The Blessing of God's Holy Spirit
While God's love toward us is unconditional, His other blessings are conditional, as this verse states.
1. We must love God
2. We must keep His commandments
3. We are to pray to The Father
That we might receive The Holy Spirit. It is The Holy Spirit who reveals in us the understanding of the Scriptures we are reading and hearing. It is The Holy Spirit who teaches us God's Word and leads us through it It is The Holy Spirit who gives us the boldness to speak of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. For there is no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved --Acts 4:12.
And we need saving. We cannot save ourselves from death, nor the grave, nor hell. We are impotent and without power to save ourselves: we need a Savior. That Savior? Is JESUS CHRIST, God's only begotten Son.
We must first come to the realization that it is through Christ we are saved from damnation, before we can even begin to seek God's face and receive His Holy Spirit. No putting the cart before the horse here. Ephesians 2:8 "By grace are we saved through faith".
Jesus is God's gift of salvation.
The Holy Spirit is God's gift of power.
Jesus did the work of God's plan of salvation.
The Holy Spirit works in us to bring forth the fruit of that salvation.
We NEED The Holy Spirit. We need Him actively moving in our lives, weaving The Word into our spirit, our soul, our body. For we are the bride of Christ and we need to be ready to greet Him.
While God's love toward us is unconditional, His other blessings are conditional, as this verse states.
1. We must love God
2. We must keep His commandments
3. We are to pray to The Father
That we might receive The Holy Spirit. It is The Holy Spirit who reveals in us the understanding of the Scriptures we are reading and hearing. It is The Holy Spirit who teaches us God's Word and leads us through it It is The Holy Spirit who gives us the boldness to speak of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. For there is no other Name under heaven by which we can be saved --Acts 4:12.
And we need saving. We cannot save ourselves from death, nor the grave, nor hell. We are impotent and without power to save ourselves: we need a Savior. That Savior? Is JESUS CHRIST, God's only begotten Son.
We must first come to the realization that it is through Christ we are saved from damnation, before we can even begin to seek God's face and receive His Holy Spirit. No putting the cart before the horse here. Ephesians 2:8 "By grace are we saved through faith".
Jesus is God's gift of salvation.
The Holy Spirit is God's gift of power.
Jesus did the work of God's plan of salvation.
The Holy Spirit works in us to bring forth the fruit of that salvation.
We NEED The Holy Spirit. We need Him actively moving in our lives, weaving The Word into our spirit, our soul, our body. For we are the bride of Christ and we need to be ready to greet Him.
