Holy Spirit

Baptism

John’s baptism was meant to cleanse sinners from the stains upon their spirits that caused them to separate themselves from God. Just like Adam in the garden of Eden, everyone that commits a sin against God knows that he is guilty and deserves to be punished for what he has done. The key to understanding the effect of John’s baptism was to realize that God didn’t want people to live with the guilt they felt for the rest of their lives and had made a way for their sins to be removed from their spiritual awareness. The description of John’s ministry found in Mark 1:4 states, “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” The Greek word translated remission basically means freedom, but it also has a legal connotation that suggests a pardon, such as when a prisoner is set free and is forgiven of his offense. Although John’s baptism was welcomed and there were many who took advantage of his offer of forgiveness, John made it clear that he was preparing the way for Israel’s Messiah, Jesus. “And he preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost” (Mark 1:7-8).

John’s baptism of Jesus is recorded in all four of the gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Although the details vary, there is one aspect of Jesus’ baptism that is the same throughout, the arrival of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit on the earth. Mark described it this way, “And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him: and there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:10-11). The baptism of the Holy Spirit was different than John’s baptism because it signified the beginning of a new life. Not only did God intend to forgive the sins of those who accepted his Son as their Savior, but he also wanted to enable believers to live a life similar to that of Jesus Christ, one that would be consistent with his commandments. The Holy Spirit, who is also God in the same way that Jesus is, dwells within believers and causes them to be convicted or aware of their sins. The Holy Spirit’s job is to cause believers to repent and to seek out God’s will for their lives. Only through the Holy Spirit can one really understand what it means to be a child of God. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, no one can realize what Christianity is really all about.

John recognized that Jesus did not need to be baptized by him, because he had no sins to repent of. John tried to forbid him from doing it, but Jesus persisted, “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). What Jesus was saying was that the Holy Spirit needed to be introduced to humanity through his own baptism. You could say that Jesus’ baptism was symbolic of the baptism of everyone that would follow in his footsteps. As the Holy Spirit descended upon him, Jesus represented all of mankind in its sinful state being reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit appeared immediately after Jesus was raised up out of the water (Mark 1:10), because it is the Holy Spirit’s presence that regenerates the believer’s heart and makes him alive spiritually or what we think of now as being “born again” (John 3:3). In his first gospel message, Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus’ instruction to believe the gospel was intended to be a reminder that repentance was not enough. In order to be truly born again, one must believe that a new way of life is possible.

Filled with the Holy Ghost

The miraculous birth of John the Baptist was accompanied by the unusual involvement of the Holy Spirit in not only John’s life, but also in the lives of his parents. It says in Luke 1:15 that John was “filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.” Although there could be several explanations as to why John needed to be filled with God’s Spirit before he was born, the most obvious was that God hard wired John’s supernatural intelligence into his genetic code when he created him. Therefore, John’s mind couldn’t function properly without the help of the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. John’s mother, Elizabeth was also filled with the Holy Spirit before her son was born (Luke 1:41). The last family member to be filled with the Spirit was John’s father Zacharias. After Zacharias confirmed that his son’s name was to be John as foretold by the angel Gabriel, it says in Luke 1:64-67:

And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake; and praised God. and fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him. And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost.

Prior to the birth of John the Baptist, there was only one instance where someone was filled with the spirit of God (Exodus 31:3). Afterward, it wasn’t until the day of Pentecost when everyone who believed in Jesus Christ was “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4) that the Holy Spirit was fully manifested in the world. When someone was filled with the Holy Spirit, it meant that God himself was dwelling inside the person. Apparently, before Jesus was conceived, it was only possible for the Holy Spirit to dwell in one person at a time. The fact that John, his mother Elizabeth, and father Zachariah were all filled with the Holy Spirit at the same time demonstrated that things had changed dramatically. God’s presence in the world was no longer limited; he could be in many places at the same time through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit.

Don’t be a fool

God exists outside of time, therefore, the past, present, and future are all the same to him. He does not see things as a stream of events that occurs from one day to the next, but sees the entire picture of life as a whole, nothing is missing from his viewpoint.

David summarizes God’s viewpoint in Psalm 14. It begins with a description of man’s fallen condition:

The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: There is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Psalm 14:1-3)

Some people may think that the Israelites were God’s chosen people because they were better than everyone else or that as a result of God choosing them they would become better than everyone else, but the truth is that they were just as corrupt as the rest of the world. There was no way for them to be different until Jesus came.

