The transforming power of the Spirit!

(J.C. Ryle, “The Lord’s Garden“)
“To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints.” Romans 1:7

Believers are separated from the world by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit calls them out from the world, and separates them as effectually as if a wall were built between them and it. He puts in them . . .
new hearts,
new minds,
new tastes,
new desires,
new sorrows,
new joys,
new wishes,
new pleasures,
new longings.

He gives them . . .
new eyes,
new ears,
new affections,
new opinions.

He makes them new creatures. They are born again–and with a new birth they begin a new existence. Mighty indeed is the transforming power of the Spirit!

The Spirit’s Work

Anyone who acknowledges Jesus as Savior has access to His divine power through the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38-39 38 Peter said to them, “Be sorry for your sins and turn from them and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 This promise is to you and your children. It is to all people everywhere. It is to as many as the Lord our God will call.” We all fail. Many of us don’t always live as Scripture teaches—and we miss out on the joy and peace that Jesus promised. The reason? We don’t recognize the need to live in the Spirit, so we try to live each day in our own strength. On Pentecost, God’s Spirit came to indwell believers. He is a gift, blessing us in many ways. Let’s consider some of the work He does. The Holy Spirit … • Convicts us of sin so that we can repent (When the Helper comes, He will show the world the truth about sin. He will show the world about being right with God. And He will show the world what it is to be guilty. John 16:8). • Regenerates us. As believers, we’re new beings, alive in Christ (For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun. 2 Cor. 5:17). • Seals us forever as a child of the Almighty (The truth is the Good News. When you heard the truth, you put your trust in Christ. Then God marked you by giving you His Holy Spirit as a promise. Eph. 1:13).  • Teaches, guides, and empowers us for the rest of our life (The Helper is the Holy Spirit. The Father will send Him in My place. He will teach you everything and help you remember everything I have told you. John 14:26).  • Gifts and enables us to do the work God has planned for us (For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.  Eph. 2:10; for a list of spiritual gifts, see also 1 Cor. 12:1-31). • Bears fruit through us (22 But the fruit that comes from having the Holy Spirit in our lives is: love, joy, peace, not giving up, being kind, being good, having faith, 23 being gentle, and being the boss over our own desires. The Law is not against these things. Gal. 5:22-23). As we are obedient to what God calls us to do, we get to watch Him work in mighty ways. All these benefits are available to everyone who follows Jesus, but we can miss out by attempting to live in our own meager strength. Remember, the Christian life is this: Christ living His life in and through us by the power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit.

Our Teacher

Though we’ll always struggle with sin, we have the Holy Spirit within, guiding us according to God’s will.

1 Corinthians 2:12-16 12 We have not received the spirit of the world. God has given us His Holy Spirit that we may know about the things given to us by Him. 13 We speak about these things also. We do not use words of man’s wisdom. We use words given to us by the Holy Spirit. We use these words to tell what the Holy Spirit wants to say to those who put their trust in Him. 14 But the person who is not a Christian does not understand these words from the Holy Spirit. He thinks they are foolish. He cannot understand them because he does not have the Holy Spirit to help him understand. 15 The full-grown Christian understands all things, and yet he is not understood. 16 For who has the thoughts of the Lord? Who can tell Him what to do? But we have the thoughts of Christ. Because human beings have a fallen nature and a finite mind, there are many facets of God’s greatness that we can’t fully grasp. In fact, the only way to understand divine truths is through the Holy Spirit, the all-knowing Teacher sent to live within believers. He interprets the things of God for us and helps us in many other ways. No one can come to Jesus Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. He convicts us of sin, makes us aware of our need for a Savior, and gives us the faith to believe in Jesus and thereby be saved. Once we have surrendered our life to the Lord, the Spirit begins the process of sanctification. This transformation into the image of Christ is a lifelong process of continual growth through the Word of God. All along the way, the Spirit faithfully empowers us to spread the good news of salvation. He does this by guiding our words, giving us courage, and opening hearts so that hearers can believe. Thank God today for His indwelling Holy Spirit, who is actively working to lead you on an exciting walk of faith.

