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Index To All Five Sections
ON THIS PAGE
Emphasis Mine In Bible Verses
According to The Bible Who Receives God's Holy Spirit?
According to The Bible How Does One Receive God's Spirit?
What It Means To Have The Spirit of God Dwelling In Us
Underestimating The Seriousness of This Battle
According to The Bible Who Receives God's Holy Spirit?
In Acts 5, when the apostles were brought before the Council for disobeying the order not to continue teaching in Jesus' name, Peter told them that they could not do so because they had to obey (Gr. peitharcheo) God rather than men (Acts 5:29). He added that they were "witnesses" of the fact that God had exalted Jesus as Prince and a Savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And there was another witness
... the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him." (Acts 5:32 NASB)
What was that again?
The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God?
Unless Peter was making it up as he went along, the clear teaching of the New Testament is that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God. It says absolutely noting about God giving His spirit given to those who agonize and pray for it, to those who whip themselves up into a highly emotional state, or to those are 'taught' how to receive it - just those who obey the Father.
According to The Bible How Does One Receive God's Spirit?
Peter's sermon on Pentecost included unambiguous instructions regarding receiving God's Spirit
Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38 NASB)
The preconditions were belief, repentance, and baptism. Jesus was filled with the Spirit immediately after He was baptized.
After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, (Matthew 3:16 NASB)
However, one does not Necessarily have to baptized first. The centurion Cornelius and his household were baptized in water after they received the Holy Spirit that fell on the group who heard and obviously believed Peter's preaching. The fact that the Romans began to speak in tongues convinced Peter and the other Jews that they too had received the Holy Spirit and should be baptized with water. See Acts 10:44-48.
Similarly Paul was baptized after he received the Holy Spirit
So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; (Acts 9:17-18 NASB)
In summary - The Holy Spirit is given to all who believe the Gospel, confess Christ as the Son of God, repent of their sins, are baptized in water and obey God.
The Bible teaches no follow up event for the converted person to receive power. It does not teach us to look for some life changing 'second blessing'. Remember Jesus' words "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign" (Matthew 12:39).
(See Sin, Repentance, Salvation HERE and Baptism HERE)
What It Means To Have The Spirit of God Dwelling In Us
The Scriptures often speak of something or someone dwelling or abiding in us which is not to be taken literally. The expression merely indicates that whatever or whomever does the dwelling is the primary influencing factor in our lives. The Spirit of God dwelling in someone simply means that they are under the direction and influence of the Holy Spirit.
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 NASB)
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19 NASB)
Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. (2 Timothy 1:14 NASB)
Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose: "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? (James 4:5 NASB)
If not quenched, the Spirit play a huge part in the maturing and perfecting of the believer.
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27 NASB)
It is no surprise then that if we are not controlled by the Holy Spirit, we do not belong to God. As Paul told the Romans...
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9 NASB)
Other influences, both good and bad, also are said to dwell within us - the word of God (Colossians 3:16), faith (2 Timothy 1:3-5), truth (2 John 1:1-2 ). Or it can be sin (Romans 7:16-17) and a host of less than desirable traits.
The Pentecostal and Charismatic Focus
Unfortunately, it often seems like the focus is not on living a holy life controlled by the Spirit but on speaking in tongues.
The person who supposedly receives the holy Spirit will start speaking in incoherent, unintelligible, repetitive words or phrases. Jerking, twitching, falling on the floor and screaming is also quite common. Many others will writhe or roll around on the floor, weep and cry out, make strange noises etc, All too often they laugh uncontrollably and virtually unceasingly - a phenomenon knows as "holy laughter" or being drunk in the spirit. Even those who do not fall to the ground will adopt strange postures, jerk uncontrollably, violently shake their heads back and forth similar to what can be seen in a mosh pit at a rock concert.
See Slain in The Spirit for examples of Bizarre behavior and uncontrollable laughter
The Scriptures tell us that we will recognize Spirit filled believers by their fruits. (Matthew 7:20 NASB). And, as we should all know by now, the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.... (Galatians 5:22-23)
All of which are the complete antithesis of outlandish bizarre behavior..
Stop Underestimating The Seriousness of This Battle
I sometimes get the feeling that many believers hopelessly underestimate the extent and seriousness of this battle. This is not an honest doctrinal difference between Christians. This is a battle against the dark forces that seek to control us. This battle is neither theoretical nor is it a mild skirmish. It is a matter of life and death which makes it imperative that we proceed with extreme caution.
Demonic forces do not merely want us to cheat on our taxes - they want to completely take us over - to possess us. Hence, the rise of the New Age and Rock Music. Most tragic of all are the occult based doctrines and practices in the church today freely practiced by many who, in all probability, were once faithful Bible believing Christians but are now very entangled with dark forces
Labyrinths with their very questionable pagan roots and Contemplative Prayer learned in part from Hindus and Buddhist monks are now seen as ways to get ‘closer’ to God. Yoga steeped in Hinduism is considered ‘exercise’, while 'Slain in the Spirit' and Tongues are indulged in by believers who are being controlled by very demonic forces - as are the traditions that practice them.
The wide spread 'Word of Faith' manure is being fed to people who blindly trust the wolves who lead them and who apparently have no idea that this doctrine is nothing more than the New Age ‘New Thought’ given to a man by ‘The Council of Twelve”. And of course we have the relatively new kid on the block - Dominionism. one of the most dangerous of the lot and definitely a precursor to the end times
To those who are actively involved in a church that practices speaking in tongues, I can only say your churches' activities are Biblical only if there are no more than 2 or 3 such speakers in any service, they only speak in sequence, but avoid speaking at all if no interpreters are present. There should be no undue emphasis on tongues which may be at the expense of other spiritual gifts to say nothing of other important teachings.
Most importantly, there should be no jumping up and down, hand clapping, rhythmic chanting or anything else that whips the congregation into an emotional frenzy. The meeting should never deteriorate into a bedlam of people yelling, screaming, jerking, twitching and falling on the floor.
If any of this happens run - don't walk, to the nearest exit.
NOTE: The pollution of innocents in the following video is one of the things that will weigh against us most heavily when we stand at the judgment seat of God... at which time there will be no more mercy and no forgiveness. The video will not play on this site - Click the ‘Watch on You Tube’
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