Meet My Friend -The Holy Spirit Pt. 1
I would very much like all of you to meet a very close and dear friend of mind. I was personally introduced to Him by some brothers and sisters in Christ way back in 1972. He has been with me ever since! You might say that we are best friends and inseparable. We read of Him in John 14:7,
“…but you shall know Him, because He abides
with you and will be in you.”
I would like you to meet my Friend – THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is His name, but just because you know His name, does not mean that you have personally met Him. Many religious people know His name as part of a “Trinitarian Formula,” but do not have a personal let alone an intimate relationship with Him. May that be changed starting today!
I had casually heard of my Friend the Holy Spirit long before 1972. Back then, church people in my background referred to Him as the Holy Ghost. Each time I heard that name – Holy Ghost – I felt very eerie, very spooky, and very ghostly about Him. Boo! He and I never really connected, and anyway, we were taught that ghosts do not exist, so defensively I think I wrote Him off.
But I am so very thankful that I met Him personally, and ever since He has given me such good advice and guidance on all matters of truth and life. He has become my own personal confidant and counselor. I can always count on Him! Knowing Him has given me tremendous love, joy, and peace, and He never leads me astray! What a friend to have indeed!
NEVER HEARD OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
You may be a church person, and not know personally the Holy Spirit. There is an account in the Bible of Christians who never even heard of the Holy Spirit.
One day back in the 1st century A.D., the Apostle Paul met some believers in Christ who not only had not met the Holy Spirit, they didn’t even know that He existed. Paul was passing through the city of Ephesus, and there he found some disciples of Christ and he asked them in Acts 19:2,
“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
Their answer to him was this in Acts 19:2,
“No, we have not heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
Whoa! Of how many people must that be said today? I am afraid that in many religious circles He is still the missing person of the Godhead Who, as we shall see in this critically important series, holds the key to everything. The fact is, the church doesn’t stand a chance without Him and becomes nothing more than a burned out shell.
Well now, we can’t let happen to you or to others you may know what happened to believers in Ephesus. He is just too wonderful and magnificent and totally indispensable to not know Him. Such ignorance is impoverishment and disaster of the worst order.
THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE TRINITARIAN GOD
We have to get something straight right up front. The Holy Spirit cannot be talked about, known, or experienced in a vacuum. The Holy Spirit cannot be properly introduced in isolation. What am I saying?
I am saying, because the Bible teaches, that God the Holy Spirit cannot be met without also meeting God the Father and God the Son. Three Divine Persons and yet One Only God! I know, I know, that is enough to fry your brains before we are barely started. I fully empathize with you, in that it defies all known mathematics, for 1 plus 1 plus 1 cannot be 1. It has to be 3, as in three Gods. But God defies all human arithmetic and reason. He does not exist or operate in the natural but only in the supernatural. That is why we read at the very beginning of the Bible words like these in Genesis 1:26,
“Then God (not gods) said, “Let US make man in OUR IMAGE….”
What a quandary that verse is! You talk about a mathematical dilemma! We have over the centuries a word that we use for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – one God in three persons – TRINITY! Listen, to try to process that with our finite brains is like trying to stuff a mountain in a molehill, or an ocean in a tea cup. You must hear this:
“THE TRINITY IS THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL AND INDISPENSABLE TRUTH OF
CHRISTIANITY. IF YOU DENY IT YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SOUL, AND IF YOU
TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MIND.”
In summary, when in fact God defies summation, You cannot know God the Father without God the Son, and you cannot know God the Son without God the Holy Spirit. If you will:
“YOU CANNOT KNOW THE 1 WITHOUT THE OTHER 1s.”
And when you come to know the ONE-ONES, you will want to experience what the Bible calls BAPTISM, as in Matthew 28:19 where we hear Jesus’ words to His disciples, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
“BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME (NOT NAMES) IN THE NAME OF THE
FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
For you see, that seals the deal! Powerful! I have often said:
“BAPTISM DOESN’T SAVE ANYONE, BUT IT DOESN’T MISS BY MUCH.”
