Holy Sprirt Question for a believer

You are "baptised" by the Holy Spirit upon salvation. Salvation is the Holy SPirit living within you, He will never leave you or forsake you.

No matter what sort of life we have lived before, we can live a fulfilled, Spirit-filled life now. You weren't growing at first, but now you are. Thats the important point.

Look up everything in the Bible about the Holy Spirit. Find out what it is He does for us. That will be a great comfort to you.

 

I would suggest a book by Dr.Ron Phillips entitled: Awakened By The Spirit
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
You may be able to order it from http://www.ronphillips.org

 

Amen bapmom!
Also it sure doesn't hurt to pray for God to fill you with His Spirit. You were saying Rome wasn't built in a day, so be patient,& don.t give any place to the Devil. I just went through the same mess but He brought me out of it, & I'm having the same type of struggles. Stay in His Word & stay in prayer!
About blessings, well...we're blessed already,a lot more than we realize because most of His blessings are in our everyday routine & we've forgotten how to appeciate them...& HIM!!!

 

There is no need to have some sort of incredible emotional experience in order to have a genuine Holy Spirit filling. He immediately filled you completely upon salvation. The question is, how much of YOU did GOD get? In the beginning it wasn't much, as you said.....btw, MANY of us start out with only giving parts of ourselves to the actual Christian life. Even those who start out completely on fire have not totally committed every aspect of their lifestyle over to Christ. Some of us just show that fact in more obvious ways than others do.

Commit to living for Christ now, commit to letting Christ come in and shed His "light" on every area of your life.

 

In fact most people don't hear any bells or whistles when they're saved, I didn't. That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit doesn't reside in you.

I would suggest you read and study 1 John. The whole theme of that epistle is what you can KNOW in Christ.

 

Seth&Mattsmom

The validation of your salvation is not that, at one point in time you walked an isle and said a prayer. It is not that you had, at one point in time, some incredible experience (Holy Spirit of otherwise) The validation of salvation, as presented in scripture, is a transformed life.

There is a biography of a preacher named Martyn Lloyd Jones, by Ian Murray, that is excellent. Lloyd Jones did not have a "Paul of the road to Damascus" experience, but knew his salvation was sure.

Continue on in bible study and pray God give you control over the words which come out of your mouth.

peace to you

 

You receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. You aren't saved without it.

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

You are sealed by that same Spirit.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

You aren't sealed until you sin but until the day of redemption.

Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Don't look forward to be connected with the Holy Spirit because it is in the past. Being filled with the Spirit is being influenced by Him, like being influenced by alcohol. This is something you make a conscience decision about everyday.

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

 

You recieved the Holy Spirit at the moment of your salvation, not later. Nothing spectactular has to happen to prove it to anyone either. But just because He lives in us does not mean we obey Him. Even with the indwelling Holy Spirit we can still make wrong choices and live our way instead of His.

 

I have heard the name of Phillips before...why is that name familiar? Tell me about him. I checked out the website, but did not find much info.

 

I have heard the name of Phillips before...why is that name familiar? Tell me about him. I checked out the website, but did not find much info. </font>[/QUOTE]order his book "Awakened By The Spirit"
It is enlightening especially if you like church History.

 

There are some things the Holy Spirit does automatically for every believer, such as enter into him or her. But He does NOT automatically manifest Himself in a manner that the believer can feel or see. He has manifested Himself to me more than once when I was witnessing to a cult member, but it wasn't automatic. Before beginning these witnesses, I had prayed for Him to guide my words, as I do upon every witness occasion. He doesn't do it every time, but I know He's there.

As for "cussing"...I was a sailor, & the term "cuss like a sailor" isn't just a saying. Just about every 3rd word outta my mouth before I was saved was a cussword. Although I made every conscious effort to not cuss after salvation, the words still came out upon occasion, & although I felt ashamed, the problem was still there. It took mucho prayer and meditation before God moved to remove that habit from me, & He didn't do it overnight. The fact that ya wanna quite cussing is, I believe, a positive, but it appears you're gonna hafta ASK GOD to make you quit. A positive with me was CONTROLLING MY ANGER; I'm an aggressive person who useta fly off the handle quite easily. Once I learned how to manage my anger, mosta the cussing vanished, and GOD took care of the rest. But it DID take positive action on my part before God took over & did the rest.

 

The very fact that you have this incredible yearning to learn more about Christ, to be a better Christian, to know the Holy Spirit more screams that the Holy Spirit dwells within you.

Like any relationship, there are "highs and lows" in a relationship with God. Moments when you are so focused on the love of God that you feel very emotional about the love, and moments when you taken Him for granted. (Hence the theology and sermons on being carnal, and needing to "rediscover first love" so often taught.)

It sounds like you are very filled with the Holy Spirit. Keep praying, keep reaching.

God's word says: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled." The Greek words are much more intense than we think of them when we read that passage. It is a hunger like starvation. A thirst like a man lost in a desert for days. It sounds like you have that hunger and that thirst, and God will fill it. God always keeps His promises.

