My Daily Life and Thoughts while in San Diego |
List of Best Posts
This blog is where I express myself to the world or at least to those who might stop by to read what I post 
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers.
I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!
Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
. Maybe God will use what I post (I am a Christian and this blog will have a most decidedly Christian bent to it) to good effect in the lives of my readers. I may turn some of my posts into a book. I may cease blogging here altogether. Who knows. But for now..I am content to post away in this, my own little corner of the world.
Rather than reading through my now lengthy list of posts you may wish to read what I consider to be my very best posts or you can just read the posts that deal with a single subject category that might interest you.
Please know that I am open to any input on any topic I write about. If you have something to say about anything you see written here please....feel free to speak up in the form of leaving a comment or sending me a PM (private message).
And if you are in San Diego and wish to meet the one and only Carlos (that's me
)...drop me a private message. I always enjoy meeting one of my readers!Thanks.
Carlos
PS. If you want to follow my blog such that you will get an email when I write new posts you can subscribe to my blog.
The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Life of a Believer - Part II
Posted 08-01-2009 at 01:08 AM by carlos123
Updated 08-01-2009 at 02:18 AM by carlos123 (Added last paragraph about a great song.)
Updated 08-01-2009 at 02:18 AM by carlos123 (Added last paragraph about a great song.)
I feel so incredibly inadequate to write about the Holy Spirit tonight. The last few days have not been very good for me. In fact I downright rebelled against God and went my own way these last few days not wanting to do things His way anymore. Just wanting to go my own way. I don't rightly know why. It's been a long time since this type of attitude grabbed hold of me like it did but grab hold of me it did.
But, as God has done in my life before, He brought me around again in His most perfect ways where tonight I want nothing more in life than to die. To go and be with Him.
It is unbelievable to me how God my Father is able to reach into my heart when I am in the midst of acting inappropriately as His child and reaching me with His love. Sometimes that love involves discipline of me through my circumstances but more often than not He finds some way to reach into my heart with His love and soften it to where I eventually break down at His graciousness and mercy over my life.
You know people sometimes scoff at how Christians think God is real but when you truly and honestly come to know Him such that you begin to see Him work in your life...even when you are inclined to push Him away...the reality of the living God really begins to sink in and become unshakable.
God is a just and holy God. A being that commands respect bordering on fear by the nature of who He is but He is also the Father of every Christian and as a Father He is the most perfect Father there is. Knowing us better than we know ourselves and able to work with us to make us more of what we want to be and that He would wish for us to be.
Today I spent an extended, absolutely incredible, and wonderful time with Him and was moved by the Holy Spirit to worship and give praise to God in ways that are relatively rare for me but which times are about as close to being in heaven as one can get while still on Earth.
Such times invariably leave me hungry for more of Him as I come back down to Earth and continue going through the daily tasks involved in living.
Though I still feel inadequate to write about the Holy Spirit I believe it is something the Lord would have me do.
So here then is Part II of my series on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer for those who have an interest in reading what I have to say on this most important issue.
------------------------------
So who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God.
It is not an it or a what but rather a he.
And he exists as a distinct being. Genesis 1:2 talks of the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the water before man was even created on the Earth.
The Holy Spirit is a spiritual being meaning that he has no flesh and bone (Luke 24:39).
The Holy Spirit is one of many spirits mentioned in the Bible.
Not all uses of the word "spirit" refer to a spiritual being by the way. For example Proverbs 16:18 talks of the consequences to one's life of having a haughty spirit. Proverbs 17:22 talks of having a broken spirit and Proverbs 18:14 mentions having a wounded spirit. The use of "spirit" in these and other such verses refers to the state of a person not to a spiritual being that lives within them and is haughty, broken, wounded, or otherwise.
Some Christians go around casting out this or that type of supposed spiritual being out of people when in fact the problem may not be that a spiritual being such as a demon is causing the problem per se but rather that the spirit of the person within may just be oriented toward a particular sin, broken by hardship, or otherwise. Such that they need encouragement, reproof, or something else without having a well meaning but mistaken Christian coming around to cast out a demon of anxiety, depression, or who knows what else out of the person in Jesus's name.
