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One Love
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Date Joined Jan 2003
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| Posted 4/6/2011 10:17 AM (GMT -6) |   | | The Acquisition of the Holy Spirit
Fr. Josiah Trenham, Pastor
The Sunday of All Saints 2000
St. Andrew Orthodox Church - Riverside, Ca.
Introduction:
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen. The goal of the Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit! All of our Orthodox life is animated by the Holy Spirit, and without Him all is empty form and ritual! He is the One Who sanctifies! He is the One Who works in and with the priest in the Holy Sacraments! He is the goal and purpose of our spiritual disciplines! Christianity is not a moral code, or a set of ideas, or a social program. Christianity is the supernatural union of God and man together by the Holy Spirit. Christianity is the divinization of man by the Holy Spirit coming into him and changing him! Orthodoxy is man’s healing and his transformation into all that God is!
This week I was in the bookstore and came across a very fascinating book entitled The Millionaire Mind. It was written by an economic statistician. The author researched the mentality of America’s millionaires, and then presented the results of his research under certain fixed categories: what millionaires drive, where millionaires live, how millionaires invest, what millionaires think about education, etc.. A very fascinating study indeed. The bottom line in the book is that millionaires have their minds and their lifestyles oriented around one thing: the preservation and increase of capital. America’s millionaires think and act in certain ways designed to maximize the preservation of the money they have, and to increase what they have.
We Christians have a book very similar to The Millionaire Mind. It is called the Synaxarion, and it consists of the official lives of the saints. In it we discover The Mind of the Saint There we learn how saints live in this world, how they think, what they think about education, where they live, how they invest, etc.. An even more fascinating study! The bottom line in the Synaxarion is that saints have their minds and lifestyles oriented around one thing: the preservation and increase of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 1
Saints think and act in certain ways designed to maximize the preservation of the grace they have been given, and to increase the presence of the Holy Spirit within them.
The Presence of the Holy Spirit Within Us Varies.
One thing we must understand is that all Christians possess and are filled with the Holy Spirit in differing degrees and measures. All are given the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. This is the testimony of St. Paul, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, ,whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). We all begin the same in Holy Baptism. We are all given the grace of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit when we are baptized and chrismated. But from the moment following baptism and chrismation the presence of the Holy Spirit within each of us depends upon our co-operation with the Lord in our salvation. Spiritual growth is synergistic. Those who seek the Lord grow in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, and this manifests itself in a spiritual life: a life ruled by the Holy Spirit and evidencing His fruits such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22ff). Some come from the baptismal font less focused, less intent on working out their new found salvation with fear and trembling, and so they do not grow in the Holy Spirit as they should. Some even forget God altogether and give themselves up to wanton lusts and immorality, and in so doing completely drive the Holy Spirit away from themselves.
This last type of person is truly most pitiful for the last state of this man becomes worse than the first. Describing just this type of person our Savior says, “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (St. Matt. 12:43-45). Discern the tragedy. The person has been freed from the unclean spirit through baptism so that the Holy Spirit can take up residence within the newly baptized. The unclean spirit leaves but then later attempts reentry, and what is the tragedy? The tragedy is that the unclean spirit finds the Christian unoccupied! What a horrid state! The unoccupied Christian is the Christian who has driven away the Holy Spirit from his life by his indifference and sinfulness.
We are not called to be unoccupied Christians. We are called, rather, to be Christians filled with the Spirit of God. This is the word of St.Paul, “Do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Eph. 5:18). Do you see the intended contrast? It is a matter of internal influence and control. We ought not be drunk because to become drunk is to put ourselves under the influence and control of alcohol. Instead we ought be influenced and controlled by the Holy Spirit! There cannot be two captains at the wheel of the ships of our lives.
Everything depends on the free exercise of our will. One of the great dignities of being a human being is possessing a free will. We rejoice in this great reality, but this great privilege can also produce a great catastrophe. With that free will each of us can become saints! There is nothing holding us back from becoming such except our own wills. This is greatly encouraging. At the same time with our free wills we can also become great sinners, and drive away the Holy Spirit of God completely from our lives.