The Forgotten Third: Developing a Biblical Relationship with God the Holy Spirit

Friends: I’ve been working on this manuscript for quite a while. And I now have a contract to get it finished! Here’s a sample of what I’m putting together for this book:

Jesus says the Holy Spirit would be “another paraclete” to His disciples. Would the term “comfort” be the first to come to mind when we think of how Jesus was to His disciples? He rebukes them for their unbelief, for their sleeping, for having no faith. He defends them when they are accused of violating sacred rules of ceremonial washing or ignoring Sabbath observance. He “comes alongside” them when their faith is too weak to exorcize a demon-possessed boy.

“Comfort” seems to imply bringing solace to one who is weeping. The disciples (during the earthly ministry of the Lord) did not know enough to weep. He does not “comfort” them – He challenges, chastises, corrects, and even cajoles them. “Comfort” is far too weak a term. And sometimes the last thing the believer needs is a sympathetic companion who wipes away his tears. We need One who is fully divine to come alongside of us and put His finger on our sins and remind our hearts, “You belong to Your Heavenly Father.” We require One who will motivate and empower us to take risks for the Kingdom of God, One who will not be satisfied with one-seventh of our week, with the leftovers of our hours and days. We need One who will be “called alongside of” us even when we ourselves don’t have enough wisdom to invite His intrusive presence.

Read more: https://larrydixon.wordpress.com/2021/12/28/the-forgotten-third-developing-a-biblical-relationship-with-god-the-holy-spirit/

10 Reasons to Study the Holy Spirit

Joel R. Beeke, Paul M. Smalley It is sufficient that God’s word speaks much of the Spirit, for the only warrant we need to study a truth is that God teaches it in his word. However, to strengthen our motivation to study this topic deeply, let us consider reasons why it is crucial that we study the Holy Spirit.

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How Much Does the Holy Spirit Have You?

Photo by Fernando de Gorocica (Wikimedia Commons)

Do you ever wonder how to unleash the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in your life? In Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus, he writes, “… be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18, NIV). The original Greek phrase “be filled” is grammatically a present imperative—we don’t have a smooth English translation for this except “be filled.” To really get at the idea of the original Greek, you would need to read this verse as “be being filled” or “keep on being filled.” Further, it’s in the passive voice, meaning it’s not “fill yourself up with the Spirit,” but rather “let yourself be filled” or “let the Holy Spirit fill you.” The Bible teaches that an individual is filled with the Holy Spirit by involving himself or herself in the process that leads to an ongoing, day-in, day-out filling. It’s not a once-for-all experience, but rather an ongoing process. It’s a way of doing life. Whenever we talk of something being filled, we usually have an image of something like a glass being filled with water. Whenever the Bible talks about being filled with the Holy Spirit, that’s not what is means. We are not vessels into which God pours a certain amount of Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a Person, so being filled is a relational issue. So how do we experience “being filled with the Spirit”? Well, it’s not about levitating or foaming at the mouth. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that we allow Him to occupy, guide and control ever-increasing areas of our life. It’s a simple idea, but a profound one. The more you follow the Holy Spirit, the more you are filled. And the more you are filled, the more you are led. And the more you follow that lead, the more you are filled again. The entire dynamic is that you live in and by and through the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, keeping in step with the Spirit, surrendering daily to His leadership and promptings. When we listen to the words of the Bible and the inner promptings of our own spirit as it is nudged and guided by the Holy Spirit, we are being led to become that which we naturally aren’t—increasingly like Christ. We are led to make choices; to say yes to things or no to things; to do this, but not do that. To feel certain ways, think certain ways, act certain ways. How does this work in day-in, day-out life? Read more at: https://www.churchandculture.org/blog/2021/11/22/how-much-does-the-holy-spirit

Walking in the Spirit

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2  A man in one early chapter of Acts was confused about the work of the Holy Spirit. He thought he could have the power of the Holy Spirit without a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. He thought he could buy the Holy Spirit’s power with money—which led to a sharp rebuke from the apostles (Acts 8:9-25).

