Most Christians would agree in this statement, "God does not fit into a box or a specific doctrine." God is beyond any man or woman’s understanding. God goes where he is welcomed and even at times not welcomed. God is who he says he is in the bible and who we are as his creation. God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. God is omnipresent.
If we believe this, why is there this human idea that the Holy Spirit is no longer at work amongst us. I can tell you the Holy Spirit is at work amongst us and has to be at work amongst us or else we are not risen from our old lives and will not be risen from the dead when we leave this place.
I know there are many faithful believers who were raised in the church who just believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and live according but I know there are many others, including myself, who didn’t just believe wholeheartedly in God’s Good News and Word.
I did not just say, "Well I think today is a good day to be saved so… Christ here is my life on a platter for you." No way was my untrusting and guarded feelings going to let God have his way in my life. I liked my miserable life…well at least I acted as if I did. I really didn’t try to do anything to change it. It was easy to be angry, frustrated, hurt, mad, depressed, opinionated, judgmental and focused on the "If I had only" and the "What ifs" of thought life. Thank God, even though I had many opinions and foolish ideas of him, he didn’t let that get in the way when I finally looked at the dark prison walls surrounding my life and looked up and said broken, "I can’t do this anymore God. Please help me." God’s reply wasn’t instant but he did answer. He answered through someone who was obedient to God’s Holy Spirit and prayed over me with one of her hands touching my back, in tongues and in interpretation of tongues. She spoke of things in my life I tried to hide and things I was burden with. Things she could have not known because she was a total stranger. She read my mail from God and God had one heck of a trash burning party inside of me. The door of God had opened after that. God was so thorough that I felt brand new. I had a new zeal that I had never known before- a zeal to read God’s Word and to live for Christ. I now could see and understand God’s Word where before it held little or no relevance in my life. People, whom I had wished for dead and had made me angry, I wrote letters to and called asking them for forgiveness. I am certain they questioned my sincerity and what exactly happened to me. I tried to tell friends what had happened to me and they seemed to withdraw as if I had joined a cult or gone crazy. It has been seven years since that experience and God’s Holy Spirit is still working in and on me. The Holy Spirit is still at work today bringing others like myself to God.
"And I will give them singleness in heart and put a new spirit within them. I will take away their hearts of stone and give them tender hearts instead so they will obey my laws and regulations. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God." Ezekiel 11:19-20
When I hear things such as the Holy Spirit is no longer moving and/or at work, I ask myself if these pour souls who speak such things actually understand what they are saying?
Since Jesus joined the right side of the Father, we are living in the last days are we not? Peter quotes Joel (Acts 2:16): ‘In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams."
Jesus says in John 3:6-7 "Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don't be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit."
If God has called us, then we are able to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John 7:37 "If you are thirsty, come to me! If you believe in me, come and drink! For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water will flow out from within." When he said "living water," he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory."
Jesus says in John 14:15-26 "If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor [or Comforter, Encourager, or Advocate] who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans- I will come to you. In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each one of them… But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative- and by my Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit- he will teach you everything I myself have told you."
Acts 19:2 "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them.
"No," they replied, "we don’t know what you mean. We haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
"Then what baptism did you experience?" he (Paul) asked.
And they replied, "The baptism of John."
Paul said, "John’s baptism was to demonstrate a desire to turn from sin and turn to God. John himself told the people to believe in Jesus, the one John said would come later."
As soon as they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied."
The Holy Spirit is still moving and working just as he did in Pentecost.
You have given your life to Christ and want the Holy Spirit to come into your life? Ask for it! God wants to live inside of you and do wonders through you.... for His glory not our glory.
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