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

When Jesus came as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), He announced the good news of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14). What is the Kingdom of God? The rule of God emanates from the throne of God in Heaven. Hence, the Kingdom of God rules over all of creation (Psalm 22:28; 24:1; 103:19).

Consequently, when Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 4:17), He declared that restoring the created order back under His rule as it was in the Garden of Eden (before the fall) was now inaugurated.

We see themes relating to the work of restoration to Eden throughout Scripture (Isaiah 11:6-9; 51:3; 65:17-25; Ezek. 36:34-36; Romans 8:19-21; Rev. 21:1-5).

In light of this, we see that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is related to the reconciliation of the world, not merely to individual sinners (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The following are eight ways the Kingdom of God is connected to the Edenic state.

1. Through work

God’s first act after creating Adam was to put him in a garden to work and keep it (Genesis 2:15). Even before Adam had a family, he worked unto the Lord. (Hence, using our abilities to work is not merely to provide for our family but is an act of worship since we are reflecting Yahweh who worked for the six days of creation.)

Consequently, Paul the apostle commands the Church to work and to be a blessing to others (Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11). Paul even declares that if a man does not work, he should not eat! (2 Thessalonians 3:10)

Thus, Christians are called to work and plant the Garden of the Lord as part of our Christian witness that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

2. Through God’s provision

God planted humanity in a lush garden with enough to sustain it even before Adam worked. Humans did nothing to earn what we were born into, yet God provided everything we needed for sustenance through His grace.

Consequently, continuing to receive divine provision is one way the Church manifests the Kingdom of God to the rest of the world.

3. Through holy matrimony

God joined one man and one woman to be “one flesh” as the foundation of civilization (Gen. 2:21-24). Before there was human government, there was marriage. Thus, His Kingdom influence started with biblical marriage.

Also, the fact that God made binary gender to represent His nature implies that it takes both male and female to transmit the image of God to the next generation (Genesis 1:27). Hence, two men and two women cannot fully transmit the image of God to the next generation.

The main reason why Satan distorted biblical marriage with alternative forms of family as well as through the proliferation of pornography and divorce, is to prevent the complete image of God from being transmitted to the next generation.

Consequently, when Christians live faithfully together in holy matrimony and raise their children in the Lord, they plant the Garden of the Lord and manifest His Kingdom in the world.

4. Through defining reality

God brought the animals of the earth to Adam so he could name them (Genesis 2:19-20). As God’s vice-regent, it was up to Adam to name and define reality. Thus, whoever defines a thing can categorize and frame the perspective of that entity.

This is why there is an ideological push to reframe biblical symbols such as the rainbow and to redefine biblical concepts such as marriage, gender, human sexuality, and social justice (Genesis 9:13).

The rainbow symbolizes God’s promise to Noah that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood (Genesis 9:13-17). Today, the rainbow is widely recognized as a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community, representing diversity and inclusion.

Marriage

Historically, marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman. Many societies now recognize same-sex marriages and broader definitions of partnerships and unions.

Gender

Gender was traditionally understood as strictly male or female, based on biological sex.

The concept of gender has expanded to include a spectrum of identities beyond the binary male and female, such as non-binary, pansexual and genderfluid.

Woke

The connotation of the traditional meaning had to do with a conversion experience in which a person’s eyes were opened, and they were turned from darkness to light, which is why the term “awakening” was used to describe masses of people coming to Christ (Acts 26:18). Now ”woke” has been hijacked to describe people who ascribe to the far left (woke) ideology. Consequently, the Church is called to function as cultural creatives who define reality for society in a way that aligns with the Kingdom of God.

5. Through cultivation

Adam was called to cultivate the Garden of the Lord and subdue the rest of the earth (Genesis 1:28). Similarly, believers are called to plant systems and create art that reflect the beauty of the Lord as depicted in the Garden of Eden for human flourishing.

6. Through multiplication

As God created the world with the ability for every living thing to multiply (Genesis 1), the Ephesians 4:11 ministry gifts were called to equip people who can multiply biological families, churches, and businesses, so the seeds of the Garden of the Lord will eventually fill all things (Ephesians 4:10-12)

7. Through stewardship

As God called Adam to steward the created order, God has called the church to nurture people capable of managing their families, churches, and businesses and to produce Christ-followers capable of stewarding leadership in society for the glory of God.

8. The ‘tree-centric’ world on the 8th day

The Tree of Life was in the midst of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9). Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection created a “Tree-Centric” world since the cross (tree) of Christ became the Tree of Life that brought healing and reconciliation back to the created order (I Peter 2:24). Since Jesus rose on the 8th day, this also represented new beginnings regarding the process of the renewal of all things.

Consequently, as Christ-followers live a cross-shaped life, they will be His agents of healing that plant the garden of the Lord as an oasis of hope amid broken cities.
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com