King David expresses this dynamic relationship we have with the Holy Spirit in that most beautiful of Psalms, Psalm 50. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew in me an upright spirit. Do not cast me away from Thy presence and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me” (vv. 10-11). TAKE NOT THY HOLY SPIRIT FROM ME. This was something King David was very worried about because he had committed a very serious sin, and was writing this Psalm in repentance for that sin. He remembered what happened to his predecessor King Saul. The following is written in the 1st Book of Kings/1 Samuel 16:14, “Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.” Saul had been wavering in his fidelity and had lost his fear of God, and as a result the Holy Spirit left him, and Saul’s unoccupied space quickly became the lair of the demons.
Become a Spiritual Millionaire.
The Lord is entreating each of you today to become millionaires. I am not speaking about money. The Lord is not interested in you joining the ranks of the Forbes 400, and if by the slight chance that He is interested in you doing that it is so that you can become a conduit of His resources to the Church and to the poor and needy. The Lord is entreating each of us today to become millionaires in a currency that does not pass away, and can not be stolen. We must become millionaires spiritually. We must become rich in the Holy Spirit.
But how do we become Spiritual Millionaires? How does one increase in the Holy Spirit? By asking for Him and by making decisions in your life that make the indwelling of the Spirit of God natural for you. St. Seraphim of Sarov gave this advice when he was asked what one must do to acquire the Holy Spirit increasingly. “So that our spirit will have freedom to uplift itself there and be nourished by sweetest conversation with the Lord, one must humble oneself with constant vigils, prayer and remembrance of the Lord. And I, humble Seraphim,’ said the Starets, ‘for this reason go through the Gospel daily. On Monday I read St. Matthew, from beginning to end; on Tuesday, St. Mark; on Wednesday, St. Luke; on Thursday, St.John; the other days I divide between the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostles. And I do not for a single day neglect to read the daily Epistle and Gospel, and also the readings to the saints. Through this not only my soul, but even my body rejoices and is vivified, because I converse with the Lord. I hold in my mind His Life and Suffering; and day and night I glorify and give thanks to my Redeemer for all His mercies that are shed upon mankind and upon me, the unworthy one” (Little Russian Philokalia, Vol. 1, St.Seraphim, p. 67).
Spiritual millionaires invariably fill their minds with the words of God and the lives of the saints, and are thereby transformed. It is impossible to become spiritually rich without giving ourselves to Scripture and loving the saints. How often must we confess saying, “I haven’t been reading my Bible like I should.” Anyone who has ever read Scripture and the lives of the saints knows the immense life-changing power of the Word of God. The Holy Spirit inspired every word of Scripture and when we read it in our desire to obtain Him He works literal miracles inside of us. Reading Scripture is intended as a supernatural act. It changes us and drives away evil for the demons cannot bear to hear Scripture. It is no wonder that St. John Chrysostom says, “The root of all of our evils is the ignorance of Holy Scripture.” This very point is something that our own beloved Bishop JOSEPH has often stressed saying, “To maintain the pattern of the Biblical and Patristic teachings we have to be perpetual students of the Sacred Scriptures” (Address to the Clergy at the 1998 Clergy Symposium).
Become rich dear ones. To the Comforter Who dwells in us, and to the Father from Whom He proceeds, and to the Son through Whom He proceeds, be all glory and praise forever. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 10:29:46 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 10:30 AM (GMT -6) | | This was VERY good, I thought! I noticed that his angle was much more based upon encountering Christ via biblical meditation than on the contemplative prayer via the Jesus Prayer. But I could see that being fine. It's a pastoral context he's addressing. And it's true that the David who spoke in Psalm 50 is supposedly the same one who spoke in Psalm 119. The one who didn't want separation from God's Spirit was the one who love God's Word.
Fr. Trenham said
"How does one increase in the Holy Spirit? By asking for Him and by making decisions in your life that make the indwelling of the Spirit of God natural for you."
