What You Need to Know About the Holy Spirit!
Good News Magazine
June-July 1966
Volume: Vol XV, No. 6-7
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What You Need to Know About the Holy Spirit!
Selmer L Hegvold      |   Remove Highlight

A real Christian is embued with power — the power of God. Where does it come from? What does it do? You need to know WHY you must have the Holy Spirit!

   IT IS LIKE a breath of fresh air in spring to encounter a person who is really smiling and happy, and who is eager to serve others! Everyone wants the happy, joyous, abundant life — but so few have it.
   Why?
   The answer lies in a lack of awareness of the POWER of the Spirit of God! Few really grasp WHY they need God's Holy Spirit, and what it can do for them, and THROUGH them for others!
   Many, when they are first converted and baptized, are somewhat disappointed. Expressing the thought of many, one lady exclaimed as she stood dripping after being immersed in baptism. "Why, I only feel wet and cold! I thought surely I would feel a new power, new purpose, new drive pulsating through my mind and body all at once!"
   In spite of counsel to the contrary, did you experience disillusionment over your baptism? Did you expect the presence of the Holy Spirit to suddenly fill you with outward signs and internal feelings? Were you a little discouraged when you noticed no surging POWER flowing through your being as you arose from your watery grave?
   Such thoughts come from a LACK OF UNDERSTANDING the purpose and the function of God's gift, the Holy Spirit!
   You need to understand!

What Is the Holy Spirit?

   The "trinity" is a pagan invention. Nowhere does the Bible teach a closed Godhead — but that is what the trinity doctrine teaches. The very doctrine of the trinity denies, rejects, the Plan of God. The Plan of God reveals the joyous good news that the Godhead is a family with others soon to be born into it. The Holy Spirit is not another person united with the Father and with Jesus Christ, His Son, forming a closed Godhead into which no others can come!
   Jesus is called the Son of God. He is called the son of man. Both expressions are correct. But, He is not the son of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit is not a person who can beget — it is not a person at all. The Holy Spirit is the power of God (Luke 1:35). It is the power by means of which God performs His deeds, His acts of creation. It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that God the Father begat Jesus the Son (Mat. 1:18).
   The Holy Spirit has its source in God. It emanates from Him throughout the great, vast expanse of the universe. God controls that power. It has no volition of itself. Without God it would be no power at all! God is the Powerhouse, the source of all power. Through His power, He rules the universe.

How the Spirit Works

   When you understand how the Holy Spirit of God works then you will understand why it is so essential that you pray fervently, study earnestly, meditate daily and fast often.
   The Holy Spirit is an instrument that must be wed, exercised, utilized, day in and day out or it becomes quenched. (I Thes. 5:19.) Through exercising it in daily living, character is developed and perfected in human beings (Mat. 5:48).
   Jesus Christ put it to use in His life. Through it, he established a strong relationship with His Father in heaven in daily prayer. The Father in heaven strengthened and nourished Him through the Holy Spirit.
   Jesus Christ, the Son of God, said, "Of mine own self I can do nothing!" (John 5:30.) Yet, examine what He did accomplish while on earth.
   He resisted the devil (Mat. 4:1-11) in the greatest battle ever fought. In this great temptation Satan was disqualified, and Jesus Christ qualified to rule the world. Without the help of God's own power through the Holy Spirit this would have been an impossible encounter!
   How about you? Without that same Holy Spirit within you, you will have a losing bat& with the devil. He will win out unless you, too, are exercising and nourishing that power daily! If you use it to fight your great battles, you will never fail.
   This is the work of the Holy Spirit! None can hope to win out over Satan and his world without that tremendous spiritual power! You need that power desperately.

Source of Spiritual Discernment

   Christ brought a message to this dying world from the Father in heaven. Could He deliver it abroad through His own strength? No! Even the selection of the twelve disciples — to whom would later be left the responsibilities of raising up and guiding the Churches of God was the work of the Spirit of God, giving discernment (Luke 6:12 and I Cor. 2:14). He knew, without a doubt, these were men — later to be guided by the same Holy Spirit — to whom He could entrust a great work when He ascended to His Father in heaven. This was not the working of His own mind apart from the mind of His Father. Their minds were one through the Holy Spirit of the Father. This is a miracle — not natural.
   Problems, questions and decisions of life are much too great for you to search out alone. Your mind is yet carnal (Rom. 7:14; I Cor. 3:1, 3). Unless the Holy Spirit is active in you, your activities will veer off on a wrong tangent every time. You need discernment — you need the Holy Spirit to guide you and give you mental and spiritual discernment!

Power to Perform Miracles

   "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people" (Mat. 4:23). He had said, "I can of mine own self do nothing!" (John 5:30.) How, then, did He perform these MIRACLES?
   The fame of Jesus' miracles went far and wide. Never had men witnessed so great blessings. Jesus Christ never sat idly by with so great power available — He used the power of God's Spirit to heal and to turn hundreds to God. That same power has wrought its healing work in you through the laying on of hands and anointing of God's ministers in this era of His Church!
   In Mat. 4:24, we read that Jesus cast out demons. That power, too, Christ has made available to His ministers today. Many demons have been cast out today!
   You, as a begotten son of God, have this same powerful Spirit within you! — But beware! Because the ministers use that power to free many of demons, does not give you license to cast out demons from others. Note this vital lesson from scripture itself. It is found in Acts, the nineteenth chapter. Seven sons of Sceva took upon themselves to cast out demons (verses 13, 14.) Thereupon "... the evil spirit answered and said, 'Jesus I know, and Paid I know; but who are ye?' And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded"! Because of their presumptuousness, a frightful disaster befell them!
   This is a power God has reserved to His ministers. Yet, it is a very necessary function within God's Church.

