TEEN TREE 
OF LIFE
The Gift of The Holy Spirit
Part 1
August 15, 2021
Before you begin, ask yourself a very important question: Do you believe that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins? If you answered yes, you will need to be sure that you are filled with The Holy Spirit. How do you do this? You name your sins to God The Father in His Son’s Name. This is called Rebound. As a Christian, you must rebound any time you sin. This is taught in 1 JOH 1:9: If we confess [name] our sins [directly to God], He [God] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if you have never believed that Jesus Christ died on The Cross for all of your sins, all you have to do is say to yourself that you believe in Him and you are saved! The Bible verse which teaches us this is ACTS 16:31: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
Let’s begin our study with The Lord’s Prayer:
“Pray, then, in this way:
Our Father, who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from evil.’
For if you forgive other people for their offenses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you do not forgive other people, then your Father will not forgive your offenses. (MATT 6:9-15 New American Standard Bible)
The Lord Jesus Christ’s teachings on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, which we read in MATT 6, is almost the same as what He says in LUK 11. The only significant difference in the model He gives for prayer in MATT 6:9-15 is that He identifies God as “Our Father who is in heaven” instead of just as “Father.” There is also the addition of the words, “Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.” Those differences exist because in the LUKE narrative, Jesus is only speaking to His disciples while in the Sermon on the Mount, He was speaking to both His disciples and a much larger group that had gathered to hear Him. Our Lord didn’t need to give the qualifier of identity for God (nor the additional petition for God’s Will to be done) to His disciples because they had already been taught these important facts.
Now look at MATT 7:7-11 (New International Reader’s Version) which states: “Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find. The door will be opened to the one who knocks. Suppose your son asks for bread. Which of you will give him a stone? Or suppose he asks for a fish. Which of you will give him a snake? Even though you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” In these verses, Our Lord is teaching about having confidence in prayer.
Now notice how He uses the same words and ideas in LUK 11:5-13 (New International Reader’s Version): Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend. You go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. A friend of mine on a journey has come to stay with me. I have no food to give him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked. My children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, that person will not get up. And he won’t give you bread just because he is your friend. But because you keep bothering him, he will surely get up. He will give you as much as you need. So here is what I say to you. Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive. The one who searches will find. And the door will be opened to the one who knocks. Fathers, suppose your son asks for a fish. Which of you will give him a snake instead? Or suppose he asks for an egg. Which of you will give him a scorpion? Even though you are evil, you know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your Father who is in heaven give The Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Both pieces of scripture command the believer to ask in order to receive, to seek in order to find, and to knock so that the door will be opened. Both use the same illustration of a father giving his son the good thing he asked for instead of something dangerous or unclean. The only difference is an egg and not a scorpion is used as an example in LUK 11:5-13 instead of bread and a rock which He uses in MATT 7:7-11. Both end with the same conclusion of comparing the lesser with the greater but the example of the good the Father gives is different.
In MATT 7:11 Jesus asks how much more will your heavenly Father give what is good to those who ask Him. That is a general truth that He could proclaim to all the Jews gathered to hear Him. God is good to all those that are asking, seeking, and knocking whether they are currently believers or not because according to MATT 5:45 (New International Reader’s Version): He causes his sun to shine on evil people and good people. He sends rain on those who do right and those who don’t. But Jesus gives a different promise to His disciples alone, as we saw in LUK 11:5-13, saying, “How much more will your Father who is in heaven give The Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” Any person can be confident in prayer because God is good and will give what is good to those asking Him. But as believers and disciples of Jesus Christ, we can be even more confident in prayer because God gives His Holy Spirit to His disciples. In this study, we’re going to learn about the Gift of The Holy Spirit and why it’s the best gift God can give His children.
Let’s start by identifying The Holy Spirit because there are many groups claiming to be Christian that are heretical in their teaching of Who He is. The first step to standing firm against such heresy is to correctly identify Him and His Attributes. First and foremost, The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Triune Godhead. He is God. Peter specifically equated Him with God in ACTS 5:3-4 (New International Reader’s Version): Then Peter said, “Ananias, why did you let Satan fill your heart? He made you lie to the Holy Spirit. You have kept some of the money you received for the land. Didn’t the land belong to you before it was sold? After it was sold, you could have used the money as you wished. What made you think of doing such a thing? You haven’t lied just to people. You’ve also lied to God.” The Holy Spirit is also directly called God by different titles. Look at GEN 1:2 (New International Reader’s Version): The earth didn’t have any shape. And it was empty. There was darkness over the surface of the waves. At that time, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Now look at what God The Holy Spirit is called in 2 COR 3:3 (New International Reader’s Version): You make it clear that you are a letter from Christ. You are the result of our work for God. You are a letter written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. You are a letter written not on tablets made out of stone but on human hearts. He’s called by a different title in ISA 61:1 (New International Reader’s Version): The Spirit of the Lord and King is on me. The Lord has anointed me to announce good news to poor people. He has sent me to comfort those whose hearts have been broken. He has sent me to announce freedom for those who have been captured. He wants me to set prisoners free from their dark cells.
The Holy Spirit’s Deity is also demonstrated by His having the Attributes of God. These include being Eternal in HEB 9:14 (New International Reader’s Version): But Christ offered himself to God without any flaw. He did this through the power of the eternal Holy Spirit. So how much cleaner will the blood of Christ make us! It washes away our feelings of guilt for committing sin. Sin always leads to death. But now we can serve the living God.
Another attribute He shares with God is being Omniscient which we see in 1 COR 2:10 (New International Reader’s Version): God has shown these things to us through his Spirit. The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. He is also Omnipresent: Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you. (PSA 139:7-12 The Message Bible)
Additionally, The Holy Spirit has supernatural power, like God. We learn this in LUK 1:35 (New International Reader’s Version): The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come to you. The power of the Most High God will cover you. So the holy one that is born will be called the Son of God. The apostle talks about receiving this power in ROM 15:19 (New International Reader’s Version): He has given me power to do signs and wonders. I can do these things by the power of the Spirit of God. From Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum I have finished preaching. In those places, I preached the good news about Christ.
{to be continued}