Personal faith in Jesus is something that came early in my childhood. Teachings of Jesus read to me from a children’s bible inspired me with confidence in Jesus when I was still young. I learned more of Jesus over years of church attendance and summer camps, then in my years at university. Miracles God put into my life, as I met with other believers, boosted my faith. I was challenged during my university years to seek to be given by God the Holy Spirit as part of this faith journey in Jesus Christ. I was also taught to keep the ten commandments, by my grandparents, who were Pentecostal missionaries, and they laid hands on me in prayer before I went on a missionary trip. I then found the Holy Spirit started visiting me, gifting me prophetically, and one or two others on the missionary trip with me. Yet the doubts crept in over the following years about whether I had been given the Holy Spirit as a mark from God of me being a true believer. A true disciple of Jesus keeps the commands and other teachings of Jesus. So I set about ensuring I was doing this, after earnestly asking God for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came upon me, and commanded me to “Build the Temple”. It was confirmed threefold in a church service soon afterwards. Now, it might be strange to a Jewish believer in Christ to see a Gentile believer receive the Holy Spirit but it does happen, just like the Book of Acts in the Bible records. Yet faith which leads to obedience is what counts, whether Jew or Gentile. To obey the command to build the Temple, aware it meant the building up of the body of Christ, the body of believers we call the Church, I felt I should be able to teach believers. I was convicted of my lack of real personal knowledge of God. I asked God for such knowledge. I was then taught by the Father that He is God. Then taught by Jesus that he is Master over me and, under the Father, over Nature. Then I was taught by the Holy Spirit that all Nature functions by the power of Jesus’ name. In this last lesson it was again remarkable to a Jewish believer in Jesus that a Gentile believer in Jesus can receive the gift of the Holy Spirit too. But that is the heart of the gospel. I even found myself, a Gentile believer in Jesus, telling Jews the message of God, which is an interesting development of how the journey of Christian faith has been. Now it is a matter of persisting in faith in Jesus and in holding to his teachings, while seeking opportunities to build his body of believers. It is all out of love for God, and love for one another. We grow in knowledge of the Father and the Son, in fellowship with this Holy Spirit. That is how it continues. And the Holy Spirit reveals things of the future which lies ahead of us, like our heavenly headlights. Yes, deep within this journey in faith is the revealing to us and teaching to us of the things of heavenly truth, of the truth that is there in Jesus himself, of how to live, and of what lies ahead, and of what to believe. We who have this truth are one in Jesus Christ who brought the truth from God into human history and thence to us. We are his body. We love each other in him.