The course of the Israelites’ history is similar to every person’s that comes to know God in that the pathway from corruption to everlasting life always includes repentance. David ends Psalm 14 with the return to prosperity:

O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the LORD bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. (Psalm 14:7)

David says “when” the LORD bringeth back the captivity because it had not yet happened. David is not referring to the Israelites exodus from Egypt, but a future event that was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit. Psalm 14 presents God viewpoint from an Old Testament perspective. If all you had was Psalm 14, you would think that a return to prosperity was all there was to life. Just as death is not the end of life, a return from captivity is not all there is to God’s big picture of life.

The difference between God’s viewpoint and ours is that his extends into eternity. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to see things from beginning to end so that life makes sense, but sometimes we are allowed to see beyond the end, or what appears to be the end, of life into eternity. David was given a glimpse into life beyond death and provides us with a snapshot of heaven in Psalm 16:

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth, my flesh also shall rest in hope: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path to life: In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16:9-11)

God’s big picture viewpoint makes it possible for him to guide us through the obstacles of life and reach our final destination without having missed any of the milestones that are required for eternal existence. Since we know very little about eternity, there is no way we can prepare ourselves for it without God. That’s why it is only the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Psalm 14:1).

God’s plan

During the time of the judges, it is recorded that “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Even though God had given the Israelites detailed instructions about how they were to live, they were not following God’s laws and commandments. The priesthood had become totally corrupted. The sons of the chief priest were the worst of all. They took portions of the meat offerings for themselves and had sexual relations with women that gathered at the door of the Tabernacle.

Although many judges had turned the Israelites to God for decades at a time, there was no consistency and the Israelites always went back to their evil ways. Even the judges themselves were flawed and made moral mistakes as Samson with Delilah. The problem was that the people had been influenced by the nations that occupied the Promised Land. Even the sons of Eli, the chief priest “were sons of Belial; they knew not God” (1 Samuel 2:12).

God’s plan to save his people began with the separation of Abraham and his family from the land of Haran. Then, Aaron and his family were separated from the rest of the Israelites to be priests, holy and consecrated to God. The final separation would be the Messiah who would be set apart from all mankind as the anointed Christ, the Savior of the world.

“And I will raise up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sore house and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever” (1 Samuel 2:35). The words faithful and sore are both translated from the same Hebrew word, ’âman (aw – man´) which means to endure and also to have belief or to believe (539). The priests of God were intended to be Believers. They more than anyone else had reason to believe because they had access to the Holy of Holies where God was present in the Tabernacle.

An essential part of believing is a personal relationship with the person one believes in. In order for someone to do that which is in the heart and mind of God, he would first have to know what is in the heart and mind of God. That kind of knowing can only come through a personal relationship. God made himself available to the Israelites, but the Israelites did not want to fellowship with God; they did not want to learn his ways and discover what was in his heart and mind.

The missing link between God and his people was the Holy Spirit. Prior to Jesus’ death, Believers did not receive the Holy Spirit. The priests were anointed which mean they were consecrated or set apart for God, but they were not sealed as we are with the Holy Spirit. To be sealed means to stamp with a signet or private mark. Just as God dwelt in the Tabernacle, the Holy Spirit dwells in us and makes God available for a personal relationship.

“But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but as the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him (1 John 2:27).

The only way that God would be able to raise up a faithful priest that would do what was in his heart and mind was with the help of the Holy Spirit. No longer would people have to go to the Tabernacle to pray or commune with God, because the Holy Spirit is present everywhere. Believers could access God through the Holy Spirit and have constant fellowship with him anywhere.

Because I asked

There are two things that stand out about Hannah. First, she was a woman that prayed to God and second, she made a personal request for herself. These two things may not seem significant today because it is very common for women to pray for God’s help, but in the time Hannah lived, men functioned as the spiritual leaders and made petitions for their entire household. Also at that time, God mostly dealt with his people on a collective basis and was primarily concerned with the establishment of the nation of Israel.

Hannah demonstrated that she had a personal relationship with the LORD and that she believed he cared about her as an individual. Hannah says to the LORD, “if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me” (1 Samuel 1:11). Previously, God had seen the affliction of his people in Egypt and had remembered his covenant with Abraham. Now, Hannah wants God to pay attention to her personally and remember his covenant with her as an individual.

It says that when Hannah prayed, she spoke to the LORD in her heart and poured out her soul to him. In the Hebrew language, “The heart includes not only the motives, feelings, affections, and desires, but also the will, the aims, the principles, the thoughts, and the intellect of man” (3820). You could say that Hannah was being transparent with the LORD, completely open and honest about what she wanted him to do.