All living beings have a spirit (James 2:26). The Bible even talks of animals having a spirit (Ecclesiastes 3:21...the word translated "spirit" there is the same word used when referring to man's spirit). This is specially interesting from the standpoint that Native Americans may not be that far off in believing that all animals have spirits at least in the sense that they do indeed have one (though the practice of praying to the spirits of animals and otherwise acting so as to avoid offending them is not biblically condoned as something God would want us to be doing).
Just as people have a spirit within that characterizes who they are and which makes them alive so God has a spirit. The Holy Spirit.
Unlike with the spirit of a person however, which inhabits only one person uniquely, God's Holy Spirit can inhabit many people. In other words God the Father can share His Spirit with others.
Which if you stop to think about is absolutely incredible!
Imagine if you will if each of us could take of our spirit and share it with another or others. How many misunderstandings would be avoided! How much more readily could we step into each other's shoes and feel what others feel, see things from another's perspective, and have others feel and see things as we feel and see them.
Well...just as no one else can enter into a person and know their thoughts and feelings like the person's spirit can so no one can know the thoughts and feelings of God apart from His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11).
A Spirit that God shares with Christians!
The natural spirit of a man, before being born again or given a new spiritual birth by God, cannot discern the things of God on it's own (1 Corinthians 2:14). It cannot see and hear the things of God. God Himself must not only draw a person toward Him and give them sufficient insight to grasp the Gospel but must then cause them to be born again in their spirit when they respond in faith in order to give them eyes to see and ears to hear the further things of God.
Without God's intervention in a person's life to both draw them and cause them to be born again a person goes around in spiritual blindness unable to see or hear into the things of God. It's actually worse than just being blind. A person without God is spiritual dead. The walking dead.
That's not to say that an unbeliever cannot intellectually understand certain truths about God and His ways. Any unbeliever can intellectually comprehend that Jesus died for our sins but they cannot grasp or appreciate the fullness of what that means apart from God's Spirit convicting them to draw near to God in faith and be born again. The truths of God are foolishness to those who are walking around in a spiritual state of blindness and death (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Ezekiel chapter 37 has a very interesting description that fits perfectly with the state of unbelievers and the need to be born again (see John 3 as well).
Ezekiel was taken to a valley that was full of very dry bones. God told Ezekiel to speak the word of the Lord to these bones and that God would then bring them to life or breath spirit into them. It's interesting that the Hebrew word used here for "breath" life into them is the same word that is also used in other passages to refer to the Spirit of God.
Unbelievers are in a state of being spiritual dead just as the dry bones Ezekiel saw were in a state of death with respect to not being alive. Dead people, indeed dry bones, cannot see or hear anything. And just as the bones mentioned came to life when Ezekiel spoke the word of the Lord to the dry bones so too those who respond by faith to what God says in the Bible (the word of the Lord as written down) are made to come alive by the Spirit of God.
When a person is born again the Spirit of God comes to dwell in them. A real Spirit. But unlike demonic spirits who can possess and involuntarily come to control a person and make them do all kinds of nasty things the Spirit of God does not force anyone to do anything. Christians still have a choice to either follow the leading of the Spirit within them or not.
As such the Holy Spirit of God within Christians can be grieved or quenched (Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 5:19) with the result that the presence of the Holy Spirit in some Christians is not always readily evident.
-------------
I will continue with more in Part III where I hope to go into how one can receive the Spirit, what it means to be filled with the Spirit, whether there is second experience of the Spirit in a believers life after being born again, and other topics related to the role of the Spirit in the life of believers.
If anyone (but especially Christians) wishes to correct or otherwise just comment on anything I have said above or in this series of posts so far...please feel free to share your thoughts with me. Indeed I very much appreciate hearing from anyone reading my posts anytime anyone has something to say.
Please bear in mind however that I will not get into arguments over personal opinions (as opposed to a discussion of biblically plausible positions supported by verses taken at face value in the plain meaning of what is said) regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in a believers life and that I will only allow comments through that contribute in some meaningful way to this topic. So depending on the nature of the comments made I may respond through a PM rather than openly through the comments attached to this post.
-------
The following is a link to a song on a popular (and legal) song streaming web site, that I have been listening to, on and off, for the last several hours. It's absolutely one of the best Christian songs I have ever heard! The Lord has really been using it to help me enter into worship tonight. Absolutely incredible.
