The Church Age, of which we are part, is unique in many spectacular ways, and the center piece
of this new venue, not forgetful that Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of all history, is the ministry of God the Holy
Spirit to believers in this age.
Jesus Christ describes Himself as "the door" to God, that is, the access which we now have to God. "No man cometh unto the
Father but by Me", He goes on to say. What a wonderful principle! But there is some two way traffic through that door,
to borrow a metaphor, for God is aggressive in His care for us and His desire to help us, bless us. Thus, He
has entered time through the "door" of Christ and endwelled our bodies. All three members of the Trinity reside in our
bodies.
For His part, the Father in this intimate relationship is more or less transparent, for His Office is one of authority;
The Planner, and the one who acted as judge in imputing our sins to Christ. We also pray to Him, recognizing His role in
the human history as the chief figure of the Trinity we recognize as the source of our blessings. Read the section on The
Father for more information on this topic.
But the Spirit plays a very high profile role in our daily lives, for He is the Person of God who forms another critical
conduit connecting us to God; That of our Mentor. In this function He continues a ministry which began with Christ. In fact,
Christ was the first human being to have the constant presence of The Spirit in His soul and body, for He pioneered the
one-of-a-kind spiritual life which we have inherited.
This spiriual life is exclusive to The Church Age, never given to the Old Testement crowd, and not given to the Millenial
battalion of believers. Only we, The Royal Family, enjoy this intimate communion with The Living God through the Holy
Spirit.
"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." (John 14:26)
"For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the
Holy Spirit." (Romans 14:17)
As our Mentor, The Spirit is responsible for several categories of assistance; He comforts us, encourages us, guides us,
strengthens us, prays in our behalf and bestows spiritual gifts on us at salvation. His ministry to usward produces
many wonderful results;
VERSE
But literally all these aspects of His help and assistance flow out from the core power of The Word. This is the dynamo
which is fed into our souls one word at a time, and, once there, explodes to life, taking on the proportions of
Omnipotence. The Spirit is the catalyst that initiates this incredible quickening.
The words in the Bible are special, unique, peculiar in the sense that they are the visible residue of God's own
thinking. This is not some sublime mystery, some Disney plot. There is no magic dust to sprinkle on the Bible that will
cause it to jump to it's "feet" and do a jig! I'm not suggesting that the words of scripture are "magic". In and of
themselves, they are just ink on paper, like any other book. But these words have been identified as special by an
Omnipotent God! They are more than words because He makes it so! No big secret, huh?
God honors these words because they are the complete message from Him to Us; His own revelation of Himself for our
enlightenment. They are, ofcourse, reduced to this medium because we, human beings, can only learn in this primative
manner. Our puny minds read words, understand what they say, and believe or disbelieve them. Until we transfer the
words to our souls, in the form of sentences, they are just carbon and paper.
BUT! When the sentences we read and understand are concepts sent to us by God, you can see why He magnifies the Bible.
As in all things spiritual, we must look beyond the physical, pierce the chimera of what we see and feel and hear, and
grasp what powers lay beyond our senses. We are created to be oblivious to these realities, for our limited abilities are
intended to function in a restricted environment, a well decorated stage which originated with dominions beyond our
imaginations.
But we are not created to remain ignorant of what lays out there!
It's God the Holy Spirit's job to reveal what God's world is like, but only to the extent that we understand the boundaries
of our existence, the role we play in this great drama. To get down to particulars; The Mind of Christ, the scriptures,
are the line-by-line communication from God, and He has provided a system for the tranfer of His thoughts from dead words
to living thoughts in our heads.
God the Holy Spirit has several key duties in implementing this system.
First: He provides an instructor, a professional who will be poring over the texts of scripture while we go about living
our daily lives. It will be his job to glean the truths of The Word, and relate them to us in an academic environment. The
Word is even more demanding than a college course, for obvious reasons. God's Academy of Knowledge doesn't turn out
doctors, or lawyers, but Christians imbued with God's thinking, carrying out His will on earth. This instructor is
singled out by a process involving spiritual gifts, bestowed by The Spirit at salvation. Those men, in the details of
their lives, come to "hear the calling" and act accordingly.
