Question:
please post your views of the Holy Spirit and His works. Please provide supporting Scripture to defend your views.
Answer:
That's a pretty broad question! Anything in particular you're looking for?
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
Answer:
mainly the Spiritual Gifting of the Holy Spirit.
Answer:
What..?
Answer:
Originally Posted by bobthecockroach What..?
what are your views of Spritual gifts endowed by the Holy Spirit?
Answer:
Ah.
My view is that spiritual gifts are special ministries given to you by God, for which you are equipped through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 seems to back up this view.
4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Answer:
yes.
some people I know believe that you can't be "filled with the spirit" unless you speak in tongues. Which the Bible never said. I believe that a person can be filled with the Spirit, and not speak in tongues. I believe that tongues is one of the many gifts of the Spirit. I would rather have a gift of healing when I go to pray for someone who is sick, than to have the gift of tongues.
Answer:
Originally Posted by all4christ1104 please post your views of the Holy Spirit and His works. Please provide supporting Scripture to defend your views.
Here are my thoughts taken from my licensing paper. I have to go through my council yet where I will be grilled on these issues (and many more) so please point out any unsubstantiated points!
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity and is an equal person of the Godhead (Ac. 5:3-4, Mt. 28:13, 2 Cor. 13:14). The presence of the Holy Spirit within the Old Testament was different for the Old Testament individual, in comparison to today where it is universal and permanent for all believers (Gen 41:38; Num. 27:18; Dan. 4:8; 5:11-14; 1 Sam. 16:14; 1 Cor. 6:19; Rom. 5:5; Jn. 14:16). In Acts 2, after Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is seen demonstrating new activities during Pentecost (as predicted in Ezek. 26:26, Joel 2:28). Now, under the New Covenant, God dwells in the Church (Eph. 3:17-19) through the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Tim. 1:14). A few roles of the Holy Spirit include glorifying the Son (John 16:14), convicting men of sin (Jn. 16:7-8), regenerating the believer (Mt. 7:16-20, Jn. 3:6, Titus 3:5, 2 Cor. 3:8-4; 5:17, Col. 1:4-5), indwelling and empowering the believer (Jn. 14:16-17, Gal. 5:22, Rom. 8:13), helping believers pray (Rom. 8; Eph. 6:18), assuring the believer of salvation and God’s love (Rom. 5:1-5; 8:16) and the giving of gifts for the edification of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:11, 1 Cor.12:7). It must be stressed that Christians must guard against becoming too focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit at the exclusion of the Father and Son.
Baptism, filling, ministry and fruit of the Holy Spirit
I affirm that the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at conversion (Eph. 1:13-14). Paul indicates that the baptism of the Holy Spirit “happened to all the Corinthians when they became members of the Body of Christ; that is, when they became Christians” (1 Cor. 12:13). The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not a second spiritual maturation occurrence which takes place after regeneration, but rather it takes place specifically at the time of conversion. Beyond conversion there are no conditional criterions which must be met for the baptism of the Holy Spirit to occur since it happens solely at the time of conversion.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit should be viewed separately from the filling of the Holy Spirit. I believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit happens at the time of conversion, while the filling of the Holy Spirit is something that will take place at various times during the spiritual life of the believer as dispersed by the will of God. In other words, there is one baptism but many fillings. We are instructed to be filled with the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, to be led and controlled by the Spirit in Romans 8: 1-17, and to pray in the Spirit in Ephesians 6:18. In 1 Thessalonians 5:19 and Ephesians 4:30 we see that the believer’s sin can actually quench/grieve the Holy Spirit’s work in the believer’s life. As a result, we are instructed to be continually filled with the Spirit and avoid such occurrences which grieve the Spirit at all costs, even though we will undoubtedly at various times quench the Spirit because of our fallen sin nature.
The fruit of the Holy Spirit, as described in Galatians 5:22-23, specify the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all indications of the transformational work and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to make us more like Christ.
Gifts of the Spirit
Each believer has received at least one spiritual gift and each Christian can truthfully claim that they have a spiritual gift (1 Cor.12:7; Eph. 4:7; Rom 12:4-6). These gifts are of equal value and are designed for the edification of the Body of Christ and ultimately to reflect the glory of God. In fact, in his book, Concise Theology, Packer makes an interesting observation regarding Paul’s list of spiritual gifts found in Romans 12:6-8.
There are gifts of speech and of loving, practical helpfulness….Paul’s list of gifts alternates between the categories: items one, three, and four (prophecy, teaching, and exhorting) are gifts of speech; items two, five and six, and seven (serving, giving, leading, and showing mercy) are gifts of helpfulness. In light of this observation it is argued that Paul is specifically using this alternating pattern to emphasize a specific point – all gifts are equally important to the edification of the Body of Christ. Spiritual gifts that are used in a manner that divides the church or distract from God receiving glory are either not from the Holy Spirit or are misused by the individual.
The so-called miraculous/sign gifts (prophecy, healing, tongues, etc.) are gifts that were predominantly present during the apostolic ministry at the beginning of the New Testament Church. While I am personally extremely cautious when Christians claim to have such gifts today, I do not currently believe there is enough significant biblical evidence that rules out the idea that these gifts have ceased all together with the ending of the ministry of the apostles. For example, I do believe God does heal people today (I have personally seen it happen), but I lean toward the belief that instances where a person is healed are done sporadically as the Spirit chooses and not because an individual possesses such gifts. Even so, I would not exclude my fellowship with any believer who claimed to have one of these gifts as long as the individual used the gift in accordance with Scripture – that it was edifying to the church. I encourage all individuals who claim to possess these “charismatic” gifts to practice them cautiously (even privately) to protect the unity of the church – the very nature of the gifts themselves. I also encourage fellow Christians to above all love deeply, for we are reminded in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is the greatest of all things and it is to be desired and upheld more than any spiritual gift.
Answer:
I don't think 1 Corinthians substantiates that view of spiritual gifts. Gifts are not abilities or powers.
1 Corinthians 12:4-6
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
It is quite clear from this passage that gifts are comparable to ministries and activities. The idea of each Christian having one special gift from a finite set of gifts does not seem present in Paul's writings at all. The implications of it seem even worse. Does that mean that some people are intended to give and some are not? That some are intended to have knowledge and some are not? That some are intended to have faith and some are not? For their whole lives?
Answer:
Originally Posted by bobthecockroach The implications of it seem even worse. Does that mean that some people are intended to give and some are not? That some are intended to have knowledge and some are not? That some are intended to have faith and some are not? For their whole lives?
that is a valid arguement. We, as humans, only know what God Tells us, or we "learn" through our mistakes
Answer:
Actually, I learn a lot from studying... I don't understand what you're saying.
Answer:
we only learn through what God says, either directly to us (audibly or through prayer) or in general (through the Bible). Or we make assumptions, based upon "human reason".
Answer:
Ah... then why do I know calculus? God has never audibly spoken to me and calculus is not in the Bible.
Answer:
I am talking about spiritual things. not mathmatics, which is almost as useless as mosquitoes...jk
Answer:
Aha, at least that makes sense.
General note: It's very difficult to guess what people mean online. It's helpful if you be as specific as possible so there's no misunderstanding.