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Answers Preparing the Church for Jesus' Return |
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ABOUT HOLY SPIRIT 
1. Can I Live A Holy Life? If it were not possible to live a holy life, God would not have commanded it. He said, "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (Leviticus 19:2). To be holy means to be separated to God. Something about God's nature itself speaks of holiness. Being set apart to God makes us holy.We are not made holy by doing good things. We are made holy by faith in Christ, just as we are saved by faith. Little by little, as we grow and live with the Lord, we will become more like Him. Paul said, "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Corinthians 3:18). As we look at Jesus, think about Jesus, study about Jesus, pray to Jesus, and seek to follow His example, we become like Him. We begin to think like Him and act like Him. We become like Him because we are set apart to Him. This is true holiness. If you are a Christian, ten years from now your life should be considerably different from what it is now. Your motives and desires, as you get closer to Him, should be continuously more holy. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). We can achieve a degree of purity in this life. It comes from God, as we grow closer to Him and are more like Him. Although perfection is not totally attainable in this life, it is something we should strive toward and aim for.
2. What Is Christian Maturity? Christian maturity is being a responsible son or daughter of God. I think the mature in Christ are people who have stopped being concerned about their own needs and pursuits and have entered into the global vision of their Father so that they may transform a hurting world. The mature go out as His agents in order to accomplish the aims of the Lord's Prayer, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). It's like a son who is being brought into the family business. Instead of racing fast cars and running around with girls, he finally buckles down and says, "Dad, I'm part of it. It's my business, too, and I'm going to work hard and undertake the burden of this work." That is real maturity. We undertake the burden of God in the way Jesus Christ would do it. Not in the energy and heat of our own flesh, striving to do something ourselves, but in the anointing of the Spirit of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. What Is The Indwelling Spirit? When you come to Jesus Christ, you receive Christ into your heart. Jesus does not physically enter into your chest cavity and live there, but the Spirit of God comes and joins with the spirit of the believer. This is what is meant by the term "the indwelling Spirit." His function is to reproduce the life of Jesus in the believer. He will manifest the fruit of the Spirit in the believer's life. The nine attributes of Jesus that develop in the life of someone who has been born again and who has been indwelt by the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). In Romans 8:14 the apostle Paul tells us that those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. We could transpose those words and say that the sons and daughters of God can expect the leading of the blessed Holy Spirit.You might ask then, where does the constant struggle in the life of some Christians come from? Many Christians run into problems when they do not cooperate with the Spirit. We have a choice. The Spirit does not force Himself on us. For example, in the first century the apostles and elders in Jerusalem were debating a matter of doctrine. After they heard much discussion, they responded to the believers in Antioch, saying, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things" (Acts 15:28). That was an awesome statement for those men to make. They were saying, in effect, that their opinion was equal to the opinion of the Holy Spirit. They said, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us." You might ask yourself, if it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, who cares what the apostles thought about it? They were acknowledging a God-given partnership. They could choose whether or not to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. They can hold back and fail to acknowledge Him, or they can accept His leading to do what He wants them to do. They have that freedom, but they eventually have to deal with the blessings or problems resulting from their free decisions. John the Baptist can be our role model. He said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Our wills and our egocentric natures have to decrease, whereas the Spirit of Jesus within us has to increase. This is a continuing process. Little by little, Christ is being made bigger, and we are being made smaller. If you fight that process and say, "I am going to assert myself and have my own way, but I will go to church on Sunday, acknowledge Christ, and take His benefits," you are going to be a defeated, immature Christian. The struggle will go on as long as you give your flesh, the world, and the devil a place in your life.
4. What Is The Fruit Of The Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit consists of nine characteristics of Jesus mentioned in Galatians. Remember, fruit takes time to grow as it develops on a healthy plant. This fruit grows in spiritually healthy Christians and centers around the three major virtues of faith, hope, and love. As noted in Galatians 5:22-23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Those who belong to Jesus and who live for Him become more like Him. It is as if Jesus were sitting for a portrait and the Holy Spirit were painting that portrait inside us. The manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is the tangible evidence that we are being changed into the nature of Jesus Christ.Contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit are the works of sinful, uncrucified flesh: Immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, envy, and the like. These evils war against the Spirit and must be put to death in the life of each believer (see Galatians 5:17-21).
