“I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?”

Galatians 3:2

• With this post I want to explore the Spirit and what it means to receive the Spirit.
• There are 3 Greek prepositions concerning the Holy Spirit which are important to know: Para (With), En (In), Epi (Upon). The Holy Spirit is with us before we are saved. We know this because the Spirit convicts us of sin and draws us to God. (But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt [fn] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.- John 16:7-11). When we are saved the Holy Spirit came in us. (And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory.-Ephesians 1:13). Baptism of the Holy Spirit is when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now there are so many verses where the Holy Spirit comes upon someone, that if I were to write them out this post would be huge so I will write out a few and list the rest. (But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."-Acts 1:8)
• Luke 3:21-22, Acts 2:4, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 9:17, Acts 10:44-46, Acts 19:1-7.
• Some believe you must speak in tongues to be truly baptized by the Holy Spirit.While this is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not all of the verses listed above resulted in that particular gift. Some resulted in no immediate gift at all!
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit according to: Romans 12:6-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, and 1 Peter 4:10-11
• Prophecy, Serving, Teaching, Encouraging, Helping Others, Leadership, Mercy, Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miraculous Powers, Distinguishing Spirits, Tongues, Interpretation of Tongues, and Boldness.
• I want to share how the Holy Spirit effected my life. When I graduated fifth grade, my Grandpa got me a guitar. After realizing you can’t just pick up a guitar and play it, it sat in the corner of my room being used as something to hang my clothes on. A few years later, a friend taught me my first chord and suddenly I began growing in my knowledge of guitar. The guy leading worship at a men's study moved away so I began playing guitar (The same 1 song every week) but I was terrified of singing so I didn’t. I was then invited to go to a worship leaders conference at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. During the final teaching, the pastor discussed baptism of the Holy Spirit. I knew that was something I want but I felt the Lord tell me to wait until I got back home. The day after coming back, it was the Men’s bible study night. The men laid hands on me and I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I must confess I was still scared to sing. My Dad says I turned to him and said “Dad I can’t do this!” and he replied “You don’t have to anymore. The Holy Spirit will.” That was the first night I ever sang in front of a group. Since then the Holy Spirit has been growing my gift of worship.
• 3 Random things about the Holy Spirit:
  The Holy Spirit was present during creation- Genesis 1:2
   The Holy Spirit is the author of prophecy- 2 Peter 1:21
   The Holy Spirit resurrected Jesus- Romans 8:11
 
• What the Spirit’s job description is:
  Our Comforter/Testifies of God-John 15:26
   Convicts us of sin-John 16:8-11
   Intercedes for us-Romans 8:26-27
   Reveals the things of God- 1 Corinthians 2:12-14
 
 
• "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for [fn] a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"- Luke 11:9-13
 
 

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified” Galatians 3:1

· The word Paul uses here for foolish is not “Moros” which means someone who is mentally deficient. He uses “Anoetos” which means someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception. Perception is understanding so basically Paul was saying God had shown Himself to the Galatians through Jesus being crucified before their very eyes, but they were choosing to ignore understanding and believe that they could be saved by the law.

· I think we can take comfort in the fact that living by faith was hard at times, even for those who had seen Christ crucified. Even the people who had been around him and maybe even touched him, they were struggling with their faith when trials came up.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” 1 Peter 1:6-8

The Galatians were having a crisis of faith. It was do or die time. Paul was saying “You can’t live on the fence between God and the Law.” Trials like what the Galatians were going through, a conflict between what they knew was right and what they had know their whole lives, trials like that come to build our faith, not tear it down.

· Throughout the Bible, there are verses that really show how powerful our faith can be.

· “He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20

· “Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.” Matthew 21:21

· Our faith is powerful! Trials don’t keep us from it, but make it stronger!

· “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1.

· “We live by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

· “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.” –Martin Luther King JR. There are things we won’t know until we stand before God. But we have the word. And that’s the step. And we have faith that this step leads somewhere. It would be foolish of me to NOT believe this. We have all seen God work in our lives and so our faith is acting upon that and taking the first step.