Vitally Important

 The heart of discipleship is union with Jesus himself. Scripture repeatedly emphasizes this reality through the metaphor of the vine and the branches. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” This teaches that spiritual life, fruitfulness, and the presence of the Holy Spirit flow only through a personal connection with Christ. Belonging to a church, to an institution, or to a human structure is secondary. The lifeline of the disciple is the personal union with Jesus, maintained through belief in him as the One sent by God, through obedience to his teachings, and through attentive dependence on the Spirit.

Discipleship is inherently individual. The Bible shows us that Christ knows each disciple personally and can work through them in ways that may not involve human approval or institutional recognition. Ananias was personally called to lay hands on Saul of Tarsus, an encounter that changed the course of history, while the Ethiopian eunuch was led by Philip into immediate joy and obedience despite having no church to attend. Paul, in Arabia and later in prison, was sustained directly by Christ and the Spirit, bearing fruit through letters that shaped the church. John, exiled on Patmos, received visions and instructions for the churches even while physically isolated. Elijah in the wilderness was nourished and guided directly by God. In each of these cases, faithful discipleship occurred because these individuals were personally known to God and joined to Christ, not because they were supported by human structures.

Establishment, when it exists, can serve as a support for discipleship, providing teaching, community, accountability, and encouragement. Yet it can never replace the essential union with Jesus. Churches can tolerate compromise, ritual can mask spiritual disconnection, and structures can foster a sense of security that may obscure dependence on Christ. Even in a flourishing church, a branch that is not joined to the vine remains spiritually dead. Conversely, when establishment is stripped away, when believers are rejected, scattered, or alone, the underlying reality is revealed: union with Jesus is sufficient. It is this connection that allows the Spirit to flow, producing life and fruit even outside the camp, in opposition, or in isolation. The vine sustains the branch directly, and personal discipleship persists even when human structures fail or are absent.

Without this union, there is no sap, no Spirit, no fruit, and the Father removes what is disconnected. The branch must be joined; spiritual vitality cannot be substituted by membership, ritual, or institutional approval. True discipleship is relational and active: it flows from obedience, belief, and trust in Jesus, and it produces fruit even in solitude or opposition. Being known to Christ, being available for his guidance, and holding to his teachings are what sustain life and fruitfulness. The lifeline of discipleship is personal connection to the Son of Man, the branch drawing sustenance directly from the vine, the Spirit flowing through the believer to enable obedience, joy, and fruit.

Even when churches or structures exist, this union must continue. Establishment can enhance discipleship, but it can never replace it. Being part of a thriving congregation does not automatically ensure union with the vine. Discipleship is tested most clearly when everything else is removed. Being outside the camp, whether by exile, rejection, persecution, or personal solitude, does not diminish the reality of discipleship if the branch remains joined to Jesus. That union brings the Holy Spirit, life, and fruitfulness. Fellowship with Christ himself, sustained through belief and obedience, is the enduring, sufficient reality of the Christian life, and it is the ultimate source of strength, guidance, and fruit even when all human support is gone.

Stewardship of Civilisation

Civilisation endures not merely through technological progress or accumulation of knowledge, but through stewardship — the responsibility of each generation to preserve what has been given, to multiply it wisely, and to pass it forward without endangering those who follow. Documentation, learning, and institutions allow civilisation to persist across centuries, yet preservation alone is insufficient. What is handed down must be filtered, interpreted, and governed by wisdom, lest what once served humanity become a threat to its future. This thread of stewardship, responsibility, and accountability runs deeply through the foundations of our civilisation and finds one of its clearest expressions within the Christian understanding of humanity’s role in the world.

Much of our modern civilisation has been built not only on earlier civilisations and their teachings, but on the teachings that came through Jesus Christ. Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle laid important groundwork through works such as Categories and Republic, forming early structures of reason, ethics, and governance. Yet with Jesus Christ came a deeper understanding of responsibility — not merely as political order or rational organisation, but as moral and spiritual stewardship. Humanity is presented as entrusted with what God has given, called to multiply public good, to cultivate the world, and to lay down teachings for future generations out of love for God, so that the coming Lord will receive a return on His investment when He returns.

Within this understanding, there is a strong emphasis on spirit. From the dawn of the first civilisation there were prophets such as Enoch, who taught early forms of science — teaching humanity to understand the world it inhabits, to recognise its order, and to form a sense of guardianship over it. This guardianship required wisdom: wisdom to rule creation responsibly rather than exploit it destructively, and wisdom to align human activity with the order established by God.

Moses later brought a deeper sense of personal love toward God, centred on keeping and passing on what God had given spiritually. This was first expressed in the faith exemplified by Abraham, and then made explicit through the commandments of God, given to guide the lives of each successive generation of the people of God. These commandments were not merely rules, but light — a way of preserving moral continuity across time.

