"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit," Ephesians 1:13

There is a lot of misunderstanding and twisted teaching surrounding the Holy Spirit these days. I suppose it's actually been a mess since the first Day of Pentecost that we see in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit came mightily upon the believers in Jerusalem and the people around supposed they were drunk. But in our day and age, we are seeing people roll around on the floor, making animal noises, laughing uncontrollably, convulsing and shaking, babbling in unintelligible words, and proclaiming things that are far from in accordance with the Word of God. And, they're doing it all in the name of God the Holy Spirit.

Now I will be the first to admit that when I read about the things that happened in the Bible, through the power of God the Holy Spirit through the apostles, they are some crazy things. But, they are God honoring things. They are things that demonstrate God's power for conviction on the sinner's life and building up the believers.

So often, when talking about the Holy Spirit, we talk about gifts and abilities. Things that are biblically true and correct, but things that cause us to miss or glance over the importance and work of the third person of the trinity. The verse above is one of, if not my favorite verse relating to the Holy Spirit, because it is the first work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and it shows how quickly the Holy Spirit begins working in our lives.

There is much to know about the work and person of God the Holy Spirit. If we are going to walk and live in biblical sound doctrine, we must study the Word of God to know all that we can about how the Holy Spirit works. I'm looking forward to seeing you this Sunday as we talk about the purpose of God the Holy Spirit

Grace & Peace,
John
(You can reach Pastor John at jwhite@thevillagemi.com)