Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit (Intro to Lessons)
As foretold in the Old Testament and warned of in the gospels and epistles of the New Testament, today’s church in America embraces such compromise and tolerance of (if not embracing of) worldliness, that we are reminded of the reaction to godly teaching many centuries ago: “Tell us pleasant things….and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel” … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 01: The Person of the Holy Spirit
There are mysteries which a believer in Jesus Christ must accept by faith. Perhaps none of these is greater than that of the Trinity in general and the Holy Spirit in particular. The Israelites were a monotheistic society in biblical days, holding to the doctrine of a one true God. The ‘shema,’ repeated several times … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 02: Man’s Need for the Holy Spirit
Faith is the basis for righteous living. Speaking through men known as prophets, God has made it abundantly clear that “the righteous will live by his faith” (e.g., Hab 2:4). To have faith means drawing the sharpest of lines between what we can do and what God must do with our cooperation. It means trusting God … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 03: The Coming of the Holy Spirit
God the Father was aware from the time of creation that men would fail to live by the high standards expected of those He’d created in His own image (Gen 1;26). So it is that Jesus, second Person of the Trinity, is referred to as a “Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 04: Empowerment by the Holy Spirit
Before returning to His Father in heaven, Jesus had a final command for the disciples: “I am going to send you what my Father has promised.; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49). In short, the disciples were not to be released into ministry until they’d … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 05: Spiritual Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Spiritual gifts (Gk pneumatika, derived from pneuma meaning spirit) refer to operations in the church which come as gifts from the Holy Spirit working through believers for the common good. Holy Scripture describes three distinct categories of what may be included under the general term spiritual gifts. The first of these are “grace gifts” (Gk charismata, … Continue reading
Holy Spirit Lesson 06: The Baptism with the Holy Spirit
This subject is worthy of close attention as the nature of baptism with the Holy Spirit is widely misunderstood, especially by those in ministry who attended a non-Pentecostal seminary or Bible college. Their confusion began with false teaching that Pentecost as described in the 2nd chapter of Acts was a once-for-all-time event in the sense that each believer in Jesus … Continue reading
