PNEUMATOLOGY

There is no better place to observe the working of the Holy Spirit in the manifesting of Jesus than the first few years of the history of the followers of Jesus. Before Jesus departed from the physical presence of his disciples, He told them that He would not leave them comfortless. He said, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; That where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). The book of Acts is the story of His return to be manifested once again among them by the Holy Spirit.

The history recorded by Luke is the story of the continuation of the manifestation of Jesus in the lives of the early believers. It is the narrative of the risen Christ at work among his disciples. Through the quickening power of the Spirit of God, Jesus Christ Himself was the force at work in the dispersion of the gospel to the known world of the first century. The Acts is the story of the acts of Jesus, not in His earthly life, but through the lives of His followers by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus being manifested in their lives by the Holy Spirit greatly changed their lives. The prophet Joel prophesied that God was going to do a special work among His people. He would bestow His Spirit upon man to become the essence of man’s life. Jesus Christ would become their life not by a mental decision, a choice to dedication or to commitment, but by a work of God Himself.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the people would not speak from their own understanding but from divine inspiration. They would prophesy. As with Peter on the feast of Pentecost, the words that would come forth from their mouths would be the words of Jesus Christ Himself speaking through the inspired speech of the Holy Spirit. Speaking with a new tongue, a different language, a different way of saying things, would come forth from their mouths. Jesus would be the expression of their speech.

They would not only speak a new tongue but they would also see things differently. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they would be able to discern the working of their life clearly. They would come to understand the ways of life because they would now see with a new vision. Walking no longer in darkness, perplexed by life, Jesus Christ would actually become their sight.

They would speak differently and see differently because they would now think differently. The thinking of the mind would not come from the initiative of the individual, the exercise of the mind itself. The mind would be exercised but it would be under the divine influence of the Holy Spirit. The mind would be restored to what God intended from the beginning--the mind of Christ.

As the church spread from Jerusalem to Rome, the recorded history leaves no question to the progress and development of the church. It was not the product of human achievement, not even the efforts of a Peter or a Paul, but the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the lives of those early believers. The Acts reveals the development of early Christianity as being beyond the control of human endeavor. Jesus Christ was manifesting Himself again among the people through the Holy Spirit.

The Acts records the supernatural manifestation of Jesus in many different ways. There are listed thirty-six definitely divine interventions: people are healed as the shadow of Peter passes over them; Phillip is transposed from one location to another; a young girl is raised from the dead; a man was made blind because he was causing problems among the people; to name just a few. In thirty years, there were over thirty-six recorded times where Jesus manifested Himself in spectacular interventions by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Acts reveals six definite visions and five other experiences that would be called visions today. Eleven times the manifestation of Jesus in the lives of the people produced fresh, new, and vital inspiration for their day: the visions of Cornelius, Peter, Ananias, Paul, and others. The people were being directed by Jesus Christ intervening into their lives by the Holy Spirit.

There is more. Fourteen distinct times the believers, as recorded in the Acts, heard in an audible sound the voice of an angel of the Lord. Seven times different events occurred that could only be called signs and wonders. Thirty six times in a thirty year period Jesus Christ was being manifested in a spectacular superhuman way. His Life was being reproduced in the lives of the people by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It was as Jesus said it would be:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:13-15)

During the earthly ministry of Jesus, He took Peter, James, and John up into a mountain apart from the crowd. While they were there suddenly the face of Jesus began to shine as the sun. His clothing became white as the light. They were witnessing a transfiguration of Jesus. What He was in the true essence of Himself, the Son of God, was shining through his robe of flesh in a moment of visible glory.

It is not a coincidence that Paul uses the same word in his admonition to the Roman saints that is translated transfigured in the experience of Peter, James, and John with Jesus. Paul stressed, "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (12:2). The good, acceptable, and perfect will of God occurs in the believer’s life only when the mind has been renewed. This restoring of the mind to its original state of innocence is how the believer experiences his transfiguration.

Paul uses the same word again in his Corinthian correspondence to tell how this process actually occurs in those who are having their mind renewed. He wrote, "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor 3:17,18). It is the Holy Spirit that transfigures, transforms, changes the believer. As one comes face to face with Jesus as standing before a mirror, the glory of Jesus is reflected in the believer by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit was sent by the heavenly Father for one reason, to reveal His Son Jesus Christ in the lives of all men. It is the hope of every man. As Paul stated to those same Corinthians, "The first man [Adam] is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Cor. 15:47-49). We will be "conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom. 8:29).