Jesus Christ then widened this inheritance beyond a single people. Through his teaching, anyone in the world who believes in him and keeps his words may receive light from God. The great corpus of the Law of Moses, accompanying the commandments, was given to the people of the physical lineage of Abraham, yet the commandments themselves were extended beyond this biological line through the teachings of Jesus. Paul was sent by Jesus to carry this message to the nations of the world, establishing a universal calling rooted not in ancestry but in faith.

Within these teachings lies the ancient promise of God, made in the earliest times, to keep the seasons and cycles of nature turning year after year until the end of the age — seed-time and harvest, food and provision continuing for all. Humanity is reminded that just as birds need not worry about their sustenance, so too may people rest assured that they are cared for within a world governed by God’s oath. Only at the end of the present age will God establish a new order of heavens and earth, and this will come only after resurrection and judgement through Jesus His Son — Jesus the Christ, the Son of Man, the mediator between God and all humankind.

Within the outer covenant of God’s oath governing nature, there exists an inner covenant given to believing disciples of His Son. This covenant, sealed in Jesus’s blood through his death on the cross, forms a priesthood charged with bringing light into the world. This light spreads responsible stewardship, lived in expectation of Jesus’s return as Lord over all. Thus, keeping the teachings of the commandments — faithfully passed down from generation to generation — becomes the innermost thread of civilisation itself, preserving society much like salt preserves meat.

Through this stewardship we find the right way of preserving the wellbeing of the planet made by God, and of preserving civilisational knowledge, lawfulness, and moral continuity. This way is undergirded by love — doing no harm to one’s neighbour. It is a way in which spirit overrides body and mind. From spirit flow not only faith, but virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. These qualities overcome vice, disorder, and chaos.

The world is governed rightly when these qualities prevail over unchecked physical appetites and merely human philosophies. This is the rule of spirit — a rule led by the Holy Spirit sent from God because of Jesus Christ. This Spirit reveals the oath of God that governs all creation and teaches humanity how to live faithfully within it, so that civilisation may endure not through power alone, but through wisdom, love, and responsible stewardship until the end of the age.

Portions copyright Stephen D Green

Live by spirit overruling body and mind

 The Lord and his apostles spoke of spirit but today we fail to understand what they meant. In the time of Jesus, we see from Plato’s Republic that there was a tripartite model of human beings which was physical, mental, and spiritual natures. Peter wrote of extending one’s faith by improving one’s virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brother.y kindness, and love. These qualities are really one’s spiritual qualities, because they tend to come from our spiritual nature, which Plato had described as the seat of nobler qualities and will. To grow in knowledge, we must exercise that nobler willpower. Likewise virtue, godliness, kindness, and the like. This means letting the spirit override the physical urges and mental pretences and conceits. It flows naturally from real faith. Real faith in the teachings and the moral and truthful standard of these teachings brought into the world by Jesus Christ tends to lead a person to seek to overcome physical and mental natural impulses which bring traps and death, and this overcoming requires exercise of the nobler will and powers which is spiritual, with the seeking of God’s help, which is also spiritual. So when Paul says to live by the spirit, he does not explain it, but we find it implicit in the other teachings of the Christ and his apostles. 

I asked an AI tool to expand this into an essay, and was given the following.

Modern readers often struggle to understand what Jesus and His apostles meant when they spoke of “the spirit.” The word has become vague and mystical in contemporary usage, yet in the world of the first century it carried a clear and practical meaning rooted in ancient moral psychology. When this historical framework is recovered, the New Testament’s teaching on spiritual life becomes not only intelligible, but profoundly practical.

In the intellectual climate surrounding early Christianity, many thinkers — including Plato — understood the human being as possessing three interrelated dimensions: the body, the mind, and the spirit. The body was the seat of appetites and impulses. The mind was the center of reasoning, imagination, emotion, and personal identity. The spirit, however, was regarded as the nobler faculty of the person — the seat of moral courage, conscience, and governing will. Plato described this element as that within us which sides with reason against appetite and is capable of choosing what is good even when such choices require sacrifice.

This framework illuminates the teachings of the apostles. When Peter urges believers to “add to your faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love,” he is not offering a random list of moral traits. He is describing the gradual formation of the spiritual nature — the strengthening of the higher self that governs the whole person. Each of these qualities requires the exercise of the nobler will. Self-control demands resistance to bodily impulse. Perseverance requires endurance against emotional fatigue. Knowledge, virtue, and godliness require the rejection of mental distortion, pride, and self-deception. Kindness and love demand the overcoming of selfish instinct. These are not merely emotional developments; they are achievements of the spirit’s rule within the human being.

This same understanding lies behind Paul’s instruction to “live by the Spirit.” He offers little abstract explanation because his audience already shared this moral framework. To live by the Spirit meant allowing the highest faculty of the self — the morally awakened will — to govern both the body and the mind. The “flesh” that Paul warns against is not simply physicality but the ungoverned combination of bodily impulse and ego-driven reasoning. The “fruit of the Spirit,” by contrast, are the stable character traits that emerge when the spirit rules: self-control, patience, goodness, faithfulness, and love.