The I.C.E. Principle has much more to say about this important subject.
Second: He fills the soul of the believer. Remember, this is a new and unprecedented modus operandi of God, just for
believers in this Church Age. This presence serves many purposes;
1. When learning doctrine, under a teacher, The Spirit makes understandable the principles of divine viewpoint to this
finite mind.
2. He oversees the process called "pneumatikas" in the Greek, or "spiritual phenomena", which, in part, transfers
doctrine accepted by the individual volition as true to a category called "epignosis", or "resident knowledge". It
can also be called "sophia", or wisdom.
3. The Spirit is also working on the other end, in the soul of the instructor, in the operation of the spiritual gift
of communication. This also applies to the evangelist. In this capacity The Spirit orchestrates recall of stored
doctrines, and certain other capabilities, such as poise in the "hot seat" before a congregation, introducing thoughts
into the consciousness of the teacher which, if responded to, enhance speaking ability, improve the powers of observation
(monitoring assemly response), and make it possible to endure more than average temptation, for a pastor sees naked
hatred, disinterest, and many other things on the faces of his "flock" in the course of his career.
Third: He aids us in applying doctrine to life by bringing pertinent truths to mind at the right moment, and supplying
such vital elements as composure, courage toward life, poise under pressure, and motivation. Just some of the eventual
products of His ministry are; Love, compassion, patience, endurance, magnaminity, courage, good judgement, wisdom,
confidence and humility. There are others. Ofcourse, the connection cannot be maintained, and have its' desired effects,
without the "Dynamic Duo", Doctrine and The Holy Spirit. We must worship God "...in Spirit and in Truth".
"Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope,
through the power of the Holy Ghost." (Romans 15:13)
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Gal 5:22,23)
"Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Sirit
teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." (1 Cor 2:13)
I omitted the work of The Spirit that pre-existed us, called inspiration, the laying of the
groundwork for "the system". In this, The Spirit "breathed" the Word into the souls of men, which resulted in the
canon of scriptures.
The Holy Spirit also has other duties, all of which are carried out at the moment we are saved.
"God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Spirit, according to his own will?" (Heb 2:4)
"To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to
another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:" (1 Cor 12:10)
"And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after
that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues..." (1 Cor 12:28)
Spiritual Gifts: Already touched upon, these gifts involve an array of talents and abilities which are critical
in the function of The Royal Family (us). They include:
1. Helps: Visiting the sick for encouragement and comfort. Initiating assitance when it becomes known that a family or
individual is suffering or in need.
2. Giving: Beyond the normal function of every believer who donates to his church, this gift provides wealth to those
who are "led" to give to the needy, support legitimate organizations (the church, missions, seminaries), and even
assist family members with a place to live, etc.
3. Refereshments: A partial communication gift, not intended for "edifying the saints", but a gift of rhetoric.
Once a believer has a reservoir of doctrine in the soul they have a great capacity for God's Word, and they emote when
they hear someone with eloquence speak on Biblical subjects. Thus, this is a gift of eloquence. Note that emotion and
thought are incompatible, they function exclusively, and not in tandem, or simulntaneously. The Spirit keeps emotion
to a minimum under the teaching of a pastor, but in this case He lets emotion flow unthrottled, for "refreshments" is
intended to give the hearers a pleasurable experience, to feel uplifted, even enjoy hilarity. Note that the ocurrance of
emotion is the reason why the individual must already have doctrinal resources resident in the soul before they can
appreciate this gift. You can't learn when you are emotional.
4. Prayer: There are what we call in Christianity "prayer warriors". Sometimes these people are very old, or
severly limited, such as the paraplegic, but not always. They spend a tremendous amount of time in prayer, and their
impact will only be known in heaven, but we can surmise that it is phenominal. These individuals have unhanced powers
of concentration, enhanced recall of scripture, and the ability to be heard a great percentage of the time in heaven.