Hillsong - Hallelujah - Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
And here's another one...
Hillsong - To the Ends of the Earth - Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
But, as God has done in my life before, He brought me around again in His most perfect ways where tonight I want nothing more in life than to die. To go and be with Him.
It is unbelievable to me how God my Father is able to reach into my heart when I am in the midst of acting inappropriately as His child and reaching me with His love. Sometimes that love involves discipline of me through my circumstances but more often than not He finds some way to reach into my heart with His love and soften it to where I eventually break down at His graciousness and mercy over my life.
You know people sometimes scoff at how Christians think God is real but when you truly and honestly come to know Him such that you begin to see Him work in your life...even when you are inclined to push Him away...the reality of the living God really begins to sink in and become unshakable.
God is a just and holy God. A being that commands respect bordering on fear by the nature of who He is but He is also the Father of every Christian and as a Father He is the most perfect Father there is. Knowing us better than we know ourselves and able to work with us to make us more of what we want to be and that He would wish for us to be.
Today I spent an extended, absolutely incredible, and wonderful time with Him and was moved by the Holy Spirit to worship and give praise to God in ways that are relatively rare for me but which times are about as close to being in heaven as one can get while still on Earth.
Such times invariably leave me hungry for more of Him as I come back down to Earth and continue going through the daily tasks involved in living.
Though I still feel inadequate to write about the Holy Spirit I believe it is something the Lord would have me do.
So here then is Part II of my series on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer for those who have an interest in reading what I have to say on this most important issue.
------------------------------
So who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the spirit of God.
It is not an it or a what but rather a he.
And he exists as a distinct being. Genesis 1:2 talks of the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the water before man was even created on the Earth.
The Holy Spirit is a spiritual being meaning that he has no flesh and bone (Luke 24:39).
The Holy Spirit is one of many spirits mentioned in the Bible.
Not all uses of the word "spirit" refer to a spiritual being by the way. For example Proverbs 16:18 talks of the consequences to one's life of having a haughty spirit. Proverbs 17:22 talks of having a broken spirit and Proverbs 18:14 mentions having a wounded spirit. The use of "spirit" in these and other such verses refers to the state of a person not to a spiritual being that lives within them and is haughty, broken, wounded, or otherwise.
Some Christians go around casting out this or that type of supposed spiritual being out of people when in fact the problem may not be that a spiritual being such as a demon is causing the problem per se but rather that the spirit of the person within may just be oriented toward a particular sin, broken by hardship, or otherwise. Such that they need encouragement, reproof, or something else without having a well meaning but mistaken Christian coming around to cast out a demon of anxiety, depression, or who knows what else out of the person in Jesus's name.
All living beings have a spirit (James 2:26). The Bible even talks of animals having a spirit (Ecclesiastes 3:21...the word translated "spirit" there is the same word used when referring to man's spirit). This is specially interesting from the standpoint that Native Americans may not be that far off in believing that all animals have spirits at least in the sense that they do indeed have one (though the practice of praying to the spirits of animals and otherwise acting so as to avoid offending them is not biblically condoned as something God would want us to be doing).
Just as people have a spirit within that characterizes who they are and which makes them alive so God has a spirit. The Holy Spirit.
Unlike with the spirit of a person however, which inhabits only one person uniquely, God's Holy Spirit can inhabit many people. In other words God the Father can share His Spirit with others.
Which if you stop to think about is absolutely incredible!
Imagine if you will if each of us could take of our spirit and share it with another or others. How many misunderstandings would be avoided! How much more readily could we step into each other's shoes and feel what others feel, see things from another's perspective, and have others feel and see things as we feel and see them.
Well...just as no one else can enter into a person and know their thoughts and feelings like the person's spirit can so no one can know the thoughts and feelings of God apart from His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11).
A Spirit that God shares with Christians!
The natural spirit of a man, before being born again or given a new spiritual birth by God, cannot discern the things of God on it's own (1 Corinthians 2:14). It cannot see and hear the things of God. God Himself must not only draw a person toward Him and give them sufficient insight to grasp the Gospel but must then cause them to be born again in their spirit when they respond in faith in order to give them eyes to see and ears to hear the further things of God.