My dear wife Ruthie and I couldn’t wait. When this truth gripped us, we were on R and R in Florida, and we baptized each other in a swimming pool in Ocala. It was awesome. “Well,” you say, “Sure, because you are a pastor.” Yes that’s true, but that is not why we did it. The reality of the Triune God so overwhelmed us that we had to hit the pool! When God overwhelms you, tomorrow is not nearly soon enough. Please don’t get picky here, for there is a big story involved in this that I do not have time or space share with you now.
THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE PERSONAL GOD
Wow! There is a Fox News Alert and a real Headliner if there ever was one. As to Who the Holy Spirit is, He has been debated and juggled about as much as anyone you can think of. For many years, and still today, He was viewed as the MYSTERY BEING of the Bible. You know, He is the type to appear on the old “To Tell The Truth” TV game show, and be asked the question:
“WILL THE REAL HOLY SPIRIT PLEASE STAND UP?”
There was a fella in church history by the name of Macedonius, a bishop and theologian of Constantinople in the 4th century, who denied that the Holy Spirit is God. Rather, he taught that the Holy Spirit is the chief of angels, the supreme and most excellent of those ministering spirits who God has employed in the administration of the affairs of the church.
Because, as Macedonius and his followers believed, the Holy Spirit was preeminent in the angelic world, therefore he was not simply a holy spirit, but rather THE HOLY SPIRIT. He was viewed as being in a class of angelness all by Himself far above some of the other angel-biggies such as Michael and Gabriel. If you will, He did as it were have personal identity, but not Divine identity. Well then, at least he was Angel Senior and not some Angel Junior like the others.
However, there was a fella by the name of Socinus, an Italian theologian of the 16th and 17th centuries, who taught that the Holy Spirit was neither God nor a person. Rather, the Holy Spirit is the power of God by which God creates and produces things. If you will, He is the icon for the Greek word ENERGEIA, the Divine Energy of God. That is why He is likened in the Bible to such forces as fire (Luke 3:16) and wind (Acts 2:2).
Socinianism gave the Holy Spirit therefore the stigma of being a divine cosmic force, like:
“MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.”
Ever since Socinus, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, the church has suffered from:
“SO-CINUS-INFECTION.”
Moreover, many view Him as even a violent, uncontrollable force that will take you where you do not want to go. Sort of like the strong dog on a leash who takes his owner in every unwanted direction. And we all know what wind can do to fire! Giving rise to the notion still with us today that the Holy Spirit is not to be welcomed and adored but guarded against, particularly in the Church. You know:
“DON’T LET THE HOLY SPIRIT LOOSE IN THE CHURCH, FOR HE MIGHT BLOW
THE WHOLE PLACE APART AND THEN BURN IT DOWN.”
Never has anyone been so maligned and distorted as the Holy Spirit! Much of this can be traced directly to the EVIL SPIRIT – SATAN, for you see, the Holy Spirit is his chief competitor and nemesis. The Holy Spirit cannot be defeated by Satan, so Satan tries to distort Him to weaken His influence.
LYING TO THE HOLY SPIRIT
Well then, let’s clear this whole mess up and set the record straight about something so critically and eternally important here.
The Bible tells us a story that speaks directly to the chaos and confusion about my Friend the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts 5 a true story about the Bonnie and Clyde of the New Testament church world – Ananias and Sapphira. Relating now to the Holy Spirit, this husband and wife sold something of theirs and in so doing made a substantial profit. Good! Nothing wrong with that! Good for them!
But here is where it all goes wrong. Ananias and Sapphira, who were an outstanding couple in the church, told the Apostle Peter and others that they were giving the entire profit to Jesus and His church. However, the fact was that they were only giving part of it. Then we read in Acts 5:3,
“But Peter said, ‘Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart
to lie to the Holy Spirit.”
Come now, you do not lie to a force or an it. You may lie about a force or an it, but you do not lie to a force or to an it. That is if you are not delusional or severely mentally whacked. You lie to a person, and in this case the Person was the Holy Spirit. Not a good thing to do, but no worse than depersonalizing the Holy Spirit into some neutered storm blowing in off from the deserts of Arizona.
But that isn’t all that the Apostle Peter said to Ananias. We read in Acts 5:4 that he went on to say to him,
“…you have not lied to men, but to GOD.”
Whoa! Or should I say, “Woe?” Every lie is a lie against truth, and truth ultimately is not a moral category or concept, but here is a “DIVINE PERSON – GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT,” Who the Bible calls in John 16:13,
“…the Spirit of Truth….”