When Hannah’s son is born, she names him Samuel “Because I have asked him of the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:20). The name Samuel which means “heard of God” (8050) is derived from two other Hebrew words, shâma‘ (shaw – mah´) and ’el (ale). El is the Hebrew word for God and is usually “combined with other words to constitute a compound term for diety” (410). Shama means “to give undivided attention” (8085). It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to communicate with God directly and to have his undivided attention, so it is possible Hannah’s prayer was facilitated by the Holy Spirit and she named her son after the third person of the trinity.

Like Jesus, we know that the Holy Spirit is an eternal being that was present at the creation of Earth. Although the work of the Holy Spirit is primarily focused on after Jesus’ resurrection, it appears that he was involved in the lives of Israelites that had a personal relationship with God. Hannah is an example on one such person. Hannah understood that God deals with his children on an individual basis. He cares about us and listens to us as if each one of us is his only child.

How could you?

In dysfunctional and abusive relationships, you often see people doing things that hurt someone they do or at least should love. For instance, husbands that beat their wives or parents that sexually abuse their children,. Victims of abuse may start acting like slaves or prisoners that have no ability to fight back because they are used to being overpowered and perceive their enemies as rulers over their lives.

Samson’s supernatural strength was a mechanism God used to show the Israelites that they could break free from the tyranny of the Philistines. When Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions, Samson avenged himself by setting fire to the city’s corn supply. Instead of going after Samson, the Philistines went to the men of Judah and beat them up. “Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us?” (Judges 15:11).

Basically, the men of Judah were saying, how could you? They were blaming Samson for their beating from the Philistines and making it seem as if Samson had no right to stand up to them. Instead of mustering an army and going to war with the Philistines, they gathered together 3000 men to bind Samson and deliver him to their enemies.

Samson’s supernatural strength was not something he got from working out. In fact, it was not even his own strength that enabled him to do what he was able to do. Whenever Samson got into a conflict with the Philistines, he received help from God, he became powerful because God’s spirit came upon him.

It says when the Philistines shouted against Samson, “the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him” (Judges 15:14). The word translated spirit, rûwach, (roo´ – akh) means wind or breath, such as in exhalation. “It is clear that the wind is regarded in Scripture as a fitting emblem of the mighty penetrating power of God. Moreover, the breath is supposed to symbolize not only the deep feelings that are generated within man, such as sorrow and anger; but also kindred feelings in the Divine nature” (7307).

The decision of the men of Judah to bind Samson and hand him over to the Philistines must have caused sorrow and anger in Samson. He was doing God’s will when he stood up to the Philistines and so God helped him to escape before the Philistines got their hands on him. After Samson was free from the ropes the men of Judah used to bind him, it says “he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith” (Judges 15:15). What it doesn’t say is who he killed, the men of Judah or the Philistines?

Misery loves company

I’ve heard it said that misery loves company, but I’ve never been able to find anyone that was willing to join me. I don’t know what it is about suffering that makes it less painful when you are not alone, but I know I seem to feel better when someone is with me, even if my condition gets worse.

I think there are people that believe God enjoys watching us suffer, that he causes us to suffer because he wants to teach us a lesson. I don’t see how that could be true given that he is always with us and would be experiencing the same thing.

When the Israelites sinned against the LORD, they always reaped the consequences of their actions. Misery or ‘âmâl (aw – mawl´) in Hebrew “depicts self-inflicted sorrow” (5999). Misery is not something we get from someone, it is what we bring on ourselves. “‘Amal means troublesome work, emphasizing the difficulty involved in a task or work as troublesome and burdensome” (5999).

The person that seemed to know the most about misery was Solomon. He wrote the phrase “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccles 1:2). Solomon was extremely rich and had unlimited resources at his disposal, yet he writes in the book of Ecclesiastes that all his effort did not bring satisfaction, only misery when he thought about his accomplishments.

There appears to be a direct link between sin and misery and it may be that misery is what comes from or is the result of sin. The more sin in a persons’ life, the more misery they will feel. It could be that Solomon had so much misery in his life because he was so successful. He accumulated many possessions, more than anyone in the world, and had 1000 wives and concubines.

God is our deliverer, but even he has limits to what he will put up with. When the Israelites cried out to him, he responded, “Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation” (Judges 10:13-14).

Even though God does get angry and has limits to what he will put up with, he does not turn his back on his children. He is always with us, especially in our misery. After the Israelites put away their strange gods and began to serve the LORD again, “his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (Judges 10:16). The word translated grieved, qâtsar (kaw – tsar´) means to dock off or curtail. One way to express how he felt is he couldn’t take anymore.

Because the Holy Spirit lives inside Believers, I imagine he feels what we feel, our experiences are his experiences, and our misery is his misery. Whatever we are going through, he is going through it with us. One of the things the Holy Spirit does for us is convict us of our sin. The reason may be because he can’t stand misery.