6c. The Holy Spirit and Being a Jesus Follower
As we continue with this series on the Foundations of the Christian Faith, we next want to present more basics for the Jesus Follower. So far we have discuss creation, the fall of the human race, Father God’s Great Rescue plan and the life of Jesus Christ.
1. All religions are the same?
Recently I had a conversation with someone who had researched all the different religions, cults and faiths in the world. What an extensive list of the different ways humans use as a way to reach God.
My companion continued with this comment: “There really is no difference between all these religions and Christianity!”
On one level I could say “I agree. These are all ways to find a person’s idea of who God is. However, there is only one way to discover God as Father God….and that is the revelation of what Jesus Christ brought.”
With Him as the centre of your ‘religion’ – if you want to use that word – you will find a personal, intimate, alive relationship with your Creator God that no other religion offers.
2. Out of “Being” comes the “Doing”
An important part of Christian growth comes by understanding the concept of God’s Law versus God’s grace. Any striving to please Him (which can even be ‘following instructions to gain His approval’), or the approval of others, is working under ‘law’. Jesus came to bring the message: “Hey! Dad isn’t angry with us anymore! It is safe to come home!”
Out of our response of love for Him we can “do” for Him. We need to see that ‘doing the business’ of being a Christian, is not earning your salvation. Doing and being are two different sets of Christian walk.
That is the central theme of this blog. In fact, if you haven’t seen it yet, go find my other blog www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
3. For some people, taking the step to become a Christian begins a great journey. Salvation actually happens because God came looking for us rather than we sought Him out.
The journey begins with repentance, a jolting realisation that God is real, that His kingdom is in total opposition to our Self-centred little world. The extent to which we allow this gift of God to penetrate our independent hearts is the depth we have in God
Now we need to get back to what our theme is today: The place of the Church.
When we really find Jesus as the Christ, as the Friend and as our Lord, He puts us into a special group that He has called the church. He doesn’t put us into a denomination He calls the church nor is it a building called the church. Jesus has even called this group of people ‘His Bride’, an heir, adopted into His family and so on. See the worksheet on all the special things we have inherited when we joined with Jesus Christ.
It’s because we are His followers, His church that we become that new creation. As a new creation, we gather with other believers and celebrate with certain actions, or rituals to show we are different now.
So far we have discussed three of those things that make us different: repentance and the call to water baptism and then the baptism of fire that every Jesus Follower can expect.
In this post, we want to enter into the topic of the third baptism we are called to: the Baptism in/with/by/through the Holy Spirit. Many people use different terms but ‘the event’ is the same. We will devote several posts to this topic as it is a controversial issues that has divided the Christian religious system for centuries. (Please note that all Bible verses are used from the New International Version, the NIV.)
THE BAPTISM WITH, IN, BY AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT
1. Throughout the Old Testament time, the Holy Spirit was sent to individuals to do what Jehovah called them into as His representatives such as building the temple, as kings, priests or prophets.
However, this was all to change when Jesus left this physical world to be with Father God. Jesus promised another ‘Comforter’, another Teacher, Guide to help those He left behind.
“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.” Luke 24:48
The same promise was repeated in Acts 1:4-5. This had been the promise all the way from Genesis 3:15.
So we continue that story in Acts, chapter 2. On the day of Pentecost, 50 days from His resurrection, the disciples experienced what Jesus had promised. There were physical signs and then, they were
…filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
(For the moment, we shall set aside the discussion of ‘tongues’ for a more detail later post.)
However, the experience so filled the women and the disciples with boldness and power, that they went into the streets and “…..about 3,000 people were added to their number that day.” Wow! 3,000 people accepted that Jesus Christ was their Messiah that day!
2. As believers, we have been promised the gift of the Holy Spirit TOO!
God has promised to give every ‘born again’ Believer the Holy Spirit as a gift (Acts 2:38). We see many, many times where this happened throughout the book of Acts.
The times and events are so important that we have prepared a separate worksheet for each of these events.
3. Nor is this experience to be a ‘once-off experience’.
Paul commands Christians to be filled continually with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18). The filling of the Spirit equips us for service and for living a joy-filled, victorious life. It nudges us toward becoming more and more like Christ.
4. The Holy Spirit helps us understand the spiritual realm.
Without the Holy Spirit, we could not even comprehend the spiritual reality around us (John 20:1). The Holy Spirit comes into our life, releases His power and begins to help us really believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. The Holy Spirit then goes on to purify the believer and set him / her free to bring others into the Kingdom.
5. The H.S. provides the power to witness for Jesus.
Basically the ‘Baptism of the Holy Spirit’ is for power that we might be better witnesses of Christ, Acts 1:8. The gifts Paul talked about in 1 Corinthians 12 are to help us convert ‘pre-believers’ and to minister to other believers. People who experience the ‘Baptism’ talk about a deeper prayer life, more joy, peace and love for God.
6. All believers have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.
If this were not true, we could not even know who Jesus is and see the supernatural world He calls us to. This is what brings the peace, healing and ability to live for Him. However, part of the controverter is the need for a second experience, to ask Jesus to ‘fill’ you with the Holy Spirit.
Conclusions: This post only begins the discussion on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Without this important part of our walk with the Lord, we would be repressed, disempowered, silent or without spiritual life – which is where many people who call themselves Christians seem to live. We shall continue with this important topic in our next post “2d. Signs of the Holy Spirit in our own Life’.
Then in coming posts, we will continue with a extended list of what most Jesus Followers ‘do’ as Christians: Communion, Tithing, Prayer, Praise and Worship, gathering together, becoming members of One Body, the Gifts of the Spirit and your place in the Body of Christ. Again, remember what we said last time, following Jesus is about being, not just doing these things that mark us as Christians. It is possible to sit in a church building all your life and not know the living Jesus!
I trust this has been of help for you in knowing more about being a Jesus Follower and hearing your Creator’s Voice,
Susanne Fengler, Blog Author
www.christianfoundations.jesus-treeoflife.info
Tags: Holy Spirit
Filed under: Foundations of our Faith
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