Tag: Holy Spirit

COMFORTER III

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COMFORTER 3

By Rick Mathes

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Our Holy Spirit is a person equal in all respects to the Father or Son. I am still inspired by His humbleness. He doesn’t have a name. There are titles and appellations but no proper name and nothing like Jehovah God or Jesus the Son. The main misconception is that He is a power, force or level of faith. He’s a real person with intellect, reason, logic, feelings and all the fullness of the Trinity. Isn’t He something!

His faithfulness to His commission to amplify Jesus in your life is about as laid-back and as selfless at it gets. He is wholly existent to fulfill the purposes of cause and effect, purpose and accomplishment of God’s fashioning of your life. He exudes love, the perfect affection, unadulterated by the stain of sin.

God is love and apart from this instilled understanding from the Holy Spirit, we would continue in lust and worshipping false gods of materialism and sensual lusts. By knowing the real deal through Him we have a spiritual discernment and can spot the devil with a Christian mask on.

I know it’s the love of God because I am always comforted by Him. He never tires of meeting me where I am in the condition He finds me in. The closer I draw to Him the more unworthy I see myself. I see in His light the sine that lingers within me as a stain resists the cleanser. How can we measure His relentless enthusiasm and His present concern for our pursuit holiness in Christ?

It is a wise decision on your part not to languish over what you don’t understand. You need to act on what you do know because it is a matter of life or death. The Holy Spirit enlightens what you need to know and act on exactly as you need to. This is different for each soul as we differ from each other so don’t measure yourself by someone else’s progress or failure. Look up not out.

Believe me it is safe to be in active pursuit of the Holy Ghost’s blessing and proper to pray accordingly. He is ever present and always successful in all He attempts to do on your behalf. All you need to do is crave and desire Him more than the sin you are plagued with. It’s a blessing to be in bondage to the Holy Spirit and a slave of Christ’s. Give it all up for Him. He did for you!

COMFORTER II

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COMFORTER 2

By Rick Mathes

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to walk in His shoes until He returns in glory. That is quite a responsibility to be our instructor, helper. In fact that’s a major issue for us Protestants. We don’t agree that just the Pope has the only correct interpretation of God’s Word not to mention the Pope’s new revelation that Paul condemns. We are to be instructed by God the Holy Spirit in all truth, the full Gospel without exemption. The Bible is the total and exclusive words from the very mouth of God, the Logos. The Rhema is the Holy Spirit teaching the essence of the Word to only believers. It is virtually impossible for an unbeliever to understand the God’s Word apart from the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

He is also the Advocate. I’ve studied two years of law and have founded a prison ministry so I have a good understanding of the criminal justice system and the department of corrections. I know the lawyer; advocate can be the key player in the judgment of your guilt or innocence.

Our Intercessor knows our case very well. Every word, action and even every thought we have ever had in our entire lifetime has been recorded, videotaped in surround sound for all to see, hear and witness in real time! No escaping the total reality of our relationship or lack of it with the King. Now we can stand before a Holy God without even a speck of sin to His knowledge.

In real life the Comforter is very busy communicating our repentance, submission and obedience to the Father much to the joy of the Son. When we become born-again, the Holy Spirit erases every sin we have ever committed from the backboard. And then every time we sin the devil writes our sin back on the blackboard and when we repent, the Holy Spirit erases it, back and forth. So the battle for our freedom in Christ goes on and on. Having an active compelling Comforter, Instructor, and Advocate in my life is a solid evidence to me of my salvation.

How much would you pay for contentment? Then why don’t you release the Holy Spirit within your heart and experience it? Satan has a litany of reasons why you shouldn’t do it right now and you are buying into them. Am I wrong? Then get on your knees right now and pray, “Father God, by your grace I have been saved, Brother Jesus, by your stripes I have been healed, Holy Spirit, you know the mind of the Father and the heart of the Son; What would God have me do?”

I guarantee He will answer you.

COMFORTER

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COMFORTER

By Rick Mathes

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.

Islam teaches that Jesus sent Mohammed to be our counselor and teacher not the Holy Spirit. Talk about scripture twisting, they also claim that Abraham was to sacrifice Ishmael not Isaac. How out-there can one get. Yet, most people you ask haven’t a clue what or who the Holy Spirit is and what His involvement is in our lives to this moment! I won’t even begin to suggest to you that I am the final word on this issue but I have made a few observations the teachings of the Bible that makes the Holy Spirit a critical component of my life in Him.

