God's Spirit ...

Tuesday, Oct 20, 2015. Sometimes people think that faith is something purely intellectual. They believe that faith means you think some things are true, and that is it. Others think that faith is purely ethical, that it is about ideals and behavior. And of course, both truth and behavior are part of faith. But faith is much more! Let us talk about the spirit.

God in Father, Son, Holy Spirit …

God is God in father, in the son Christ Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit. If you search for “spirit” in the bible, you find more than 500 hits. And the holy spirit is a key actor in the New Testament. God is said to be spirit himself. Jesus promises his spirit to the disciples, and they experience the spirit. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we1 have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith2 into this grace in which we stand, and we3 rejoice4 in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5, 1-5)

God gives his Holy Spirit to those who trust their life into his hands. That is important. Only through his spirit we can understand his message and his goals. Only through the spirit we are able to live the way he lives. Obedience is difficult without the spirit. Faith without the spirit is like a marriage without love. You act, but you do not feel and mean what you do. But with the spirit, everything is different!

Work of the Spirit …

You do not need to be a pentacostal Christian, to talk about the spirit. It is for all of us, for the brethren as for the reformed Christians, for catholic and orthodox. The spirit comes to those, who believe. The spirit comes to those, who trust their life into his hands. The spirit comes to those who accept and receive forgiveness, who are reconciled with God through Christ Jesus. And when the spirit comes, you receive a home. When the spirit comes, you become a child of the most high. It is a new birth, you become a real kid, with all your trust and your expectations, with all what you bring, grief and joy, difficult and fantastic experiences. And in him, all is made new, all is changed.

You may sense already, that I am excited about the spirit. I am excited, since the spirit of God is fantastic, amazing, surprising. He is life, he is insight, he is peace, joy, but also truth, light, … unbelievable, but true!

You might say: yes, that is what I also found. You might also say: how do you get there? How do you find the spirit of God? How do you gain experiences with the spirit. I believe that you will get the experiences when you live as a sincere Christian. Trust your life into the hands of God, into the hands of Christ Jesus. Start to attend some Christian church - search for one where faith is alive, where you find more than dead forms only. And then live with him. Pray. And do. Listen to his voice, as it is recorded in the biblical books, in the New Testament. Search community with other Christians, everywhere in the world you find small and larger churches, who follow Christ. And then, when you trust him, the spirit will come. Yes. ... more texts