Category Archives: Holy Spirit

Our Beautiful Inheritance – Psalm 16:5-6

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“Lord, You are my portion and my cup of blessing; You hold my future. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance” (Psalm 16:5-6, HCSB)

These verses use language that is usually reserved for describing the land promised to Israel. Instead, the Psalmist proclaims that it is God Himself, not the land, that is the true inheritance.

This declaration is rather like the promise made to Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his progeny, the succession of high priests over Israel.

The priests had no inheritance of land in Israel!

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How To Know You Are Saved – Ephesians 1:13-14

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“And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.” It is the dispensing of the Spirit to believers that is the mark of incorporation into the redeemed community of God. This promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is the distinguishing feature of your salvation (see Luke 24:24, John 14:16, Acts 2:33). It is what identifies you as belonging to Christ–a Christian. The Spirit is your spiritual ID and membership card. The indwelling Holy Spirit makes the creative and redemptive work of God personal to us as God’s people both individually and collectively. The indwelling Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the eternal life He promised us through the sacrifice of His Son. Our understanding and experience of God, however, often centers on God as Father and God as Son and not so much on God as Holy Spirit. But God is best known from a trinitarian perspective—God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit in identifying us with Christ as God’s sons and daughters and bringing the presence of God into our lives is often not as well understood or experienced by Christians as is the creative work of the Father or the redemptive work of the Son. Yet, it is the active presence of the Holy Spirit in your life that affirms you are saved! Your eternal life begins when God gives you the Holy Spirit. “And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).

In the Good Ole Days of the Church – Acts 4:24,31

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“When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God…After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.” Peter and John were taken into custody by the Temple guard and thrown into jail for healing a man at the Temple. Then they were taken to a hearing before the council of elders, which included the high priest and the priestly family. Peter and John testified before the council how and why the man was healed. Predictably, the council didn’t like their explanation and ordered them to quit teaching and preaching (and healing) in the name of Jesus. Peter and John’s response to the council’s order was predictable as well: “Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than him? We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard” (vs. 19-20). Peter and John were released by the council and went back to the other believers to report what had happened. The believers reacted to this persecution from the Jewish religious leaders by praying for God’s empowerment to help them accomplish His plans and purposes according to His Word in the Scriptures: “You spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah. In fact, this has happened here in this very city….And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (vs. 25-27, 29-30 quoting Psalm 2:1-2). In today’s church we would address persecution by devising a program or ministry. But the apostolic church didn’t form a persecution support group or organize a persecution outreach ministry. Back in those days they just prayed for God’s help. They prayed for God to help them confront the threat of persecution by empowering them to keep on preaching and healing in the name of Jesus. They prayed vehemently and with unity and they kept on praying until God answered them. They prayed until they were filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and, thus, enabled to preach the gospel with boldness and miraculous signs. Oh, how I long for the good ole days of the church!

A Spiritual Wake-Up Call – Revelation 3:1-2

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“You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.” According to the Apostle John the church in Sardis was in a spiritual state that was near death–the church had no spiritual vitality. But there was still hope the church would awake from its spiritual coma and revitalize itself because it had not accomplished God’s plans and purposes. The differing salutations to each of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 forewarns the failure and/or poses a subtle hint at the solution for the failure identified for each church. In the case of the church in Sardis, the salutation says: “The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars” (vs. 1). The “seven spirits of God” is figurative language for the Holy Spirit and the seven stars are the angels for each church–a personification of the identity of each church as if concentrated in its angel or messenger. Thus, the Lord informs the messenger of the church in Sardis that it needs a spiritual wake-up call–it needs a refilling of the Holy Spirit so that its works can be complete in God’s sight. So how does this Holy Spirit revitalization take place? “Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent” (vs. 3). The Lord tells the church in Sardis that what it needs is a Holy Ghost revival! It needs to repent of its spiritual apathy and indifference for the gospel, get back to the fundamental truths of the gospel, re-ignite the passion with which it first received the gospel, and go out and actually live out the gospel. If you need a spiritual wake-up call, then try this recipe for revival and let the Holy Spirit revitalize you with a new zeal for the gospel that will enable you to accomplish what God has planned and purposed for your life.

God’s Marvelous Help – 2 Chronicles 26:15

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“And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.” During his fifty-two year reign in Jerusalem, King Uzziah built towers, dug many wells, organized a large army, conquered surrounding nations, and made devices for the defense of the city. Uzziah was a remarkable king who had a broad interest in the improvement of his kingdom and because of his many achievements, his fame spread among other nations. For all his accomplishments he became strong because he was marvelously helped by God. Unfortunately, Uzziah began to trust in his own strength forgetting that it was the marvelous help of God that brought him prosperity and success. Uzziah transgressed against the Lord by entering the temple to burn incense on the altar, a ceremony of religious worship that was performed by a priest. It seemed that Uzziah was not content with the authority God had given him as king and apparently wanted to add priestly functions to his royal power. You also, have been marvelously helped by God. In fact, the “marvelous help of God” is a fitting description of the enabling power of the Holy Spirit that is at work in your life: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17). The Holy Spirit will marvelously help you and make you strong in the Lord; but remember where your strength comes from and give God the glory because pride is always lurking behind any success that you may achieve through God’s help.

When the Spirit Remains – John 1:32

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“And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” The Holy Spirit did not just descend on Jesus, the Spirit remained on Him. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon people periodically to enable them to accomplish certain God-given tasks, communicate a word from God, or see a vision from God. However, Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be full of the Spirit at all times: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” (Isaiah 11:2). With Jesus began the age of the Spirit. Jesus’ ministry was anointed by the Holy Spirit because He walked in the Spirit. Oh, that the Spirit of God would descend from heaven and remain on us!