James Fowler says kind of the same thing much the same thing in "The Responsibility of Man"
"Other imperative admonitions in the New Testament advise the Christian to abstain from certain activities or to engage in various activities. These activities are not self-generated, but are part of the choice of faith. In choosing to be receptive to Christ's activity in our behavior, we are at the same time choosing to abstain from behavioral activity which is the satanic expression of sinfulness and selfishness, by allowing the divine activity to supersede and overcome.
The Christian is responsible to make disciplined choices to abstain or engage in various activities. Paul advised Timothy, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness" (I Tim. 4:7). The Greek word gumnazo which Paul used is the basis of the English words "gymnasium" and "gymnastics." Discipline involves regular exercise, like an athlete preparing himself for the Olympics. For the Christian such discipline in the Christian life is a structured pattern of chosen behavior that allows God to carry on His divine activity within our lives. It is the deliberate and willful placement of one's being into a state, position or sphere of activity wherein God's divine objectives may be furthered and accomplished in our lives.
These disciplined activities of faith are not to be construed as "works" of performance by which we activate Christian living, or by which we earn or merit God's pleasure or benefits. They are chosen activities wherein we place ourselves in the stream of God's grace, in order to allow for the activity of His grace to express His character in the midst of the activity." When we "take up our cross" via our self-denying, other-oriented, God-centered life choices, we open up ourselves for the God's Holy Spirit to re-present God's own love, creativity, and power through our very human activity. Synergistic life where the liberatarianly free will is a necessary (yet assymetrically important) aspect of the relational reality of being a "new creation" in Christ.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 11:27:49 AM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 11:28 AM (GMT -6) | | Here's what's interesting...
We could look at this whole thing from a more Judeo-Christian perspective as follows: Jesus is God's Messiah, whom was "anointed" with God's Spirit and, through whom, God has "poured out" His Spirit upon "all flesh" (Jews, non-Jews, women, men, etc.), according to the prophetic hopes of the Old Testament Prophets. In other words, a major aspect of Jesus' Jewish messianic fulfillment is the bestowal of God's Spirit "equally upon Jews and pagans, both men and women, freemen and slaves."* Speaking from the context of Judaism, the only reason we all have such access to God's Spirit--Jews and non-Jews--is through what God did through his Messiah.
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From the Jewish Encyclopedia entry on the Holy Spirit...
Gentiles and the Holy Spirit.
The opposite of the Holy Spirit is the unclean spirit ("ruaḥ ṭum'ah"; lit. "spirit of uncleanliness" ). The Holy Spirit rests on the person who seeks the Shekinah (God), while the unclean spirit rests upon him who seeks uncleanness (Sifre, Deut. 173, and parallel passage). Hence arises the contrast, as in the New Testament between πνεῦμα ἅγιον and πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον. On the basis of II Kings iii. 13, the statement is made, probably as a polemic against the founder of Christianity, that the Holy Spirit rests only upon a happy soul (Yer. Suk. 55a, and elsewhere). Among the pagans Balaam, from being a mere interpreter of dreams, rose to be a magician and then a possessor of the Holy Spirit (Num. R. xx. 7). But the Holy Spirit did not appear to him except at night, all pagan prophets being in possession of their gift only then (ib. xx. 12). The Balaam section was written in order to show why the Holy Spirit was taken from the heathen—i.e., because Balaam desired to destroy a whole people without cause (ib. xx. 1). A very ancient source (Sifre, Deut. 175) explains, on the basis of Deut. xviii. 15, that in the Holy Land the gift of prophecy is not granted to the heathen or in the interest of the heathen, nor is it given outside of Palestine even to Jews. In the Messianic time, however, the Holy Spirit will, according to Joel ii. 28, 29, be poured out upon all Israel; i.e., all the people will be prophets (Num. R. xv., end). According to the remarkable statement of Tanna debe Eliyahu, ed. Friedmann, the Holy Spirit will be poured out equally upon Jews and pagans, both men and women, freemen and slaves.
