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Tuesday 18 July 2017

Ask God for the Holy Spirit

The living Holy Spirit speaks words coming from the vast time Jesus Christ the Lord and God the Father have been in fellowship and Jesus has learned from God. We cannot use the existence of a canon, the Bible, as reason to refuse the Spirit's words as somehow inferior. God has breathed some things personally and inspired records of other things (like the decree of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3) to be preserved and the words spoken or breathed by the very Father Himself from His mouth are the greatest words of all far outweighing the words of Nebuchadnezzar. So there are degrees of inspiration and authority even among the words of scripture whereas words actually spoken by God like "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" and "Listen to Him" spoken of Lord Jesus Christ outweigh the words of men even those recorded in scripture. Jesus words are, He said, learned by Him from the Father and since it is the Son who delivered them and since He is Faithful and True they carry most weight. The Holy Spirit directly inspires words like interpreted tongues which are from the truth of Jesus received by Him directly from the Father so the weight they carry is commensurate and need to be treated by ourselves as such, not rejected on the basis they are not from a preferred canon of scripture (though they will be entirely consistent with His prophesies of scripture). Jesus did so much and said so much from God in a few years of ministry that "the world would not have room for the books" if it were all written down. He told the disciples at His last supper with them that He had so much more to say too that they were not then ready for and so how would this be solved? The Spirit of Truth would come and take from what God had given to Him and make it known to them. So that is what the Holy Spirit still does now.
Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to Himself calling Him "Another comforter". I'm pretty sure this was the Holy Spirit: I was pondering things of God, perhaps you could call it meditating, and I thought about how often when people tried to bring me down it was as if an angel was guarding me. A verse in a Psalm came to mind that might explain this but I could not think where it came from and wished it were confirmed to me that this was indeed what explained my experiences. "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them in times of trouble". Moments later a kind of voice of words spoken directly into my mind said simply "Daniel 3". So because it was so clear and striking I went to the lounge to see my Bible to look up Book of Daniel chapter 3. This Bible was one I was not at all familiar with having been given it as a gift. There was no mention in Daniel 3 until right near the end where the word "Angel" has a margin reference next to it. I looked up the reference and what did it say? I guessed already. A reference to the Psalm where it said "The Angel of the LORD encamps around those that fear Him to deliver them". So I knew this was an actual Spirit who gave me the simple words "Daniel 3" and so wisely proved to me that He was not a figment of my imagination. This Spirit is surely the Spirit described in scripture as the Spirit of the fear of the LORD. Surely He has great wisdom how He communicates proving He exists as a reality and not imagination.
Here is some of the teaching of Jesus urging every disciple to ask for the Holy Spirit: "And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"