Month: January 2020

Nothing is more credible than eyewitness testimony spoken with conviction. That’s why the Apostles who knew Jesus were so effective gaining converts to Christianity. I have a personal testimony about the Holy Spirit I hope you find as compelling. Many years ago I decided to settle once and for all whether or not there was a God.  I decided to read the Holy Bible from cover to cover, not once but twice, so I wouldn’t miss anything. In my arrogance I thought I could pick up on inconsistencies in the Bible that might disprove it in my mind. My plan was to sit down afterwards and make up a pros and cons list and use logic to figure out if God was real or not.

At some point in my Bible reading, I don’t recall exactly when, I came to the realization that the Bible I was holding in my hands actually was written by God and everything in it was true. There really was a God who created the universe and me. God really does love me and wants me to live with Him in heaven forever.  It was quite a shock. I suddenly knew it all was true without a doubt in my mind. There was no internal debate about it. I also became acutely aware that God’s salvation plan for man was sheer perfection.

Romans 8:16 – The Spirit Himself will bear witness with my spirit that we are children of God.

I puzzled over how this happened so quickly and I came to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit, which is always present when God’s Word is read or spoken, communed with my spirit to confirm the validity of God and His truth in my heart, the very spirit within me. What else could it have been? One minute I didn’t believe and the next minute I did without thinking about it.  Ever since then I’ve told everyone it’s impossible to read the Bible all the way through twice, with an open mind, without the Holy Spirit convicting the reader of their sin which, in turn, will lead to their belief in God and accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

I based this statement on my personal experience. I have also mentioned this in two previous blogs. I remember reading a story once about a radical Muslim who thought he would read our Bible so he could disprove it and confirm Allah as the one true God.  A funny thing happened.  The Muslim came to the realization that Jehovah was the one true God and Islam was a fake religion.  The Muslim converted to Christianity and had to emigrate to America so his family wouldn’t kill him for leaving the faith.  I saw it on one of the cable  news channels and I think he wrote a book about his experience.  I’m throwing down a challenge for anyone to do the same thing and prove me wrong.  I won’t be holding my breath.

The nine gifts of God:

1. The word of knowledge
2. The word of wisdom
3. The gift of prophecy
4. The gift of faith
5. The gifts of healing
6. The working of miracles
7. The discerning of spirits
8. Different kinds of tongues
9. The interpretation of tongues

According to my reference material from bible-knowledge.com the gifts of God are not as important as the fruits of the Holy Spirit but I have to disagree on that one. While it’s true the fruits come with the indwelt Holy Spirit and are always available for sanctification they are not used all that much on a daily basis by nearly as many people as are the first two gifts from God, the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom.  These two gifts are often used in conjunction because by the word of knowledge you receive supernatural knowledge and insight directly from the Holy Spirit that you wouldn’t have been able to know otherwise and the word of wisdom is supernatural insight from the Holy Spirit how to apply the knowledge you have received for the best outcome. Knowing something is one thing and successfully using that knowledge is another. Used together these two gifts give sensational results.

Knowledge, understanding and wisdom are needed by the saints in every area of life and are therefore the most requested by prayers to the Father. Probably 90% of the requests for Gods gifts fall on word of knowledge and word of wisdom while the other seven gifts get only a scant 10% of the requests. People are more concerned about the daily impact on their lives than they are on the lives of others.  The Bible makes 9 direct or indirect commands for the believer to study God’s Word and there are 17 commands in the Bible to pray to the Father for what you want so the Bible is directing our attention to these two gifts in particular. In my daily prayers to god I pray for the same thing most people do, the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God’s Word.

How does the Holy Spirit transmit this knowledge and wisdom to us? The primary way the Holy Spirit shares knowledge in through “inner knowing”. Suddenly you just know something without a doubt. Sometimes I’ll read a verse of Scripture and the knowledge and understanding of it are so clear it jumps out at me.  The Holy Spirit is transmitting His specific knowledge directly into my spirit. The Bible confirms the Holy Spirit will “bear witness” with our human spirit. This Spirit to spirit witness results in the “inner knowing” of the truth of God’s Word.