At Pentecost, Peter spelled it out clearly: “Repent . . . be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ . . . and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Life in the Spirit is preceded by life in Christ—faith and repentance of sin so that Christ’s Lordship is the priority in our life. We can’t walk in the Spirit while grieving the Spirit with sin (Ephesians 4:30). When Christ is Lord, the fruit of the Holy Spirit—that is, the life of Christ in us—becomes evident to those around us (Galatians 5:16, 22-23). If Christ is the Lord of your life, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit are yours. Walking in the Spirit means walking with Christ. He who has the Holy Spirit in his heart and the Scriptures in his hands has all he needs. Alexander MacLaren

by David Jeremiah

Miracle Water

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:13-14  The “medicine show” was a staple of the nineteenth century in America, especially in the “Wild West” where access to doctors and healthcare was lacking. Traveling salesmen would set up shop in towns and peddle a variety of “miracle” elixirs and tonics promising to cure all manner of illnesses, ailments, and conditions.

When Jesus met a thirsty woman at a well in Samaria, He offered her miracle water: living water, the consumption of which would satisfy her thirst forever. She thought He meant a special kind of liquid; He meant spiritual “water” that would satisfy her spiritual needs forever. It took her some time to understand who Jesus was and what He was talking about. But she soon realized He wasn’t offering her a kind of miracle water, but a relationship with God. Jesus spoke of this living water on other occasions (John 7:37-39), referring to the Holy Spirit. If you are spiritually thirsty today, you can quench that thirst by yielding your life to God through faith in Christ—the greatest miracle “water” of all. A miracle would not be a miracle if it could be explained!  J. C. Ryle

By David Jeremiah

The Fruit of the Spirit Are Ingredients of Happiness

Randy Alcorn

What’s our greatest source of joy? Paul pointed to the Holy Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Commenting on chara, the Greek Word usually rendered “joy” in this passage, the United Bible Societies’ translation handbook advises, “In some languages joy is essentially equivalent to ‘causes people to be very happy.’ In order to indicate that this joy is not merely some passing experience, one may say ‘to be truly happy within their hearts.’ In some languages joy is expressed idiomatically as ‘to be warm within one’s heart,’ or ‘to dance within one’s heart.’”

Translating the fruit of the Spirit as adjectives rather than nouns, the Contemporary English Version reads, “God’s Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.”

If it seems that the translators are taking liberties by saying “happy” instead of “joyful,” note that the other eight adjectives perfectly correspond to the nouns used in the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible. Chara is the only Greek word in this passage rendered differently by the CEV translators. Their goal was faithfulness to the original language. “Joy” is a good translation of chara, but so too is its synonym “happiness.”

Some suggest that the order of the ninefold fruit of the Spirit is significant and that love is named first because “the greatest . . . is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). If this is true, then joy’s position as the second listed might imply it’s the second greatest.

Why does Paul emphasize joy and the other eight components of the Spirit’s fruit in the context of his attack on legalism in Galatians? Reading between the lines, we might surmise that joy was too rare among the Christians there, as it often is today.

Paul’s argument in Galatians suggests that self-righteous legalism chokes out the fruit of the Spirit, leading believers to become killjoys. Killjoys find pleasure in always being right and showing that others are wrong. Their false joy comes from thinking, I’m the smartest, purest, and most doctrinally, behaviorally, or politically correct person in the room. Unfortunately, no one wants to be in the room with them . . . including Jesus.

Finish at: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/randyalcorn/2020/08/fruit-spirit-ingredients-happiness/

The Forgotten Third: Developing a Biblical Relationship with God the Holy Spirit (“You talk with Him?!”)

by Dr. Larry Dixon

Friends: I’ve been working on this book for a while. And you get to follow me in action! My plan is to work my way slowly — in these posts — through the chapters in this manuscript. I welcome your input and hope to have this published in the next few months. “You talk with […]

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