Ananias and Sapphira lied to the TRUTH – THE GOD PERSON – THE HOLY SPIRIT.
When they lied to God the Holy Spirit, their lying lips and hearts hit the Holy Spirit like bugs hit bug zappers. Husband and wife dropped dead like wham, right now. And to this day, X marks the dead spot of all X-rated speech in the church – LIES.
So hear this:
“EVEN AS IT IS DEADLY TO LIE TO GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, IT IS JUST
AS DEADLY TO LIE ABOUT GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
We might ask,”Why was Ananias’s and Sapphira’s lie a lie to the Holy Spirit and not a lie to God the Father and God the Son?” Simply because:
“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS GOD IN RESIDENCE IN THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST.”
In short:
“EVEN AS THE SOUL ANIMATES THE BODY OF MAN, SO THE HOLY SPIRIT ANIMATES
THE CHURCH – THE BODY OF CHRIST.”
Why such serious punishment for Ananias and Sapphira? Simply because of what God says in Psalm 101:7,
“He who practices deceit shall not dwell within My house; he who speaks
falsehood shall not maintain his position before Me.”
So important to God is speaking the truth, that God writes this upon the gates of Heaven in Psalm 15:1,2–
“O Lord, who may abide in Thy tent? Who may dwell on Thy holy hill?
“He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and
speaks truth in his heart.”
And the reason that lying by or in the church is simply and yet so profoundly lethal is this:
“WILL NOT THE WORLD CONSIDER CHRISTIANITY TO BE A LIE IF WE
WE LIE IN THE NAME OF CHRISTIANITY?”
BACK TO THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE DIVINE PERSON
So we must disassociate ourselves very clearly and very distantly from those who demean, blaspheme, and minimize the Holy Spirit by dressing Him up in what amounts to nothing more or less than gross misrepresentations and distortions. The Holy Spirit is not an it, or a force, or some wild thing-a-ling. Nor is He merely a topic for seminarian coffee-break discussions, church debates, or sermon metaphors.
I introduce to you today God the Holy Spirit. And because He is God:
“HE IS TO BE WORSHIPPED, ADORED, PRAISED, PRAYED TO, OBEYED, LOVED,
SERVED, EXALTED, TRUSTED, EMBRACED, TOTALLY DEPENDED
UPON, AND INTIMATELY FELLOWSHIPPED
WITH AS THE HOLY GOD.”
OVERALL SO FAR
In short, because the Holy Spirit is God, we are flat-out sunk without Him, but we are mighty with Him.
Abdullah of Bangladesh was Islam and converted to Jesus Christ. His family beat him and invited others to beat him too. His mother stopped feeding him food, and instead put ashes on his plate. Abdullah stood fast in his Christian faith as he prayed for God’s strength.
Then the family called for a Mullah – an Islamic leader – to come and rid the boy of the “demon’ that had taken over his life. The Mullah recited prayers to Allah over the boy. He chanted, laid hands on the boy, danced, and yelled his brains out. After 5 hours the Mullah was exhausted, and said to the family:
“THE SPIRIT IN ABDULLAH IS MORE POWERFUL THAN THE SPIRIT THAT IS IN ME.”
So he left!
THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE CREATOR GOD
I was once told in college about something called the BIG BANG THEORY. You may have heard of it too, namely, that there was this huge buildup of cosmic gases. Then when the pressure could not be contained, what happened was a colossal, cosmic explosion that magically produced the universe including the earth.
Then one day I read the Bible, and it presented a totally different story. At the very beginning of the Bible I am told that God created the heavens and the earth, and that God the Holy Spirit was the key figure in what happened during a six day span. In fact, we read in Genesis 1:1-2,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
“And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon
the face of the deep; and THE SPIRIT OF GOD was
moving upon the face of the waters.”
The Holy Spirit does not in any way, shape, or form turn one thing over to science. As a matter of fact, we are told that God nailed down the entire creation in 6 days. This astounding miracle literally begins the biography of the Holy Spirit that unfolds throughout the Bible. (And some of you thought that the Holy Spirit was invented by Oral Roberts.) When the fact is, God the Holy Spirit created all that is and was and ever will be. That includes you and me. Which tells us immediately how awesomely powerful and completely unpredictable He is!