True faith therefore is not merely intellectual assent. It is the realignment of the ruling center of the person. When a person truly believes the teachings and moral authority of Jesus Christ, that belief awakens the spirit and compels the individual to resist destructive impulses and false mental patterns. This struggle is not won through human strength alone. The apostles speak of God’s Spirit assisting the believer because divine truth strengthens human will, enabling the spirit to govern rightly.

When the spirit rules, the human person moves toward life. When the flesh and ego rule, the person moves toward confusion and destruction. The New Testament’s call to spiritual life is therefore a call to moral order within the self — a restoration of the hierarchy in which the nobler will governs desire, thought, and action under the guidance of God.

To “walk in the Spirit,” then, is not to escape the world, but to live in it under the steady leadership of the highest and best within us, strengthened by faith and aligned with the truth that Christ brought into the world.

No more blog for a while but here is an example of permitted use of the blog posts to create AI-generated sermons

 https://chatgpt.com/share/695ad968-d698-8005-a061-da9fd805e795 

LAST POSTING FOR A WHILE - TAKING A BREAK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

 Although it is important to be aware of the teachings of Jesus, many of which are along the lines of the moral ethic of the Law of Moses, these can have bad consequences as well as good, especially if the teachings are not truly followed. For example, the law of eye for an eye is mentioned by Jesus, but he does not say to keep to it, but rather to take a different approach of returning good for evil, not evil for evil. The result of not actually following his teaching in Spirit is that people pick up on the eye for an eye part and try practising it. It has bad consequences. This could be called nominal Christianity. It is like the Jews mentioned in John 8, who believed in Jesus from hearing him one time, but did not let his teachings be their light in life. They were still, as Jesus pointed out, despite believing in him, hateful and liars, akin to the devil who Jesus pointed out is just like that too. If they kept his teachings and learned to understand and apply them obediently in their lives, they would become not so much children of the devil, but children of God. They would become his disciples, and in obeying his commands, be his sheep and he their good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep. Staying nominal is to maybe believe in him as light of the world, but not to follow and truly learn to obey his teachings. So the nominal Christians do not learn to walk by his light. They stay as bad as before, not becoming children of God, even though they have power to become children of God.

He lays down his life for the sheep

 Jesus once responded to a man who called him “Good Teacher” by saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.” At first, this might sound like a denial of his own goodness. But within the Jewish understanding of Scripture, Jesus is not rejecting goodness — he is locating it. True goodness belongs to God, and any goodness seen in Jesus is grounded in his unique relationship with God. Later, when he calls himself the “good shepherd,” he is not claiming independent authority or divinity in competition with God. Instead, he is showing that God’s care and guidance for the people are made present through him. In him, God’s goodness becomes visible, active, and approachable.

The sheep of this shepherd are those who follow his teachings and live by them — the true disciples who listen, obey, and commit themselves even when it costs them. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, modeling a love that is self-giving and sacrificial. In following Jesus, we are invited not simply to admire goodness but to participate in it: to walk in the way of mercy, truth, courage, and care for others. Through this, God’s own goodness, which flows through Jesus, becomes present in the world in real, human ways. He died for those who do so. 

The Good Shepherd

 In the Gospels, this tension appears when Jesus responds to a man who addresses him as “Good Teacher” by saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18), and later, especially in John 10, identifies himself as “the good shepherd,” the very role that Israel’s Scriptures consistently reserve for God himself (for example Psalm 23 and Ezekiel 34). Read together within a Jewish framework, these passages are not contradictory but mutually illuminating. Jesus is not rejecting the category of goodness for himself; he is insisting that true goodness belongs properly to the one God and that any goodness found in him is grounded in his unique relationship with that God.

When Jesus then claims the title “good shepherd,” he is presenting himself as the one through whom God’s own shepherding of Israel is made present and active. His divinity is therefore not portrayed as an independent, self-contained identity competing with God’s, but as a perfect, living participation in God’s life and mission—derivative, relational, and shared. God remains the sole source of goodness, while Jesus is its fullest human embodiment because he is wholly united with the one God who sends him.

AI-worded 

Keeping Weekly Sabbath

 In the context of Second Temple Judaism, the weekly Sabbath was one of the most central “works” that marked covenant identity. Observing the Sabbath was not merely a personal or ethical practice; it was a public, communal sign that a person belonged to God’s covenant people. The Dead Sea Scrolls reflect this strongly, with strict Sabbath regulations defining who was “inside” the covenant and who was “outside,” reinforcing that identity was enacted through concrete observance.

Paul’s reinterpretation of “works of the Law” carries this into his teaching on the Sabbath. When he argues that justification and inclusion in God’s people are by faith in Christ rather than by works, the Sabbath—like circumcision or dietary laws—ceases to function as a boundary marker for covenant membership. Christians are not “outside” God’s people if they do not observe the seventh-day Sabbath; what defines belonging is participation in the life of Christ through the Spirit. At the same time, the moral or spiritual rhythm of rest can still be honored as part of the new covenant life, but it is no longer a legal requirement for identity.