Hey...doesn't that last part sound familiar?
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Colossians 3:11
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 12:08:27 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 11:49 AM (GMT -6) | | | Google "Ask the Rabbi - Jesus as the Messiah". Check it out. I can't put the link. In there, Rabbi Simmons said...
1) JESUS DID NOT FULFILL THE MESSIANIC PROPHECIES
What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? The Bible says that he will:
A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world -- on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
The historical fact is that Jesus fulfilled none of these messianic prophecies.
Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming, but Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright, and no concept of a second coming exists.
I thought that was interesting. I wondered what the rabbi would say if someone said this:
Given all the historical data we have (including that of earliest Jewish Christianity), a reasonable case can be made that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies concerning God's Spirit being "poured out upon all flesh" (Joel)---Jews AND Gentiles, males AND females, etc---such that God could empower ALL to walk in God's statutes and obey His commandments...specifically, the "Greatest Commandments" in the Torah mentioned by Jesus (Deut 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:9-18). Jesus fulfilled that messianic period expectation OUT RIGHT and Paul of Tarsus's mission to and teaching of non-Jews evidenced Paul's Jewish BELIEF in his living/working in that messianic period with the Risen Jesus as God's Messiah.
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A very ancient source (Sifre, Deut. 175) explains, on the basis of Deut. xviii. 15, that in the Holy Land the gift of prophecy is not granted to the heathen or in the interest of the heathen, nor is it given outside of Palestine even to Jews. In the Messianic time, however, the Holy Spirit will, according to Joel ii. 28, 29, be poured out upon all Israel; i.e., all the people will be prophets (Num. R. xv., end). According to the remarkable statement of Tanna debe Eliyahu, ed. Friedmann, the Holy Spirit will be poured out equally upon Jews and pagans, both men and women, freemen and slaves.
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This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Peter in Acts 2:32-33.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:13
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 1:35:37 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 1:51 PM (GMT -6) | | Think about this, now.
You're a Pharisaic Jewish believer who was a contemporary of the Apostle Peter. You believe that God's Spirit of Prophecy hasn't really operated since the death of the Prophet Malachi. Now, today, you see God's Spirit of Prophecy on MULTIPLE people from one land ("Galileans" ) prophesying in the One Spirit of God in MULTIPLE languages. Don't you think that that would be one hell of an experience for you? From the Jewish messianic standpoint, what other possible conclusion could you come to but that the Messianic Age HAD COME? You are directly observing PROPHESY (inseparable in the Jewish mind from the activity of God's Spirit) from multiple people unto people of multiple diverse lands. When it's been like 400years since ANY real prophetic activity like that had happened. What else could explain that but that God's Messiah had come? So, Jesus had been proven to be the Messiah by 1) not remaining dead or "left to corruption" and 2) being the God-exalted agency of God "pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh." Yeah, the idea of INDIVIDUAL resurrection would be distinct from (though not inconsistent with) the general ressurrection idea of the Pharisees...but surely the evidence of the LONG ABSENT Spirit of God operating among such a diverse group of people unto such a diverse group of people would be completely convictional about Jesus being God's exalted, Spirit-authorized Messiah to any Jew who knew about messianic prophecies like in Joel and Ezekiel.
I believe is was THIS sensibility that originated the initial momentum for the Jewish Church on and after Pentecost.
Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 1:58:26 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 2:03 PM (GMT -6) | | | I guess I'm on this because I've been told by Muslims that they believe that Christianity began with Paul essentially propounding non-Jewish ideas to Gentiles (worship of a human, etc). I told them that wasn't so. I said that Christianity began with the Jewish understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost intepreted by disciples of Jesus who COULD interpret the event. The conversation began with the Muslims saying that the "paraclete" spoken of in John was Muhammad. I said no, it was much more coherent with Second Temple Jewish theology and messianic beliefs for the "paraclete" spoken of to relate to the Spirit of God.
