Holy Spirit

Of the three persons of the trinity the Holy Spirit seems to be the one that is most misunderstood, under-taught, and under-acknowledged in the church. But the bible tells us so much about the Spirit and seeing that the Holy Spirit is what lives inside of every believer, it’s interesting that we don’t discuss it more. Before this year at the Institute I really didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit at all, but as of now the Holy Spirit is the most intriguing person of the trinity and I’m overwhelmed by the work of the Spirit and of the power that each Christian has because we have God abiding in us!

This week the Holy Spirit was our topic, taught by Peter Deison, a pastor in Dallas, Texas. We were loaded with information about the deity and person of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, and our battle between our flesh and the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit acts in many ways but a couple points that really stood out to me were the ways in which the Spirit empowers believers in wisdom and understand of scripture and how He guides believers to do the will of God.

If a passage from the bible is read to a believer and an unbeliever, their takeaway will be very different. 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has know the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

When we have the Spirit He will lead us to do the will of God by inspiring us and overseeing our circumstances in life. Philippians 2:12,13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  But we have to be obedient to God’s commands and we have to continually choose to “walk in the Spirit.”

It is so important for believers to understand that we have God abiding in us and working in our lives to guide us in the will of the Lord. The Spirit of God in us is able to do great things in our lives if we allow Him to. There is a battle now going on in all believers because we live in flesh but also in Spirit. It is possible to quench the Spirit and refuse to live the life He has for us, but we should choose every day to follow the Spirit of God who has a bigger and better plan for our lives. A great passage the speaks to this is Galatians 5:16-24 which says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The way of the Holy Spirit is the only way that we can fully experience God and be led to accomplish the will of God! The more I study the Holy Spirit the more I realize what an incredibly powerful gift we as believers have been given to the glory of God!

The Acts of the Apostles

This weeks subject was one that I had been looking forward to for awhile. The establishment of the church and missionary journeys of the early church is so important for believers to have knowledge of but isn’t something that I had ever studied or even heard much about before this year. Mitch Maher came and spoke to our class again this semester and for three days we went through the book of Acts.

In 28 chapters Luke outlined the establishment of the church and the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the whole world within about 65 years. Peter did a lot of the work establishing the church in Jerusalem and Paul was a major figure in taking the gospel to different parts of the world as far as Rome. The best way to study the book of Acts is to break it up according to the progress reports of the missions that Luke wrote of…

BIRTH OF THE CHURCH IN JERUSALEM

Luke started off by recalling Jesus commanding his apostles not to leave Jerusalem until the power of the Holy Spirit came upon them. On the day of Pentecost when all the apostles were together “a noise like a violent rushing wind” came from heaven and the Holy Spirit filled them. They began baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ the people who received the word of God.

Progress report: “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47

EXPANSION OF CHURCH IN JERUSALEM

As the church expanded a godly community was living and sharing all things together. Peter and the apostles continued to perform healings. The church started facing persecution, moral compromise, and distractions but more and more people were becoming believers.

Progress report: “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”  Acts 6:7

Extension of the church to Judea & Samaria

Stephen preached to the Jews but was persecuted to arrest and later death. Persecution was so bad that Philip had to escape Jerusalem and began spreading the gospel outside of Jerusalem to half-breed Samaritans. Saul, a major player in the persecution of Christians, was miraculously converted on his way to Damascus and began preaching the gospel to Gentiles!

Progress report: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.”  Acts 9:31

Extension of the church to Antioch

The gospel is taken to Antioch to be preached to the Gentiles. It’s there that Peter emphasizes the message that the gift of the Holy Spirit was for all people. God does not show partiality toward Jews or Gentiles.

Progress report: “But the word of the Lord continued to grow and to be multiplied.”  Acts 12:24

Extension of the church to Asia Minor

Paul took a missionary journey to Asia Minor where he preached the gospel and gave encouragement to the disciples to persevere through a lot of tribulations. At the end of his journey he returned to Antioch.

Progress report: “So the churches were being strengthened in the faith, and were increasing in number daily.”  Acts 16:5

Extension of the church to Aegean Area

Paul took another missionary journey and in the middle of it he got a vision to go even further west and spread the gospel to Macedonia. He then also went to Greece and Ephesus before returning again to Antioch.

Progress report: “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.”  Acts 19:20

Extension of the church to Rome

Paul felt like he was being called to spread the gospel all the way in Rome. He journeyed there and was hit with persecution harder than ever before. He was imprisoned twice in Rome and in 62 AD was beheaded in Rome. But with all the persecution he knew his mission and purpose and made an incredible impact for the kingdom of God!

As we studied Acts I kept being amazed at how quickly the gospel spread. Another thing that struck me was how effective the missionary journeys were. Even with imprisonment, martyrs, and harsh persecution the apostles never strayed from their mission. Peter gave a sermon in Jerusalem and 3,000 people became believers that day! Paul is one of my favorite people written about in the Bible. His story of conversion and powerful advance of the gospel in his lifetime is both inspiring and convicting. Jesus commanded His people to make disciples and that is still our command today.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19,20