What You Need to Know About the Holy Spirit!
A real Christian is embued with power—the power of God.
Where does it come from? What does it do? You need to know
WHY you must have the Holy Spirit!
IT is LIKE a breath of fresh air in spring to encounter a person who is
really smiling and happy, and who is eager to serve others! Everyone
wants the happy, joyous, abundant life —but so few have it.
Why?
The answer lies in a lack of awareness of the power of the Spirit of
God! Few really grasp why they need God's Holy Spirit, and what it can
do for them, and through them for others!
Many, when they are first converted and bapti2ed, are somewhat
disappointed. Expressing the thought of many, one lady exclaimed as she
stood dripping after being immersed in baptism. "Why, I only feel wet
and cold! I thought surely I would feel a new power, new purpose, new
drive pulsating through my mind and body all at once!"
In spite of counsel to the contrary, did you experience disillusionment
over your baptism? Did you expect the presence of the Holy Spirit to
suddenly fill you with outward signs and internal feelings? Were you a
little discouraged when you noticed no surging power flowing through
your being as you arose from your watery grave?
Such thoughts come from a lack OF understanding the purpose and the function of God's gift, the Holy Spirit!
You need to understand!
What Is the Holy Spirit?
The "trinity" is a pagan invention. Nowhere does the Bible teach a
closed Godhead—but that is what the trinity doctrine teaches. The
very doctrine of the trinity denies, rejects, the Plan of God.
The Plan of God reveals the joyous good news that the Godhead is a
family with others soon to be born into it. The Holy Spirit is not
another person united with the Father and with Jesus Christ, His Son,
forming a closed Godhead into which no others can come!
Jesus is called the Son of God. He is called the son of man. Both
expressions are correct. But, He is not the son of the Holy Spirit! The
Holy Spirit is not a person who can beget—it is not a person at
all. The Holy Spirit is the power of God (Luke 1:35). It is the power
by means of which God performs His deeds, His acts of creation. It was
by the power of the Holy Spirit that God the Father begat Jesus the Son
(Mat. 1:18).
The Holy Spirit has its source in God. It emanates from Him throughout
the great, vast expanse of the universe. God controls that power. It
has no volition of itself. Without God it would be no power at all! God
is the Powerhouse, the source of all power. Through His power, He rules
the universe.
How the Spirit Works
When you understand how the Holy Spirit of God works then you will
understand why it is so essential that you pray fervently, study
earnestly, meditate daily and fast often.
The Holy Spirit is an instrument that must be used, exercised,
utilized, day in and day out or it becomes quenched. (I Thes. 5:19.)
Through exercising it in daily living, character is developed and
perfected in human beings (Mat. 5:48).
Jesus Christ put it to use in His life.
Through it, he established a strong relationship with His Father in
heaven in daily prayer. The Father in heaven strengthened and nourished
Him through the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said, "Of mine own self I can do
nothing!" (John 5:30.) Yet, examine what He did accomplish while on
earth.
He resisted the devil (Mat. 4:1-11) in the greatest battle ever fought.
In this great temptation Satan was dis-qualified, and Jesus Christ
qualified to rule the world. Without the help of God's own power
through the Holy Spirit this would have been an impossible
encounter!
How about you? Without that same Holy Spirit within you, you will have
a losing battle with the devil. He will win out unless you, too, are
exercising and nourishing that power daily! If you use it to fight your
great battles, you will never fail.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit! None can hope to win out over
Satan and his world without that tremendous spiritual power! You need
that power desperately.
Source of Spiritual Discernment
Christ brought a message to this dying world from the Father in heaven.
Could He deliver it abroad through His own strength? No! Even the
selection of the twelve disciples—to whom would later be left the
responsibilities of raising up and guiding the Churches of God was the
work of the Spirit of God, giving discernment (Luke 6:12 and I Cor.
2:14). He knew, without a doubt, these were men—later to be
guided by the same Holy Spirit—to whom He could entrust a great
work when He ascended to His Father in heaven. This was not the working
of His own mind apart from the mind of His Father. Their minds were one
through the Holy Spirit of the Father. This is a miracle— not
natural.
Problems, questions and decisions of life are much too great for you to
search out alone. Your mind is yet carnal (Rom. 7:14; I Cor. 3:1, 3).
Unless the Holy Spirit is active in you, your activities will veer off
on a wrong tangent every time. You need discernment—you need the
Holy Spirit to guide you and give you mental and spiritual discernment!
Power to Perform Miracles
"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and
preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease among the people" (Mat. 4:23). He had said,
"I can of mine own self do nothing!" (John 5:30.) How, then, did He
perform these miracles?
The fame of Jesus' miracles went far and wide. Never had men witnessed
so great blessings. Jesus Christ never sat idly by with so great power
available—He used the power of God's Spirit to heal and to turn
hundreds to God. That same power has wrought its healing work in you
through the laying on of hands and anointing of God's ministers in this
era of His Church!
In Mat. 4:24, we read that Jesus cast out demons. That power, too,
Christ has made available to His ministers today. Many demons have been
cast out today!
You, as a begotten son of God, have this same powerful Spirit within
you! —But beware! Because the ministers use that power to free
many of demons, does not give you license to cast out demons from
others. Note this vital lesson from scripture itself. It is found in
Acts, the nineteenth chapter. Seven sons of Sceva took upon themselves
to cast out demons (verses 13, 14.) Thereupon ". . . the evil spirit
answered and said, 'Jesus I knoiv, and Paul I know; but who are ye?'
