Education Department: Philippine Union. GADSDA

5. The Holy Spirit {BRH pp. 181-200}

PART V

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit and His Work ............................................................... 181
Fruit of the Spirit ................................................................................... 184
Gifts of the Spirit ..................................................................................... 187
The Gift of Prophecy ............................................................................... 189
The Outpouring of the Spirit ................................................................. 195

Introduction:

During the patriarchal age the influence of the Holy Spirit had often been revealed in a marked manner, but never in its fullness. Now, in obedience to the word of the Saviour, the disciples offered their supplications for this gift, and in heaven Christ added His intercession. He claimed the gift of the Spirit, that He might pour it upon His people. {AA 37.3}

So mightily can God work when men give themselves up to the control of His Spirit. {AA 49.1}

The promise of the Holy Spirit is not limited to any age or to any race. Christ declared that the divine influence of His Spirit was to be with His followers unto the end. From the Day of Pentecost to the present time, the Comforter has been sent to all who have yielded themselves fully to the Lord and to His service. To all who have accepted Christ as a personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit has come as a counselor, sanctifier, guide, and witness. The more closely believers have walked with God, the more clearly and powerfully have they testified of their Redeemer's love and of His saving grace. The men and women who through the long centuries of persecution and trial enjoyed a large measure of the presence of the Spirit in their lives, have stood as signs and wonders in the world. Before angels and men they have revealed the transforming power of redeeming love. {AA 49.2}

Scriptural Thought:

"I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever." John 14: 16.

"But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you." Verse 26, R. V.

"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him." Verse 17.

"But ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be ,in you." verse. 5

Many people do not know what barley is; so with the doctrine of the "Holy Spirit". While the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is believed by some Christians, it is not believed by others. Some do not understand what the truth of the Spirit is, even as some do not know what barley is; so the symbol representing the second doctrine is perfect, even as the first. Gideon's experience with the Midianite's dream of the barley cake overturning the tent proves the same. Read Judges 7:13, 14. {1SR 118.2}

"...The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All 'good things' are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing greater, nothing better...." Being sealed in Christ "with that Holy Spirit of promise," after having "heard the word of truth" (Eph. 1:13; 4:30), the saints are consequently sealed by Present Truth--the truth preached in their own day.

"The seal of the living God," the Truth, by which the 144,000 are sealed (Rev. 7:2), is a special seal, being the same as "the mark" of Ezekiel 9. (See Testimonies to Ministers, p. 445; Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 267; Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211). {2Ans. 32.1, 2}

The Holy Spirit and His Work

It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Spirit is the Comforter, "the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father." It is plainly declared regarding the Holy Spirit that, in His work of guiding men into all truth, "He shall not speak of Himself." John 15:26; 16:13. {AA 51.3}

The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. {AA 52.1}

There are today many as ignorant of the Holy Spirit's work upon the heart as were those believers in Ephesus; yet no truth is more clearly taught in the word of God. Prophets and apostles have dwelt upon this theme. Christ Himself calls our attention to the growth of the vegetable world as an illustration of the agency of His Spirit in sustaining spiritual life. The sap of the vine, ascending from the root, is diffused to the branches, sustaining growth and producing blossoms and fruit. So the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Saviour, pervades the soul, renews the motives and affections, and brings even the thoughts into obedience to the will of God, enabling the receiver to bear the precious fruit of holy deeds. {AA 284.1}

Yet the operations of the Spirit are always in harmony with the written word. As in the natural, so in the spiritual world. The natural life is preserved moment by moment by divine power; yet it is not sustained by a direct miracle, but through the use of blessings placed within our reach. So the spiritual life is sustained by the use of those means that Providence has supplied. If the follower of Christ would grow up "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13), he must eat of the bread of life and drink of the water of salvation. He must watch and pray and work, in all things giving heed to the instructions of God in His word. {AA 284.2}

2. Fruit of the Spirit

The fruit we are to bring forth is the fruit of the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Your fruit is to remain, to be of such a character that it shall not perish, but reproduce after its kind a harvest of a precious order. {ST, May 2, 1892 par. 7}