The Paraclete is definable to the extent that we understand Him to be equal to the Father and Son. Now I have read many books and articles trying to explain that the three independent personalities are one person and none of them make any sense! But just because I don’t understand it doesn’t mean God doesn’t know it. I just accept the Trinity by faith in the Word that says it is so. I like the analogy that the Father is the sun, the Son is the illumination and the Holy Spirit is the warmth between them. Or how about one times one times one equals One?

What can I say with certainty is that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. He brings the warmth of the Son into your heart and being. He embraces us with the confidence that everything is going to be ok. It’s a real blessed assurance not a counterfeit that the devil cooked up. You can’t touch the flames without pain and where there is smoke, there is fire. But when the dove lights on your head, the peace that surpasses understanding washes your soul and enlightens your heart with an appreciated confidence that strengthens your resolve to press on.

The Comforter provides comfort to the comforted!

This is a real life experience with the Holy Spirit that is felt, actuated and confirmed by the Word of God and the lives of the spirits submitted to the Lordship of Jesus. The unbelieving doctor said, “Can you see, smell, taste, hear, taste or feel the Holy Spirit?” The Christian answered, “I can feel Him.” “That makes it 4 against and one for. As a doctor of medical science, I won’t accept that as fact.” The Christian countered, “Can you see, smell, hear, taste or feel pain?” The Doctor admitted he could feel pain. The Christian countered, “Then it’s a fact the Holy Spirit is as real to me as pain is to you. I pray you believe and the pain will pass!”

COMFORTER

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COMFORTER

By Rick Mathes

Who or what is the Holy Spirit? If I ask 100 Christians I will get 100 answers that share a shred of similar gold: comfort. Isaiah 40:1 pleased God to comfort His people unaware that the God he was praying to was comfort personified in the third person of the Holy Trinity. He is the Comforter and the comforted.

All His attributes intersect at comfort. What are the components?

Let’s begin with the relief that comes with knowing we have the heaven’s best attorney, our Paraclete before the highest court of law. This ultimate Judge only has two sentences; eternal life or eternal death. So it is very comforting to have the Holy Spirit stand in our defense of deserving the death penalty.

Once we have been exonerated of all culpability of crimes worthy of the flames. We now have our best Friend monitor our activities, kind of like a house arrest. We are under constant surveillance and every infraction of God’s favor is dutifully brought before our attention by a genuine guilt that causes a sincere repentance before the bench of justice.

Now we are teachable and willing to hear, listen, learn, apply and then evaluate all the Holy Spirit lecture us on. We become His most apt and attentive student. Oh, what will our report card say!

This last stage is a real “follow the leader” stage. Whoever the Holy Spirit leads we must follow without question. Faith means just that. Our Lord is going to do with us what He wants to, when He wants to and if He feels like it. His Holy Spirit is our advocate for all the good we do to please Him and all the bad we do that angers Him is forgiven.

It is refreshing to know that there is a God that loves the weary and those perplexed with life’s complexities. It is so comforting to know who or where we are to turn when life seems unbearable. Jesus said he would not leave us without the Holy Spirit to walk with us as He would until His return. How comforting to know that He is with us when we need Him the most. We are never alone and always have Him to turn to when our world is upside down. He really is our Comforter and for that reason we need to thank Him!

AN EXAMINATION

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AN EXAMINATION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB77) 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

No one enjoys the “final exam.” There’s something foreboding and nerve wracking about it and my hands are perspiring already! This is, however, what our Lord commands us to do before we share in the communion of the saints. We shouldn’t be afraid to test our faith and beliefs is we are secure in Him. The adage, “Birds of a feather flock together,” is so true.

So start your self-examination by looking around you and see if those you keep company with respect the Jews ou have come to respect in bread and wine. Are you one of them? When others see you will they label you by the company you keep? Remember that you can’t hang out with dirty people and not get some dirt on you.

If I followed you around day in and day out for a week would I collect enough information to convict you of being a Christian? I an speak for me that my habits changed drastically when I made Jesus my Lord. You won’t find me anywhere near blatant sinners if I can help it. I have a brand new regimen of activities. I only continue in those that please the Lord and magnify His name.

Once Satan has your thoughts for even a moment He advances to conquer your mind. I have even had evil thoughts in the midst of my praying. That scoundrel is so low life he has no respect for any thought but that which is evil and offends our Lord Jesus Christ.

