God consists of Three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father sent His only Son to be our redeemer, and the Holy Spirit enables us to believe in Jesus and empowers us to follow Christ as our Lord and Savior.

The Holy Spirit dwells within the body and soul of every believer. The Apostle Paul wrote to believers in Corinth: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?” (1 Corinthians 6:19)

Regardless of your spiritual condition today, here are 7 reasons you need the Holy Spirit:

1. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin. Without a conviction of sin, you would never come to Christ to be cleansed of your sins

Jesus said, “When the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). When the Holy Spirit fell upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost, a great conviction of sin came upon the people while Peter was preaching to them. “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what should we do?'” (Acts 2:37). They were ready to receive the Gospel because they had come under the conviction of their sin.

2. The Holy Spirit breathes into man’s soul bringing him to repentance and faith in Christ. Prior to conversion, you remain spiritually dead

“No one cay say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Jesus said, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6).

3. The Holy Spirit changes people from the inside out and produces good fruit within God’s children

The supernatural fruit of the Holy Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22). As we learn to say “no” to temptation and to the sinful desires of our old nature, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is continually produced within us. Reflect upon those 9 qualities listed above and picture what your life would look like if you lived under the control of the Holy Spirit hour by hour. The Third Person of the Trinity is transforming lives around the world today, and He can bring about the same transformation within you!

4. The Holy Spirit teaches believers the truth

Jesus said, “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). Jesus also said, “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Holy Spirit breathed God’s Word into existence, and He will teach you the meaning of Scripture as you prayerfully study the Bible and meditate upon it.

5. The Holy Spirit is a deposit and a believer’s seal of salvation

The Apostle Paul wrote, “God anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14).

6. The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to spread the Gospel

Jesus told His followers, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). Peter and John were filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and said, “We cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). Paul wrote, “When I preach the Gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach” (1 Corinthians 9:16). The Holy Spirit has been motivating and empowering Christians to spread the Gospel for the past 2000 years.

7. The Holy Spirit enables believers to discern God’s will

Whenever you are prayerfully contemplating a major decision, the Holy Spirit can help you make a wise decision. The Holy Spirit leads God’s people and enables us to understand things from the Lord’s perspective. God’s Word declares, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Do you trust yourself to make correct decisions, or do you trust God to guide you? The Bible provides wise instruction: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

These seven reasons are rooted in the truthfulness of God’s Word. If you have not yet done so, it is critical that you repent of your sins and ask Jesus to forgive you. And then ask the Lord every day to fill you with the Holy Spirit as you saturate your mind with Scripture. You will be glad you did.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

A recent article in Britain’s The Daily Mail suggested that the prophets Amos and Zechariah may have had something right. As the writer puts it,

“A scientific breakthrough has exposed the truth about a site in ancient Jerusalem, overturning expert opinion and vindicating the Bible’s account. Until now, experts believed a stretch of wall in the original heart of the city was built by Hezekiah, King of Judah, whose reign straddled the seventh and eighth centuries BC. … But now an almost decade-long study has revealed it was built by his great-grandfather, Uzziah, after a huge earthquake, echoing the account of the Bible.”

“… echoing the account of the Bible.” The story reminds me of a scene from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, when a character says to Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow, “You actually were telling the truth.” To which Captain Jack replied, “I do that quite a lot. Yet people are always surprised.”

Throughout the last century, and especially in the last few decades, the scholarly world has been “surprised” to find that the biblical authors were telling the truth. Skeptics assume that the content of the Bible is more “pious fraud” than history, a well-intentioned story to inspire the faithful. And yet the reliability of the Word of God has been repeatedly affirmed, as more biblical archaeological sites are discovered and more extra-biblical sources corroborate biblical events.

From small artifacts to larger sites, recent discoveries lend proof to biblical accounts. For example, DNA found in the City of David confirmed that the Philistines, Israel’s main enemy during the reign of King David, turned out to be exactly the sort of people the Old Testament described. A smaller discovery was of a signet ring that confirmed the detail of an Old Testament character who only gets a passing mention in 2 Kings. And, of course, there was the discovery of the site of the Pool of Siloam, where we know Jesus walked.

These findings match characters and events in the Bible to tangible, touchable, real things, a crucial confirmation for a worldview that is not esoteric but fully grounded in events that took place within human history. Luke, once written off as a fable-maker, is now considered by most scholars to be an excellent and precise historian. Though online atheists may continue to insist that Jesus never existed, no reputable biblical scholar would support this theory. To paraphrase Mark Twain’s preemptive obituary, rumors of the Bible’s inaccuracies have been greatly exaggerated.

Of course, the Bible is a more comfortable book if only merely “spiritually” true and not really true. This is the sort of thinking that has both shaped and sapped the strength of liberal Christianity, such as is found in many mainline denominations. Once giants in American Christianity, most are now mere husks of their former glories, with increasingly empty churches that have dropped all the doctrine but kept the robes and collars of their now rainbow-accented vestments.