God's Spirit Gives Understanding

   Many of you have read the Bible through many times. Yet, none of you could really understand God's Word as Christ did. It was by means of the Holy Spirit and the way He constantly exercised it day in and day out that He was able to remember, recite and apply scripture!
   Notice what Christ Himself said, "But the Comforter which is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, he shall teach you all things, and [shall] bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" (John 14:26). God's Spirit will give you the power to understand His word!
   But you need to do your part. You need to study scripture daily, concentrating deeply on it as you study. Ask yourself questions about application of what you read to daily Christian living. As you do, the Holy Spirit will begin actively to guide your thoughts as it in turn is nourished by what you read. Gradually you will realize with amazement that you do remember verses, chapters and books of God's Holy Word. That blueprint of Christian living will become an open book to you!
   Here again is why you need the Holy Spirit! Many have not realized. You can more clearly see why Christ needed the Holy Spirit while a mortal human being here on earth — Immanuel, God with us.

Why Do You Need the Holy Spirit?

   Most have had only a vague understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit — a nebulous, hazy idea that they need the Holy Spirit because they cannot overcome by themselves. But, do you understand? The Holy Spirit will not do it for you, and cannot, if you are lying down on the job of overcoming! The Holy Spirit is God's power! It clears the way supernaturally, miraculously, awesomely overcomes impossible obstacles in your way. But this doesn't mean God does it all for you — you have yow vital part to perform or God won't supply you with His overcoming Spirit-power.
   This means, always you must be doing energetically, with all your might the job at hand (Eccl. 9:10) — as though you alone were accomplishing it all. Trust God! Have faith He will perform, then as you put your well-formulated, carefully thought — out plan into action, KNOW that God will give you the means to bring it to completion. This entire Work of God, of which you are a part, has been accomplished in that very way.
   You need to see that added strength, that power, when it comes to your aid. You need to recognize it as a power freely given that requires being directed and used. Seek out God's will, and then surge ahead with all you have in you!
   Examine yourself! Have you had the power of God manifested in YOUR life as Christ did? Have you understood God's word? Have you had spiritual POWER to serve God and conquer sin?
   Christ did not lie! He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do...'" (John 14:12). How? Through the Holy Spirit of God!

Where Do You Fall Short?

   Notice the fruits of your former way of life. These were not the fruits of the happy, full, abundant and purposeful life! Why? Perhaps you thought you were doing right — even may have thought you were doing God's will. Twice, remember, God warns, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12; 16:25). God's will was not really sought.
   But now you should know what are God's wishes, His warnings and His plans for you. The Bible is the only blueprint for true Christian living.
   Only through diligent, prayerful study of scriptures can you come to know what God has promised to do for you when you, by yourself, are helpless to do more, And you will learn what God expects YOU to do, yourself!
   Once you have searched out what His will is, then you can go ahead in confidence, putting "your all" into the task at hand, KNOWING He will supply what you lack and carry the day for you! It is your lack of knowledge as to what God's will is, that saps you of confidence and that drops you into a stagnant pool of lethargy!

Do You Want These Gifts?

   The Holy Spirit itself is a GIFT from God (Acts 2:38). You never earned it, and neither can you arbitrarily manifest the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). But there is a way you can have all of these FRUITS if you want them.
   How?
   How can YOU have the fruits of "love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faith, meekness, and self-control"? How can your life be completely FILLED with these attributes of God?
   Is it all up to God? Does He arbitrarily give to one, but deny another? Of course that is not true. God is waiting on YOU. You must be willing and eager to do your own part.
   God wants YOUR life to manifest dynamic spiritual POWER! God wants you to be a forceful, dynamically alive, Christian. He wants to pour out His Holy Spirit on you. But whether He will or not — and the extent to which God gives you of His Holy Spirit — completely depends on YOU.
   Yes — on you!
   God says to you, "Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be FILLED with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:17-18).
   God commands, "QUENCH NOT THE SPIRIT" (I Thes. 5:19).
   The apostle Paul wrote Timothy and explained, "For God hath riot given us the Spirit of fear; but of POWER, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Tim. 1:7). We receive this Spirit at conversion, when God begets us with His Spirit of POWER (Luke 1:35). But what are we to DO with it? Let it lie dormant, undisturbed, within us? No — that is the way to extinguish it. Rather, God expects us to DAILY PUT IT INTO USE! The apostle Paul told Timothy, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou STIR UP the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands" (II Tim. 1:6).
   We must STIR up — rekindle, ignite into flame — the Spirit of God. THIS is the way to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit. This is the way to be of real SERVICE to God, and to do the part God has given you in His great end-time Work!
   Use God's Spirit, and it will grow powerfully within you, directing and motivating your life. Use this powerful gift, and it will cause you to grow and develop spiritually. Study deeply God's Word; pray for understanding and correction. Yield to God's Word. Change what you see is not right in your life. Pray that God will work more powerfully THROUGH YOU as His instrument!
   He will! This is why YOU need the Holy Spirit of God!

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Good News MagazineJune-July 1966Vol XV, No. 6-7