The Holy Ghost in our Churches
8/15/17
The other day while thinking about church services I realized that there was something different about them in the last few years from how they were back when I was in my teens and twentys. Back in the days of yore when I visited a pentecostal church (In my teens I visited different denominations from coast to coast during vacations.) in over half of the services I attended there was a moving of God's Spirit and a visit from the Holy Ghost. Nowadays the visits from the Holy Ghost are so few and far between. At a campmeeting I had someone come to me and make a statement about how refreshing it was to hear a message in tongues. So I thought I would put an excerpt from Brother David Wilson's book: A Study on the Holy Ghost. This excerpt gives scripture that shows the Holy Ghost is just as important to Christians as God (the Father) and Jesus (the Son).
The Holy Ghost
Who is He?
What is He?
What does He do?
How does He affect our lives?
As I study scripture, it’s my belief that no one can be a consistent believer of the Bible without holding to the doctrine of the tri-unity of the Godhead. 1 John 5:7 states:
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
These are three separate individuals with one purpose, one goal in mind: to reach a lost man-kind; to give them a chance to receive salvation and join in fellowship with God. We were created for this fellowship with God but foolishly let Satan steal it away.
In addition to the numberless references to the different persons of the Godhead found throughout the word of God, there are certain passages which refer to all three members of the Trinity. Note the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, but we use it to denote the tri-unity of God.
You might say everybody knows that, but not everyone believes in the Trinity. Some believers are “two-list.” They believe God is a person, that Jesus is a person, but the Holy Ghost is not a person; the Holy Ghost is the spirit or ghost of Jesus after He died on the cross. Jesus isn’t dead. He’s alive and well. I cannot personally believe this teaching. The Holy Ghost, as we shall see, has all the characteristics of being his own person.
Another belief is the “oneness” belief, which teaches that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are not three, but all the same person. I don’t doubt the salvation of the “two-list” or the “oneness” believers. I do have trouble with their doctrines. If Jesus and God are the same person, then to whom did Jesus pray? Himself? I hardly think so. If Jesus, as scripture states, is seated at the right hand of God, then is Jesus seated at His own right hand? Again, I think not. A “oneness” believer once said to me there aren’t three Gods; there is only one God. I know I’m far from being smart. I, however, through the leading of the Holy Ghost, can see that the Godhead is made up of three individual persons, and all three work with one mind and in one accord; three in one and one in three.
The following scriptures prove a Divine Trinity of separate persons in the Godhead.
1. The word one means “one in unity as well as one in number.” It means unity in 1 John 5:7 as well as it does in John 17:11, 21-23.
1 John 5:7
For there are three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
John 17:11
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one; as we are.
John 17:21-23
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
Matthew 28:18-19
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Used by permission of Paradise Gospel Press & the Auther