5. What is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit? The baptism in the Holy Spirit is the empowering for service that takes place in the life of the Christian. It can take place at the moment of faith in Christ as in the case of the first Gentile convert, Cornelius; but traditionally and experientially it follows repentance, saving faith, and baptism (see Hebrews 6:1-2). It enables a believer to witness to the Lord's salvation and to demonstrate one or more of the nine gifts, or manifestations, of the Holy Spirit (see I Corinthians 12:7-10). Just as the indwelling Spirit reproduces the life of Jesus, the outpoured, or baptizing, Spirit reproduces the ministry of Jesus. To illustrate, if I had a glass of water and took a swallow, then the water would be inside me. If, on the other hand, I went down to the beach and stepped into the ocean, then I would be in the water. We receive, as it were, a drink of the Spirit when we are saved, but when we are baptized in the Spirit, it is as if that initial drink becomes an ocean that completely surrounds us..When we give ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. The Holy Spirit places us into Jesus. In turn Jesus immerses us in the power of the Holy Spirit, and from the experience comes the ability to reproduce the works of Jesus, including miracles and healings (see John 14:12-16, Acts 1:5,8). Just as there are nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit, there are nine gifts of the Spirit. Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said, "John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). He also said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: And you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8). When the day of Pentecost came, Jesus' apostles were all together in the same house. There was the sound of a mighty wind, and then tongues of fire sat upon them. They "began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). When we give ourselves to Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. The Holy Spirit places us into Jesus. In turn Jesus immerses us in the power of the Holy Spirit, and from the experience comes the ability to reproduce the works of Jesus, including miracles and healings (see John 14:12-16, Acts 1:5,8). Just as there are nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit, there are nine gifts of the Spirit. Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus said, "John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). He also said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you: And you shall be witnesses to Me" (Acts 1:8). When the day of Pentecost came, Jesus' apostles were all together in the same house. There was the sound of a mighty wind, and then tongues of fire sat upon them. They "began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4).
6. Does A Person Have To Speak In Tongues
7. How Do I Receive The Baptism In The Holy Spirit? You need to do a number of things in order to receive this blessing.First, you need to be born again. The person who is going to be filled with the Spirit must have the indwelling Spirit and must belong to Jesus. The second thing you have to do is to ask. The Bible says, "Ask, and it will be given to you" (Luke 11:9). The third thing you have to do is surrender. The apostle Paul made this need clear in the book of Romans when he said, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice." (Romans 12:1) Fourth, you must be willing to obey the Spirit. God does not give this power to someone and then say, "You can take the part you like and leave the part you do not like." If you want to be immersed in the Spirit, you need to be prepared to obey the Spirit. Fifth, you need to believe. The apostle Paul, speaking to the Galatians, said, "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith" (Galatians 3:2)? The answer, obviously, is faith. You have to believe that if you ask, you will receive. Finally, you have to exercise what God has given you. Having asked, having received, having been willing to obey, and having believed, you need to respond in a biblical fashion. The Bible says those baptized with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost "began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:4). This means they spoke the words that the Spirit gave them. The Holy Spirit gave the words, but the apostles and disciples voluntarily responded. There was action based on faith, not merely passive acceptance of the blessing. For example, suppose someone came to me and asked, "Could you let me have a dollar?" and I said, "Certainly." Then I reached into my pocket and handed him a dollar. What if he just looked at me and said, "You don't understand. I'm terribly desperate. May I please have a dollar?" I would offer the dollar again and say, "Here's the dollar." But what if, instead of taking it, he said, "Oh, please, don't you see I'm starving? Let me have a dollar." We could keep that up forever! The person would go without, and my arm would grow tired of handing him the dollar. He would never receive it, and I would never give it. But the minute he said, "Thank you," took the dollar, and put it in his pocket, that would be the moment the blessing was received. That is the way it is with God. God is offering the baptism in the Holy Spirit to people who need only to reach out and take it and then enjoy the blessing.
