Blog Archives - WELCOME TO THE JOY OF TROY

November 20, 2018

11/20/2018

The Holy Spirit                        THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSON

        It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7.

    Have you ever felt like an "it"? I've heard people say that. "I don't feel like a person. I feel like an it." A thing. And yet, how much of the time we call the Holy Spirit an It. Regardless of our theology, whether we believe that the Holy Spirit is a person or not, we keep calling Him an It! Maybe it's all right in a sense, but we ought to realize more often, even in our designation of Him, that the Holy Spirit is a person. And we ought to think of the Holy Spirit as a person all the time experientially. The Holy Spirit is a person.

    There are some who think of the Holy Spirit as simply the spirit of God or of Christ and not really the third person of the Godhead. He is considered to be primarily an influence, and not a real person, not a separate entity. But the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a separate personality. Luke 3:21, 22 is one text on the subject; it tells of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in a bodily shape. Matthew 28:19 lists the Holy Spirit as a separate person. John 14:16 records Jesus' request that the Father give another Comforter besides Himself. John 16:7 says that the Spirit could not come until Jesus went away. And Acts 2:33 calls the Holy Ghost the "promise" that we receive of the Father.

    John 14:26 tells that the Spirit's work is to bring to our remembrance the teachings of Jesus. John 15:26 says that the Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus. Romans 8:9 describes the Spirit's indwelling. Acts 16:7 tells of the Spirit's guidance. John 16:13 says that the Spirit guides us to truth. And John 16:14 says that the Spirit glorifies Jesus.

    If you will study these references and others like them, you will discover that there are indicated three distinct persons of the Godhead. You will see that the Holy Spirit is a separate person, that He is one with the Father and with Jesus, and that He is given a special work on this earth of bringing us to God and working in our lives. We can be thankful today for the Person who is the Holy Spirit, who loves us and seeks to bring us to salvation.

November 19, 2018

11/19/2018

The Holy Spirit                        THE GIFTS ARE FOR SERVICE

        Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 1 Cor. 12:1.

    It is the work of the Spirit to empower for service. Here is where the supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit are seen. It is under this work of the Spirit that the gifts of the Spirit are given. Here is where we see such things as prophecy and tongues and healings and miracles. The supernatural manifestations are always given for service.

    No one gets the gifts of the Spirit, and empowering for service, without having first received the fruits of the Spirit through the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit. In the genuine working of the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit come before the gifts. This tells us that we cannot expect a drunk coming out of the gutter and wandering into a gospel meeting somewhere to suddenly get the gifts of the Spirit, just because someone places hands on his head. You can't expect that.

    There was a man in Phoenix who was having a terrible time. He beat his wife, and yelled at his kids, and broke the furniture, and got drunk. One night, as a completely discouraged man, a backslider, he was considering suicide. He passed a tent, but went back in to the meeting. Someone put his hands on him, and he "got the Holy Spirit." He began "talking in tongues" right there. What would you make of that?

    Not only did he talk in tongues but following this experience he quit beating his wife, and breaking the furniture, and all the rest of it. It appeared that victory came to him through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

    If you will study the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you will discover that they are never given to change a person's life. They are not to make us holy, they are not to make us happy. They are to make us useful. Any other use and purpose for the gifts of the Holy Spirit is a deception. It is the fruit of the Spirit that brings transformation of life. And not until that has happened are the gifts of the Spirit given. You can never find the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit given anywhere in the Bible for the purpose of transforming or cleansing. They are always for service and witness. If you have this sequence clearly in mind, you have tools with which to face the spectacular manifestations of today without being deceived.

November 18, 2018

11/18/2018

The Holy Spirit                        GROWTH IN SURRENDER

        But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 3:18.

    The first phase of the Holy Spirit's work in this world is to convict the sinner. The second phase is to convert the sinner. The third work is to cleanse the Christian, and the fourth work is to commission for service.

    It is during the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit that the fruits of the Spirit are developed and manifest in the life. It is not the gifts of the Spirit that change our lives--their purpose is to make us useful in God's service. Our lives must be cleansed beforewe are empowered for service.