What I would now ADD is that Paul also understood himself to be living in the Messianic Age (with the Crucified and Exalted Jesus as Messiah) evidenced by God's Spirit being in "all flesh." (Jew, Gentile, male, female, rich, poor, etc) In effect, Paul's continuing work with and experience of God's Spirit IN GENTILES gave him ongoing tacit evidence that he was living in the Messianic Age with Jesus as Messiah.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/6/2011 2:17:34 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/6/2011 2:38 PM (GMT -6) | | Asuza Street, baby...
By mid-May 1906, anywhere from 300 to 1,500 people would attempt to fit into the building. Since horses had very recently been the residents of the building, flies constantly bothered the attendees. People from a diversity of backgrounds came together to worship: men, women, children, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, rich, poor, illiterate, and educated. People of all ages flocked to Los Angeles with both skepticism and a desire to participate. The intermingling of races and the group's encouragement of women in leadership was remarkable, as 1906 was the height of the "Jim Crow" era of racial segregation, and fourteen years prior to women receiving suffrage in the United States.
Talk about "futurepacing" in the Spirit of God!
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One Love
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| Posted 4/7/2011 10:50 PM (GMT -6) | | Sometime, evangelical moralism and activism can miss the point.
Read.
"In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones ran short of oil, they were told: "Go and buy in the market." But when they had bought it, the door of the bride-chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why should they be lacking in good deeds, if they are called virgins, even though foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could take the place of all other good works.
"I think that what they were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God. These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works. By doing a good deed they thought they were doing the work of God, but they cared little whether they acquired the grace of God's Spirit. These ways of life, based merely on doing good, without carefully testing whether they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the patristic books: "There is another way which is deemed good in the beginning, but ends at the bottom of hell."
"Anthony the Great in his letters to monks says of such virgins: "Many monks and virgins have no idea of the different kinds of will which act in man, and they do not know that we are influenced by three wills: the first is God's all-perfect and all-saving will; the second is our own human will which, if not destructive, neither is it saving; and the third will is the devil's will - wholly destructive." This third will of the enemy prompts man to do any no good deeds, or to do them good out of vanity, or merely for virtue's sake rather than for Christ's sake. The second, our own will, prompts us to do everything to flatter our passions, or else it teaches us like the enemy, to do good for the sake of good and not care for the grace which is acquired by it. But the first, God's all-saving will, consists in doing good solely to acquire the Holy Spirit, as an eternal, inexhaustible treasure which is priceless. The acquisition of the Holy Spirit is, in a manner of speaking, the oil, which the foolish virgins lacked. They were called foolish just because they had forgotten the necessary fruit of virtue, the grace of the Holy Spirit, , without which no one is or can be saved, for: "Through the Holy Spirit every soul is quickened and through purification is exalted and illumined by the Triune Unity in a Holy mystery."
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/7/2011 10:54:35 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/7/2011 11:01 PM (GMT -6) | | This is why, I believe, Kallistos Ware said what he said in "Paths to the Heart"...
"Beauty will save the world", said Dostoevsky. With equal and indeed greater truth it may be said: Prayer of the heart will save the world.
Check out what St. Seraphim says...
"Of course, every good deed done for Christ's sake gives us the grace of the Holy Spirit, but prayer gives us this grace most of all, for it is always at hand, as an instrument for acquiring the grace of the Spirit. For instance, you would like to go to church, but there is no church or the service is over; you would like to give alms to a beggar, but there isn't one, or you have nothing to give; you would like to preserve your virginity, but you have not the strength to do so because of your temperament, or because of the violence of the wiles of the enemy which because of your human weakness you cannot withstand; you would like to do some other good deed for Christ's sake, but either you have not the strength or the opportunity is lacking. This certainly does not apply to prayer. Prayer is always possible for everyone, rich and poor, noble and humble, strong and weak, healthy and sick, righteous and sinful.