In short, the weekly Sabbath shifts from being a defining “work” of covenant identity to a practice that can be freely embraced as a gift of rest and devotion, rather than as a test of inclusion in God’s covenant community.

— AI-generated 

“Works of the Law”

 In Second Temple Judaism, “works” was already a familiar category of religious thought, and it did not primarily mean generic good deeds or moral effort. It referred especially to concrete practices by which a community expressed covenant loyalty and marked itself off as God’s people. This way of speaking appears clearly in the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly in the document often called 4QMMT (“Some of the Works of the Law”), where specific rulings about purity, calendar, food, temple practice, and marriage are called “works.” These “works” were not attempts to earn God’s favor in a purely abstract sense; they were the visible boundary-markers of faithfulness and identity, the way a group demonstrated that it belonged to the covenant community defined by the Torah.

Within that cultural framework, Jewish identity was not merely ethnic but covenantal and enacted through practices such as circumcision, Sabbath observance, dietary laws, and participation in the temple system. To “do the Law” meant to live inside that identity. When Paul and the earliest apostles speak of “works,” especially in contexts like Galatians and Romans, they are drawing on this established Jewish vocabulary. They are not inventing a new concept of “works” but engaging an existing one that their contemporaries would have recognized as referring to concrete Torah-defined practices that marked out who was in and who was out of the covenant community.

What becomes distinctive in Paul is how he reinterprets that category in light of the Christ event. For him, the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit have created a new mode of belonging to the people of God, one not bounded by the ceremonial and identity aspects of the Mosaic Law. When Paul argues that justification is not “by works of the Law,” he is saying that covenant membership is no longer established by those traditional identity-markers. Circumcision, food laws, and purity regulations no longer function as the boundary lines of God’s people, because faith in Christ and the Spirit’s transforming presence now define that community.

This shift does not imply that the Law was meaningless or that moral obedience is irrelevant. Rather, it reflects a change in how God’s covenant purposes are understood to be fulfilled. The early Christian movement, while deeply rooted in Jewish thought, came to see the Mosaic “works” — precisely those practices highlighted in Jewish discussions like those preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls — as provisional signs pointing toward a larger, more inclusive reality. In that sense, the apostolic use of “works” is best understood as an internal Jewish conversation reshaped by the conviction that God’s promises had reached their decisive fulfillment in Christ.

— AI-generated

Faith that commands

 The miracles of Jesus Christ show that the Father is to be believed as supporting life, health, and safety: Life - by the resurrection miracles; health - by the healing miracles; safety - by the calming of the dangerous storm. Belief in God along these lines is key to believing He will provide such things and respond to crises in such ways. Firmly believing without giving in to doubts, and being able to stand by that belief in the face of worldly objections, this is key to commanding Nature such that it obeys. Jesus’ teaching, when acted on in this way, is proven to be good teaching: Light in the midst of darkness. Then Jesus himself can build on this faith, and in so doing he can build God’s temple from such believing individuals. Continuing in his teachings, as true disciples, leads to experiences of doing greater and greater things through his name. This pleases God.

Faith built on miracles

 Real faith in Jesus Christ, really believing in him, can come in various ways. One way is through his miraculous control of nature: His miraculous commanding of storms; his commanding the sick to get well; he even commanded the dead to rise. Looking at this according to his teachings about faith, he taught those who hear his teachings to believe so much in God, even though that belief might seem small and fragile, that doubts are excluded. In this state of faith in God, a command can be given to nature, like Jesus did in his miracles. If the faith is there such that the doubts are completely excluded, even nature will obey, like his command to a storm to be still, and it was still, or his command to an illness to go away, and it went away. This lesson, when truly learned and practised, leads to belief not only in God but in Jesus, His Son, too.  Jesus can build on this faith. He can water this seed of faith so that it grows, not just into ability to do greater things, but built into better trust in him and his teachings. Confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ needs to grow into confidence in his teachings too, such that they are held to, learned more deeply, understood, and eventually put into practice. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

Spirit light

 Real Christianity is about living and worshipping God by Spirit. How do we follow Spirit and learn to live this way? There is the spirit of the teachings of Christ Jesus. Even before the Holy Spirit was given, this was the light sent by God, the spirit and truth of the teachings of Jesus. Then the teachings of the apostles. He sent them out to convey his teachings of Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit is experienced directly but also indirectly through believers. It all leads to an abundance of Spirit by which to live. Pure and heaven-sent. It is all part of the light God sent into the world. Living by this light saves us. It saves us from living by sinning nature we have otherwise. 

