Teen Tree of Life. The Deity of the Holy Spirit. Part 5.

The Deity of

The Holy Spirit

Part 5

October 16, 2016

BEFORE we begin, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, take a moment to name your sins to God the Father. This will allow you to be filled with the power of The Holy Spirit as you read this booklet (EPH 5:18 & 1JO 1:9). IF YOU HAVE never believed in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have that opportunity right now. Simply tell God the Father that you are believing on His Son Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you make that decision, you are now a believer and will always be a child of God! When you die, you will spend eternity with Him forever in heaven! (JOH 3:16 & ACT 16:31).

We discovered in last week’s Teen Tree of Life that The Work of The Spirit may be summed up under the following headings: His Work in the universe; His Work in humanity as a whole; His Work in relation to the believer; His Work with reference to the Scriptures; and, finally, His Work with reference to Jesus Christ. We are now going to look at His Work in relation to the believer.

First, The Holy Spirit Regenerates the Believer: Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (JOH 3:3-5)  The Holy Spirit also renews the believer: He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit… (TIT 3:5) Sonship and membership to the Kingdom of God come only through the regenerating of The Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus was Begotten of The Holy Ghost, so must every child of God who is to be an heir to The Kingdom.

These next verses teach us that The Spirit Indwells the believer. Paul wrote: 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? (1CO 6:19)

Paul also wrote:  Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1CO 3:16)  ROM 8:9 warns us: 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.  

EPH 1:13-14 teaches us that The Spirit Seals the believer with assurance of Salvation: In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. This sealing stands for two things: ownership and likeness. The Holy Spirit is "The Spirit of Adoption" which God puts into our hearts by which we know that we are His children:  Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal [of The Holy Spirit], “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.” Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also vessels of wood and of earthenware, and some to honor and some to dishonor. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things [is filled with The Spirit], he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. (2TI 2:19-21)

The Spirit bears witness to this great truth: The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God… (ROM 8:16)  We read in ROM 8:14: For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. This sealing has to do with the heart and the conscience – satisfying both as to the settlement of the sin and sonship question.

The Holy Spirit infills the believer as we read in ACT 2:4: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit... We are commanded to be filled with The Spirit in EPH 5:18: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with The Spirit. The filling differs from the indwelling. We may speak of the Baptism of the Spirit as that initial act of the Spirit by which, at the moment of our Salvation, we are baptized by The Spirit into the Body of Christ; the Spirit then comes and takes up His dwelling within the believer. The filling with the Spirit, however, is not confined to one experience, or to any one point of time exclusively; it may be repeated many times. There is one baptism, but many infillings with the Spirit. The experience of the apostles in ACTS bears witness to the fact that they were repeatedly filled with the Spirit. Whenever a new emergency arose they sought a fresh infilling with the Spirit.  This all points to 1JO 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By confessing our sins to God, we become filled with The Spirit. When we sin, we have to start all over again. This is the “many infillings” mentioned above.

We learn from ACTS that God seeks for men who are not merely possessed by but also filled with the Spirit, for service: 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.” (ACT 9:17)

The Holy Spirit empowers the believer for life and service:  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (ROM 8:2) ROM 8:9-11 continues this idea of how The Holy Spirit empowers us: But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won’t know what we’re talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God’s terms. It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! (The Message Bible)

There are two natures in the believer: the flesh and the Spirit. GAL 5:17 puts it perfectly: For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.  But while the believer is still in the flesh, he does not live after the flesh. This idea is taught in ROM 8:12-13: So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to have constant and continual victory over sin, whether it’s a single act of sin or a life lived in a state of sin. The Spirit, which is within the believer, gives him victory, so that sin does not have control over him.

ROMANS 8 teaches us about a victorious life for the believer. Please take the time to read it. You can go to www.biblegateway.com and search for ROMANS 8 in The Message Bible. It’s a great translation!

{to be continued}