And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame
them, and prevailed against them, so that
they fled out of that
house naked and wounded"'! Bcca.i.jj of their presumptuousness, a frightful disaster befell them!
This is a power God has reserved to His ministers. Yet, it is a very necessary function within God's Church.
God's Spirit Gives Understanding
Many of you have read the Bible through many times. Yet, none of you
could really understand God's Word as Christ did. It was by means of
the Holy Spirit and the way He constantly exercised it day in and day
out that He was able to remember, recite and apply scripture!
Notice what Christ Himself said, "But the Comforter which is the Holy
Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, he shall teach you all
things, and [shall] bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I
have said unto you" (John 14:26). God's Spirit will give you the power
to understand His word!
But you need to do your part. You need to study scripture daily,
concentrating deeply on it as you study. Ask yourself questions about
application of what you read to daily Christian living. As you do, the
Holy Spirit will begin actively to guide your thoughts as it in turn is
nourished by what you read. Gradually you will realize with amazement
that you do remember verses, chapters and books of God's Holy Word.
That blueprint of Christian living will become an open book to you!
Here again is why you need the Holy Spirit! Many have not realized. You
can more clearly see why Christ needed the Holy Spirit while a mortal
human being here on earth—Immanuel, God with us.
Why Do You Need the Holy Spirit?
Most have had only a vague understanding of the work of the Holy
Spirit—a nebulous, hazy idea that they need the Holy Spirit
because they cannot overcome by themselves. But, do you understand? The
Holy Spirit will not do it for you, and cannot, if you are lying down
on the job of overcoming! The Holy Spirit is God's power! It clears the
way supernaturally, miraculously, awesomely overcomes impossible
obstacles in your way. But this doesn't mean God does it all for
you— you have your vital part to perform or God won't supply you
with His overcoming Spirit-power.
This means, always you must be doing energetically, with all your might
the job at hand (Eccl. 9:10)—as though you alone were
accomplishing it all. Trust God! Have faith He will perform, then as
you put your well-formulated, carefully thought-out plan into action,
know that God will give you the means to bring it to completion. This
entire Work of God, of which you are a part, has been accomplished in
that very way.
You need to see that added strength, that power, when it comes to your
aid. You need to recognize it as a power freely given that requires
being directed and used. Seek out God's will, and then surge ahead with
all you have in you!
Examine yourself! Have you had the power of God manifested in your life
as Christ did? Have you understood God's word? Have you had spiritual
power to serve God and conquer sin?
Christ did not lie! He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 'He that
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater
works than these shall he do...'" (John 14:12). How? Through the Holy
Spirit of God!
Where Do You Fall Short?
Notice the fruits of your former way of life. These were not the fruits
of the happy, full, abundant and purposeful life! Why? Perhaps you
thought you were doing right—even may have thought you were doing
God's will. Twice, remember, God warns, "There is a way that seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov.
14:12; 16:25). God's will was not really sought.
But now you should know what are God's wishes, His warnings and His
plans for you. The Bible is the only blueprint for true Christian
living.
Only through diligent, prayerful study of scriptures can you come to
know what God has promised to do for you when you, by yourself, are
helpless to do more. And you will learn what God expects you to do,
yourself!
Once you have searched out
what His will is, then you can go ahead in confidence, putting "your
all" into the task at hand, knowing He will supply what you lack and
carry the day for you! It is your lack of knowledge as to what God's
will is, that saps you of confidence and that drops you into a stagnant
pool of lethargy!
Do You Want These Gifts?
The Holy Spirit itself is a GIFT from God (Acts 2:38). You never earned
it, and neither can you arbitrarily manifest the fruits of the Spirit
(Gal. 5:22-23). But there is a way you can have all of these FRUITS if
you want them.
How?
How can you have the fruits of "love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness,
goodness, kindness, faith, meekness, and self-control"? How can your
life be completely filled with these attributes of God?
Is it all up to God? Does He arbitrarily give to one, but
deny another? Of course that is not true. God is waiting on you. You
must be willing and eager to do your own part.
God wants your life to manifest dynamic spiritual power! God wants you
to be a forceful, dynamically alive, Christian. He wants to pour out
His Holy Spirit on you. But whether He will or not—and the extent
to which God gives you of His Holy Spirit— completely depends on
you.
Yes—on you!
God says to you, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what
the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess;
but be filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:17-18).
God commands, "quench NOT the Spirit" (I Thes. 5:19).
The apostle Paul wrote Timothy and explained, "For God hath not given
us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind"
(II Tim. 1:7). We receive this Spirit at conversion, when God begets us
with His Spirit of power (Luke 1:35). But what are we to do with i,t ?
Let it lie dormant, undisturbed, within us? No— that is the way
to extinguish it. Rather, God expects us to daily put it into use! The
apostle Paul told Timothy, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that
thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my
hands" (II Tim. 1:6).
We must stir up—rekindle, ignite into flame—the Spirit of
God. This is the way to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. This is
the way to be of real service to God, and to do the part God has given
you in His great endtime Work!
Use God's Spirit, and it will grow powerfully within you, directing and
motivating your life. Use this powerful gift, and it will cause you to
grow and develop spiritually. Study deeply God's Word; pray for
understanding and correction. Yield to God's Word. Change what you see
is not right in your life. Pray that God will work more powerfully
through you as His instrument!
He will! This is why you need the Holy Spirit of God!
Reprint from June July 1966 Good News Magazine by Selmer L. Hegvold
