So when does it happen? When do we receive the Holy Spirit?
There are many who see the "infilling of the Holy Spirit" as a separate experience. There _are_ many people who only become aware of the Holy Spirit's work after they have become Christians. With this awareness comes an increased openness and a profound deepening of their experience of the Spirit.
This deepening isn't the _first_ time the Spirit is at work in them. Peter makes it clear: When we make the decision to give our lives to Christ, we receive the Holy Spirit.
There are two NT passages that talk about the Holy Spirit's work at our conversion.
1Corinthians12:3 explains that it is the Holy Spirit who brings us to a point where we are ready to put our trust in Jesus... It says: "Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit."
Ephesians 1:13 tells us that the presence of the Spirit in us is the guarantee of our being God's children. It says this:
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance..."
What conclusions must we draw?
1. I could only receive Jesus as Lord if the Spirit helped me do it.
2. If I doubt the Spirit's presence in my life, then I must doubt that He saved me and I must doubt that I am God's child.
3. So, God's Spirit brings me to faith and lives in me as I choose to follow Him. But the relationship isn't stagnant, it can deepen and deepen as I follow Him and "lift my sails."
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This brings us to the end of the "Pentecost Interlude..."
I'll go back to "Moses Meditations" on Friday - enjoy the public holiday tomorrow...
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
