3 / 16
The Amish Voice 3
Spirit of God that Jesus drove out demons
(Matt. 12:28), and by that same Spirit,
Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans
8:11).
The night Jesus met with Nicodemus, He
taught Nicodemus that no man would
enter the kingdom of God except he was
born of water [first birth] and the Spirit
[second birth] (John 3:5).
Jesus also taught:
If any man thirst, let
him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living
water
(John
7:37-38).
Concerning rivers of living
water, John adds:
But this spake
He of the Spirit, which they that believe
on Him should receive.
The Holy Spirit took over when Jesus
returned to the Father. At age thirty, Jesus
went into full-time ministry. People
began to follow Him and listen to His
teachings. Many of His followers thought
Jesus was the one who would deliver
them from the Roman government and be
their next king. What a surprise, when
Jesus said in John 14:28:
Y e have heard
how I said unto you, I go away. . .
because I said, I go unto the Father
(John
14:28).
Jesus’ disciples were dumbfounded. In
one short moment, their whole world
turned upside down. They had given up
everything and followed Jesus. He had
taught them for three years. They knew
no other master. Peter said he would give
his own life for Him. Thomas asked Jesus
to let them go with Him.
I share all this to bring you to John 16:6-
7, where Jesus makes a powerful
statement about the coming Holy Spirit:
It is expedient for you
(meaning to your
advantage or for your own gain)
that I go
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter
[Holy Spirit]
will not come unto you; but
if I depart, I will send Him unto you.
Jesus is telling His disciples: “Hey, it is
for your own gain that I leave, because as
soon as I leave, I’ll send the Holy Spirit
in my place.”
It was to our advantage that Jesus left and
sent the Holy Spirit, because Jesus was
fully human and could only be at one
place at a time. However, the Spirit could
be everywhere at the same time. Also,
Jesus ministered to people from the
outside in, whereas the Holy Spirit
ministers to people from the inside out.
When the Spirit finally showed up in
Acts chapter 2, more happened in a few
hours than happened in all of Jesus’ three
years of ministry. Since that time, tens of
thousands of Holy Spirit empowered
missionaries have been sent throughout
the world. As a result, millions of lost
souls have been brought into the kingdom
of God.
The Holy Spirit was involved in the new
birth. We are, by nature, children of
wrath (Eph. 2:3). David says in Psalm
51:5,
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
We come into the world, and from the
beginning, are bent on being independent
from God and running after the things of
the world. Something has to happen to us
if we are to be saved from the wrath of
God (1 Thes. 1:10). We must be changed.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit reproves
[convicts]
the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment
(John
16:8).
The new birth is the result of the work of
the Holy Spirit enabling us to see our sin
as God sees it and to see our desperate
need for a Savior. The work of the Holy
Spirit quickens [makes alive] a spiritually
dead person (John 6:63). Paul writes:
the
letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life
(2
Cor. 3:6).
When a spiritually dead person is made
alive (born again), the Holy Spirit: seals
the believer (Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 2nd Tim.
2:19-21; Rom. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:6),
empowers the believer (Acts 1:8; Rom.
8:2; 9-11; 12-13), is the earnest
(guarantee) of the believer (Eph. 1:13-
14), and becomes the believer’s partner in
prayer (Rom. 8:26-28).
The Holy Spirit gives supernatural gifts
to every believer. Gifts of the Spirit are
special abilities given by the
Holy Spirit to believers for the
purpose of building up the body
of Christ. The list of spiritual
gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10
includes wisdom, knowledge,
faith, healing, miracles, prophecy,
discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues,
and interpretation of tongues. Similar
lists appear in Ephesians 4:7-13 and
Romans 12:3-8, and include apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors, and
teachers.
The gifts of the Spirit are simply God
enabling believers to do what He has
called us to do. Ephesians 4:12-14 says:
For the perfecting of the saints, for the
work of the ministry, for the edifying of
the body of Christ: Till we all come in the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ: That we henceforth be no more
children, tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine, by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness,
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
The supernatural gifts have long been the
subject of controversy in Christian
circles. They have caused family
members to turn against each other and
churches to divide. Some Christians
believe and teach that certain gifts
(speaking in tongues, interpretation of
tongues, prophecy, healings
and miracles) ceased after
we received the New
Testament in written
...the letter [law, rules] killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. —2 Cor. 3:6