8. Could You Explain The Gifts Of The Spirit? In I Corinthians 12, Paul speaks of nine charismata, which we call gifts, or enablements, of the Spirit. All of these come about by the Holy Spirit, who manifests Himself in the lives of those who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and have received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.An analogy would be a house wired for 200 amps of electricity, which could run an iron, a stove, a heater, a hot water heater, a woodworking shop, and any number of other electrical appliances. They all draw from the same power source. In the believer, the Holy Spirit is the source of power, and He can manifest Himself in healings, miracles, revelations, or utterances. There are nine manifestations, or gifts, of the Spirit, which can be divided into three groups of three. The first group consists of the manifestations of revelation. The word of wisdom has to do with knowing about the future or have supernatural wisdom regarding a present situation, such as in Luke 12:11-12 and Acts 6:8-10. The word of knowledge is discerning something that is not available to the senses. The third gift in the group is the discerning of spirits, which has to do with seeing the invisible world of human spirits, angels, devils, and the appearance of Jesus Himself. The second group involves works of power, including miracles, gifts of healing, and the working of faith. The gift of miracles includes doing such things as stilling storms, restoring limbs, and raising the dead. The gifts of healing are for the healing of various diseases. The working of faith is essentially for defense and protection or for the accomplishment of some extraordinary task far beyond the ability of an individual. The third group has to do with utterance, which includes bringing messages in tongues in an assembly, being able to interpret those messages, and proclaiming prophecy. Prophecy is for exhortation, edification, and comfort; people speak a direct word from God, such as, "Thus says the Lord, 'I am in your midst to help you and encourage you.'" These, then, are the nine gifts of the Spirit, and they are all available to those who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit.
9. Didn't Miracles Stop Until He comes, we need to have His life and His weapons for bringing His rule on earth (see II Corinthians 10:3-6). Perhaps we need His power more today than the church did nineteen hundred years ago, because today we are faced with powerful forces of unbelief and satanic power. As we draw closer to the return of the Lord, spiritual warfare will intensify (see Ephesians 6:12). Those who oppose God will be stronger and more malevolent than ever before, and those who serve Him will experience an intensification of God's miraculous power as never before.
10. Are Healings Caused By The Power At age nineteen, Barbara Cummiskey was diagnosed as having multiple sclerosis. By the time she was thirty-one, the MS had helped cause a slowly paralyzing diaphragm, bouts of pneumonia and asthma, a collapsed lung, and tumors on her hands. She was technically blind and confined to her bed. These were well-diagnosed medical problems, and she was operated on more than once. But on June 7, 1981, she heard a voice say, "My child, get up and walk." She did just that and was healed! Barbara's legs had atrophied from lack of exercise. When she first got out of bed, however, her legs had muscle tone. Her mother shouted, "Calves! You have calves!" Similarly, I have come across instances where people were not near a television set when "The 700 Club" was used by God to heal them. One man went to bed blind, but a prayer request came in to our television program for him, and when he woke up, he could see. I know of instances where little children have been healed. The power of suggestion could not have been responsible for these healings.
11. Should Christians Consult With Doctors
12. Can Healings And Other Miracles Be Lost When Peter saw the Lord walking on the water, he wanted to walk on the water as he saw Jesus doing. Jesus said, "Come on out." So Peter got on the side of the boat, put his feet on the water, and started walking. But then Peter looked around and became frightened. He thought, I am not supposed to be walking on water! The minute he started to think that, he started to sink (see Matthew 14:28-30). Today, some people receive a healing and then think, I am not supposed to have this, and they lose it. The devil has a way of coming to people and saying, "You are not really healed. You still have that disease, and you had better go back and take your medicine and put your braces on." I remember one instance involving an acquaintance who was healed of multiple sclerosis. The doctors said he had a remission, but he knew it was a healing in answer to prayer. For a year, he had no evidence of the disease. Then one weekend, the entire force of multiple sclerosis began to come upon him. All the symptoms started to come back, and for an entire weekend he wrestled against it, saying, "Satan, I will not accept this." In the name of Jesus, he continually proclaimed that he was well. When that weekend of struggle was over, the symptoms left him. He has not been troubled since then. But if he had given in to those symptoms, he would have once again had multiple sclerosis, and he probably would have died from it.
