THE HOLY SPIRIT
As a child, I did not come from a Christian home. My parents did not go to church, but I do remember going to a Methodist Sunday School for a while in Surfers Paradise on Queensland's Gold Coast, where I grew up. Then, as a teenager at about the age of fourteen, I started attending the local Church of England youth group with another friend from school.
That led to us being asked by the minister of the church to become 'servers' - I suppose similar to altar boys in the Catholic Church. The church had two Sunday morning services - 7am and 9am. We were involved in the 7am service. Eventually, through a school holidays church 'coffee shop' outreach, I heard the Gospel message clearly as one of the youth group leaders sat with me until midnight one night sharing the message of salvation through Jesus Christ with me.
I prayed the "Sinner's Prayer", and, at that point in time, my Christian life began.
i knew that something had happened in my life. I literally did sense the experience of being 'born again' as the Bible says in John 3:3 and 7. I went home feeling invigorated, and woke up the next morning feeling a sense of God's nearness, and a real sense of being cleansed from my sin.
I knew from my Sunday School lessons earlier, and from attending the church services and hearing the Word of God preached, that the God of the Bible was referred to as the Trinity - One God in Three Persons - God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26 as part of the creation narrative, the Bible says: Then God said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness...."
I could understand something of the concept of God being Father, and could also understand something of the Person of Jesus Christ through the Christmas story and the significance of Easter, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - even before any church or Sunday School involvement I probably had some exposure to Christian teaching. through Bible-in-Schools programs as well.
But, I remember the Holy Spirit being a total mystery to me. Actually as a child, with the King James version of the Bible being the main Protestant Scripture source, the Holy Ghost was the terminology most used for this mysterious person in the Godhead. To be honest, Holy Ghost sounded to me a little spooky!
As a child, and into my early teens, ghosts were scary ethereal figures that haunted old dilapidated houses, and were the stuff of nightmares!
However, when I became a Christian, I learned that the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, as we mostly refer to Him now - is a vital member of the Godhead - Yes, He is a He, not an IT, not some vague force, but a Person with personality.
When Jesus was about to finish His earthly ministry, He told His disciples in John 14:15-18: "If you love Me, keep my commands,
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows him; but you know Him
for He dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."
The Bible tells us that when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, when we confess our sin and our need of a Saviour, and accept the work of Jesus shedding His blood and dying on the Cross - the sinless Son of God dying in our place (Romans 5:8), we are born again by the work of the Holy Spirit as He makes alive our human spirit which until that time has been unresponsive to the Spirit and Word of God. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Jesus' disciples were sad when He told them He was going away, but He reassured them that He would send another Helper and that He would abide or dwell with them forever. The Greek work Jesus used for another Helper is allos which means another of the same kind. The Holy Spirit Jesus would send would be their Helper, Counsellor, Comforter, and Guide. The Holy Spirit's coming would assure them of continuity of all that Jesus both did and taught.
Every man, woman or child who personally commits their life to Christ and is "born again" of the Holy Spirit becomes as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:17 a new creation in Christ, able to commune or fellowship with Father God.
BUT WAIT........THERE'S MORE!
If you want to know more about how you can be "born again" and can experience the life that God has planned for you - not an easy life, but a life in fellowship with your Creator God, a life led by the Holy Spirit, a life filled with purpose and promise for the future - contact the following for further help:
vision.org.au This is the home of Vision Christian Media.
Click on the Grow your faith tab at the top of the page, then Looking for God?
If you have made a commitment of your life to Jesus Christ in response to reading this blog, please let me know in the Comments section below.
God Bless!
i knew that something had happened in my life. I literally did sense the experience of being 'born again' as the Bible says in John 3:3 and 7. I went home feeling invigorated, and woke up the next morning feeling a sense of God's nearness, and a real sense of being cleansed from my sin.
I knew from my Sunday School lessons earlier, and from attending the church services and hearing the Word of God preached, that the God of the Bible was referred to as the Trinity - One God in Three Persons - God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:26 as part of the creation narrative, the Bible says: Then God said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness...."
I could understand something of the concept of God being Father, and could also understand something of the Person of Jesus Christ through the Christmas story and the significance of Easter, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ - even before any church or Sunday School involvement I probably had some exposure to Christian teaching. through Bible-in-Schools programs as well.
But, I remember the Holy Spirit being a total mystery to me. Actually as a child, with the King James version of the Bible being the main Protestant Scripture source, the Holy Ghost was the terminology most used for this mysterious person in the Godhead. To be honest, Holy Ghost sounded to me a little spooky!
As a child, and into my early teens, ghosts were scary ethereal figures that haunted old dilapidated houses, and were the stuff of nightmares!
However, when I became a Christian, I learned that the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, as we mostly refer to Him now - is a vital member of the Godhead - Yes, He is a He, not an IT, not some vague force, but a Person with personality.
When Jesus was about to finish His earthly ministry, He told His disciples in John 14:15-18: "If you love Me, keep my commands,
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever,
even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows him; but you know Him
for He dwells with you and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."
The Bible tells us that when we commit our lives to Jesus Christ, when we confess our sin and our need of a Saviour, and accept the work of Jesus shedding His blood and dying on the Cross - the sinless Son of God dying in our place (Romans 5:8), we are born again by the work of the Holy Spirit as He makes alive our human spirit which until that time has been unresponsive to the Spirit and Word of God. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Jesus' disciples were sad when He told them He was going away, but He reassured them that He would send another Helper and that He would abide or dwell with them forever. The Greek work Jesus used for another Helper is allos which means another of the same kind. The Holy Spirit Jesus would send would be their Helper, Counsellor, Comforter, and Guide. The Holy Spirit's coming would assure them of continuity of all that Jesus both did and taught.
Every man, woman or child who personally commits their life to Christ and is "born again" of the Holy Spirit becomes as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5:17 a new creation in Christ, able to commune or fellowship with Father God.
BUT WAIT........THERE'S MORE!
If you want to know more about how you can be "born again" and can experience the life that God has planned for you - not an easy life, but a life in fellowship with your Creator God, a life led by the Holy Spirit, a life filled with purpose and promise for the future - contact the following for further help:
vision.org.au This is the home of Vision Christian Media.
Click on the Grow your faith tab at the top of the page, then Looking for God?
If you have made a commitment of your life to Jesus Christ in response to reading this blog, please let me know in the Comments section below.
God Bless!
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