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) 

One in spirit

 The word of the apostles is a testimony all should know, and those who believe because of this testimony should become one, just as the Lord Jesus and the Father are one. This unity makes all the harvested souls one church. It is unity at the level of spirit. When we minister in spirit to one another we experience that unity of spirit. When we are harvested by the one Lord of the Harvest, we become one people, in spirit. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. This transcends church names like Orthodox, and Catholic, and Methodist, but it also transcends cultural and ethnic barriers. Indeed, Jesus was addressing such barriers when he preached the way of spirit and truth. He was there preaching to a whole Samaritan village which had come out to hear him and believed what they heard, and believed in him. His disciples came and saw it, saw how it all started by Jesus preaching prophetically by spirit to a Samaritan woman: So surprising this was to his disciples. The Samaritans who believed could not integrate at all easily with the disciples and Jews to whom Jesus had previously preached. A divided following was inevitable. Jesus addressed it from a spirit point of view. Each one learning to worship by spirit in truth, as God desired, would experience unity with each other. Spirit transcends. Truth transcends. So still today, there are various groups divided culturally, yet if we look at each group, even at each individual, when they each worship in spirit, experiencing by spirit the same truth, and expressing it in worship towards the God who is spirit and true, they are being made one, under authority in their spirit of the same one Lord Jesus Christ, drawn in their spirit to the same one Father. We have a gospel of Jesus as the Christ raised from the dead by this Father, having died in submission to this Father’s will, and leading us to each of us live by the same way of spirit by which Jesus also lived. We have a gospel of the Holy Spirit being sent to each one, like a single fire which separates into many tongues of fire, each one settling on the head of an individual in their prayers, as these believing followers of Jesus gathered together. We have a gospel teaching each one and all gathered together to live by the spirit. The one gospel of Jesus, as revealed also to Paul for Gentiles and Jews as one, that teaches us that the teachings of Jesus are spirit and life. We must live by such spirit, and the teachings given since then by the Holy Spirit, as driving the apostles such as Paul, so that we become spirit-driven individuals instead of flesh-driven, instead of mere mentally-driven individuals, and at this level we find unity transcending all the barriers. Then we will be worshipping God together as pleases Him. We will be a Temple for the living Father, who is one and uniquely God. 

One church?

 One church? Why then so many denominational churches? These are the many who are the fields ripe for harvest. Lift up your eyes, says Jesus. Look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest. The Father too points to all the many names signed up for being participants in the spirit life He provides. See these names: Look at them. These are the harvest field. But the word says to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest. The word of the apostles is a testimony all should know, and those who believe because of this testimony should become one, just as the Lord Jesus and the Father are one. This unity makes all the harvested souls one church. It is unity at the level of spirit. When we minister in spirit to one another we experience that unity of spirit. This transcends church names like Orthodox, and Catholic, and Methodist, and the like. When we are harvested by the one Lord of the Harvest, we become one people, in spirit. God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Spirit life and the Holy Spirit

 The Holy Spirit teaches that it is by a life of spirit orientation, not merely driven by thought or physical drivers, that Jesus overcame and rose above the ignoble to please God and be raised by God from the dead, and now to have the glory that all Natural processes are driven by his name, such that he is Lord and the Anointed of God. This is the way he teaches his followers to live: By spirit in accordance with truth. His teachings are teachings from spirit, imparting spirit, elevating those who follow them to rise above the physical and mental life to a life led by spirit into what is done, by the persuasion that spirit brings.

The writing is on the wall

 There is a saying: “The writing is on the wall.” The saying comes from the last days of Babylon when a mighty general of Babylon held a banquet, not knowing Babylon was about to fall. A spirit hand appeared and wrote words on the wall. Clearly the hand was divine, so the words were vital to understand, but were foreign to the people watching. The prophet Daniel alone could understand them by God’s interpretation. He warned that destruction was imminent. The general rejoiced to know the meaning, but it was too late to avert what was coming. So too today. The Holy Spirit can give the gift of speaking in tongues, as a sign the message is divine, then give the interpretation to only one or two. By this the Holy Spirit creates awareness of impending destruction, but thankfully this warning is given in time to do something. We might even have a lifetime ahead of us. We should use this time, maybe forty years, to learn to follow Jesus Christ the Lord. After a certain time of opportunity will come a time of great darkness for all. Use this time. The writing is on the wall. 