5. Administration: Every church of any size has a multitude of responsibilities which require attention, and far
more than a pastor can handle. His time is devoted to the study of scripture, and the many fucntions which sustain a
local church are delegated to people with these several gifts. Some are deacons, others accountants, or clerks, or even
carpentry. In Berachah Church, my spiritual home, there is a complex audio, and now a video system, which must
be maintained.
This gift, regardless of what it is, doubles many times as a career, and the believer who has it benefits from the
tremendous skill which he receives at salvation. Call it a "payoff" from The Spirit, a blessing for using those
talents to serve the local church.
6. Communication: Pastor-Teacher and Evangelism, both spiritual gifts which impart certain skills necessary in
teaching doctrine and spreaading the gospel. The more spectacular of these is evangelism, for these people have an
enhanced charisma, a dynamic speaking style which is designed to capture the attention of the unsaved. One famous man
with this gift who has exploited it magnificently is Billy Graham, but evangelists also serve in foriegn or domestic
missions, working with the indiginous population, teaching doctrine and helping train ministers of other races, with
other languages, to establish their own churches and teach their own people.
Any treatment of spiritual gifts should include this footnote, a warning. As man is wont to do, we have subverted all
of these gifts in one way or another, and some of the distortions work a tragic hardship on Christianity. One such is
"tounges", a long defunct gift that the charismatic movement has adopted as the cornerstone of their faith.
Tounges, or speaking in foreign languages, was a secular and very restricted gift given to certain men of the Old
Testement. It had a dual purpose; to evangelize Jews of foreign national origin, who did not speak Hebrew, and to warn
the Jews of impending destruction, which would follow the period this gift was active by the invasion by Rome. Most of
the Apostles had it, and certain others.
At the very time when tounges was functional thousands of Jews from all over the ancient world travelled to Jerusalem
to see their temple, and worship their God, mostly during the holy days, like passover. But their long journeys were
for naught, as they were frustrated to learn, for they could not understand the words of the priest as he performed the
holy rites of the Levitical Priesthood. They were third and fourth generation Jews that had been born in other lands,
and although they adhered to their faith, they had lost the Jewish language.
With the advent of tounges, men mounted an abuttment at the gates of the city and began orating in Aramaic, Latin, or one
of the many languages extant at that time. Suddenly, the pilgrims heard echoes of their own tounge and hastened to hear
these men. Thus, they heard the truth of their God in those splendid commentaries, all spoken by men who didn't even
know what they were saying! Paul and Peter both spoke of the initial confusion when they experienced this gift for the
first time. Imagine getting up in front of a crowd and babbling in some jibberish you don't comprehend! Paul says they
"marvelled", meaning they scrathced their heads and said "...what the...?".
Eventually, "tounges" became the most spectacular of gifts, because of its' high profile. But shortly before the
Roman seige of Jerusalem, which resulted in the surrender of the Jews in 70 A.D., this gift was discontinued.
It had served its' divine purpose, and was eliminated. As I mentioned, one reason for the gift was to warn the
Jews that destruction and occupation by a foreign enemy was close at hand.
"Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe
not..." (1 Cor 14:22):
VERSE
I won't indulge in any well deserved chiding of the charismatic crowd at this point, except to say that emotion and
learning don't mix. God wants us to know Him, which means...learning!, and learning is about knowing, and
knowing is about concentrating on the teaching of sound doctrine in an academic environment. Gushing, and feeling
great, and swooning, and uttering gobbledy gook doesn't teach you a damned thing!
But here I go preaching!
There were other spectacular gifts elimnated with tounges, such as the gift of healing. There was also a limited
power of miracles, but all of these were designed to serve one purpose; establish the authority of the Apostles.
Doing these marvelous things astounded people, excited people, and by seeing them they knew, for sure, that the
workers of these wonderful acts were from God.
There are phonies today who claim to heal, an act of God. These are not miracles, and there is an explanation for these
events, some of which are real, but this involves demon activity and is not pertinent at this time. Read
The Cosmic System for more details.