In today’s churches the problem remains that people often seek and find the Holy Spirit and believe, but then fail when it comes to actually living by the light which the Spirit of these teachings brings to them, somehow stopping short of keeping a grip on everything coming from the Holy Spirit: the teachings of Jesus, the teachings of his apostles, and the indirect ministry given by the Holy Spirit and Spirit of the teachings through other people. There is the further failing that people do not understand what it truly means to achieve salvation by the powerful, self-restraining, loving spirit they are given by God. This is not necessarily a complete lack of faith in Jesus, but rather a lack of faith that his teachings can be a saving light by which to rightly live better lives, right in the eyes of God, and that the Spirit given by God to accompany these teachings provides a right way of life to be lived. The former ways therefore persist, and serious scandal can result, sullying the name of Jesus. 

There therefore comes the stern matter of Christian discipline: the exclusion of those who do not actually hold to the teachings of Spirit, who keep living without them, and who therefore put the name of Jesus at risk of being sullied. Surveillance is a sign of the failings. Police surveillance, Internet and communications monitoring, and other kinds of surveillance such as state-led spying are sadly necessary to deal with ongoing wrongdoing in the absence of adherence to Spirit teachings and workings. 

It would be preferred for it to be made clear to all, by good preaching, how this life of Spirit can be lived, with faith. It needs to also be clear that the Spirit life, together with the heaven-sent teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, need to be actually held close and followed as the light God has sent to all by which to live. Comfort in the gospel can spur this trust: The gospel message: Christ died for your sins, and God raised him from the dead to live forever, to help you. Essential is this, that  it comes with this counsel: Hold fast to it, always. 

The Warning of the Gardener

 The Holy Spirit and scriptures impart the heavenly message from God through Jesus Christ, inspiring belief it is from God, and put it before us with the grace and truth found in Jesus. Then, having received it with faith, we must always continue in it, holding fast to it. We experience, and see, and hear the Spirit in the words and powerful lessons, but we must hold fast to what we experience, and see, and hear. Only in doing so can we be set free by truth from Jesus. Some believers experience the gifts and miracles, but leave them as distant memories and continue in merely human lifestyles. These believers become like dead leaves on a plant which the gardener removes for burning. Remain in Jesus by holding fast to the teachings, and grace, and truth coming from him. What the Holy Spirit imparts, keep on clinging to, so that the life of Jesus remains in you, and you therefore remain in him, alive, fruitful.

Hold Fast

 Remain in Jesus

To remain in Jesus is to hold tightly to:

• His teaching
• His grace
• His truth

Whatever the Holy Spirit has placed in your heart—do not loosen your grip on it. Keep clinging to it. Let it shape your choices, your thoughts, your direction, your obedience.

When the life of Jesus remains in you, you remain in Him.
And where Christ remains, there is life.
There is growth.
There is fruit.

Continuance is Not Optional

 Continuance Is Not Optional

Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples, and the truth will set you free.”
Freedom is not found in a moment of belief.
It is found in a life of abiding.

Some experience the power of God—gifts, miracles, great moments of faith—yet later drift back into merely human living. When the life of Christ is no longer being nourished, that person becomes like a dead leaf on a living plant. And the Gardener, who desires living fruit, removes what is dead.

The warning is loving but real: life must remain connected to the source.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

 The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit brings the one true gospel to the human heart; Convinces us it is from God; 
Reveals the grace and truth found in Jesus; 
Awakens belief; 

But the Spirit does not believe for us; 
Does not continue for us; 
Places the truth before us, and then calls us to hold fast to it.

We experience the Spirit.
We see the Spirit’s work.
We hear in the Holy Spirit’s voice the continuation of the words and teachings of Christ.
And then we are commanded: “Continue in what you have received.”

Nature’s power

 Doing things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ leads to realisation of the power and life-giving nature of it, and realisation that all of Nature’s life and power is driven by it.

There is Only One Gospel

 There Is Only One Gospel

Jesus preached it.
His apostles continued it.

This gospel does not change. It does not evolve with culture. It does not multiply into alternatives. Scripture is clear: “There is no other gospel.” The message is the same—grace and truth coming through Jesus Christ, offered to all who believe.

For Gentiles, the apostles clarified that this gospel did not require submission to the Law of Moses, but it did require something far deeper: faith that continues.

Remain in the One Gospel

 Remain in the One Gospel

What began with Jesus Christ continues through the Holy Spirit, who ministers the grace given to Jesus by the Father. This work reaches both Jews and non-Jews alike. It is the same gospel that Jesus preached and that His apostles continued by His grace and truth.
There is no alternative gospel and no second gospel.

All who have truly received the gospel throughout the centuries—whether through the direct preaching of Jesus or through those He sent—have received the same message. For the Gentiles, this gospel required no binding to the Law of Moses, yet it required the same thing of all: continuance.

The Holy Spirit imparts this message, inspiring faith that it is from God, presenting it with the grace and truth found in Jesus. But having received it with faith, we must continue in it and hold fast to it.

We experience the Spirit.
We see the Spirit’s work.
We hear the Spirit’s words and powerful lessons.
Yet we are commanded to hold fast to what we have experienced, seen, and heard.

Only in this way are we set free by the truth that comes from Jesus.