Make hay while the sun shines

 There is a saying: “Make hay while the sun shines.” The next forty years might be the last chance to repent and learn to live by spirit and the teachings of Jesus Christ. The darkness will come very fast after that, and it will be too dark to do much. “We must do the works of Him who sent me while it is day, for the darkness comes when no man can work.” Do not waste this daytime. Wake up and learn to follow the Lord.

How can we be better people - short summary

 How can we be better people? Most people seek their own improvement through indulgence or intelligence, or both. Indulgence promises satisfaction but leads to dependence and moral weakness. Intelligence promises mastery but increases power without guaranteeing goodness. History shows that both paths can fail to produce integrity, restraint, or love, and can even amplify harm when left without moral direction.

There is a third way: the life of the spirit. This is the human capacity to rise above appetite and cleverness and to live by what is worthy and true. It requires more than willpower; it requires right direction. Jesus taught this way not as a system of rules, but as a call to inward transformation—a kind of rebirth that shifts what drives a person’s life.

When life is led by the spirit, love becomes sincere rather than self-serving, integrity replaces impulse, and stability replaces chaos. This way of life prepares a person to stand honestly when judgment comes—not perfect, but aligned with what is truly good. It is not escape from life, but the deepest way to live it. In short, it saves. 

How to Become Better - presentation with slide designs

 How To Become Better

— presentation with slides

— by Stephen D Green with AI wording

Slide 1

Slide Title: The Question That Matters
Slide Content:

• How do people actually become better?
• Not richer. Not smarter. Better.
• If life has consequences, improvement matters.
  Visual Suggestion:
  A quiet road or path stretching forward; neutral tones, no symbols.

One of the most important questions any human being can face is how people actually become better. Not richer, not more successful, not more informed—but better in character, direction, and integrity. If our lives carry real weight, if our actions have consequences, and if we will one day be judged—by God, by truth, or by the lasting effects of what we have done—then improvement is not optional. A life that does not aim upward will inevitably drift downward. The question is not whether we are being shaped, but by what.

Slide 2

Slide Title: Two Common Paths
Slide Content:

• Indulgence: pleasure as improvement
• Intelligence: knowledge as improvement
• Both promise growth
  Visual Suggestion:
  A forked path or two diverging arrows.

Most people attempt improvement in one of two ways. The first is indulgence: believing that greater satisfaction, comfort, or pleasure will lead to a better life. The second is intelligence: believing that more knowledge, sharper thinking, or superior reasoning will make us better people. Both paths promise growth, and both can achieve results. Yet neither reliably produces moral strength, integrity, or lasting goodness, which is what truly matters when life is weighed.

Slide 3

Slide Title: The Problem With Indulgence
Slide Content:

• Appetite does not create freedom
• Excess weakens responsibility

No life is improved by being ruled by desire
Visual Suggestion:
Soft-focus image of excess fading into emptiness (abstract, not graphic). 

Indulgence does not create freedom; it creates dependence. When life becomes ruled by appetite—whether for food, pleasure, substances, gambling, or ease—it weakens responsibility, damages relationships, and narrows the soul. Satisfaction may feel like progress in the moment, but over time it erodes self-command. No one looks back on a life diminished by excess and calls it improvement when truth and accountability are taken seriously. It can even result in criminality.

Slide 4

Slide Title: The Problem With Intelligence Alone
Slide Content:

• Knowledge increases power
• Power without direction multiplies harm
• Being clever is not the same as being good
  Visual Suggestion:
  A bright light casting a long shadow, or a tool beside a warning sign.

The second path is intelligence. We assume that if we know more, think more clearly, or reason more accurately, we will become better people. Intelligence certainly has value, but it does not guarantee goodness. Knowledge increases power, not character. A highly intelligent person may solve complex problems, invent powerful tools, or master difficult ideas—and still act selfishly, cruelly, or destructively. History shows that brilliance without moral direction can magnify harm rather than prevent it. Being clever is not the same as being good.

Most people mix both of these paths, while some focus on one or the other.

