Present Truth Articles Online
April 2014
Lynnford Beachy
Joseph E. Lahud
Alisha Starr
Mittisse Barrett
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by Lynnford Beachy It is absolutely imperative for us to allow Christ to live
in us. This is just as vital to our salvation as His death on the cross. Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him
up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.”
(John 6:53-56). Eating His flesh and drinking His blood is partaking of His
life, allowing Him to dwell in us, and makes us part of His body, in this way we
also dwell in Him. By allowing Christ to “dwell in your hearts by faith”
(Ephesians 3:17), you can be “partakers of the divine nature.” (2_Peter 1:4).
Without this experience, Jesus said, “ye have no life in you.” “He that hath the
Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1_John
5:12). Paul exclaimed, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
(Colossians 1:27). This is our only hope of salvation. “If any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8:9). We must all be able to say,
with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians
2:20). “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1_John
4:4). When Christ was here, He cried out to God, addressing Him
as, “Abba, Father.” (Mark 14:36). This term expresses a close, personal
relationship with His Father. This same relationship is given to us. “For ye
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15). When we
receive this Spirit, we also cry, “Abba, Father.” Paul explained, “Because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father.” (Galatians 4:6). It is Christ in you crying “Abba, Father.” By
giving us the Spirit of His Son, God is giving us that close, personal
relationship with Himself that His Son has with Him. That is beautiful! The best gift that God ever gave is the gift of His only
begotten Son, whom He gave to die for our sins that we might live forever. (See
John 3:16.) Not only did He give His Son to die for us, He gave Him to live
within us. In His final discourse to His disciples, the night before His death,
Jesus told His disciples about this wonderful gift. The Comforter Promised
Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever;” (John 14:15, 16). The purpose of the gift of the Comforter
is that He may abide with the disciples forever. This was excellent news to the
disciples, for they were sad to hear of Christ’s soon departure. Jesus continued
His discourse, stating that He would send “the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him;
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:17). Jesus said that the world could not receive the Spirit of
truth, because it did not see him nor know him. The world cannot receive the
good gift of the Comforter because it does not recognize this gift. It does not
see that this gift is available to them nor does it know the Person who is the
Comforter. Immediately following this explanation, Jesus said
something startling. He told His disciples, “but ye know him.” How could the
disciples know the promised “Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit,” (v. 26)* if
Jesus had not yet prayed for the gift, and it evidently had not yet been given?
John stated, “the Holy Spirit was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet
glorified.” (John 7:39). Jesus explained, “ye know him; for [or because] he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:17). Who was dwelling with the
disciples? Jesus Christ, of course! Jesus explained that soon this Person who
was dwelling with them would be in them. It certainly would be better for the
Comforter to dwell in the disciples rather than dwelling outside of them. That
is exactly what Jesus said a short time later. In the same discourse, Jesus
said, “I tell you the truth; It is expedient [profitable] for you that I go
away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7). Jesus said that His disciples would be better off if He
left them, went to His Father, and sent the Comforter to dwell in them. He also
pointed out that the coming of the Comforter depended upon His departure, and
glorification. As long as Christ was living on the earth as a man, it was not
possible for this promised Comforter to come to live in the disciples. As we continue reading in John 14 we find that Jesus did
not end His conversation in verse 17. In the next verse He said, “I will not
leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18). This sheds a great
deal of light on the subject. It explains why the Comforter could not come until
after Christ went away and was glorified, for Christ said that He, Himself,
would come back to His disciples to comfort them. Let’s continue reading Christ’s discourse to see if He
reinforced this point. He said, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no
more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:19, 20). A
few moments earlier Jesus had said to His disciples that the Comforter “shall be
in you.” Now, Jesus says that when the Comforter comes, “Ye shall know that I am
in you.” Jesus assured His disciples that He would not send someone else to
comfort them, but that He would come Himself to be their Comforter. Isn’t that
beautiful! The disciples had become close friends of Christ, so close that John
felt comfortable leaning on His bosom. It was a comfort to them when Christ was
near. Now Jesus tells them some wonderful news. He tells them that after He goes
to His Father, He would come back to them as the Comforter, and they would know
that it was He who was dwelling in them—they would recognize that the same
Person who was dwelling with them was now in them, by His Spirit. Next, Jesus said something that caused one of His disciples
to inquire of Him how this could take place. Jesus said, “He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to
him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a
man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will
come unto him, and make our abode with him.” (John 14:21-23). To remove any possibility of being misunderstood, Jesus
made it abundantly clear that after He left the world, He would come back to
make His abode in the hearts of His disciples. Not only would He return, but His
Father would come with Him, so that both of them would live in the hearts of His
children, not physically, but by God’s Spirit. In this way, the disciples could
have intimate communion and fellowship with both the Father and His Son. John
