Staff Writer - Carol Cato
Stephen: “I believe there is a God, but I don’t believe the God that you’re talking about”
Deborah: “So, who is this God that you believe in?”
Stephen: “I believe that God is within you, it’s your power, thoughts and strengths”.
Deborah: “Well, you got the first part right, sort of, if you ask God to come into your life, the Holy Spirit is awakened in you.”
Stephen: “The Holy Spirit?”
Deborah: “Yes, in the Bible Jesus says in John 14:16:18 (AMP) “16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—
17 The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.”
“The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity. He is fully God. He is eternal, omniscient, and omnipresent, has a will, and can speak. He is alive. He is a person. He is not particularly visible in the Bible because His ministry is to bear witness of Jesus” (John 15:26).
“Some religions believe that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a force. This is false. If the Holy Spirit were merely a force, then He could not speak (Acts 13:2); He could not be grieved (Eph. 4:30); and He would not have a will.” (1 Cor. 12:11)
“God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And all the divine attributes ascribed to the Father and the Son is equally ascribed to the Holy Spirit. When a person becomes born again by believing and receiving Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13; John 3:3-21), God resides in that person through the Holy Spirit (1Cor. 3:16). The Holy Spirit has intellect (1Cor. 2:11), emotion (Rom. 15:30), and will (1Cor. 12:11).The Holy Spirit works in many ways. He gives us guidance, warning, knowledge, and understanding, He gives us strength, healing, joy, and happiness.”
Deborah: “You know Stephen when we first started this conversation you said that you believe that God is within you, in the form of your power, thoughts and strength. As Christians, we believe those come from the Holy Spirit.”
Stephen: “So the Holy Spirit is in everyone?”
Deborah:“One of Spirit’s roles in the ‘spiritual’ life of the unbeliever is to convict him or her of sin.”
Photo courtesy psych-your-mind.blogspot.com
(Acts 10:44-45), “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.”
In ‘Acts’ the Holy Spirit is responsible for the regeneration of the unbeliever to one that trusts in Christ.
Deborah: “Non-believers are simply people who do not have the Holy Spirit awakened in them”
Stephen: “But some religions don’t believe in Jesus?”
Deborah: “Do you have a bible?”
Stephen: “I may have one somewhere”
Deborah: “When you find it turn to Isaiah 53 or click on this link–A Prophecy of The Suffering, Death And Resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Deborah: “Isaiah 53 was written about 700 years BEFORE Jesus came to earth – I will read you some of what it says and after that you should read the rest.”
“Isaiah 53: Who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
Please read all of Chapter 53 and I will finish this discussion next week.
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