The Holy Spirit is the means by which the Thought and the Expression is implemented into the created world. Because He proceeds from the Father (the Spirit of God) and from the Son (the Spirit of Christ) and speaks not of Himself, His personality is often misunderstood. He is sometimes considered merely as a substance, a blessing, a feeling, or an influence. The Revelation of God, however, reveals that He is a person just as the Father and the Son.

The early followers of Jesus understood the personality traits of the Third Person of the Trinity. They knew He also had thoughts, emotions, and will. Paul wrote to the Romans that ". . . he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit . . ." (8:27). The Holy Spirit has mind. To the Ephesians, he admonished, "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God" (4:30). The Holy Spirit has emotion. In the Corinthian letter, Paul stressed, "But all these worked that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will" (12:11). The Holy Spirit has will. He exhibits all the attributes of personality.

Personal activities are also ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The writers of both the Old and New Testament experience the Holy Spirit functioning as a person. They saw Him as striving (Gen.6:3), teaching (John 14:26), testifying (John 15:26), and reproving (Acts 9:31). He also guides (Rom. 8:14), comforts (Acts 9:31), helps (Rom. 8:26), and sanctifies (Rom. 15:16). The Holy Spirit performs activities that are ascribed only to personalities.

Jesus, the Revelation of God, emphasized the personhood of the Holy Spirit when He promised, "And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (John 14:16). Just as Jesus was real among his followers so that they heard Him with their ears, saw Him with their eyes, and touched Him with their hands, so is the Holy Spirit real among believers also. The Holy Spirit was to take His place among the believers just as Jesus had been with them.

Although the Holy Spirit would be invisible, He was to be just as real a personal companion, friend, teacher, and guide as the visible Jesus. As Jesus is a real person, the Holy Spirit is a real person possessing all the attributes and activities of personality. As the Third Person of the Trinity, He brings to consummation the working of God in the physical world. The Thought and the Expression are applied by the Holy Spirit to all that has been created. The Holy Spirit is the Great Consummation of all the ages.

Perhaps, the most influential person in the mystical thought of the Eastern mind-set was a young man who witnessed the self-inflicted starvation of his parents. They believed that the spirit, the essence of life, was trapped within their bodies. For them to experience ultimate goodness, the spirit must be set free from the evilness of the body. They were willing to torture the body by depriving it of necessary nutrition to end its restriction upon the spirit.

The child of these parents went on to impact greatly the thinking of much of Eastern mysticism. It has also been suggested that his thoughts on life greatly affected Plato in the Western world. The writings of Plato, in turn, influenced much of Christianity beginning in the middle ages. The belief that the physical body is in some way evil, serves only to entrap the spirit, and eventually the spirit will be set free from the body has its roots in the mind-set of the Eastern world.

According to the Revelation of God, the body is not evil. It was created by God and declared to be good (Gen. 1:31). God constructed a physical body for man in which the Spirit of God could be experienced. He also prepared a physical world in which man was to spend the days of his life. Without the physical body and the physical world, flesh and blood beings do not exist.

Although the body is temporal and prone to decay, it nevertheless is the vehicle in which creation experiences the Creator. The uniqueness of this arrangement is the mystery that ". . . though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed . . ." (2 Cor. 4:16). Ultimately, it is to experience the mystery of mysteries—the resurrection of the body. Every time a seed (an external body in which the essence of life is enclosed) falls to the ground and dies, the essence of life within brings forth a new body.

It is not the elimination of the body, the spirit set free from the body, that enables the essence of all that is life to be experienced; it is the continual dying of the body to be raised in newness of life that is the crowning moment of experiencing the glory of life. As one of the early followers of Jesus said, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:10,11). The Revelation of God, the experiencing of Jesus, is always in death and resurrection of the outward body.

What it means to be a human being is to have a flesh and blood body that has been animated by the breath of God. After God had formed the first man out of the dust of the earth, He then "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7). With living soul literally meaning "breathing creature," man experiences life because he experiences the breath of life—the Spirit of God. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the quickening breath of life, that enables all men to live.