The Bible, however, doesn’t offer the option of just believing the comfortable stuff. It demands to be taken as fact or not at all, while making claims about real times and real places, about real people and real things. Most notably, it claims that the God revealed in its pages intruded Himself into the grit and grime of our fallen world in a way that can now be found by archaeological discoveries. If the God of the Bible is indeed God, He is the God of the real world.

It should comfort that what God has given to us in the Bible is true. Thus, it can be trusted in all that it promises, whether about the past, the present, or the future.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com

വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് ലോകമെമ്പാടുമുള്ള ഏറ്റവും ജനപ്രിയ സന്ദേശമയക്കൽ ആപ്ലിക്കേഷനുകളിൽ ഒന്നാണ്. രണ്ട് ബില്ല്യണിലധികം ഉപയോക്താക്കൾ വാട്സ്ആപ്പിനുണ്ട്. എന്നാൽ ചില രാജ്യങ്ങളിൽ വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് നിരോധിച്ചിരിക്കുകയാണ്. ഇത്തരം നിരോധനങ്ങൾക്ക് പിന്നിലെ കാരണങ്ങൾ എന്തൊക്കെയാണെന്ന് നോക്കാം.

വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് നിരോധിച്ച രാജ്യങ്ങൾ:

* ചൈന: ചൈനയിൽ സർക്കാർ കർശനമായ ഇന്റർനെറ്റ് നിയന്ത്രണങ്ങൾ നടപ്പിലാക്കുന്നുണ്ട്, ഇതിനെ ‘ഗ്രേറ്റ് ഫയർവാൾ’ (Great Firewall) എന്ന് വിളിക്കുന്നു. വിദേശ സോഷ്യൽ മീഡിയ പ്ലാറ്റ്‌ഫോമുകളും മെസേജിംഗ് ആപ്പുകളും ഉൾപ്പെടെ നിരവധി വെബ്‌സൈറ്റുകളും ആപ്പുകളും ഈ ഫയർവാൾ വഴി തടയുന്നു. ചൈനയിൽ അവരുടേതായ നിയന്ത്രണ സംവിധാനങ്ങളുള്ള സെൻ‌സർ ചെയ്‌ത സോഷ്യൽ മീഡിയ പ്ലാറ്റ്‌ഫോമുകളും മെസേജിംഗ് ആപ്പുകളും ഉപയോഗിക്കാൻ ആളുകളെ പ്രോത്സാഹിപ്പിക്കുക എന്നതാണ് ഒരു കാരണം.

* ഉത്തരകൊറിയ: ലോകത്തിലെ ഏറ്റവും നിഗൂഢമായ സമൂഹങ്ങളിലൊന്നാണ് ഉത്തരകൊറിയ. സർക്കാർ വിവരങ്ങളുടെ നിയന്ത്രണത്തിൽ വളരെ കർശനമാണ്. പുറത്തുള്ള ലോകവുമായുള്ള ആശയവിനിമയം പരിമിതപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതിനാണ് വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് പോലുള്ള ആപ്പുകൾ നിരോധിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നത്.

* ഇറാൻ: രാജ്യത്തെ അസ്ഥിരതയുടെ സമയങ്ങളിൽ ഇറാൻ അടക്കിടെ വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് താൽക്കാലികമായി നിരോധിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്. സർക്കാർ വിരുദ്ധ പ്രവർത്തനങ്ങൾക്കും പ്രചരണങ്ങൾക്കും വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നത് തടയാനാണ് ഇത്.

യുഎഇയിലും ഖത്തറിലും വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് കോളുകൾ തടഞ്ഞിട്ടുണ്ട്. ടെലികോം കമ്പനികളുടെ വരുമാനം വർദ്ധിപ്പിക്കാനാണ് ഇതെന്നാണ് പറയുന്നത്. വാട്സ്ആപ്പ് നിരോധിക്കുന്നതിന് പിന്നിലെ കാരണങ്ങൾ രാജ്യങ്ങൾക്കനുസരിച്ച് വ്യത്യസ്തമാണ്. ചില സർക്കാരുകൾ വിവരങ്ങളുടെ നിയന്ത്രണവും സെൻസർഷിപ്പും നടപ്പിലാക്കാനാണ് ഇത് ചെയ്യുന്നത്. മറ്റുള്ളവർ ദേശീയ സുരക്ഷാ ആശങ്കകളോ ടെലികോം വരുമാനം വർദ്ധിപ്പിക്കാനുള്ള ശ്രമങ്ങളോ ആയിരിക്കാം കാരണം. അതേസമയം ഈ നിയന്ത്രണങ്ങൾ മറികടക്കാൻ വിപിഎൻ പോലുള്ളവ ഉപയോഗിക്കുന്നവരുമുണ്ട്.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com

http://theendtimeradio.com