What is it that we read in Psalm 104:24 and 30? Simply but profoundly this:
“O Lord, how many are Thy works! In wisdom Thou hast
made them all.”
“Thou dost send forth Thy SPIRIT, they are created.”
EXAMPLE:
I really enjoy the “COUNTRY MAGAZINE.” Carol Boyer relates the true story in a recent edition about her horse name Belle Sheri. When Carol was a young girl, she and her friends would go tobogganing down a steep pasture slope of her childhood farm. It was great fun, and her horse Belle Sheri would watch them from a distance as they flew down the hill time after time.
One day after tobogganing with her friends down that slope, they got tired and went into the barn to rest and warm up. When Carol looked outdoors, Belle Sheri had gone to the top of the hill and put her front legs on the toboggan. Then to Carol’s amazement, Belle Sheri put all four feet on the toboggan. It wasn’t long and the toboggan started to go down the hill with Belle Sheri flying down the hill just like one of the kids. Belle Sheri had watched the kids do it, and what was good for them was good for her. She made it safely to the bottom, stepped off and casually walked away.
You might say that Belle Sheri was a SPIRIT-ED HORSE.
EXAMPLE:
We read likewise these words in Psalm 139:7 and 13,
“Where can I go from Thy SPIRIT? Or where can I flee
from your presence?”
“For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave
me in my mother’s womb.”
Holy Spirit Creator, you were there with me in my mother’s womb, forming me, making me. Who determines who is going to be male or female, boy or girl? Not genetic selection or hereditary dominance. You determine Holy Spirit who will be 5 feet 6 inches tall, and who will be 6 feet 5 inches tall.
I want you to meet the Holy Spirit:
“THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE AND OUR CREATOR,
MAKER, DESIGNER, SHAPER, LIFE-GIVER, DIVINE ARCHITECT.”
If that awesome truth ever sinks in, it will make all the difference in the world how we view and treat each other in every situation of life. For instance:
“THE YOUNG MAN WHO HOLDS IN HIGHEST REVERENCE GOD THE HOLY
SPIRIT-CREATOR, WILL CONSIDER IT HIS HOLY RESPONSIBILITY TO
RESPECT AND HONOR THE YOUNG WOMAN WHO HE IS DATING,
AND HE WILL TREAT HER BODY AS THE DIVINELY CREATED
TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”
Hear me:
“THE YOUNG MAN WHO DOES NOT HOLD IN HIGHEST REVERENCE THE HOLY
SPIRIT-CREATOR HAS NO MORE OF GOD THAN A DOG, AND THEREFORE
CANNOT EVEN BE TRUSTED WITH A DOG, LET ALONE A GIRL.”
That is where we have come in our spiritually and morally rotted society. We must understand this:
“HE IS THE HOLY SPIRIT GOD/CREATOR, AND ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN
PROTECT AND PRESERVE HIS CREATION FROM UNHOLY HORROR.”
We shall see this much more fully later on in this teaching where we are told in John 16:8 that it is the Holy Spirit in the world WHO convicts people of what is sin and what is not sin. Without the Holy Spirit:
“EVERY LUSTFUL THOUGHT LEFT TO ITSELF CAN AND DOES BECOME INCEST,
EVERY ANGRY AND HATEFUL THOUGHT CAN AND DOES BECOME MURDER,
AND EVERY DISGUSTED THOUGHT CAN AND DOES BECOME CURSING.”
Sobering thoughts! Without the Holy Spirit in man’s life, because of the sin principle that runs rampant in society, a raging and vengeful pro-football player for the Kansas City Chiefs by the name of Jovan Belcher, very recently shot his girlfriend Casandra Perkins to death, and then committed suicide with the same gun in front of his coaches. Listen:
“WITHOUT HEAVEN’S HOLY SPIRIT IN MAN’S LIFE ON EARTH,
EARTH BECOMES HELL’S VESTIBULE.”
You really need to know and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, it is a matter of life or death, Heaven or Hell. Without my friend the Holy Spirit, the world does not have a chance!