Some appear to experience the gifts and even miracles, but later leave them as distant memories and return to merely human ways of living. Such people become like dead leaves on a living plant, which the gardener removes and burns.

Therefore, remain in Jesus.
Hold fast to His teaching, His grace, and His truth.
What the Holy Spirit imparts—cling to it continually, so that the life of Jesus remains in you.
And if His life remains in you, you remain in Him—
alive, fruitful, and enduring.

Continuing

 What started with Jesus Christ continues with the Holy Spirit ministering grace given to Jesus by the Father. It continues to both Jews and non-Jews alike. It is the same gospel as Jesus preached and his apostles continued by his grace and truth. There is no alternative gospel, nor a second gospel. All who received the true gospel over the centuries, both in preaching by Jesus, and then by those he sent, all received the same gospel, although for some it specified no differences for Gentiles (non-Jews), no binding to the Law of Moses. It tells us continuance is required. The Holy Spirit imparts the message inspiring belief it is from God, and puts it before us with the grace and truth found in Jesus, but having received it with faith, we must always continue in it, holding fast to it. We experience, and see, and hear the Spirit in the words and powerful lessons, but we must hold fast to what we experience, and see, and hear. Only in doing so can we be set free by truth from Jesus. Some seem to experience the gifts and miracles, but leave them as distant memories and continue in merely human lifestyles. These become like dead leaves on a plant which the gardener removes for burning. Remain in Jesus by holding fast to the teachings, and grace, and truth coming from him. What the Holy Spirit imparts, keep on clinging to, so that the life of Jesus remains in you, and you therefore remain in him, alive, fruitful.

Chief Truth

 Scripture teaches this, and we learn this truth as we believe Jesus is the light sent by God, holding to his teachings: There are many called gods in scripture. These are called the sons of the Most High. Then there is the Father of these sons, the Most High Himself. Jesus is the primary of these sons of the Most High. He is not the Most High. He is the Lord who is the one and only set-apart Son. The Most High has anointed him as Lord,  King and Judge over all these sons of the Most High, in heaven, and all sons of the Most High here on earth. This is most marked in the surpassing joy given him by the Most High in his resurrection from the dead, after Jesus suffered and died for the sins not his own. It is the Most High Himself who alone says with utmost authority “I am God”. He alone imparts authority to all who the scripture calls gods, and He alone imparts authority to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Most High sends the Holy Spirit to those who believe in His Son, so that they may learn this truth and follow the teachings which are in accordance with this truth, as they are built up together into being part of the Temple of the Most High. 

Two resurrections

 Two resurrections. I know which one I would prefer, if I would be found worthy of it. How about you? 

“And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection!”

Rev 20:4b-6a 

The crux

 The gospel is not just information to believe; it is life to be lived. Jesus said His words are spirit and life, and the Holy Spirit continues to teach and form people according to those words. As that happens, people become less driven by impulse, culture, or mere intellect, and more responsive to the Spirit at work within them.

Trusting as Jesus trusted

 The testimonies of the apostles centre on Jesus Christ—crucified, raised by the Father, and now alive. But this message is not only about what happened; it is about how we live. It calls people into the same way of life Jesus lived: a life of trust in the Father and dependence on the Spirit. The gospel is not just information to believe; it is life to be lived. Jesus said His words are spirit and life, and the Holy Spirit continues to teach and form people according to those words. As that happens, people become less driven by impulse, culture, or mere intellect, and more responsive to the Spirit at work within them.

Power of a new order

 Since the Holy Spirit gives only what the Father has already lovingly granted to His Son—for our salvation, growth, and the building of the Temple of the Father, the true body of Christ—we must rely completely on this Spirit as our leader and teacher. Following a teacher we cannot see, who is wholly spirit, is challenging, yet it is essential to trust this guidance fully. Learning to live under the Spirit’s direction may bring opposition from those who feel threatened by a power they cannot control, but it is precisely in this submission that a new order emerges: a life, a community, and a world aligned with God’s wisdom, authority, and love.