 

Seth&MattsMom

Welllll . . . I gotta ask a question.

You continue to say that you 'know that you are saved', but you have not said 'why' you know that you are saved.

Therefore this question: "If you were to die tonight and stand before God in His Heaven, and He were to ask you: 'Why should I let you into My Heaven?' What would be your answer?"

 

Dear Seth&MattsMom,
No matter what you do or believe as a child or teen, God is going to 'wrestle' with you sometime in your late teens or twenties, when your brain is fully developed (which it is not until you are about 19 or 20, or, in your case, maybe a couple of years more...) so that you will have a truly adult relationship with Him. Personally, I think the Bible supports a late teen/early twenties age of accountability, but that has been argued blue here.

What is true is that many teens who profess to be born again abandon that 'conviction' in adulthood. The reverse is also true -- many who are seemingly 'hopeless' as children or teens turn to Christ fully in their twenties.

When I started asking questions of my own children (all of whom are grown now) and friends, I discovered that about 95% said they had either made or seriously reaffirmed their commitment to Christ in their twenties, and this seemed true whether or not they were raised in Christian homes.

So it's not a matter of any special baptism by the Holy Spirit -- it's a matter of actually becoming a Christian as an adult. All Christians, according to Romans 8:9, have the Holy Spirit within them. The Bible says plainly if you don't have the Holy Spirit, then you don't belong to Christ!

As to one's awareness of the Holy Spirit, that is a very individual thing: it can come with a rush or just be a matter of growing in Christ. One thing is for sure, though, for all Christians -- we are changed. Whereas the unregenerate adult is pretty comfortable living in a state of sin ("The good I do outweighs the bad...", "I'm not as bad as .....", etc.), the born again Christian does not WANT to sin and truly regrets it when the Holy Spirit or even another human being shows him or her that he/she has sinned. A truly different heart is in the person where God and sin and self are concerned. The rest is a matter of maturing from there, which the Holy Spirit is in charge of.

You are on your way. Get to know the Bible really well, so you won't fall for any of the multitude of deceptions out there, and spend quiet time with our Lord each day, not just in active prayer (which is right and good), but also just being quiet with Him, and listening for that still, small voice and learning to recognize it. Ask for wisdom in your life. Ask for an older sister in Christ who can walk with you for a time now. If you think one of us here can help you, feel free to PM or email any of us. I know several of us have 'walked' with new believers for a time until they had enough experience behind them to KNOW they could trust God with everything in their lives. We are happy to do that.

Then, when the time comes that there is a new, unsure believer God presents you with, you will be able to hold out your hand and say "I'll walk with you awhile. You are starting an incredible journey and it will be my privilege to encourage you and pray with you."

God bless you.

 

OK,

First, the general background (which some might argue about slightly, but most should agree to in principle.)

The question had to be asked in order to clarify that you are not confused because you are actually lost.

"Baptism in the Holy Spirit" is a concept that is actually recent in Christian history (some will argue this). There did seem to be a more intense belief in the filling (&/or baptism) of the Holy Spirit during the very early church.

The extent of the emphasis on the filling of the Holy Spirit again became important during the rapid growth of the renewal(s) during the era 1904 - 1906.

During the great revival period (arguably one of the greatest in all of history) some groups became very VOCAL. This group within the larger revival became very excited.

One place the revivals became very 'charismatic' (excited) was at the Azusa street revival in the Los Angeles area. From this revival point, there spread what has become known as the pentecostals. In the 60's & 70's there came what we now know as the charasmatics.

OK: [THE REAL ISSUE WITH 2D BAPTISM] IF baptism of the Holy Spirit is a 'second' occurence AND its precense was absent for almost 2,000 years, why IS IT NOW necessary? You see, the premise that we MUST restore this practice just does not make logical sence. If we should reform Christianity to fit small groups of believers in the 1st century, then we must include gnostics and the other heretics of the 1st century (they are now represented well by Mormons & JW's).

I believe that some people are just NEEDY. And these people NEED to FEEL more in order to actually believe they are saved.

 

The purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was EVANGELISM. Further, few (very, very few) of the great evangelists have been from the second baptism groups. If second baptism was the manner in which the Spirit worked out our salvations, then we baptist groups should now be SMALLER denominations than the pentecostal groups.

(1) purpose of the Spirit's Baptism at pentecost was EVANGELISM
(2) Pentecostal groups are focused upon spirit baptism rather then EVANGELISM
(3) The manner of the growth of Pentecostalism is indicative of a human need rather then a God driven mission. It is growing much slower than a God given change in His intended ministry should grow.

It is late, and I pray that I am making significant sence . . .

 

To baptize means to dip, wash, and immerse. To be baptized in the Holy Spirit means to be immersed in the Holy Spirit. John said that Jesus would baptize with fire.

Luke 3:16, "John answered and said to them all, "As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."