Charismatic Bible Studies #2

[marks]

I remember the only time in my life when God told me off was when as a young believer I tried to cast a demon out of someone and it went all wrong and the intervention ended up being a real mess and a disaster and probably nearly drove the person away from the faith. When I debriefed with the Lord afterward, He said, "Don't you ever, ever, do that again unless you get my direct permission!!!"

Although, later in my Christian life I researched both the healing ministry and spiritual warfare by going to my favourite Christian second hand bookshop and buying every book I could on both topics, the Lord allowed me to participate in the healing ministry with some amazing results, but He never opened any doors for the deliverance ministry. In fact, He kept that door firmly shut!

Isn't that interesting how He does that, keep doors open and shut, that is? We somehow seem to know exactly what we're supposed to be and not supposed to be doing.

God is so good!

Much love!

 

[marks]

I have a lot to catch up on, as it is my works days, but I can start with the question. Holy Spirit has worked in my life in all of these ways. He has definitely been purifying me. My thoughtlife is the biggest. Sort of like kitty litter anxieties and other bad thinking. But God's Word has been transforming my mind as I have been renewing myself in the Word and praying/recognizing things. Holy Spirit has guided me in His giftings and purposes He has for me in His kingdom. For anyone here who has read any of my testimony, He has definitely been my Comforter/Counselor/Helper/Advocate. He brings verses to mind and things to my mind I need quite often. And I believe He has shown me the future some in dreams... But His Word is the surest confidence of all of that, no matter the specifics!!!!

All so wonderful!!!

Much love!

 

[Hidden In Him]

II. What is the Holy Spirit’s work? What Does He Do? (Part 1) —

The question for this study is this: How has the Spirit of God worked in your life in any (or all) of the ways below?

A. He purifies believers.

Matthew 3:11-12 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and Fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

• Greek expert D.A. Carson says the grammatical construction “suggests a unified concept, Spirit-fire or the like” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Matthew, p. 105). Carson adds that “there are good reasons for taking ‘fire’ as a purifying agent along with the Holy Spirit” (105).

B. He comes upon believers for certain tasks.

Luke 1:15-17, 67 …[John] will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah… [67] and his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.

• The great prophet John the Baptist was empowered for His ministry by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit’s enablement John turned many Israelites back to the Lord. And He served as the contemporary prophet announcing the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth.

• John’s father Zechariah, when “filled with the Spirit,” began to prophesy a mighty message about the coming Savior and John’s prophetic introduction of Him.

C. He is our Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Advocate.

John 14:16-17a And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth (NIV).

• Some other translations: “another Helper (NASB) … another Counselor (RSV) … another Comforter (The Amplified reads, "Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby").

D. He will teach us, and give us recall of what we have learned.

John 14:26: But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

• God gives us human teachers of His word (Ephesians 4:11). But the ultimate, infallible Teacher is the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27). He inspired the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:20-21), and therefore He is the One perfectly qualified to teach us their meaning.

• Not only does the Spirit teach us the things of God, He also gives us recall of these things when we need them. He will “bring to our remembrance” the things we have learned about the Lord.

E. He will show the future.

John 16:13, KJV …when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth … and He will show you things to come.

• He has shown us things to come in the hundreds of predictive prophecies in the Scriptures. And as He deems it to be needed, He gives to individual believers specific guidance and insight for their own futures.

I hadn't responded to this yet, but now is the time I believe, because I have a little testimony I can share. I could actually post testimony on all five of the above, especially D. and E, but I'd rather focus on C. right now because of something that happened just this morning. It has been raining here like crazy lately, and this morning there was so much rain that a couple of times I ran into standing water where I had never seen it on the route before. I had to drive through it so I did, and things seemed fine. But on the way home all of sudden it wouldn't come out of 1st gear, which in an automatic transmission is bad news. I thought maybe I had flooded it somehow, which likely would have meant the insurance would have wanted to total the car, because rebuilding a transmission is like $3,500. And this my wife's car I was driving because both of mine are out of commission already, and I've already laid down a deposit on a new car just two days ago, although that one won't be in from the factory for another month.

So suddenly I'm looking at ZERO cars, and I absolutely have to have a car every day or I lose my job. Called the Rent a car services here and NO ONE has any cars. So many people have gotten flooded out lately that apparently there are no cars to rent, anywhere. So now I'm like, "Wow... I need a car here." I waited till 8 AM and tried the car again, but same thing: Wouldn't come out of 1st gear, even at high revs. My wife was advising several things, but I decided to just trust God and go to sleep and deal with things when I woke up around 11 AM...

Here's where the testimony comes in (and sorry, but I had to set the stage or the story makes no sense). Often just before I wake up I will receive words from the Lord. They come either in the form of images, or dreams, or sometimes songs playing in my head, or any combination of the three. When I woke up at 11, this song was playing very clearly in my ears:

So I decided to take the car into the dealership for noon. I get in the car to drive it there, and still the same problem all the way: 1st Gear only, all the way to the dealership, so I could only get up to about 25 MPH with the flashers on so people didn't run me over, LoL. The dealership is like 25 miles away too, so that was no short trip.

I get there and they offer to do a diagnostics check first to see what the problem is. My wife already decided she's getting a new car if the transmission was shot, which wasn't comforting me much since we are already taking on new notes with the car I'm buying. Well, the chief mechanic came back an hour later and said he drove it and there was no problem with the transmission whatsoever. I said, "What?" He said, "I tested it. Had the computer with me the whole time. The transmission is working fine."

I had a hard time believing him, Lol. But I paid for the diagnostics check and decided to just drive it home and see. Not a single problem. I still don't know what happened, but all I know is the Lord has provided when it looked like I was literally "dead in the water."

So who knows. But all I know is that sort of thing happens a lot. I get these words about what will happen, and before the day is over it usually does. Sometimes the words are for the future, but often (like today) they are like an "ever-present help in time of need."

Just thought I'd share. Might be some other things I can write about later, but then Part 2 of this study has another list of five things the Spirit of God does in our lives, so maybe there's room for us all to share there as well.

 

[LILAC]

I just love it when God answers prayer and works miracles all at once!

 

[theefaith]

Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

What is signified by these tongues of fire?

what is significant about the speaking in tongues? (foreign languages)

why don’t charismaniacs sorry I mean Charismatics have these tongues of fire?

The tongues of fire represent the light of truth and the love of God!

the tongues (foreign languages) are the lands each apostle would take the gospel