The Holy Spirit both power and advisor

 The Holy Spirit as great Power and great Advisor 

The Holy Spirit has been shown through spiritual history to be the mightiest weapon for those so imbued. It is a lesson we learn in the scriptures looking at Samson. He was not able to defeat by human physical or mental might. He was no mighty warrior by skill, training, and muscular power. He was no intelligent philosopher able to argue politics and win over crowds. He fought and brought about justice by spirit power and spirit wit. When faced with a lion, or a human soldier, he was given the blessing of God by the Holy Spirit coming upon him, and suddenly giving him such a spirit to fight that he overcame even the strongest foe or army of foes. The spirit is likened to a sword. The Holy Spirit can overcome a person in their mind and body, either directly or through agents imbued with animating inspiration. The early church spread this way, and overcame the mightiest empire the world had ever known, by spirit. Saints were suddenly able to have courage in the face of Roman force designed to frighten any subject of Rome into utter submission. Rome had put down rebellions and subdued kings and kingdoms, but could only eventually give way to the spirit in the early Church. We have to be careful, though, because we can sin in spirit. We can use our awakened spirit to bring ruin where none was warranted, or wish ill where Jesus would rather have us bless. A spiritually empowered word can start a mighty fire, since the tongue is so hard to tame. But it is an inspiration for good that blesses us, not to be misused for harm. The sheer power of spirit and awakened by the Holy Spirit should persuade us to believe in this Holy Spirit and learn to live by spirit, rather than merely by mental and physical drivers alone. Philosophical prowess might seem like it can give worldly power and authority, but it cannot on its own achieve what God intends: the persuasion and edification of His own. Physical strength and indulgence can be destructive and lead to a deafly outcome for those who rely on it. Both mind and body together are no better for achieving salvation. Spirit is the way taught by Jesus and his apostles. “Spirit gives life. Flesh counts for nothing.” We are given a gospel message centred on this. It comes with power and miracles. We are to believe that Jesus Christ brought spirit and life into the world to give free salvation and light from the Father. We must learn that spirit is how we are to worship and be saved, and how we learn to love and build the Temple.

Having the Holy Spirit is having an ultimate advisor. The Holy Spirit advises us based on ability to search all things, seeing what is actually there, what is really true, in everything, even in the things of the Father. The Holy Spirit can see what is really going on, such as in Nature, and advises us accordingly. This brings glory to Jesus because the Holy Spirit sees how Jesus has influence and power in all things natural. The Holy Spirit even sees the scriptures, even scriptures we have not known. The advice we receive from the Holy Spirit is the most perfect analysis. It is fully insightful analysis and completely true and reliable. The Holy Spirit searches our thoughts, and tailors the analysis to meet our inner questions and the reality of our genuine needs. We should learn to trust this Holy Spirit and live by this counsel. It is counsel in accordance with the holiness and will of God. It aligns utterly with what the Father has lovingly agreed for His Son to know, for our salvation and growth.

The Holy Spirit as Advisor

 Holy Spirit as Advisor 

Having the Holy Spirit is having an ultimate advisor. The Holy Spirit advises us based on ability to search all things, seeing what is actually there, what is really true, in everything, even in the things of the Father. The Holy Spirit can see what is really going on, such as in Nature, and advises us accordingly. This brings glory to Jesus because the Holy Spirit sees how Jesus has influence and power in all things natural. The Holy Spirit even sees the scriptures, even scriptures we have not known. The advice we receive from the Holy Spirit is the most perfect analysis. It is fully insightful analysis and completely true and reliable. The Holy Spirit searches our thoughts, and tailors the analysis to meet our inner questions and the reality of our genuine needs. We should learn to trust this Holy Spirit and live by this counsel. It is counsel in accordance with the holiness and will of God. It aligns utterly with what the Father has lovingly agreed for His Son to know, for our salvation and growth. 

From the Spirit perspective

 If we look at Nature around us, the Holy Spirit leads faithful believers to look at it in a spiritual way. Yes, trees, flowers, many kinds of living things are beautiful and pleasing to the senses. Yet to be pleasing to the spirit, we must look deeper. The Holy Spirit challenges us to look below the surface, beyond the visible aspects of natural things, towards the power underpinning, driving, sustaining Nature. Here we find encouraging sayings of Jesus and the sources he was familiar with, though little preached about, which tell the accounts of how Nature came to be underpinned by powers of spiritual kinds, such as his own name as Lord and Christ, and his powerful word. Jesus withstood the tests of being weak and humanly fallible. Evil tried to exploit his weaknesses. Why? Because evil had itself failed, though mightier than the human world. This failing had threatened Nature, put it in jeopardy, put its very fabric and processes at risk. Angels were susceptible to temptation. God was never susceptible, but His servants were, and many had failed. This had brought evil into Nature. Humans had followed suit so readily too. But how about this Son of God, there living as a human being, vulnerable to failure more than angels were, as much as all humans were? The leader of evil saw this challenge and took it, trying to trip up this Son of God. Jesus did not fail. His closeness to God, his knowledge of scripture, his understanding of it from God’s perspective, this all kept him steady. God was well pleased, and now there was hope. Nature had a basis for truly sustainable governance, even sustaining angels who sought to withstand evil and not give in. Jesus gained a name beyond any name under God. That name deters angels from falling and keeps Nature at a spiritual level on the pathways God had set for it all. Jesus Christ, the Lord, has a name with power to be the plumb-line by which Nature stays true to God’s commands and ordinances. Angels can use this name to maintain their allocated domains. And we too can benefit, not only indirectly by the sustaining of natural order, and a high degree of angelic faithfulness, but in our own souls, that now have this name as hope of salvation and freedom from our own weak human tendencies to sin. He is the light come into a dark world, sent by the Father. He is truly the Son. This is all part of seeing Nature in the way of spirit, led by the Holy Spirit. 

