The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-03-10
Home Of the Spirit
Lesson for March IL, 1861

HOLY Spirit. Could he say as
much to the average Christian
today? On the contrary. the or
binary Christian nowadays finds
the Holy Spirit hard problem.
His notions about the Spirit are
very hazy. His immediate reac-
ton to Jesus words, you know
him." would be a denial and a
question: mo, don't know him.
How can know him?"
One reason why we are con-
fused and uncertain about the
Holy Spirit may be that we start
thinking at the wrong point. We
wonder what Spirit" means,
and what Holy" means. Since
they are two KS in our minds,
OF course the Holy Spirit means
nothing definite either. A better
place to start is not with some
definition, but to look at what
Jesus had to say about this. We
must remember that this you
know him. was spoken before
Pentecost. There had been no
descent, of the Spirit" on the
first Christians
I'm My Name"
AS matter of history, many
persons have claimed to pos
sess, or to be possessed by. the
Holy Spirit; but not all these
persons have been acknowledge
ed by the Church. In I John Al
tan epistle written by the author
of the 4th Gospel Christians are
told not to believe every spirit
but to test them to see whether
, they are truly "of God" The
test spoken of in the Epistle is
suggested already in the Gospel:
Is the alleged Spirit in har-
mony with Christ? Does the
Spirit confess" Jesus, is the
Spirit "in the name" of Jesus?
There have been in American
history several self-styled proph-
cts or Bearers Of the Spirit, but
| the church has not accented
them just on their own say-so;
indeed. Though it's a feeble
false prophet that can't get some
body to believe himD the church
has rejected early all these
prophets so-called. largely be-
cause their lives were not
Christlike and many Of their
teachings contradicted or dis
torted the teachings of Christ.
Esprit Of Truth"
Another sign by which we can
know the Holy Spirit is the SIM
pie sign of truth. God does not
sponsor lies. II am so full of the
Spirit that I can't sin any
MORE" a man told the writer of
these lines some years ago.
Well. that man, still claiming to
be full of the Spirit, first coveted
and then ran away with an
other mans wife. He had con-
WINGED her, poor soul, that since
he was filled with the Holy Spirit
anything he wanted to do would
be free from sin. A Christian
with better sense would have a
right to suspect a man who
claimed that it is right to break
the Ten Commandments and to
do what God has condemned as
sin. So when people who claim
to be spiritual" make Bible in
terpretahonS that twist and de-
stroy what the Bible actually
teaches; when they make proph-
ecies that do not come true;
when they claim to have the
central place in Gods kingdom
which rightly belongs only to
Christ. then we have every rea-
son to know that whatever they
may be filled with, nonsense.
madness or wickedness. they are
not file d with the Spirit of
Truth.
Conditions
The Christian church very
early in its existence concluded
that the Holy Spirit is nothing
less than God. In other words.
the doctrine Of the Trinity meets
us here already in these simple
vet profound sentences from
Jesus last supper with his
friends. If it seems too hard to
understand, remember three
simple truths. One: If you could
understand all about the Trim
ity, you would know all about
God-and only God can do that.
Two: You will yer be any
nearer God than you are to the
Holy Spirit, no nearer than you
are to the Holy Spirit, no nearer
than you are to Christ. Three:
If Father. Son and Holy Spirit
are TO make their home" with
you. there are two conditions.
First is love and the second a
test of the first is obedience
God is Lord Of all men: but he
comes to make his home only
where the door of loving obedi-
ence is open to him.
Biased on outlines copyright
cd nv tho Division If Christian