13. What Is Prayer? Prayer is communion with God. It is the closest, most intimate relationship with the Creator you can have.Prayer is not playing magic games, spinning prayer wheels, reading off a list, or asking for things to be done. It is a communion. "Deep calls unto deep," the Bible says (Psalms 42:7). In prayer the depths of your spirit are in communion with the depths of the Spirit of God. Out of this can come instruction, guidance, or a burden to pray for certain things. The apostle Paul said, "For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26). There are times when we can emit only wordless groanings because we don't know how to pray about a specific situation. We can learn much from the Lord's Prayer, the model prayer (see Matthew 6:9-13). The first is that if we are to structure prayer, we should begin with an acknowledgment of the One we are talking to--God, our Father. We should also include adoration, "Hallowed be Your name." We are to glorify and worship His name, His very Being. Next, we must be concerned about the extension of His kingdom. We ask that men should come to know Him and submit to Him. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Next to the name and the person of God Himself, the most important thing in prayer is the extension of God's kingdom. After that, we ask God for our daily bread--whatever we need to carry out His work. It may be money, a car, food, clothing, a house, or a $20 million budget for a Christian organization. It may be money to feed the poor. It may be a lot of things. We ask Him to give us, day by day, bread that is sufficient for us. That is the petition part of prayer. The first part of prayer is praise, the second is intercession for others, and the third is petition, when we ask for our needs to be met. Finally, we seek God's protection that we might not be led into temptation and that God will keep us from evil. We ask Him to keep us walking in His way, so that we might be covered by His power and anointing and not be susceptible to Satan's influences. We must remember that prayer is rooted in forgiveness. "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." The relationship of God's people to Him comes about because of continuous forgiveness. If we are going to see miracles in our lives, we have to be willing to forgive other people, even as God is willing to forgive us. Christians should always be in an attitude of communion with God. Prayer can take place in every circumstance (see Psalms 4:4,5:3, Daniel 6:10, Acts 21:5, I Thessalonians 5:17). In my life, as events pass by, I may find myself talking to Him, wanting to know something, asking for advice and counsel, or for favor and blessing. The Christian's life should be filled with prayer. In addition, we should set aside specific times, at least once a day, for prayer and for reading the Bible. As we read the Bible, we should pray, worship God, speak to Him about our needs, and listen to His answers. This should be a time of communication between two spirits that sets the order of events for each day.
14. What Does It Mean To Pray In In our legal system, we have what is called the grant of a power of attorney. This means that an individual who owns property, money, or some right gives control over it to someone else, and that person acts in the owner's name. In whatever he or she does regarding the thing under control, the action is done with the owner's authority. It is as if the owner himself were acting. Likewise, in the promise above, Jesus gives us His authority to make requests of the Father. When we ask in His name, it is as though Jesus Himself were making the request. In that name there is absolutely awesome power. For this authority to be exercised properly, however, the attorney must be a faithful agent of the owner. That is, his actions must be in accord with the owner's wishes. To do otherwise is to abuse the power of attorney. We see that this is true also of God: "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us" (I John 5:14). So when we prepare to ask something of God in Jesus' name, we need to be sure that our request reflects His will, not ours. Then, too, God answers prayers offered in Jesus' name "that the Father may be glorified in the Son." The result of such prayer should be that God is honored and glorified, for that is its whole purpose. Jesus has given us the power to ask in His name, and it is a wonderful privilege of which we should take full advantage. But to misuse that power is presumption.
15. How Do I Pray For A Miracle? When we are faced with a great need, either for ourselves or others, we should begin by humbly seeking to know what God's will is in the matter (see I John 5:14-15, Romans 12:1-2, 8:26-27). "Father, what do You want to do in this situation?" Jesus said, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working" (John 5:17). He listened to the voice of the Father, and He watched Him. Be careful not to start or end a prayer by saying blindly, "If it be Thy will." Rather, you should seek to know God's will in the situation and then to base your prayer upon it. Say, "Father, in advance, tell me what Your will is and what You are doing." Then you can ask Him to perform the miracle that you know He wants to bring about.Most people ask God for a miracle, but many omit a key requirement--the spoken word. God has given us authority over disease, demons, sickness, storms, and finances (see Matthew 10:1, Luke 10:19). We continue to ask God to act, when, in fact, He has given us the authority to act with divinely empowered speech. We are to declare that authority in Jesus' name. We are to command the money to come to us, command the storm to be stilled, command the demon to come out, command the leg to grow, command the cancer to leave. Jesus said, "Whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says'" (Mark 11:23). Believe in your heart that it has already happened! With the anointing of faith that God gives you, you speak it forth.
