Connecting (With) The Holy Spirit

(All verses will be from the NKJV unless otherwise stated.) 

People throughout history wanted to learn more about the Holy Spirit, in fact, there is an incident in the Bible where someone thought they could purchase the Holy Spirit in Acts 8:18. There is also an episode in Acts where people wanted to hear what Paul had to say on the subject of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Before we investigate any further, let us pray for discernment.

Did you pray? 🙂

Let’s end our prayer with a verse from…Proverbs and Isaiah.

² To know wisdom and instruction, To perceive the words of understanding, ³ To receive the instruction of wisdom, Justice, judgment, and equity; ⁴ To give prudence to the simple, To the young man knowledge and discretion— ⁵ A wise man will hear and increase learning, And a man of understanding will attain wise counsel, ⁶ To understand a proverb and an enigma The words of the wise and their riddles.⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction. 

Proverbs 1:2-7

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. 

Isaiah 11:2

  Let us peruse the story about people coming to Paul’s place of residence in Acts 28:22… 

²² But we desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere.” ²³ So when they had appointed him a day, many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the Law of Moses and the Prophets, from morning till evening. ²⁴ And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. ²⁵ So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, ²⁶ saying, ‘Go to this people and say: “Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive; ²⁷ For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.” ’ ²⁸ “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” ²⁹ And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. ³⁰ Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, ³¹ preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.  

Acts 28:22-31

Paul was quoting From the prophet Isaiah when he made the above statement. Isaiah had to deal with the people from his era just as Paul did in his day and we do in our time, here on earth. It has been stated by King Solomon,

“That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” 

Ecclesiastes 1:9

⁹ And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ ¹⁰ “Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”

 Isaiah 6:9,10  

Paul like the prophets of old, and Solomon informing us that there is nothing new about how people perceive truth. Express how many from his generation, along with past, and future generations, will not always open their hearts/minds to the truth. They find it easer to harden their hearts, and close their eyes and ears to the word of God. The people that are being talked about were not nonbelievers. They were/are believers, however, their minds are not opened to the truth. They follow man’s teachings, inspired by the spirit of error. Paul had the same problem with the Hebrews who claimed to be God’s chosen people.

⁷ Always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 

2 Timothy 3:7. NIV 

As with many of us today, nothing is new under the sun.    

⁶ but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Be Faithful ⁷ Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, ⁸ Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, ⁹ Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years. ¹⁰ Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.’
¹¹ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³ but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵ while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Hebrews 3:6-15

The above verse states “The Holy Spirit says…” *Note: notice it is God speaking. More to be said about that later. Will you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth? Or will you harden your heart and be nothing new under the sun? Who is this Holy Spirit we are to receive? In this study we are going to compare what many authors of the Bible wrote about the Holy Spirit (connecting the Holy Spirit.) Once we discover who the Holy Spirit is, we will know what spirit to ask for (connecting with the Holy Spirit.) 

 ⁸ Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.

1 Thessalonians 4:8. 

In this study we are going to take the time to compare/scrutinize Matthew’s story about the birth of Christ and Luke’s rendition of the same story and see if we can come to the same conclusion on who the Holy Spirit and Father of Jesus is? 

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. ²⁰ But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ²¹ And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” ²² So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ²³ “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” ²⁴ Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, ²⁵ and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus.    

Matthew 1:18-25.

Now let us see how Luke chronicled the birth of Jesus.  

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” ²⁹ But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” ³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” ³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.  

Luke 1:26-35 

In both of these narrations the child is to be named Jesus, known as Immanuel (God with us) and is also called the Son of God.

If I am the son of Jerome, is Jerome my father?

If Jesus is the Son of God, is God His Father?

So where Matthew proclaims that the Holy Spirit/God found favor with Mary and Luke calls that same power, the power of the Highest/The Holy Spirit; and they both affirm and assert that the child shall be called the Son of God. One can only come to the conclusion that the Power of the Highest, the Most High, and the Holy Spirit, are all different descriptions of the One True God. The Holy Spirit is just that, the Spirit of the One Most High Almighty Father God. Therefore, the Spirit of God is God’s Spirit, a Holy Spirit. Not three or four different powers or gods, but the Almighty God’s Spirit. When Jesus made the claim “I and My Father are one” John 10:30. Jesus is making the claim that He and the Father are one in mind and in spirit. Not that they are one in body, as in one being. They are one, in Spirit. 

¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹ Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 

John 14:10-13. NIV

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: ² You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. ³ Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 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, 

1 Corinthians 12:1-9. NJKV 

Notice the Spirit that works in and through you is the same Spirit, the Spirit of God.

² By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. 

1 John 4:2

It was not the second person of a trinity that was sent into this world. It was the literal, only begotten Son of the Most High God.

⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

1 John 4:9

To live in/through Christ is to be born of the Spirit (Born again). That is how the Spirit of Christ lives in you. 

⁴ But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. ⁶ And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”  

Galatians 4:4-6 NKJV

Verse four in the above scripture should not just be read, but really contemplated. When the “fullness of Time had come,” that was the exact time determined/agreed-upon in eternity past, that the Father would send forth His one and “only begotten Son”. Jesus came from the bosom of the Father to redeem Their creation. (John 1:18) 

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

John 3:16,18

Jesus in chapter 3 of John was trying to educate Nicodemus on what it meant to be born again.

⁵ Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

John 3:5-7

To be born again, born of the Spirit, that is an act of Faith. One has to have the faith of Jesus, and the faith in Jesus to be born into the Spirit of Jesus and His Father.

 ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  

1 John 5:4,5

¹¹ And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹² He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.   