emphasized this when he wrote, “That which we have seen and heard declare we
unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1_John 1:3). John expressed this lovely truth of both God, the Father,
and His Son, Jesus Christ, living in us in several other verses. He wrote,
“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not
God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son.” (2_John 1:9). In 1 John 2:22, 23 he wrote, “Who is a liar but he that
denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and
the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that
acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.” It is truly a blessing to have
personal fellowship with both the Father and His Son, and I am very thankful
that God has made this available to us. Waiting for the Promise
As Jesus was about to ascend to heaven, He commanded His
disciples “that they should not depart from The disciples waited in the upper room at The gift that was poured out at Pentecost is still
available to us today, and we can have it if we recognize and accept it. Yet,
the gift of the Holy Spirit was not always available in the same way. In fact,
the Bible tells us that God has provided something better for us than He did for
all those who lived before Christ came to this earth. We read about this in
Hebrews chapter 11. After giving an account of the mighty faith of the
patriarchs and prophets, the chapter ends by saying, “And these all, having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having
provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made
perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39, 40). That is wonderful! God has provided something
better for us than He provided for all those mighty men and women of faith in
Hebrews. They all died without receiving the promise of the Comforter that Jesus
spoke about in John 14 and in Acts 1. Please do not get me wrong—the Holy Spirit was working upon
the hearts of people long before the day of Pentecost, helping them to overcome
sin. The Patriarch David wrote, “Cast me not away from thy presence; and take
not thy holy spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11). This shows that the Holy Spirit
was at work before Christ came to earth. Not only that, but to be more specific,
the Bible says that the Spirit of Christ worked in Old Testament times. Peter
wrote about the prophets, “Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should follow.” (1_Peter 1:10,_11). The Spirit of Christ was living
in the prophets, long before the day of Pentecost, but, according to Scripture,
there was something special about the coming of the Comforter at Pentecost;
something different and better than had ever been poured out before. Let us read
about this better gift. Something Better
In Hebrews 2:18 we find the key that explains what was
better about the Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It says: “For in
that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour [help] them
that are tempted.” Here is the answer! This is something better that is
available to us, today, that could not have been available to the prophets of
old. Even though the Spirit of Christ lived in the prophets, Christ had not yet
been tempted, and therefore He could not help them in the same way that He can
help us now. The word “succour” in this verse was translated from the Greek word
βοηθεω, which means, “to aid, to relieve, to help,” and, as Thayer’s Greek
Lexicon puts it, it also means, “to run to the cry of those in danger.” I like
that definition! The verse is telling us that because Christ has suffered being
tempted, He is able to come to us swiftly to help us, when we cry unto Him for
help with our temptations. The Bible says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble:
I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” (Psalms 50:15). When we are
being tempted, we are in serious trouble, and if we call upon the Lord for help,
He will come to our aid immediately and give us the victory we so desperately
need. Christ is able to do this for us in a way that He could not do it for the
prophets of old because today He has already experienced what it is like to be
tempted. This is why Jesus called the Comforter, “another Comforter.” The Greek
word αλλος, which was translated “another” in this verse, was used in the Greek
version of the Old Testament in 1_Samuel 10:6. Here it says of Saul, “And the
Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and
shalt be turned into another man.” (1_Samuel 10:6). Saul became another man
because of the experience he went through. Jesus became another Comforter
because now He has experienced what it is like to be tempted. Think about something for a minute. Suppose your teenage
son died in a plane crash, and the next week your spouse died in a car accident.
Now suppose that I come up to you and say, “I know exactly what you are going
through,” even though I had never been through that experience. Would I be able
to comfort you with these words? Certainly not! If I have never been through
what you are going through, it is very hard for me to understand what you are
going through or how to help you through it. The Bible says that Jesus Christ “was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus Christ experienced what
we are going through when we are tempted and, because of this, He is able to
help us when we are tempted in a greater way than He could before He came to
earth. Praise the Lord that our Comforter knows what we are going through in our
struggles with temptation. We are given a precious promise in 1 Corinthians
10:13. It says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to
man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye
are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be
able to bear it.” The way of escape that God has ordained for us is to call upon
the Lord for help. Whenever we are tempted, if we call upon Him, He will help
us. And God has promised that He has made this way of escape for every
temptation. That old saying, “the Devil made me do it,” is absolutely false. The
Devil cannot make you do anything. He can use strong enticements, but he can
never force you to sin. There is always a way of escape, and our Comforter is
eager to give us the victory. “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Jesus said that when the Comforter is come, “he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” (John 16:8).