The writers of both the Old and New Testaments knew what the quickening essence of life for all men was. In perhaps the oldest book in the Bible, Job said, ". . . my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils . . ." (27:3). He also stated, "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life" (33:4). Daniel proclaimed, "God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways. . ." (5:23). Isaiah penned, "Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein" (42:5). John wrote, "In Him [the Word of God] was life; and the life was the light of men" (1:4) and "That was the true Light [the Word of God], which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (1:9). Finally, Paul boldly proclaimed that God "giveth to all life, and breath, and all things" (Acts 17:25) and "For in him [all nations of the earth] live, and move, and have [their] being . . ." (Acts 17:28).

The indwelling Holy Spirit is the quickening essence of life within every man. The Father thought, the Son expressed, and the Holy Spirit brings to consummation the completed work of creation. Although to experience God you will always bear ". . . about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus . . ." and you will always be "delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake," the mortality of your body will lose its sting. The grave will have no ultimate victory because you will experience the life of Jesus being manifested in your body. The indwelling Holy Spirit, the Life within the seed, will produce for you a new body. You will be transfigured, transformed, changed to the image of the Lord of glory in this life.

Among the last words of Christ just before His ascension, the once dead and buried but now living Jesus spoke the eternal hope for all men. In addressing Peter, He said, ". . . When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not" (21:18). Then, John explained the meaning of those words by stating, "This spake he, signifying by what death [Peter] should glorify God . . ." (21:19).

Peter had said he would give his life for Jesus. He even demonstrated his bravery when he took his sword to defend Jesus from being arrested. He was determined that no one was going to kill the long anticipated Messiah.

When Jesus restored the injury from the sword of Peter and did not resist His arrest, Peter’s view of the Christ began to crumble. Perhaps in dismay, because of the willingness he saw in Jesus going with his abductors, Peter would later disown that he even knew Jesus. Knowing that the charges brought against Jesus could lead to death, the challenge of a young lady made Peter evidentially abandon any hope in Jesus. The man who once said he would give his life for Jesus was now denying His acquaintance.

Yet, Jesus is now telling this man that he would die a death that would bring glory to God. Although he went through his failures in humiliating shame and in bitter tears, he was now being told by Jesus that his life would become one of great grace and glorious honor. Peter would actually become a rock of strength and stability. He would be girded by God and taken to the place where he could not and would not go himself.

The simple flower of the Morning Glory proclaims the beauty of being baptized by the Holy Spirit. As the dawning rays of the sun penetrate its surrounding, the petals of the flower open ever expanding to the glow of the sunlight. The increasing warmth and brightness of the sun causes the flower to raise its head, spread its petals, and reach up to its source of life. Eventually, the flower will stand as erect and as exposed as it can to take in the full effect of the sun. Through the power of the sun, the glory of the flower is perfected. It has responded to its Creator through the implementing power of the Holy Spirit.

As the sun comes forth to bring the full glory of the flower, the setting of the sun causes the flower to respond in diminishing shades of glory. As the light of the day begins to fade, the petals of the Morning Glory begin to draw in unto itself. With the passing of dusk and the approach of midnight, the flower bends its head, gathers its petals, and prepares for the night. Eventually, the flower will bow in perfect submission. This humble obedience in the midnight to its Creator is also the achievement of the Holy Spirit.

The Morning Glory, without the capability to observe and to make judgment on what is occurring in its life, lives its entire existence in simplistic harmony with its Creator. Throughout the day and the night, the summer and the winter, the cold and the heat, and the seedtime and the harvest, the simple flower lives the duration of its life in perfect glory to God. It lives as God has thought, decreed, and implemented its existence.

Just before Jesus left his disciples to be taken by His Father into heaven, He told them that "they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me"(Acts 1:4). They responded with, ". . . wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (1:6). Then, Jesus gave them the secret of the Morning Glory--the secret of the power and the glory of the kingdom of God. He said to them "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . ." (1:7,8).

The world will see Jesus not by his physical presence but by the coming forth of His life in the bloom of the Morning Glory--the manifestation of the glory of God in the lives of His people. The power of the times and the seasons is not only in the hands of the Father but the enabling power for the believer to go through the times and the seasons is also in the hands of the Father.