Christmas

 Winter in cold countries is a challenge. For many, especially the oldest and weakest, it is all the more a challenge. Likewise for their carers, and close relatives. So Christmas and other such winter feast times provide much needed heart strengthening encouragement, but also the opportunity to think of the young ones coming along, and how to pass the previous wisdom on to this new generation. Not everyone at such times really believes in all this, yet still many share the same need to be encouraged to face this challenging season. For believers in God, the emphasis of many on the spirit of Christmas can be very helpful, as it gives us thought for what it means to take courage from emphasising spiritual things. The feasting itself might fatten us up for cold months ahead but this is not as important, life-giving, and effective as the focus on the grace of reminding ourselves and our children of the coming in the flesh of Jesus Christ, and the efforts and expenditure of giving in his name. This is our chief wisdom to pass on to the next generation out of love for them and for God. We do not only give, but we do it in Christ’s name—or at least in the name of a semi-legendary, semi-historical saint called Saint Nicholas, Santa Claus—not least because it inspires the young ones with moral stories. The gospel tells us to let the spirit drive our actions rather than the physical desires, so we please spirit rather than merely pleasing body and mind. God commands love towards Him first and foremost, and then towards our neighbours. In practical terms it should drive us to ensure we do indeed pass on the heavenly aspects of the truths of the gospel about Jesus coming, with the signs of his messiahship, and the peace with God he came to bring for those who will receive it. Those Christmas carols are important. The real heavenly spirit of it all is important.

Unity as presented in the New Testament

 The New Testament presents the Church as one because its source, life, and unity come from God Himself. Though there are many visible communities, traditions, and names, the Church is fundamentally one because it is gathered by one Lord through one Spirit into one shared life. The unity Jesus spoke of is not primarily institutional or cultural but spiritual, modeled on the unity between the Son and the Father. Those who come to believe through the apostolic testimony are drawn into this unity, not by external conformity, but by participation in the same divine life. In this way, all who are gathered by the Lord of the harvest become one people, forming one Church at the level of spirit.

Jesus’ teaching consistently directs attention away from outward markers of religious identity toward inward transformation. His declaration that God is Spirit and that true worship must be in spirit and in truth establishes the foundation for unity that transcends place, tradition, and ethnicity. This teaching is vividly demonstrated in His encounter with the Samaritans, a people separated from the Jews by deep historical, religious, and cultural divisions. Jesus crossed those barriers by speaking prophetically through the Spirit to a Samaritan woman, leading an entire village to faith. Their belief arose independently of the Jewish disciples and could not easily be integrated into existing religious structures, yet Jesus affirmed their faith as genuine. By doing so, He showed that unity would not be achieved by absorbing one group into another, but by each person learning to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

The surprise of the disciples at the Samaritan response highlights how radically Jesus reframed belonging. Faith generated by the Spirit does not depend on shared heritage or proximity to established centers of worship. Where the Spirit reveals truth and hearts respond in faith, genuine unity already exists, even if outward forms remain divided. Jesus addressed inevitable divisions not by eliminating difference but by calling each believer into a deeper, shared spiritual reality. When individuals live by the Spirit and respond to the same truth, they find themselves united at a level that precedes and transcends all visible distinctions.

This vision of unity is carried forward in the gospel proclaimed by the apostles. The apostolic testimony to Jesus Christ, crucified and raised by the Father, calls all people into the same way of life that Jesus Himself lived: a life of submission to the Father and dependence on the Spirit. The gospel does not merely convey information; it imparts life. Jesus’ words are spirit and life, and the Holy Spirit continues to teach, guide, and form believers according to those words. Through this Spirit, believers are shaped into individuals who are no longer driven by the flesh, by cultural instincts, or by mere intellectual effort, but by the spirit within them.

The sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost reveals how unity and diversity coexist in God’s design. One Holy Spirit was given, yet manifested in many tongues of fire, resting on each individual. The image is of a single divine fire shared without division, personal yet unifying. Each believer receives the Spirit personally, and yet all are joined into one. This pattern preserves genuine difference while establishing profound unity, showing that unity does not require uniformity. The Holy Spirit, and life lived according to true spirit animates many lives, drawing them together without erasing their distinct histories or identities.

The apostolic mission, particularly as articulated through Paul, makes clear that this unity encompasses both Jews and Gentiles without distinction. There is one gospel, one Lord, one Spirit, and one Father of all. As believers yield to the Spirit’s work, they are drawn into harmony with God and with one another. At this level of shared spirit-oriented life, barriers of denomination, culture, ethnicity, and history are transcended. Though external differences remain, they no longer define identity or fellowship.

When believers worship God in spirit and in truth, they are participating in the worship that pleases Him. Their unity is not manufactured but experienced, not imposed but lived. In this shared life, the Church becomes what it was always meant to be: a living temple composed of people in whom the Spirit  dwells. The Father, who is one and uniquely God, makes His dwelling among a people made one in Christ, gathered from many fields by the one Lord of the harvest, and bound together by the life of the Spirit and the testimony of Jesus. 

(Wording by AI together with Stephen D Green)