This is exactly what the Bible says Jesus would do when He comes back to us as
our Comforter. In the book of Acts we read, “Unto you first God, having raised
up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from
his iniquities.” (Acts 3:26). After God raised His Son from the dead, He sent
His Spirit into our hearts, to bless us in turning us away from our sins. Jesus
Christ is the best Person qualified to do this job, because He “was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). Praise the Lord
that we have a Comforter who knows what we are going through in our struggles
with temptation, and can help us through it better than anyone else. This is our
blessed hope of glory. This is the gift that God is eager to give to all those who
ask. (Luke 11:13). This is the gift that “the world cannot receive, because it
seeth him not, neither knoweth him.” (John 14:17). The world does not recognize
that this gift exists; they do not know who their Comforter is; and, therefore,
they cannot receive Him. Friends, God does not want you to be like the rest of
the world. He wants you to know who your Comforter is so you can receive the
full benefits of this blessed gift. Jesus said, “I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is
our Comforter. In fact, John told us exactly that in 1 John 2:1. Notice what he
wrote: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And
if any man sin, we have an advocate [παρακλητος: Comforter] with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous.” The other four times παρακλητος was used in the
Bible it was translated, Comforter. What is a Spirit
We have learned that God sent the Spirit of His Son into
our hearts to comfort us, but what is a spirit? Some people think that a spirit
is a ghost, some bodyless phantom that floats around. Is this what God sends to
the world to comfort us? Certainly not! According to The American Heritage
Dictionary, ghost means: “The spirit of a dead person, especially one believed
to appear in bodily likeness to living persons or to haunt former habitats.” The
Holy Spirit is not a ghost as described above. Let us read the Bible and see
what it has to say about a spirit. In the book of Job it says, “There is a spirit in man: and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.” (Job 32:8). Daniel
explained, “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body.” (Daniel
7:15). A spirit is the part of a person that can be grieved. In Mark’s gospel we
read, “And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned
within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your
hearts?” (Mark 2:8). A spirit is the part of a person that can perceive or
understand things. The king of Man has a spirit, but does God have a Spirit? Notice how
Paul compared the spirit of man with the Spirit of God: “For what man knoweth
the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1_Corinthians 2:11). Here the
spirit of man is likened to the Spirit of God. Just as man has a spirit, so God
has a Spirit, and His Spirit, just as man’s spirit, is the part of Him
“associated with the mind, will, and feelings.” The Holy Spirit is “the holy
Spirit of God.” (Ephesians 4:30). Just as the spirit of man, God’s Spirit can be
grieved or vexed. God’s Spirit belongs to God, just as my spirit belongs to me. Suppose a friend and I came to you, and I told you, “I
would like to introduce you to my spirit. He is my friend who is standing beside
me.” What would you think? You would immediately recognize that I have a twisted
concept of what my spirit is. It is not some other person, separate and distinct
from me. My spirit is really me; it is who I am. If I say, “My mother is very
pleasant to be around; she has an excellent spirit,” you would not suppose that
I am talking about two persons. I would only be talking about one person, my
mother, who has a pleasant personality and character. I would like you to notice something about how the term
“Holy Spirit” is used in the Bible. Luke records a conversation that Jesus had
with His disciples. Jesus said, “When they bring you unto the synagogues, and
unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall
answer, or what ye shall say: For the Holy Spirit shall teach you in the same
hour what ye ought to say.” (Luke 12:11,_12). Matthew records this same
conversation, but notice the different words he uses to describe the Holy
Spirit: “When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak:
for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” (Matthew
10:19,_20). Here we see that the Holy Spirit is called, “the Spirit of
your Father.” This is very appropriate, because later Jesus said, “But when the
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” (John 15:26).
Here Jesus explained that “the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit” (John
14:26), proceeds from the Father. In other words, the Father is the source of
the Holy Spirit, because it is His Spirit. Please do not get confused here. We
saw earlier that Jesus Christ is our Comforter. Notice, in the verse we just
read, Jesus said that He would send the Comforter, which comes from the Father.