Peter would come to know what it meant to be taken through the times and the seasons of life. They were hard lessons for him to learn. When he was young, he attempted to control his own life. He went where he wanted to go, did what he wanted to do, and said what he wanted to say.

When he had become old, however, his life was controlled by another. He gladly raised his hands in submission and let the Holy Spirit take him where he could not and would go himself. He had become overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit and now would let his life be taken for Jesus. He had come to understand fully what it meant to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

It is within the realm of a seed falling to the ground to die in order that it may be raised to newness of life that the challenges of life exist. When man is taken to the end of a current moment of existence, he is at the germinating point of life. The circumstances which he is now facing bring his soul into the balance of heaven or hell. What occurs in this time of judgment for man determines what he experiences in his life. It will either be the coming forth of Jesus or the coming forth of the beast within man.

This point of germination, one’s current realm of perceived existence being brought to an end usually by the intrusion of another person, is the moment of judgment that all men must face. Every man will find himself continually at the crossroads of defending his current existence from the encumbrance of others or willingly experience the death of that existence through the control of his mind by the Spirit of God. The dying of this old existence by the turbulence of another will always bring newness of life, the coming of the Jesus, between the two participants. Refusing or resisting that interference always brings greater agitation and separation between the two. Every man stands before the judgment seat of Christ in these challenging moments of life and of death.

Since created man has both the nature of the beast and the nature of God within his make up, the challenge of life becomes very simple. Either, we will live life willing to die, if necessary, to protect our domain from others, or we will live life not resisting God in his exposure of our domain for others. To live for ourselves (protecting our survival and our rights) is beastly, but to live for others (not defending ourselves and open for rejection) is divine.

As Peter said, concerning people experiencing the life of living for others, ". . . ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (2:9). He had just told them that ". . . as lively stones, [they were being] built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (2:5). It is participating in the priesthood of life.

Being a priest is to offer sacrifices for others and to be the medium by which God reveals Himself to others. Every man is a priest by the simple fact of being created by God to experience His life in relationships. The original formation of man reveals the need of another person to experience the fullness of life. Living in and for others is not a conscious choice we make. It has been embedded in our make up by the God who created us. This felt need for others (be it pure or corrupt) is experienced by every human being.

When the nature of the beast (the protection of what we have created in an attempt to live life) rises to power, we will attempt to serve our priesthood by safeguarding our own survival. It means we will use others in an attempt to experience the life we have created in our minds. If so, it is a priesthood (serving the felt need to connect to others) but it is not a holy priesthood. It is corrupted because we are using the object of our priesthood, other people, for the survival of our created way of life.

The true priesthood of God takes on the nature of God. The nature of God within man that propels him to not resist what God is doing in his life, transforming him to the image of His Son Jesus Christ. That transformation process occurs in the mystery and secret of life, the willingness to be taken down by God to be raised to newness of life for others. It is how the heavenly Jesus comes to be experienced in the physical world.

The willingness to experience this priesthood is not a conscious choice. It is the given fact of everything created. The free will of man is not that he has freedom to choose for this priesthood to happen or not to happen. Being taken down for the needs of others is and always will be that which is happening because it is an established fact of creation. Our world will be put down continually because it is the nature of everything created--except the seed falls to the ground and dies, new life cannot come.

The free will of man enables man to resist that process in his mind. Man cannot resist the sovereign power of God. However, in the realm of imagination, which is not real and has no validity, man creates his own world in which he attempts to control his life. In that realm, the fantasy world of make believe, man can resist God and prohibit the process of being taken down.

Thus, when he faces trouble on every side, perplexities, persecutions, and being put down, he will resist. In his mind (which will be expressed in words), he will fight for the survival of his way of life and protect his rights with malice, guile, deceit, jealousy, and defamation. He is still being put down, but he satisfies himself that he has kept himself standing. He has defended his actions and change (new life) for him does not occur.

The holy priest of God, however, does not resist what God is doing and actually submits to the other by suffering the affliction that is being put on him. Forasmuch as Christ suffered for us in the flesh that we might be saved, we arm ourselves with the same mind that those which are causing us to suffer might be saved. It is how spiritual sacrifices are made by the priests of God. The interaction between people actually become the scared things of the heavenly temple. It is how God dwells among His people in the spiritual house of God. It is the continual coming of Jesus into our lives by the Holy Spirit.