Random Thoughts on the Really Good News

"You always resist the Holy Spirit…Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…Do not quench the Spirit." (Acts 7:51; Ephesians 4:30; and 1 Thessalonians 5:19) As I have said before, I look at the Holy Spirit as the POWER of God. It is the unseen means by which God’s plan is accomplished. It is like the wind which moves the tree branches but cannot be seen. It is futile to resist this unseen POWER of God. We often resist this unseen POWER which is working out God's plan. We quench the power of God only in the sense that we lose the joy and  peace it can bring when we believe what God will accomplish through this power, the reconciliation and salvation of all at our resurrection. “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive…death is abolished…that God may be All in All” (1 Corinthians 5:22-28)

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...the spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters....” (Genesis 1:1, 3) “God is spirit…” (John 4:24) I think of POWER when I read the word “Spirit” in the Bible. And when I read the words “Holy Spirit” I think of God's omnipotent POWER. Power flows from the generator of that power, it is NOT the generator itself. Think of an electric generator. You turn it on and power flows out of it to provide the energy to turn on the lights. God is both the generator and the power flowing from it to create all things. In that sense only is the Holy Spirit God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God...the Word became flesh...No one has seen God at any time; the ONLY BEGOTTEN GOD who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him...Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him...” (John 1:1-18; 1 John 4:15) Jesus is the Word of ...

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that it may be with you for the age; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see it or know it, but you know it because it abides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17) Jesus asked the Father to give the Holy Spirit to those Jews who believed that Jesus is the Messiah. It would abide in them, and on Pentecost, 50 days after the resurrection, the gift of this power came and settled on those early Jewish believers… “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (the power of God) and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4) Those Jews then begin to speak to other Jews who had come from all over the world to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Weeks. By this POWER they spoke in the various languages and told them about Messiah Jesus, his resurrection an...

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will…In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-14) Mankind has been "predestined" to hear and believe the good news of their salvation and upon believing they become sealed with the promise of "Holy Spirit" . I have heard much teaching about the Holy Spirit over the years. Like “walking in the Spirit”, or “receiving the Spirit”, or being “filled with the Spirit”. Some teach that the Holy Spirit is a person and part of a “trinity”. Some even teach about a “second blessing” when one is “baptized in the Holy Spirit”. Any many say things like “the Spirit led me” ...