    When a person is converted he has come to the place of giving up on himself and depending totally on Christ. If he were to stay in this stance the rest of his days and depend totally on Christ all the time and never on himself, he would not fall or fail. So long as we rely upon God's power we do not fail; the devil has no power over us. But growing Christians are cruelly aware that they do fall and fail. This is because we do not stay in total dependence upon God's power. We depend upon Him part of the time and part of the time we go back to our old habits of depending upon self.

    At the beginning of the Christian life, when a person is born again, he experiences a sample of what God has in mind for him. As he grows he learns to depend upon God's power more and more constantly. We are perfect in birth, when we are born again; and as we grow, we can be perfect in growth. When we have learned to depend upon God's power all the time and never upon our own power, we will be perfect in maturity.

    The cleansing work of the Holy Spirit begins at the time of conversion, and brings growth in the constancy of surrender. Surrender is an all-or-nothing thing at any given point. We can never depend partly upon God and partly on ourselves. The only way partial or incomplete surrender happens is as we depend upon God part of the time and on self part of the time. The growth in the Christian life is progressing toward a more constant dependence upon His power. This is not our work, because "no man can empty himself of self. We can only consent for Christ to accomplish the work."--Christ's Object Lessons, p. 159. Christ does this work through the power of the Holy Spirit as we continue our daily fellowship with Him.

November 17, 2018

11/17/2018

The Holy Spirit                        COMMISSIONED FOR SERVICE

        But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1:8.

    The work of the Holy Spirit is to bring power for witnessing, power for service. The promise of power, after the Holy Ghost was come, was fulfilled after the waiting time in Jerusalem following Christ's ascension. Jesus told His disciples to wait until something happened. Of course, if they weren't able to know what it was, or able to tell when it happened, they could hardly have known when to stop waiting. They might still be tarrying there in Jerusalem! So the very fact that Jesus said, "Tarry until..." indicated that they could expect something obvious to happen.

    Is there something that we have not experienced in its fullness today? "The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the church is looked forward to as in the future; but it is the privilege of the church to have it now. Seek for it, pray for it, believe for it. We must have it, and Heaven is waiting to bestow it."--Evangelism, p. 701. Have you ever heard of the latter rain? Do you pray for the latter rain or do you pray for the Holy Spirit? Is there a difference? Yes, there is. The latter rain is the last outpouring of the Spirit. When you pray for the latter rain, you are praying for the end of the world, and maybe that wouldn't be a bad idea. But God gives a simple invitation to the church to pray for the Holy Spirit, which has no timetable on it as suggested by the word latter. It is something that has been present and potential and possible ever since the day of Pentecost, and even before.

    If we are invited to pray for the Holy Spirit, and the invitation is to the church, then it would have to be something in addition to the converting work of the Spirit that we are asking for. When we seek power for witnessing, we are seeking something in addition, even, to power for overcoming and victory. When the Holy Spirit is given in His fullest sense, He is given to make us witnesses for Christ, to share His love with others.

November 16, 2018

11/16/2018

The Holy Spirit                        JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE PARTNERS

        But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Rom. 8:11.

    The work of God for us is accomplished by Jesus and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And the work of God in us is accomplished by Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is Jesus and the Holy Spirit working together in both. There is no need to distinguish between them. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. The work of the Holy Spirit, following conversion and regeneration, is to cleanse the Christian. This is one of the unique missions of the people who are symbolized by the three angels--to emphasize something in addition to justification, that is, the transforming, victorious power of the Holy Spirit.

    The subject of the cleansing work of the Spirit was not clearly taught by Luther and other Protestant leaders. One of the unique contributions by the remnant church to the world is to emphasize both the work of justification and cleansing, which are both of God and the Holy Spirit.

    One of the problems is that many people who become Christians experience only the first works of the Holy Spirit, in convicting of sin and converting the sinner. But they have done nothing to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work of cleansing. They go to church and sit on the pew week after week, and yet know nothing of a daily experience with Jesus, which is the factor that enables the Holy Spirit to do His cleansing and sanctifying work.  The Desire of Ages, page 302 says, "If the eye is kept fixed on Christ, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image." It is through constant communication and fellowship with God that we cooperate with the Spirit for His cleansing work in our lives.