Slide 5

Slide Title: A Third Way
Slide Content:

• Not indulgence
• Not intellect alone
• A life led by spirit
  Visual Suggestion:
  A single upward path or a subtle light breaking through clouds.

If indulgence fails to improve us, and intelligence alone fails to improve us, then we must look for a third way. That way is the life of the spirit. This does not reject the body or the mind, but it rises above them. Spirit is the part of us capable of governing desire, correcting thought, and choosing what is right even when it is costly. It is the inner capacity to live from the inside out rather than reacting to every impulse or opinion.

Slide 6

Slide Title: What We Mean by “Spirit”
Slide Content:

• The ability to rise above impulse
• The strength to choose what is right
• Living from the inside out
  Visual Suggestion:
  A calm human silhouette with light at the center (abstract, non-religious).

By spirit, we do not mean emotion, enthusiasm, or religious excitement. Spirit is moral strength. It is the ability to say no when saying no is hard, and yes when yes requires sacrifice. It is what allows a person to act with integrity instead of convenience, with courage instead of fear. A life led by spirit is a life shaped by truth rather than appetite or pride.

Slide 7

Slide Title: Why Willpower Isn’t Enough
Slide Content:

• Determination without direction fails
• We must know what is worthy
• Direction must be higher than appetite or cleverness
  Visual Suggestion:
  A compass or navigation map with a clear heading.

Yet even this requires more than sheer willpower. 

Determination without direction does not produce goodness; it produces stubbornness. To truly improve, we must know what is worthy of our effort—what is true, what is good, what deserves our loyalty. That direction cannot come from appetite, and it cannot come from clever reasoning alone. It must come from something higher than both, something that gives clarity, steadiness, and moral weight to our choices.

Slide 8

Slide Title: The Way Jesus Taught
Slide Content:

• Not rules, but transformation
• A call to become a different kind of person
• Truth lived, not just known
  Visual Suggestion:
  Simple image of people walking together; no overt religious iconography.

This is the way Jesus taught. He did not primarily offer rules to follow or theories to master, but a call to transformation. He pointed people away from lives driven by impulse or ego and toward lives shaped by truth, mercy, integrity, and self-giving love. His focus was not outward performance, but inward renewal—becoming a different kind of person.

Slide 9

Slide Title: Beginning Again
Slide Content:

• Leaving lives driven by impulse
• Moving beyond intellect alone
• Choosing rebirth from the inside out
  Visual Suggestion:
  Sunrise or fresh morning light over a horizon.

To live this way requires a real beginning again. It means turning away from lives driven only by physical desire or mental cleverness and choosing a life led by the spirit. Jesus called this being born again—not a surface change, but a fundamental reorientation of what drives us. True improvement begins when the center of life shifts inward and upward.

Slide 10

Slide Title: When Life Is Led by Spirit
Slide Content:

• Love becomes steady and sincere
• Integrity replaces impulse
• Stability replaces chaos
  Visual Suggestion:
  Hands holding something fragile with care, or a steady flame.

When a life is led by spirit, love itself changes. Love becomes steady instead of impulsive, sincere instead of self-serving. Integrity replaces reaction. Stability replaces chaos. A person becomes less controlled by urges or opinions and more aligned with what is genuinely good. This kind of life does not promise ease, but it does offer wholeness.

Slide 11

Slide Title: What This Saves Us From
Slide Content:

• Living small and reactive
• Being ruled by desire or pride
• Standing unprepared when judgment comes
  Visual Suggestion:
  A shadow receding or weight being set down.

A spirit-led life saves us from being ruled by desire, pride, or fear. It saves us from living small, reactive lives that collapse under pressure or temptation. And it prepares us to stand honestly when judgment comes—having lived according to something greater than appetite or intellect alone. It is not escape from accountability, but readiness for it.

Slide 12

Slide Title: The Invitation
Slide Content:

• Live from the inside out
• Align with what is truly good
• Become the kind of person who can stand
  Visual Suggestion:
  An open door or open landscape, calm and hopeful.

The invitation, then, is simple but demanding: live from the inside out. Choose alignment with what is truly good. Become the kind of person who can stand upright in truth, love sincerely, and live with integrity. This is not about perfection, but about direction. Not merely being saved from failure, but becoming whole—at one with what is right, and with the life Jesus taught.