Looking closer you will notice that my affections have done a real one-eighty. My heart beats with His and I love what He loves. I’m under new management now and my love of life has changed from temporal to eternal.

Certainly not last nor least but yet most important is for you to examine your motives. What are your underlying and ulterior motives? Underlying motives are on the table for all to see and ulterior motives are under the table, out of sight. If you are honest with yourself, you have both and for your best interests you need to be very aware of them and pray that both would be pleasing to Him. Take a private exam and let Jesus grade it, not hu.

AN ANGEL SPOKE

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AN ANGEL SPOKE

By Rick Mathes

Acts 6:15 (NASB77) 15  And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.

Stephen was one of our first deacons. He was an honorable disciple of Christ that had no problem letting his fellow Jews know that their sins killed the long awaited Savior. The more popular he got the time of his execution drew closer. In those days the church was primitive and fresh from the personal fellowship of Jesus. Our Lord was very real to them and they expected He would return at any moment. So in the faith of certain martyrdom, this brave young man preached his own funeral sermon with vitality and truth. It was a model message for all the ministers to follow would admire and meditate on.

To keep listeners close attention, the speaker should be courteous and appropriate to the circumstances. Cracking jokes at a somber funeral would be quite out of place.

The audience deserves a certain respect for having went through all the inconveniences associated with them all assembling to be uplifted and edified by the message and music. In our economy, sad to say, most attend church with a “score card” they fill out to rate the service and decide if returning is worth all they went through to attend.

For a discerning member the sermon is the main focus of the whole worship service. It’s only logical to expect a clear brief and Christ-centered Word from the Lord.

We don’t go to church; we are church that takes time to assemble together in our chosen House of Worship. I’m burnt out on “Kentucky Fried Christianity” and I have a personal mission to point all who will listen to the early church that denounced sin and lifted up the Body of Christ in their pursuit of holiness.

All the onlookers needed to hear and see for a powerful sermon could be found in Stephen’s last words and actions. He preached that Jesus rose to glory with his last breath on holy ground and Oh, Lord I pray I go home the same way!

AMBIENCE

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AMBIENCE

By Rick Mathes

Acts 28:2 the natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.

There is a special comfort in building a campfire to gather around in Christian fellowship. The chill of the winter air is so refreshing but the crackling flames, songs that fill the air and wholesome laughter transform both body and soul. Such is the emanation from Holy Spirit from the pages of God’s love letter to us. The Bible brings an enlightenment that awakens a love within that only His cross could provide. It embraces our body, mind and soul in a rush of His resurrection and the enablement of the Holy Spirit to step forward as an ambassador of the King, in peace.

Prayer is that special ability to bridge the gap from the created to the Creator: this is a privilege for believers only. In private, we can dialog with Jesus our deepest secrets and fear without restraint. It’s a social intercourse that words sometimes cannot capture. The Holy Spirit intercedes, the Lord brings our praise or petition to the Father and He nods His approval. Think of what can be accomplished in our church society if we would all point our swords in the same direction: that’s when the warming assurance and comfort comes up on the Body of Christ.

We then lift our spiritual ears to the heavens and have that special communion and fellowship with Jesus. Meditation is the lesson we receive from Him often prompted by our prayers. For a seeking sinner or forgiven saint, it’s a big bear-hug from our best friend, Jesus. If you are astute and have your spiritual antennae up you feel that in the fellowship of like believers. The Body of Christ, the church, the visible and invisible engulf our very being when this experience occurs with a repentant heart.

The fellowships of Christians help us to return to our first love, to worship and enjoy our Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit invites us to join Him in the friendship and love of fellow believers. This is a fulfillment of returning to our first nature of actually being love in His Shekinah light: perfecting once again an ambience that only a submission to Him can provide in holiness.

ALL OR NOTHING

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ALL OR NOTHING

By Rick Mathes

Luke 9:23 (NASB77) 23 And He was saying to them all, ” If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Salvation is not free. It costs everything. We must exchange all we are for all His is. It is a total displacement of who we were for who His is. That’s Christianity, being Christ-like. Not religion.