THE RESTRAINER GOD
We cannot even imagine what the world would be like without the person and presence of the Holy Spirit. We read about His restraining of evil in II Thessalonians 2:6-8 where we also read about the coming of the ANTICHRIST into the world,
“And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he
may be revealed.”
“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now
restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.”
“And then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with
the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance
of His coming.”
Sin has intensified throughout the ages, as it did in Noah’s time, until the Lord said, “This is enough.” He then judged the human race by drowning them, and we are fast moving to the final judgment of a world that has gone mad and morally bankrupt.
Lawlessness has been at work all along, but it has been restrained by Judeo-Christian ethics and the presence of the Holy Spirit. But now we are watching with our own eyes this restraining of the Word and the Spirit of God being taken away, until at last there will be no restraint of sin.
Paul says about the coming of the Anti-Christ that he will come in his time. He will not be revealed until God’s timing allows it. There is a timing in God’s sovereign work which is looking nearer that moment at every second. As this time draws near, it may look like the entire world including America is out of control, but God is still overseeing the events of the world to their ultimate conclusion. The Marxist/Muslim president, the apostate government, the multinational leaders and businesses are not sovereign, only Almighty God is. He alone rules and overrules the affairs of nations and of men.
THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE CONVICTOR GOD
When I first met Him, I was not aware that it was Him until later. If I would have known it was Him, I probably would not have wanted Him as my Friend. Why? Because He came to me in tough love – very tough love! In fact, as I look back on it all, and I think of how the Holy Spirit entered my life, I would have to conclude:
“WITH FRIENDS LIKE HIM, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”
You see, and let’s be honest about it, when we meet someone that we would like to befriend, we put our best foot forward, not our clumsy one. We want them to see the best side of us, and we want to be on our best behavior.
But when the Holy Spirit first befriended me, He showed me my worst side. A strange gesture of friendship indeed! In fact, he stripped me to the bare bone, and there I was in all of my rawness. Frankly, I never really saw myself for what I was until He stripped me of all my masks and camouflages. I found that He has a way of doing that like none other who I have ever met. You can’t hide from yourself or from Him in His presence, which presence is most disarming and undressing in its effect. He gives a whole new meaning to Dale Carnegie’s book – HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE.
What am I talking about? We read of my Friend the Holy Spirit in John 16:8,
“And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and
righteousness, and judgment.”
You see, the Holy Spirit comes to trouble us before He soothes us. He comes to convict us before He comforts us. He is God the “Great Discomforter.” He shames us with our sins before Jesus can save us from them. All people hide themselves from themselves with disguises of self-righteousness and their public properness, so “Heaven’s Convictor” has to strip us bare before we can be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. In short:
“THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOWS US OUR SPIRITUAL AND MORAL DEGENERACY BEFORE
HE LEADS US TO REGENERACY IN JESUS CHRIST.”
You see:
“MAN WALKS AROUND LIKE DR. JEKYLL, AND THEN THE HOLY SPIRIT
COMES ALONG AND INTRODUCES US TO OUR MR. HYDE.”
It is exactly that which the Psalmist prays for in Psalm 83:16,
“Fill their faces with dishonor, that they may seek Thy name, O Lord.”
Of course, by nature, none of us like this spiritual and moral denuding. A man was consulting with his psychiatrist, and told him that he had a terrible problem. He said, “Lately I have been misbehaving and it seems to be getting worse every day. My conscience is troubling me deeply and I was wondering if you could prescribe something that would help me.” The psychiatrist said, “Oh, I see, you want something that will strengthen your will power.” The man said, “No, you don’t understand. I want something that will weaken my conscience.”
SINNIE THE POOH SINNERS
I am sure that some of us still recall the name of the cartoon character “Winnie the Pooh!” The lovable fictional bear was created by A.A. Milne. The cuddly and endearing bear who was stuffed with lots and lots of fluff first appeared in the children’s books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Center (1928). Winnie the Pooh, or Pooh Bear, had an insatiable appetite for honey, his favorite fare to feed that constant “Rumbling in his Tumbling.” Pooh became a favorite of young and old alike, as well as a mainstay in Walt Disney featurettes.