Without God's intervention in a person's life to both draw them and cause them to be born again a person goes around in spiritual blindness unable to see or hear into the things of God. It's actually worse than just being blind. A person without God is spiritual dead. The walking dead.
That's not to say that an unbeliever cannot intellectually understand certain truths about God and His ways. Any unbeliever can intellectually comprehend that Jesus died for our sins but they cannot grasp or appreciate the fullness of what that means apart from God's Spirit convicting them to draw near to God in faith and be born again. The truths of God are foolishness to those who are walking around in a spiritual state of blindness and death (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Ezekiel chapter 37 has a very interesting description that fits perfectly with the state of unbelievers and the need to be born again (see John 3 as well).
Ezekiel was taken to a valley that was full of very dry bones. God told Ezekiel to speak the word of the Lord to these bones and that God would then bring them to life or breath spirit into them. It's interesting that the Hebrew word used here for "breath" life into them is the same word that is also used in other passages to refer to the Spirit of God.
Unbelievers are in a state of being spiritual dead just as the dry bones Ezekiel saw were in a state of death with respect to not being alive. Dead people, indeed dry bones, cannot see or hear anything. And just as the bones mentioned came to life when Ezekiel spoke the word of the Lord to the dry bones so too those who respond by faith to what God says in the Bible (the word of the Lord as written down) are made to come alive by the Spirit of God.
When a person is born again the Spirit of God comes to dwell in them. A real Spirit. But unlike demonic spirits who can possess and involuntarily come to control a person and make them do all kinds of nasty things the Spirit of God does not force anyone to do anything. Christians still have a choice to either follow the leading of the Spirit within them or not.
As such the Holy Spirit of God within Christians can be grieved or quenched (Ephesians 4:30, 1 Thessalonians 5:19) with the result that the presence of the Holy Spirit in some Christians is not always readily evident.
-------------
I will continue with more in Part III where I hope to go into how one can receive the Spirit, what it means to be filled with the Spirit, whether there is second experience of the Spirit in a believers life after being born again, and other topics related to the role of the Spirit in the life of believers.
If anyone (but especially Christians) wishes to correct or otherwise just comment on anything I have said above or in this series of posts so far...please feel free to share your thoughts with me. Indeed I very much appreciate hearing from anyone reading my posts anytime anyone has something to say.
Please bear in mind however that I will not get into arguments over personal opinions (as opposed to a discussion of biblically plausible positions supported by verses taken at face value in the plain meaning of what is said) regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in a believers life and that I will only allow comments through that contribute in some meaningful way to this topic. So depending on the nature of the comments made I may respond through a PM rather than openly through the comments attached to this post.
-------
The following is a link to a song on a popular (and legal) song streaming web site, that I have been listening to, on and off, for the last several hours. It's absolutely one of the best Christian songs I have ever heard! The Lord has really been using it to help me enter into worship tonight. Absolutely incredible.
Hillsong - Hallelujah - Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
And here's another one...
Hillsong - To the Ends of the Earth - Free MP3 Stream on IMEEM Music
Total Comments 4
Comments
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I totally understand your post. We all have those days that I assign to myself as "OH Poor Me" days. Then we get back to what is important and "hit the road" again in our walk. We are truly fortunate that our relationship with God is probably the only relationship in our lives that we can always come back to no matter what we do in our own weakness. Aren't we lucky.Posted 08-01-2009 at 12:07 PM by yukiko11
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I do feel incredibly blessed Yukiko. For sure.
Thanks for your encouragement!
CarlosPosted 08-01-2009 at 02:17 PM by carlos123
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I'm wondering what your thinking on the personhood of the Holy Spirit. How do you see Him as a person, separate from the Father and the Son?Posted 09-01-2009 at 08:28 PM by tenacresandfree
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Hi tenacresandfree! Welcome to my little corner of the world.
That's a good question. One I will definitely have to respond to at some point. Unfortunately, with respect to giving you feedback on your question, I can't do so at present as I am just too busy getting ready to move out of my place and into another place (I must be out by noon today and must still pack some things and otherwise clean up my place for the next tenant). I will cease having internet access temporarily.
If you don't see a response to you within a week or so and are still interested in getting my input please post another comment and I will be reminded of a question I have not yet addressed.
Thanks.
CarlosPosted 09-02-2009 at 08:34 AM by carlos123
