Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Pentecost 4 The One Sufficient Spirit
Pentecost 4 The One Sufficient Spirit
Before Pentecost the world simply accepted a variety of gods, religions and the multiplicity of all kinds of spirits. Guesswork at best, philosophers searching and a general resignation to whatever seemed to satisfy the moment.
But with Pentecost came the revelation, recognition and realization of the Holy Spirit as the singular Spirit of the One God. First, the revelation that God is a Father, second, the recognition that the Son is sent by the Father to save us from the devil, sin and evil and third, that the realization God actually enters our heart, happens through the Holy Spirit.
God has shown His true nature, will and work in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what reversed the understanding of the spiritual dimension and sent a shock wave through man’s speculative wanderings in the realms of philosophy and spirituality. Qualities like love, kindness, goodness, sound mind, joy, peace, faithfulness, and gentleness are in fact the fruit of the one Holy Spirit not separate spirits.
Jesus made clear there were no other gods outside His Father. What mankind believed about gods were really emotions and the mysterious forces of nature being read as gods. Woefully, satanic spirits were capriciously manipulating the hearts of men. There were no gods of war, fertility and agriculture. No gods of the sea, land, air, sky to protect travelers, none to encourage worshipers to sacrifice and build temples to placate. These were all idols placed by the devil to divert our attention from the true God as revealed in Jesus. It was he who sent his spirits of confusion, division, pride and lust to separate people from God and one another. All of that was actually the devil using the spirit of fear playing on the emotional and physical anxieties in everyday life. The devil was hiding in the fears and unspoken concerns in lost hearts.
The great enduring significance of Pentecost is the revelation and presence of the Holy Spirit as God’s only Spirit, the only One who can lead us in the unseen dimension and the only Spirit we can ultimately trust in all matters invisible. It is the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and was the power in Jesus that defeated the prince of darkness and the spirits he controls. The Holy Spirit lifts Jesus up as the way, the truth and the life in the invisible.
It was the Holy Spirit in Jesus that frightened evil spirits to cry for mercy whenever Jesus was present. They were afraid of Him. Remember the man draped in chains confronting Jesus and Jesus asked him his name and he said he was ‘legion for we are many.’ Then Jesus drove them out of the man into a herd of pigs that then bounded into the lake. This is just one incidence of the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus manifested.
A survey of the ministry of Jesus reveals a constant awareness of, and power over, the devil and his spirits. Jesus lived as a spiritual person in a broken spiritual world in order to bring it back to His Father. The Holy Spirit was His ministry of recovery and restoration. Jesus would place everything in a spiritual context to make His point. He would establish His sacrificial death on the Cross as His methodology to defeat the evil one and his coterie of spirits. He makes the Cross the example for a believer’s lifestyle. When the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead that would translate into a promise for eternal life for all believers living with the Cross in mind.
But Jesus’ ministry is where we see the deeper subtlety of the devil uncovered. Spirits of legalism, institutionalism, persecution, deceit, control, lust for wealth, power and position, immorality, envy and jealousy are among the many encountered when He met the hostility of the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and Roman officials. John’s first letter tells us the reason Jesus came was to ‘undo the work of the devil.’ The methodology of the devil is divide, separate and rule by isolating and alienating frightened lonely hearts.
Now in Jesus the Holy Spirit brings the wind of God’s presence to the heart. He internalizes the relationship between God and man in Jesus. He brings the fire of conviction, repentance, forgiveness, love and eternal life to those who accept Jesus by faith. He enables a new kind of speech to the heart, a spiritual language of the Gospel that reaches within and assures that the eternal life of God has gripped the soul.
More on the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned.
Before Pentecost the world simply accepted a variety of gods, religions and the multiplicity of all kinds of spirits. Guesswork at best, philosophers searching and a general resignation to whatever seemed to satisfy the moment.
But with Pentecost came the revelation, recognition and realization of the Holy Spirit as the singular Spirit of the One God. First, the revelation that God is a Father, second, the recognition that the Son is sent by the Father to save us from the devil, sin and evil and third, that the realization God actually enters our heart, happens through the Holy Spirit.
God has shown His true nature, will and work in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what reversed the understanding of the spiritual dimension and sent a shock wave through man’s speculative wanderings in the realms of philosophy and spirituality. Qualities like love, kindness, goodness, sound mind, joy, peace, faithfulness, and gentleness are in fact the fruit of the one Holy Spirit not separate spirits.
Jesus made clear there were no other gods outside His Father. What mankind believed about gods were really emotions and the mysterious forces of nature being read as gods. Woefully, satanic spirits were capriciously manipulating the hearts of men. There were no gods of war, fertility and agriculture. No gods of the sea, land, air, sky to protect travelers, none to encourage worshipers to sacrifice and build temples to placate. These were all idols placed by the devil to divert our attention from the true God as revealed in Jesus. It was he who sent his spirits of confusion, division, pride and lust to separate people from God and one another. All of that was actually the devil using the spirit of fear playing on the emotional and physical anxieties in everyday life. The devil was hiding in the fears and unspoken concerns in lost hearts.
The great enduring significance of Pentecost is the revelation and presence of the Holy Spirit as God’s only Spirit, the only One who can lead us in the unseen dimension and the only Spirit we can ultimately trust in all matters invisible. It is the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and was the power in Jesus that defeated the prince of darkness and the spirits he controls. The Holy Spirit lifts Jesus up as the way, the truth and the life in the invisible.
It was the Holy Spirit in Jesus that frightened evil spirits to cry for mercy whenever Jesus was present. They were afraid of Him. Remember the man draped in chains confronting Jesus and Jesus asked him his name and he said he was ‘legion for we are many.’ Then Jesus drove them out of the man into a herd of pigs that then bounded into the lake. This is just one incidence of the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus manifested.
A survey of the ministry of Jesus reveals a constant awareness of, and power over, the devil and his spirits. Jesus lived as a spiritual person in a broken spiritual world in order to bring it back to His Father. The Holy Spirit was His ministry of recovery and restoration. Jesus would place everything in a spiritual context to make His point. He would establish His sacrificial death on the Cross as His methodology to defeat the evil one and his coterie of spirits. He makes the Cross the example for a believer’s lifestyle. When the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead that would translate into a promise for eternal life for all believers living with the Cross in mind.
But Jesus’ ministry is where we see the deeper subtlety of the devil uncovered. Spirits of legalism, institutionalism, persecution, deceit, control, lust for wealth, power and position, immorality, envy and jealousy are among the many encountered when He met the hostility of the Pharisees, Sadducees, priests and Roman officials. John’s first letter tells us the reason Jesus came was to ‘undo the work of the devil.’ The methodology of the devil is divide, separate and rule by isolating and alienating frightened lonely hearts.
Now in Jesus the Holy Spirit brings the wind of God’s presence to the heart. He internalizes the relationship between God and man in Jesus. He brings the fire of conviction, repentance, forgiveness, love and eternal life to those who accept Jesus by faith. He enables a new kind of speech to the heart, a spiritual language of the Gospel that reaches within and assures that the eternal life of God has gripped the soul.
More on the Holy Spirit. Stay tuned.
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