Those of us who are saved are never alone. Upon salvation the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us, as promised by God, to be our helper, guide, counselor, and our source of heavenly power while on this earth. The Holy Spirit is our seal from God that we are His possession, which proves we are saved and heaven bound.  When we die both our spirit and the Holy Spirit have to come out of our body, at which time the Holy Spirit escorts our spirit to Jesus. We never have to worry now about how we find our way home.

2 Cor 5:6 – Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

As mentioned in my last blog, the Holy Spirit comes to us bearing the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. These are the nine divine attributes of God that define who He is. God will make these fruits available to us in our walk with Him for the rest of our lives here on  earth.  These fruits of the Holy Spirit are the tools God uses to sanctify us. Let’s review these fruits again; they are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are the tools, the heavy artillery, that God uses to make us more like Christ over time. These fruits of the Holy Spirit never leave us but the believer must be aware of what the fruits are and then work with the Holy Spirit to develop them.

There are nine gifts of God given to the believer that are separate from the fruits of the Holy Spirit. While these gifts also come from the Holy Spirit too they are not as important as the fruits and they aren’t inside you. They come from God and are manifested by the Holy Spirit as He sees fit.  These gifts are more of a one time use weapon of God or over a limited time frame. Think of these gifts as small arms in God’s arsenal. These nine gifts are normally given to the believer individually by the Holy Spirit and usually in response to prayer to the Father.  The believer must first of all, be aware of these gifts in order to ask for them. The believer must have a valid reason to request a gift from God and make the petition to God by prayer. The Holy Spirit may or may not honor the request by the sovereign will of God.

1 Cor 12:7-11 – But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

Scripture says we are to live for Christ; to do our best to emulate Christ. What does that mean? How do we do that? God gives the Holy Spirit to us as a helper, a friend, a counselor, to help us in our walk with God to become more like Jesus over time.  This sanctification process is to be accomplished using the nine fruits of the Spirit. This is the heavy artillery God will use in our lives as we confront this fallen world.  The arsenal of God is unstoppable. The problem is most Christians are still on spiritual milk and are not aware of the weapons at their disposal. Those who are aware of God’s divine attributes inside them have no idea how to release the power of God to their benefit. They fail due to lack of knowledge.

2 Cor 4:8-9 – We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

The above verse is life in a nutshell on this sin-filled world, if you’re a Christian. For the unbeliever I can’t imagine the horror they must be going through with no hope.

2 Cor 4:17 – For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

God will do the work of sanctification Himself using the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but He won’t do it without your free will acceptance and participation in the process. God’s power of the Holy Spirit can only be released through saints with a knowledge and understanding of God’s Word and that requires personal reading and study of the Bible.  You can’t ask for what you don’t know? You can’t ask if you don’t know how to ask? With the knowledge and understanding of God’s Word comes the wisdom necessary to unleash the power of God within us.

Gal 2:20 – I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Col 1:27 – Christ in you, the hope of glory.

James 4:2 – You do not have because you do not ask.

James 5:16 – The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

I know we’ll never know the true magnitude of God because our mind’s can’t begin to comprehend an omnipotent and omniscient God. That will be true when we’re in heaven and even more so here on earth where our mental acuity is severity restricted.  We don’t have to guess who God is because He tells us. In His love, mercy and grace God has revealed Himself to us in His Word, our Holy Bible.  God is a person. God has a personality. God has a way of doing things according to His divine nature of love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. God has done this because He loves us and wants to fellowship with us in heaven forever.

Eph 4:30 – Do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption.

Phil 2:13 – It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Mt 19:26 & Mk 10:27 – With God all things are possible.

Next to salvation, the greatest gift God gives a saved Christian is His Holy Spirit to indwell us. This means God’s nine fruits of the Spirit, the divine attributes listed above, are inside us. God does this for a reason.  Satan is the god of this fallen world and he is bent on our destruction. We are weak and defenseless against the powers of darkness on our own. Our blessed hope is the power of God through acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Rom 8:26 – The Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Col 1:11 – We are strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.

Phil 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.