    The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ (ibid., p. 805). It is by choosing the continuing relationship with Jesus that we allow the Holy Spirit to accomplish for us the cleansing that He has in mind.

November 15, 2018

11/15/2018

The Holy Spirit                        THE CLEANSING OF THE SPIRIT

        And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth...for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:16, 17.

    A new heart is not necessarily a cleansed heart. A new mind in not necessarily a cleansed mind. This is why the continuing work of the Holy Spirit is a necessity. The Holy Spirit can convict us of sin and lead us to conversion, to being born again, but that is only the beginning. His work does not stop there. In Steps to Christ, page 18 we are told that when we receive a new heart, this leads to a new life. Conversion is only the beginning--it is not the whole picture.

    The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit simply prepares us for His further work, which is the cleansing of the Christian. What does it mean to be cleansed by the Holy Spirit? Jesus said that He would pray the Father and we would be sent another Comforter to abide with us. It would be the Spirit of truth, who would dwell with us and would be in us. The New Testament teaching is that there is an indwelling presence of God, which gives transforming, overcoming power. We are told that a new heart will be given to us. If we confess our sins, God will forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). What does this mean? Is it simply cleansing the records of heaven? No, it is cleansing us. And it is through the Holy Spirit that this happens.

    Notice Ephesians 3:16-19: "He would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ."

    "Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead....It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil."--The Desire of Ages, p. 671. It is through the Holy Spirit's cleansing that we can overcome.

November 14, 2018

11/15/2018

The Holy Spirit                        THE SPIRIT WORKS AS HE WILL

        The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.   John 3:8.

    A man who was a great scholar came to Jesus one night. He was a teacher, an intellectual, a thinker. He came to Jesus and said, "I notice that You're a great teacher. And I'm not so bad myself. Why don't we have a discussion?" But Jesus said, "What you need is to be born again."

    Nicodemus had been worshiping something other than God. But he was drawn to Jesus. He came to have a discussion with Jesus. He didn't fully realize his need, and when Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3), Nicodemus didn't understand. He proved that the unconverted man doesn't comprehend spiritual things, for he said, "How can a man be born when he is old?" It is only through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit that we can even understand about salvation by faith in Jesus, which is what the "kingdom of God" refers to (Christ's Object Lessons, p. 62).

    Jesus gave to Nicodemus that night His clearest presentation on the new birth. But was Nicodemus born again that night? The evidence we have is that he walked away through the darkness, pondering, thinking, wondering. For three years Jesus let the seed He had sown do its work. The new birth comes at the proper time for each person, and not even Jesus rushed the timetable. The timetable is not a clock or some number of years. It has to do with conditions. With some people the conditions necessary are fulfilled very quickly. For others, it may take a lifetime before they get fed up with life apart from God. For Nicodemus it took three years. But at least by the time of the crucifixion Nicodemus was able to accept the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. One of his first acts, along with Joseph of Arimathea, was to provide a decent burial for Jesus. This rich man became poor, and was ridiculed by his former friends, because of his loyalty to Jesus. But once Nicodemus had surrendered to the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, he was willing to become poor, because of love for the One who became poor in our stead so that we, through His poverty, might become rich.

November 13, 2018

11/15/2018

The Holy Spirit                        HOPELESSLY RELIGIOUS

        That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:6.

    When we are born into this world of sin, we are born with the absence of any joy in holiness or joy in communion with God. That's the dilemma of being born a sinner. But at the same time, the human being is born hopelessly religious. We insist on worshiping something. Our problem is that we often don't recognize that this vacuum within is a God-shaped vacuum. So until people discover the truth of the gospel, they will direct their worship to things, other people, or themselves. No one is born again until the Holy Spirit is able to lead him to the place of being fed up with worshiping anything else but God.

    I was told as a preacher that one of my responsibilities was to help people become converted. If this is true, how can this be accomplished? Is there anything we can do to help someone else to the point of conversion? Well, it is for sure that when it comes to our first birth, we have no choice or direction in the event. It happens to us, but we didn't choose it. But when it comes to being born again, we do have a choice. God gives us life and strength and health for the purpose of providing us the opportunity to come to Him for life. God offers us more than life here, with its three-score years and ten. He offers eternity--the choice of the second birth.