This is just what Peter said on the day of Pentecost, when he explained that
Jesus, “being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see
and hear.” (Acts 2:33). The Comforter comes from the Father, through the Son, to
us. Paul explained it this way, “Not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Spirit; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Saviour.” (Titus 3:5,_6). So we see that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father,
which He sends to us through Jesus Christ, and when we receive the Spirit, we
are receiving both the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of His Son. Two
Persons come to live in us, and we have fellowship with both the Father and His
Son. Two Divine Persons
Some people get confused regarding the Holy Spirit, as if
it was a third individual, separate and distinct from God, the Father, and His
Son, Jesus Christ. I would like you to notice some facts from the Bible. There are twenty-seven books in the New Testament. Fifteen
of them begin with a greeting similar to this: “Grace be to you and peace from
God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Galatians 1:3). Out of all of
these greetings, not one of them mentions the Holy Spirit as a separate
individual.* When Jesus’ authority and truthfulness were challenged by
the Jews, Jesus mentioned two individuals that bear witness of Him: Himself, and
His Father. He said, “If I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I
and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony
of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that
sent me beareth witness of me.” (John 8:16-18). If Jesus knew of a third divine
being who could bear witness in His behalf, He would have mentioned him here,
but He didn’t. When Jesus spoke of the Jews who hated Him, He said, “He
that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works
which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father.” (John 15:23,_24). Jesus spoke repeatedly about Him
and His Father, with no mention of another individual. When Paul charged Timothy to observe the things that he had
been taught, he called heaven to witness this solemn charge. He wrote, “I charge
thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou
observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by
partiality.” (1_Timothy 5:21). If Paul knew of a third divine individual, he
would have mentioned him here, but he did not. Instead, Paul even mentioned the
angels instead of him. Obviously, Paul did not believe that a third divine
person existed. When John speaks of fellowship with divine persons, he only
mentions two: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye
also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father,
and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1_John 1:3). John also wrote, “Whosoever
transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” (2_John
1:9). Think about something for a moment. There are many places
in the Bible where the Son speaks to the Father. There are also many places
where the Father speaks to His Son. But, there is never any record that the
Father spoke to a third person called, “the Holy Spirit.” Neither is there any
record of the Son speaking to the Holy Spirit. Nor is there any record of the
Holy Spirit speaking to either the Father or the Son. Also, please consider something. We know that God loves us
very much because He sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins. We know
that Jesus Christ loves us very much because He came down to earth to die for
us. But, if the Holy Spirit is a third individual, we have no way of knowing
that he loves us because he neither gave his son nor gave himself. In fact, he
gave nothing for us, so his love is unrecognizable. Nor are there any verses in
the Bible that speak of the love that the Holy Spirit has for us. When Jesus
spoke of God’s love, He always directed people to the love of the Father. Jesus
told His disciples, “For the Father himself loveth you.” (John 16:27). Yet,
Jesus never explained that the Holy Spirit loves us, as if the Holy Spirit was a
third distinct individual from the Father and the Son. Jesus said, “This is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3). If
the Holy Spirit is a third being or person, separate from God and Christ, then
your eternal life does not depend upon knowing him. Life eternal is only
dependent upon you knowing God, the Father, and His only begotten Son. Conclusion
The gift of God’s Spirit is one of the most precious gifts
God has ever given to us. To receive the benefits of this gift as God intended,
we must recognize it for what it is. The gift of God’s Spirit is the impartation
of His life in us, the means by which He and His Son can personally live in our
hearts. The great blessing of the Pentecost experience is the reception of God’s
Spirit coming to us with the added benefit of the Spirit of God’s victorious Son
coming into our hearts to help us in our struggle against sin and temptation.
Satan would like you to think that Jesus Christ is not in us but that He sent
someone else to take His place. Friends, that is an invention of Satan
specifically designed to take away your hope of glory. Paul wrote, “To whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27). Christ
is omnipresent. He said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20). Don’t let anyone take away this hope, this precious gift of
Christ in you. If a gift is not recognized, it will not be utilized. Take full
advantage of the ministry of Christ in your behalf; let Him come into your heart
and do a work that only He can do. Ask Christ into your heart, and He will come
in and bring His Father with Him. Jesus says to you now, “Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to
him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20). Let Him come in,
and you will be glad you did. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I asked Him
into my heart. Even though I was a very wicked sinner involved in many wicked
things, when I opened the door of my heart to Him, He gladly came in. Friends, no matter how wicked you may be, Jesus has promised that He will accept you if you come to Him. He said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37). Come to Him now, accept Him as your Saviour, and accept the gift of His Spirit into your life to help you when you are tempted. You will never, never be sorry you made this decision. For more information, or to obtain free Bible studies on this and many other subjects, please contact: Present Truth Ministries Phone: 304-633-5411 To download a copy of this book in pdf format for printing,
If you would like a printed copy of this book for
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