"You may judge how great the power of prayer is even in a sinful person, when it is offered whole-heartedly, by the' following example from Holy Tradition. When at the request of a desperate mother who had been deprived by death of her only son, a harlot whom she chanced to meet, still unclean from her last sin, and who was touched by the mother's deep sorrow, cried to the Lord: "Not for the sake of a wretched sinner like me, but for the sake of the tears of a mother grieving for her son and firmly trusting in Thy loving kindness and Thy almighty power, Christ God, raise up her son, O Lord!" And the Lord raised him up.
"You see, your Godliness! Great is the power of prayer, and it brings most of all the Spirit of God, and is most easily practiced by everyone. We shall be happy indeed if the Lord God finds us watchful and filled with the gifts of His Holy Spirit. Then we may boldly hope "to be caught up . . . in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thess. 4:17) Who is coming "with great power and glory" (Mk. 13:26) "to judge the living and the dead" (1 Peter 4:5) and "to reward every man according to his works" (Matt. 16:27).
The "prayer of the heart" or Jesus Prayer is easily available to all of us..and it's would be guaranteed spiritual "money in the bank" as far as allowing God to bestow more Grace within and upon all of us.
(Essential teaching for any "Salvage Yard", bro. )
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/7/2011 11:06:06 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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One Love
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| Posted 4/7/2011 11:18 PM (GMT -6) | | | Jewish Encyclopedia had this right on the money. I wonder how come they didn't make the connection...
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The doctrine that after the advent of the Messiah the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all mankind explains the fact that in the New Testament such great importance is assigned to the Holy Spirit. The phrase τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον occurs from eighty to ninety times (Swete, in Hastings, "Dict. Bible," ii. 404); while the phrase τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ δεοῦ is comparatively rare, it occurs several times. In Acts i. 5, 8 it is said, as in the midrash quoted above*, that in the Messianic time the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon every one, and in Acts ii. 16 et seq. Peter states that Joel's prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit has been fulfilled. "While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God" (ib. x. 44-46). Luke also says (Luke xi. 13) that God gives the Holy Spirit to those that ask Him. The phrase "joy of the Holy Ghost" (I Thess. i. 6) also recalls the Midrash sentence quoted above referring to the contrast between the clean and the unclean spirit (Mark iii. 30). The inspiration of the Biblical writers is acknowledged in the same way as in rabbinical literature (Matt. xxii. 43; Mark xii. 36; II Peter i. 21). Hence the conception of the Holy Spirit is derived from one and the same source. But as the New Testament writers look upon the Messiah, who is actually identified with the Holy Spirit, as having arrived, their view assumes a form fundamentally different from that of the Jewish view in certain respects; i.e., as regards: (1) the conception and birth of the Messiah through the Holy Spirit (Matt. i. 18 et seq.; Luke i. 35; John iii. 5-8); (2) the speaking in different tongues ("glossolalia"; Acts ii. et passim): (3) the materialistic view of the Holy Spirit, evidenced in the idea that it may be communicated by means of the breath (e.g., John xx. 22); and (4) the strongly developed view of the personality of the Holy Spirit (comp., for example, Matt. xii. 32; Acts v. 3; I Cor. iii. 16; Eph. ii. 22; I Peter ii. 5; Gospel to the Hebrews, quoted inHastings, "Dict. Bible," ii. 406, foot, et passim). In consequence of these fundamental differences many points of the Christian conception of the Holy Spirit have remained obscure, at least to the uninitiated.
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*In the Messianic time, however, the Holy Spirit will, according to Joel ii. 28, 29, be poured out upon all Israel; i.e., all the people will be prophets (Num. R. xv., end). According to the remarkable statement of Tanna debe Eliyahu, ed. Friedmann, the Holy Spirit will be poured out equally upon Jews and pagans, both men and women, freemen and slaves.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Post Edited (One Love) : 4/7/2011 11:22:21 PM (GMT-5) | | Back to Top | | |
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PotOnWheel
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Date Joined Jul 2001
Total Posts : 9890
| Posted 4/8/2011 10:33 PM (GMT -6) | | | | |
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