? They're ripping you off. He's a phony." But they do not have the gift of discernment, and thus they are totally fooled. It is the hardest thing to see so clearly and not to understand why other people cannot see the issues as clearly as you can.

The return of Jesus Christ is so near; we are right at the end of the times of the Gentiles, and it is so obvious that the coming of the Lord is at hand. The scriptures are so clearly fulfilled, and yet people are totally oblivious to this whole prophetic picture; they are blinded and continuing their lives as if they are going to be here forever. Unless the Holy Spirit had revealed the second coming to us, we would never have known it.

The Real Source of Truth

When John said, "You have need that no man should teach you, but the anointing which you have received will teach you all things," does this mean that I am not to fellowship at church, but to stay home and read my Bible, allowing the Holy Spirit to teach me there? No. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit has placed pastors and teachers in the church for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. But the truth still stands that only the Holy Spirit can teach you, and if you receive any truth at all from God, you receive it only because the Holy Spirit has made it true and brought it to you, opening your heart to understand it. I might be bringing God's truth to you, and all of a sudden you say, "I see it! Oh, thank you, Chuck!" No, do not thank me, because you would never have seen it unless the Holy Spirit had revealed it to you.

Another person reading the same page did not catch it. He is still in as much darkness as he ever was. He does not understand it all; it went right over him. "Well, why did I see it and he didn't?" Because the Holy Spirit taught you the truth; you were ready for it. It was time for you to know, and the Holy Spirit opened your heart and taught you the truth. I perhaps declared the truth, but you cannot receive it or understand it unless the Holy Spirit brings it to you. Your understanding of spiritual things can only come through the Holy Spirit.

Two Kinds of Teachers

It also follows that you cannot teach the truth of God except by the Holy Spirit, for how can you teach that which you do not understand? This means that, though a man may know Greek and Hebrew fluently, and though he may have committed the Old and New Testaments to memory in the original languages, and though he may know all the commentaries, if he is not filled with the Spirit, he cannot be a true guide to you in the things of God. You would do better to listen to some young man without a seminary degree who is filled with the Spirit. An uneducated but Spirit-filled servant of God is a truer guide to Scriptural truths than a Ph.D. who is not born again, because no man can truly understand the things of the Spirit except the Spirit teach him, and no man can truly teach the things of the Spirit except the Spirit anoint him to teach.

Knowing the Greek language is very beneficial to understanding the New Testament, but the fact remains that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to teach us the things of God, to bring them to our remembrance, to make the things of God real in our life, to open up our understanding of these spiritual things and to the work that God has done for us. It is the Holy Spirit who makes us aware of the things that are coming