We all need Prayer

The time has come when our governments and people are far apart on what is really important on life. Our businesses and churches are failing to address our core needs as people. What are we to do?

Prayer: Almighty God,Christ Jesus and The Holy Spirit we come to You in deep prayer. We humble ourselves of all transgression. We forgive all in the name of Jesus.

Lord we pray for Thy peace today. We thank you for all of Your love in Christ Jesus. We pray for all people in need. We ask in the name of Jesus that you bless this ministry to bless others in your name.

Praise god for whom all blessings flow in the name of Jesus we pray....

Bible Study-The Holy Spirit

Our Bible study comes to us as a result of need; many of our friends need health, jobs and resources to make it financially. We pray for each person and family. The real power will come from the Holy Spirit. Please read our lessen, pray on it and Jesus will indeed bless you:

Who Is the Holy Spirit?
Christian tradition starts speaking of the Spirit by saying that the Holy Spirit is God, based on the Bible.

The Spirit has the attributes of God :

eternal, having neither beginning nor end (Hebrews 9:14),
omni-potent, having all power (Luke 1:35);
omni-present, being everywhere at the same time (Psalm 139:7); and
omni-scient, understanding all matters ( 1 Corinthians 2:10,11).


Not only is the Holy Spirit is God, the Spirit is a full person of the Trinity. What is meant by that? (Forgive me for talking strange here, but this is about the Holy Spirit, the One that can least be described by words.) The Spirit can be addressed as 'you' by other 'I's (such as you and me), and can respond as an 'I'. The Spirit is an 'I', able to take action and cause action. The Spirit is able to be a 'we' with other 'I's.

In a Barna survey in 1997, 61% of US residents surveyed agreed with the statement that the Holy Spirit is "a symbol of God's presence or power, but is not a living entity". Even more : that answer was held by a majority or near-majority of those in most every Christian denominational family, including mainline Protestants and evangelical Christians, and was most common in non-whites and young people. It's not a new view. Back in the days of the early church, some held that the Holy Spirit was an 'emanation' of God the Father, and others thought of the Spirit in the same terms as the Talmudic discussions on the divine Shekinah (Presence), as an expression of what Christians call the 'Father'. Those are not far off, they're just describing part of a larger picture, like speaking of an elephant by describing its ears without reference to its trunk, tusks, or thick legs.

Scripture shows that the Holy Spirit is a person and is God :

the Spirit's work in the Old Testament is closely identified with the Word of YHWH spoken by the prophets (this was affirmed by the early church in 2 Peter 1:21).
the close ties between Jesus' mission and the work of the Spirit (see the work of the Spirit).
the close ties between the mission of the apostles and the work of the Spirit; esp. see 1 Peter 1:12.
The episode with Hananiah (Ananias) in Acts 5, where first, Peter says that Hananiah lied to the Holy Spirit, then later says that he lied not to men but to God.
The trinitarian baptismal formula found in Scripture ( Matt 28:19): "in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". It dates to the church's earliest days.
Jesus made a habit of confronting traditions with "box-breaking" actions. He ate with tax collectors and other scorned people, He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple, He talked to the woman at the well, He healed the occupier-centurion's daughter. The Holy Spirit does the same kind of thing in Acts, and ever since.


The Holy Spirit As A Person
The Holy Spirit is not a mere symbol of anything. No mere symbol is able to:

communicate ('speak') (Acts 13:2),
intercede (step in on behalf of someone) (Romans 8:26),
testify (John 15:26)
guide (John 16:13),
command (Acts 16:6,7),
appoint (Acts 20:28),
lead (Romans 8:14),
reveal to someone how wrong, foolish, or sinful he/she was (John 16:8).
seal God's promise in believers' hearts (Ephesians 1:13-14)
shape the life of each person and community to Christ's (Romans 8:1-17)
In the Bible, the Holy Spirit has intellect, passions, and will, and can be grieved. In short, the Spirit has a personality.

The key way of giving the Holy Spirit grief is malice, which is shown as bitterness, rage, anger, clamor (making lots of noise and disruption), and slander. Paul follows this description by what makes for a happy Holy Spirit : forgiving others as, in Christ, God forgave you.

The Holy Spirit can act in whatever manner the Spirit wants to act. The Spirit generally acts through the church, but doesn't have to; the Wind blows where it will. The Spirit is free not to always be seriously focused on those purposes; the Spirit can have fun while at work.

This is all stuff that can't be true of a mere (or even 'The') Force. That is how we often experience the Spirit and know of the Spirit's presence, but that is not what the Spirit is. As God, the Holy Spirit is cause, and that cause has effect. Yet, there are those in the Christian churches who reduce the Holy Spirit to a force, or to a collective will or a living memory of the gathered believers, or the force of emotion or conscience within a person. Those people, fine as they may be, are describing a different spirit than the Holy Spirit as viewed by the Christian faith. The Spirit works in all of these ways and more, yet against all of them at times. The Spirit works in whatever ways are needed to do what needs to be done, except in choosing not to take forceable control of people's actions.
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The Spirit In the Old Testament
The Spirit shows up in the Old Testament (OT), especially in the prophets' books.

The OT does not use nephesh (soul of earthly beings) to describe God. It uses ruach.