1 John 5:11-13

To “receive the adoption as sons”, in the Greek (huios); offspring of men, a descendant, sons of Abraham, children of Israel, of God’s creation. Because of Christ’s sacrifice we can now “receive the adoption as sons”. Therefore, “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your/our hearts,”. Do not let that pass you by. The Spirit we are to receive, into our hearts, is the Spirit of the “One and only begotten Son”, the Spirit of Jesus Christ Himself. As stated earlier in the above verse Galatians 4:6. However, because the Father and Son are one in Spirit, we have Their Spirit living in us and through us, The Holy Spirit. That is why it is not two separate spirits, Their Spirit is one. When Jesus proclaimed “I and my Father are one”, (John 10:30) He was instructing us; that they are one in Spirit and mind, not in Body. Jesus was/is the Son of God from eternity past. Before the foundations of this earth were laid. When Jesus became the “Son of Man” which was when He came to this earth. He was both fully Divine and fully human, because of the Father’s divinity and the humanity of His mother. 

²⁰ I walk in the way of righteousness,
    along the paths of justice,
²¹ bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love me
    and making their treasuries full.

²² “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works,
    before his deeds of old;
²³ I was formed long ages ago,
    at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
²⁴ When there were no watery depths, I was given birth,
    when there were no springs overflowing with water;
²⁵ before the mountains were settled in place,
    before the hills, I was given birth,  

Proverbs 8:20-25, NIV

Jesus was/is the literal Son of God from eternity past. Jesus was/is the Son that the Most High Father sent into this world. He is not a second person of a triune god.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” 

Micah 5:2 NKJV

  John has been most prolific when speaking about the Holy Spirit we are to receive. John described the Holy Spirit as our comforter/advocate in the Greek the word is “parakletos”, In English “Helper, advocate or comforter”. John not only wrote about the Spirit we are to receive, he actually came right out and named our advocate by name. 

2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. ² And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.  

1 John 2:1,2

Jesus in His prayer to His Father divulged that He informed His followers of the fact that He was the true Son born of Father God, and that he was sent by the Most High Father into this world. Jesus made both these claims very clear, and affirmed that His followers understood, that He came forth from the Father. In the Greek “exerchomai” the definition used in this sense; to come forth from physically, arise from, to be born of. 

17 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. ³ And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.⁴ I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. ⁵ And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. ⁶ “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. ⁸ For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. 

John 17:1-8

The above prayer that Jesus prayed was one of His last prayers before He (Jesus) went to the Cross. In that Prayer Jesus informed us how we can have eternal life, by knowing both the Father and His Son. I would like to emphasize that last statement. Jesus knowing He was nearing His allotted time on earth informed the people He was sent to save, that knowing the Father and Son was the only way to eternal life. One could say there is no mention of the Holy Spirit, however if you know the One True God you realize, He is the Holy Spirit, as made evident through scripture. Jesus made it abundantly clear His relationship to the Most High God. Jesus speaks of the glory He had in heaven as the Most High Father God’s Son, before coming to this earth. (Not as a second person of a triune god but as the Son of God.) Jesus also informed us that He was the Son sent to this world to glorify/make known the Father to save their creation.  Just before Jesus took His final breath on the Cross He offered up His Holy Spirit, Jesus gave His Spirit back to the Father from which it came as an atoning gift for us all. That we may receive His eternal Holy Spirit as a gift for our salvation. Therefore granting us His eternal life. Jesus went to the cross in order to give to us His Holy Spirit. That we may live through Him, and in Him and He in us. Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through Him. I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the Father, but by me. (John 14:6). It is the Spirit of Christ, that is given to us by the Father, to finish the job of our salvation that we can become sons of the Most High God…see Galatians 4:6, stated earlier. The only way to the Father is through Christ, and it is the the Spirit of Christ that is our way home. 

⁴⁶ And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ ” Having said this, He breathed His last. 

Luke 23: 46

⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.   

1 John 4:8-15

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸ Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹ for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. ¹² It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.¹³ Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming. ¹⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do       

1 Peter 1:3-15 NIV

Which Spirit abides in you? The Holy Spirit of Father God and His Son, For they are “One”.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might,
The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.  Isaiah 11:2. NKJV

Or another/different spirit, the spirit of the god of this earth? The father of lies, the spirit of deceit.

“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
¹³ For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’ 

Isaiah 14:12-14 NKJV

Again it needs to be asked. Do you want the spirit of one who wants to be worshiped like the most high God? Deceiving you at every turn, trying to turn the Father and Son message into a trinity. Or do you want the Spirit of the Father and Son working in you? Jesus said that this is Life Eternal (John 17:3.)

¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God ²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. 

Ephesians 3:16-21. NIV 

⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 

Ephesians 4:6 NIV 

¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, ¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 

Ephesians 4:13-15 NKJV 

May the Spirit of the Father and His only begotten Son, the Spirit of Truth, live in you and through you, in the temple you have prepared for them your Body, your Mind and your Heart, 1 Corinthians 3:16. Through faith and grace you can know you are right with God. However, it Is equally important to Know The Right God. We will end this study as we started it with a message from Paul and Jesus’ last prayer.

1 Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), ² and all the brethren who are with me,To the churches of Galatia: ³ Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Only One Gospel

⁶ I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, ⁷ which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. ⁹ As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. ¹⁰ For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. Call to Apostleship¹¹ But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Galatians 1:1-12. ²⁰ Immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God. (Acts 9:20)

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”  

Galatians 2:20,21

²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. 

John 17:20-23