16. Is It Permissible To Pray More Than Once Jesus told a parable about a man who was at home in bed (Luke 11:5-8). It was at midnight when he heard frantic knocking on his door. A neighbor needed some bread to feed a guest who had arrived unexpectedly. At first the man said, "I cannot get up, I will not do it." But the neighbor kept on knocking, and the householder finally walked downstairs, shoved a couple of loaves of bread out the door, and went back to bed. The man who was petitioning got his request only because of his persistence--not because he was a neighbor or a friend, but because he kept on knocking. Therefore, the concept that you must pray only once about something is clearly not biblical. There is one exception--when God says yes. If you ask God for $1,000 and God says, "Yes, I am sending it," you should praise and thank Him for it. If you continue to ask Him, then you act as if you do not have a relationship with Him. You need to know His voice and be able to hear Him, especially when He says yes or no.
17. How Can I Know God's Will? The best way to know God's will is to be familiar with the Bible. That is because virtually everything you need to know concerning the will of God is in the Bible. If you are totally familiar with the Bible, can interpret it, and understand it clearly, you can know the will of God.Another way you can know the will of God is through prayer, when you commune with God and learn what pleases Him. The Bible says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Colossians 3:15). This means that the peace of God is like a regulator, so that when you violate the will of God, His peace leaves you and you have inner turmoil. You then know immediately that you are going against God's will. I would say emphatically that the Bible and the peace that comes about through a continuous relationship with God are the best ways of knowing His will. It is true that God will show us His will through a number of other means. He will show us His will through circumstances. We can also know the will of God through the inner voice of the Spirit as God speaks to us. Sometimes God will send us visions or dreams. He may send us angels or even appear to us Himself. God is infinite, and He can reveal His will to us in many ways. The key is to be sure that we are submitted to Him and are willing to do whatever He shows us. If we purpose to do His will, we will know His leading. Finally, for people who seemingly are unable to discern God's positive directions, I recommend "negative" guidance. Say, "Father, I want Your will above all else. Please do not let me miss Your plan and purpose for my life." As the writer of Proverbs put it, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).
18. What Is The Unpardonable Sin? The concept of an unpardonable sin has been a source of difficulty for many because it seems to go against the Bible's teachings about grace. We understand that God's grace forgives every sin, but our Lord mentioned one sin that cannot be forgiven.Let us put it in its biblical context. The religious leaders had come out to hear Him, but they opposed virtually everything He said. As He was doing miracles and casting out devils, they said, "This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons" (Matthew 12:24). Those people were so blind spiritually that they were attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan. Not only were they doing this, but they were also rejecting the Holy Spirit's work in their own lives. The Holy Spirit was saying, "This is the Son of God. This is God." And they were saying, "He is not God! He is Satan's agent." Then Jesus said, "Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.... Whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:31-32). Obviously, the unpardonable sin is not merely saying an unkind thing about the Holy Spirit. The religious leaders involved had turned totally against the revelation of God. They were so far into their own wickedness that they rejected not only Jesus Christ but also the Holy Spirit. They were saying that good was evil and evil was good. They called the Spirit of God, Satan! They had rejected spiritual understanding and so could never come to Jesus, the one source of forgiveness. If a person does not accept Jesus, he cannot have forgiveness. If he rejects the Holy Spirit and turns away from Jesus Christ, he can receive no forgiveness. That is what these so-called "religious leaders" had done. If you want to obey God but are concerned that you may have committed the unpardonable sin, you have not committed it. If anyone today has committed this sin, it would be one who is hard-hearted, who has turned against Jesus, reviled Him, and become so depraved that He would claim that God's Spirit is Satan. |
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