There are 39 irrevocable assets, in all, which are given to us at salvation, and two more of these (we have already
examined several of them) are important works of The Spirit.
The Sealing of The Spirit: In the ancient world they had a custom of "sealing" a document, or business transaction,
or what we would call "writing a check". Families adopted a crest, or other symbol which represented their family name,
and had seals made, or what we would term "stamps". Many people had their seal engraved on the face of a large ring,
which the wearer could use accordingly.
Even today we have this practice, though very limited. Hot wax is dripped on the leaf of an envelope, and the
seal is pressed into it, much the way it was used in ancient times.
The Sealing of The Spirit is God's signet ring, pressed into the fabric of our souls. This is a divine guarantee that
our salvation is permanent, eternal, irrevocable. Nothing can wipe it out, or cause us to be "unsaved". No matter how
terrible a sin, even mass murder, it cannot cancel salvation.
Many denominations argue this fact, and much of their revenues come of their congregations "repenting" into the offering.
This, and other "repentence schemes" are a malodorous blemish on the face of Christianity! God wants us to know that
salvation is a free gift, a magnificent blessing which He engineered, and He executed! His Son stood in as our substitue,
and in so doing the punishment for sins was paid in full!
I bristle at the unmitiagted arrogance that compels men in the ministry to execute this form of control over their
ignorant flocks! They are responsible to teach their congregations, not excite the sins of guilt and fear! These
are very detructive to the spiritual life, and hold some Christians captive their entire lives.
Only God has the right to dictate the rules of salvation, and He has done so clearly and succinctly. No man, including
"Papa" in Rome, has the right to declare a person unsaved, or strap on a gamut of good deeds and supplications on them
which, they calim, defray the wrath of God. This crowd are ate up by their own self importance and the power of their
institution. But God will deal with these folks in His own way, in His own time.
Union with Christ: The Spirit also places us "in union" with Jesus Christ at salvation. This gift is involved in
a category of doctrine known in theology as "positional truth", and overlaps into other key doctrines of our faith, such
as our "heirship", we inherit the riches of the universe, co-heirs with Christ.
One title for our brotherhood which is established in union with Christ is the "Body of Christ". We are all members of
His body, the cells being individuals. This too, is a major doctrine and should be studied in depth. I may not include
this doctrine on this site anytime soon, so I recommend that you click on the "Berachah" link, below, and order the
lessons on "The Body" from there.
We are also identified with the sufferings of Christ in our union with Him. This, too, is the tone of this work of The
Spirit. We are part of Christ, and He is part of us. As such, we share in all He is. One day, The Father promises, we
will be "...like His Son..", refering to the resurrected Christ. We will have an identical resurrection body, and a
plethora of other splendid and powerful charactaristics which Christ has in heaven at this moment.
God The Holy Spirit also endwells our bodies, as I mentioned before. But this work differs from the "filling" of The Spirit,
which encompasses our souls, not the body. The endwelling creates a temple of our bodies for the endwelling Christ. This
facet of grace coincides with The Spirit's same function in Old Testement times, when the presence of Christ, known
to the Jews as Jehovah, was made evident by a blinding light called "Shekinah Glory", which hovered over the Mercy Seat,
on the Arc of The Covenant, in the tabernacle, and later in the temple. We now have this glory residing in us. Tapes on
this subject can also be obtained, free of charge, from Berachah Church.
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God,
and ye are not your own?" (1 Cor 6:19)
A final topic related to the Holy Spirit's ministry to us is the formation and function of The Royal Priesthood. In this
age we are all priests in our own right. We have the priviledge of representing ourselves before God in person, with no
"go betweens". This high office is tangent to our position as Royal Family, another exclusive feature of this age. We are
the heirs of God, brothers of Christ, adopted sons, and therefore, Princes and Princesses of the Realm. Our lifestyles in
eternity will not only be "higher than angels", but beyond the blessings of all believers in other
dispensations.
As Royal Priests, we have solemn repsonsibilities, all more completely covered in the following sections;
The Royal Priesthood
The Royal Family
The Church Age