    One of the first things we can do in seeking to bring others to choose conversion is to uplift Jesus. It is as Jesus is lifted up, and the Holy Spirit is enabled to speak to the heart by the awareness of His love, that hearts are softened and attracted and broken.

    The Holy Spirit has a timetable for each one of us--Nicodemus waited and pondered for three years. If Nicodemus had come to some of us, as he came to Jesus that night, we would have had him in the baptismal pool by the following Sabbath. But Jesus was willing to wait for the Spirit's schedule, and when Jesus was lifted up, Nicodemus responded and became a faithful follower of the Lord. It is the Holy Spirit's work to bring people to the place of being willing to worship something besides things, other people, and self. And then, as Jesus is uplifted, hearts are won and sinners are converted.

November 12, 2018

11/15/2018

The Holy Spirit                        THE RENEWING BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

        For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared. Titus 3: 3, 4.

    You can keep your new translation on this passage! I like the way it reads in the Kings James Version. Aren't you glad that the kindness and love of God appeared? "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost: which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7). Here you have the beautiful picture of salvation from sin coming to every believing heart. It describes the regenerating work of the Spirit, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, and the work of the Holy Spirit to transform lives.

    Is this accomplished by a single acceptance of Jesus? Is justification everything, or is sanctification also part of salvation?  My Life Today, page 313, answers, "When souls are converted their salvation is not yet accomplished. They then have the race to run; the arduous struggle is before them to do, what? 'To fight the good fight of faith.'...There is no release in this warfare; the battle is lifelong." Even though the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is a tremendous work, there is more. The work of the Holy Spirit in the ongoing Christian life has just as much to do with salvation as does the work of Jesus on the cross. It's all salvation. One is salvation from our past sins, one is salvation from our present sinning. And we have the promise that finally we will be saved from the world of sin. All is by Christ, and all comes by faith. There is no difference.

    What happens at conversion? At the new birth we receive a supernatural change of attitude toward God, and a new capacity for knowing Him (The Desire of Ages, p. 189). We are given the equipment to get started with--it is not the end of the Christian life, but rather the beginning. As we begin to fight the faith of faith, to seek Jesus day by day, after the Holy Spirit has done His converting work in our life, we will be led daily in a continuing walk with Christ.

November 11, 2018

11/15/2018

The Holy Spirit                        SATAN HAS BEEN JUDGED

        Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. John 12:31.

    The Holy Spirit convinces the world of judgment--"Of judgment because the prince of this world is judged" (John 16:11). What does this tell us about the function of the Holy Spirit? Well, obviously, if the prince of this world is judged, and he is the chief sinner, then all his followers are going to be judged, too. The minute that Hitler, during World War II, found the whole world caving in on him, all his followers were in trouble as well. The minute that Goliath went down under the slingshot of David, all of Goliath's supporters knew they were finished, and they began to run. So the Holy Spirit convinces us that at the cross, when Jesus said, "It is finished," the devil knew that he was finished, and everyone who has been born in a world of sin, and who has rejected Jesus' righteousness, knows that he has nothing but a fearful looking for of judgment.

    On the other hand, the war is over. The war has been won. And if you are on the winner's side, then the fact of judgment, that the prince of this world is already judged, doesn't bring condemnation or fear, only hope, gratitude, and peace. It depends on whose side you are on. Each of us today has the privilege of choosing anew to be on the winning side.

    When Goliath's head was cut off, those on David's side uttered a shout of victory. So when we are told that if we believe on Christ we are not even going to come into judgment (John 5:24), we can rejoice. The convicting work of the Holy Spirit can bring hope and comfort. When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.

    Allow the Holy Spirit today to convince you that if you are living a life apart from Jesus, regardless of how good or how bad that life is, you are living a life of sin. Don't choose to live without fellowship with Jesus. Take courage that as we come into continuing acceptance of Christ, His righteousness at the Father's right hand is enough. He is able to bring His people faultless before His throne with Him. Judgment is nothing to fear; it is cause for rejoicing, for the war has been won. It was won at the cross, and salvation is assured. This is the truth that the Holy Spirit is seeking to bring to our understanding.