The modern church has given birth to another cuddly little creature, namely, “Sinnie the Pooh.” He is a cute little churchgoer who is also stuffed each Sunday with lots of fluff. Sinnie the Pooh has in recent years multiplied into thousands upon thousands of “Church Pooh-Bears” who each Sunday feed on a steady diet of the “Honey Gospel” to satisfy the “Growlies in Their Soulies.”
Allow me to enable you to become more thoroughly familiar with Sinnie the Pooh. Sinnie the Pooh-Pew Bear, the modern church “Stuffed-With-Fluff” parishioner, no longer has the realization that he is by nature desperately sinful. Rather, he has the inner conviction that he is really quite huggable, and at his worst merely mischievous, i.e. benignly and playfully naughty. Not really a full-blown sinner, just a “Sinnie.” There you go! A really cute little church teddy who will play with you as long as the church den-father or den-mother continues to serve up lots of honey – sweetsies for his dear little heartie.
If Sinnie the Pooh is such a cute little teddy bear, why are those times that suddenly he becomes Grumpy the Grizzly? A young mother and her little son were driving down the street one day, and we all know how disarming little kids can be. Out of nowhere he asked his mother, “Mama, why do the idiots only come out when Daddy drives?” Someday the little boy will understand that Daddy’s anger is more about Daddy than it is about the quality of the other drivers on the road. Cute Sinnie the Pooh can become a raging grizzly bear given the just wrong set of circumstances.
Hey, come on, admit it, put Sinnie the Pooh in hot water (heated circumstances) and you will see a bear of a different color – brown bear. When a tea bag is put in hot water, the brown color comes into the hot water. The hot water didn’t put the brown color into the tea bag. The hot water simply brought it out, for it was there all the time. And let me tell you, given its dwelling in the hot water for enough time, that will be the strongest tea you ever drank. When the heated pressure is on, Sinnie the Pooh more often than not becomes a snarling and growling bear of an altogether different sort.
It is impossible to bring sinners like you and me to urgent and indispensable conviction without “Heaven’s Convincer.” The Holy Spirit is the One Who burns into the hearts of men the deep conviction of sin, righteousness, and eternal judgment. It is being put in the Holy Spirit’s super-heated furnace of conviction that alone can melt the sin-frozen heart of man. Thus the Holy Spirit prepares the way for the triumph of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
But it is also a horrifying fact that without Heaven’s Convictor:
“THE LESS A MAN FEELS HIS SINS IN THIS WORLD, THE MORE HE
SHALL FEEL THEM IN THE NEXT.”
CONCLUSION TO Pt. 1 – Meet My Friend – The Holy Spirit
Thank you faithful Friend first of all for not so much WOOING me but WOWING me with my gross sinfulness, and then WOWING me with my desperate need of Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. You did not so much lure me but you did kick my behind which you still do today. It is because of Your tough-love friendship in my life Holy Spirit, that I have finally been converted away from sin to new life in Jesus Christ.
You see Holy Spirit, before You led me in repentance and confession to dearest Jesus, I was the devil’s convert. I really was. All Satan ever did was convert me from one sin to another sin without my really ever forsaking the first. I just graduated in his school of sin from bad to worse. Listen:
“THE DEVIL’S CONVERTS ONLY ALTER THE MEANS AND METHODS OF
THEIR RUIN, AND THEREFORE GET THE DECEITFUL FEELING OF
BEING NEW AS THEY RIDE TO DAMNATION IN NEW
MODELS OF SIN.”
(Most of the new models of sin are really old models presented under different and now approved wrappings.)
All the while the devil hid from me the ugly spiritual and moral disfigurement of my life. If you will Holy Spirit Friend Divine:
“IF YOU HAD NOT SHOCKED ME INTO REALITY, I WOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN A
NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST, JUST FOREVER AN OLD SINNER IN SATAN.”
Thank you dear Friend for being “Heaven’s Policeman” Who BUSTED ME! Above all, thank you for revealing to me Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins and my hell! For not only do you do what John 16:8 says:
“YOU CONVICT THE WORLD OF SIN, RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND JUDGMENT.”
But above all, you do what John 15:26 says:
“YOU BEAR WITNESS TO US ABOUT JESUS CHRIST.”
Oh precious Holy Spirit:
“I WOULD HAVE NEVER DISCOVERED MY TRUE SELF AND MY
TRUEST SAVIOR WITHOUT YOU.”
AMEN!