If you sense in your heart a yearning for Jesus to be Lord, praise Him because you have been especially chosen to be His. No one comes to Him except the Father gives to Him. You are elect and like metal to a magnet, you can’t avoid coming to Him. You are not able to turn back for long for the urge to be His is too great to resist

If you confess Jesus as your Lord, you must submit to His Lordship in everything. This includes those times and places when no one is watching. Well, He’s all present so there isn’t anything you can get by Him. He sees it all. You are His slave and He owns you totally. So like boing water through coffee grounds you process your every move through Him.

We know the cross He carried for us but we usually don’t accept the cross we need to carry for Him. We have been charged with sinning and sentenced to die to self so that we might live to serve Him. It all begins at the foot of the cross when we collapse under the weight of our sinful life and repent of our sins at the feet of the Master.

We must be wholly His to be holy. You can’t be part saved either. You are or you aren’t. When you do, submission to His will naturally follows and He becomes the Hand and we become the glove. He goes about the Father’s business in our skin.

Michael Angelo was asked how he knew that David was I that discarded block of marble. He replied that he just kept chipping on that marble that which wasn’t him. So it is with us as our Lord chips away at our sins so that we might repent, say “Ouch!” and slowly return to our first nature which was to walk in the presence of God. It’s our second nature to sin but all that changes when you are brought to that moment of truth by the Holy Spirit where it is all or nothing.

HOW TO REPENT

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HOW TO REPENT

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 3:2 “ Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

We need to start out with: Jesus wants you! Now you can wiggle and squiggle like worms on a hook but you need to face it; you are hooked. What Jesus wants, Jesus gets so it is futile to fight the inevitable. Jesus will have you and sooner is a whole lot better than later. He wants to bless you as a loving Father to his son if only you will let him.

So what are you to do when faced with a seemingly irresistible sin? Or in other words, how do you avoid committing this shameful act before the cross of Christ?

The very first thing is you must do is stop dead in your tracks. Just plain stop. Don’t go an inch further. Just shut down all your body parts and senses. Go on disconnect.

Then you need to turn around. Don’t get all hyper and upset and do something stupid or mare shameful. Don’t move. Let your mind catch up with your better judgment. Let the Holy Spirit get behind the wheel once more.

Now you need to turn around. Put you back to the devil and press on! It’s time to hurry back to Jesus. Do not hesitate and don’t look back. You may not have another chance so take this one dead serious and don’t let this opportunity pass you by.

There are three levels of confession and conversion.

The first is intellectual. You need to confess Jesus Lord in your head and really mean it. Don’t try to understand everything about God because you never will. He has informed us through the Word and works of Jesus to take the narrow road to glory and leave all the filth Satan has thrown at is behind.

I don’t trust feelings because feelings because Satan can counterfeit them but when the Word of God and only the Word of God touches my heart, I know it and so will you. We can’t explain it to a non-believer but the Holy Words come alive and now we begin to walk the talk and confess Jesus AS Lord. We have moved from easy-believism to Lordship Salvation when we believe and obey.

ABSORBED

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ABSORBED

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 3:19 (NASB77) 19  and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

I am an evangelical Baptist, conservative, Calvinist, fundamental no nonsense ordained minister. Whew! I am not dazzled by others claims of celestial fireworks, the raising of thousands of the dead in Africa and testimonies of those who died and then went bowled a line or two with Jesus. However, I did have a theophany personally that made a profound change in my attitude toward death.

I was in my bedroom praying at night and repenting of sins back to the day I was born whn my invisible body burst from the darkness into an expanse of sky blue. I knew my body was there but I couldn’t see it. All of a sudden love encompassed me like being under water except it was love. Then like a sponge, I soaked in all that love and I became love. What an unbelievable rush

I believe Jesus gave me a taste of heaven.

Now let’s get back down to earth with you and ask, “What can you hold of the Holy Spirit?” Do you have the will and capacity to soak up love into not just your heart and body but completely including your soul? What would you think then of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

Let me put in the best words I can. Father God is the lover, the Son is the loved and the Holy Spirit is the love between them. It really is because I personally experienced this infilling of the Holy Spirit that I understand this on a new level.

Can you even imagine the works of God you could accomplish if this happened to you? I have now continued in Him by turning lives from crime to Christ for over 30 years. What would happen to you? God only knows!

What is the fullness of the Holy Spirit? How much Holy Spirit is there and how much room do you have for Him in your life? And what would happen if you received all the fullness of God? Wow!

When you were drinking and drugging to the max you weren’t afraid to die so why are you afraid to mainline Jesus and live? Try it you will like it and life will never be the same again.