Jesus declared: “If therefore you, who are evil yourselves, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more the Father from heaven will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” (Luke 11:13) And Jesus prayed to the Father that He would give us comfort and peace through His Holy Spirit (John 14:16-20, 23-28). He was referring to our spirit receiving the Holy Spirit. He also declared that in order to do so, we must be “born again” from above, not as we were on earth, but spiritually. (John 1:12-13, 3:3-7)
To grasp the role of the Holy Spirit, one needs to be aware of his own spirit. For as we are created in His image, God is an eternal Spirt (John 4:24), He also created us with an eternal spirit. (Job 10:11-13, 32:8-10, 33:4) As God is considered a Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we also have a body, soul, and spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:23) Yet “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 15:51) “And the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God Who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
The “natural man” cannot “receive the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he KNOW them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14) Since Jesus knew the “foolishness” of man, He said “Truly I say to you, unless you would change and become like the children, you could not enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.” (Matthew 18:3) As a child puts his faith and trust in his own loving parents, Jesus implores us to be likeminded, when asking the Father for the Holy Spirit. (Luke 11:13)
Consider also that His Disciples were with Him for three years and yet He said “I still have much to say to you, but you are not now able to bear it: but when that One would come, the Spirit of Truth, He will guide you in all truth: for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He will hear He will speak and report the things that are coming to you.” (John 16:12-13)
How and why did Peter, who denied Christ three times when Jesus was arrested, become bold and preached Christ crucified resulting in about three thousand being saved on the Day of Pentecost? (Acts 2) Even the priests and Sadducees were silenced by Peter and John. “And when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and understood that they were unlearned and unskilled men, they were astonished and recognized them, because they had been with Y’shua.” (Acts 4:13)
After Peter’s preaching on the Day of Pentecost: And when they heard this they were pierced in their hearts. They said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “What could we do, men, brothers?” And Peter said to them, “You must immediately repent, and each of you must immediately be immersed in the name of Y’shua Messiah, for forgiveness of your sins and you will take the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all those in far away places, whomever the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And he charged them in many other words and was urging them saying, “You must right now be rescued from this crooked generation.” (Acts 2:37-40)
As Easter reflects upon Christ risen, Pentecost reflects on the “Promise” of God. (Luke 24:49)
Romans 14:17: For the Kingdom of God is not meat & drink; but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Luke 17:20-21: And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God comes not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
John 17:3: And this is eternal life, that they would KNOW You, the only true God, and Whom You sent, Y’shua Messiah.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13: But God has revealed them to us through the Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who of men KNOWS the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him? Thus then no one KNOWS the things of God except the Spirit of God. And we did not take the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is from God, so that we would KNOW the things freely given to us by God: and this is what we are speaking, not in teachings with words of human wisdom but in teachings of the Spirit, those thoughts joined together with spiritual teachings.
Matthew 11:25-27: At that time Y’shua said, “I praise You, Father, Master of Heaven and Earth, because You hid these things from the wise and intelligent and You revealed them to babies: indeed, Father, because in this way it was well pleasing before You.
“He that has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15-30)
Gary Kelly’s web site is EarsToHear.net and is the author of “Lessons of the Holy Spirit: A Guide for Entering the Kingdom of God and Discover Why it Pleased God to Hide His Kingdom from the Wise”
Picture credit: Pond5
Gary Kelly
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