Fruits of the Spirit to be Revealed in Every Act

God's people are to mingle with all they do the incense of Christ's merits. In all their actions the fruits of the Spirit are to be revealed. Every day by faithful actions sermons are to be preached. {RH, June 24, 1902 par. 11}

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another." {RH, January 4, 1887 par. 1}

Here is held out the very thing for which we are to labor: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love." If we have the love of Christ in our souls, it will be a natural consequence for us to have all the other graces,--joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;" and "against such there is no law." The law of God does not condemn and hold in bondage those who have these graces; because they are obeying the requirements of the law of God. They are law-keepers, and therefore they are not under the bondage of the law. {RH, January 4, 1887 par. 3}

3. Gifts of the Spirit

The talents that Christ entrusts to His church represent especially the gifts and blessings imparted by the Holy Spirit. "To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as He will." 1 Corinthians 12:8-11. All men do not receive the same gifts, but to every servant of the Master some gift of the Spirit is promised. {COL 327.1}

Before He left His disciples, Christ "breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." John 20:22. Again He said, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you." Luke 24:49. But not until after the ascension was the gift received in its fullness. Not until through faith and prayer the disciples had surrendered themselves fully for His working was the outpouring of the Spirit received. Then in a special sense the goods of heaven were committed to the followers of Christ. "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." Ephesians 4:8. "Unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ," the Spirit "dividing to every man severally as He will." Ephesians 4:7; 1 Corinthians 12:11. The gifts are already ours in Christ, but their actual possession depends upon our reception of the Spirit of God. {COL 327.2}

4. The Gift of Prophecy

"This view led her to unceasing prayer for the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Her yearning for this divine presence was answered beyond all that she had conceived. . . . Her life of full surrender, obedience, and prayer for divine help was rewarded by the bestowal of the gift of prophecy, one of the choicest of all the gifts of the Spirit. {LS 468.3}

The greatest of all gifts, all talents, is true, Christlike love. It is not position or profession that makes a man of value in God's sight. It is being good and doing good. Paul declares: "If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, . . . but have not love, I am nothing." "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal." "Now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love." {PHJ, December 1, 1901 par. 8}

Now the fact that this prophecy was written nearly a century after John the Baptist was beheaded, is historical acknowledgment that the prophets did not cease with him. Thus in misconstruing Matthew 11:13 so as to make John the last of the prophets, the opposition is attempting to substitute for the gift of prophecy in the Christian era, "private" (uninspired) interpretations of the Scriptures. And in doing this, they are led either to ignore or to try to explain away the irrefutable statement of Paul: "And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:28) -- absolute evidence that the second of the eight gifts to the church in the Christian era, is prophets.

5. The Outpouring of the Spirit

"The great outpouring of the Spirit of God, which lightens the whole earth with His glory, will not come until we have an enlightened people, that know by experience what it means to be laborers together with God. When we have entire, wholehearted consecration to the service of Christ, God will recognize the fact by an outpouring of His Spirit without measure; but this will not be while the largest portion of the church are not laborers together with God." ("Review and Herald," July 21, 1896.)

There is a promise of the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth (John 16:7-13), and a promise of the "latter rain." Joel 2-23, 28. This promised Comforter, the apostles received on the day of Pentecost, and It was to abide with them forever; that is, even with their successors. But as in the apostolic succession, men of the primitive apostolic caliber ceased, the Comforter gradually disappeared. And though He has at different times reappeared in the form of the Spirit of Truth, His Pentecostal power and presence have never since been reimparted. This manifestation of the Spirit in Power (Joel 2:28) should not, however, be confused with the manifestation of the Spirit in Truth (Joel 2:23).

The very title, "latter rain," itself shows that this particular manifestation takes place in the "latter days"--our time. And through Zechariah the prophet, Inspiration in pointing out that there is a set time for the latter rain, urges: "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field." Zech. 10:1.

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Lesson Number 5:

The Holy Spirit (BRH pp. 181-200)

1. WHAT precious promise did Jesus make to His disciples shortly before His crucifixion? John 14: 16.