Subscription Lists

What do you think when you hear the words "Holy Spirit"? Do you instantly envision some kind of firey shapes resembling tongues coming down upon those on the Day of Pentecost? Or, do you imagine an invisible power of some kind moving in invisible ways among the people of God and the world?

All of this would be valid thoughts and impressions. However, there is so much more to the Holy Spirit than we can hardly imagine.

Prior to the Father sending His Son into this world to redeem mankind back to Himself, God's activities in the world were mostly manifested through angelic beings. There are many instances of God's workings in our world through angelic appearances to men, through personal appearances of angels working with individuals and groups. Sometimes only one angel, but at other times there were angelic hosts of many manifesting themselves as an army on horses in dazzling white and flaming swords, etc. Angelic beings were God's agents and messengers to mankind in myriads of ways.

There were many occasions of direct intervention in the affairs of mankind, at times on a one on one relationship, sometimes interacting with armies in wars and catastrophes, and so-called natural disasters. A striking instance of this kind of intervention in world affairs is recorded in the book of Daniel (Daniel 10:9-13). Sometimes these angelic representives performed their assignments invisibly. At other times, they were manifested in stunning ways. In a sense, God governed His world through the agency of His angelic beings.

However, in sending Jesus Christ to His earth, the second phase of dealing with the His world began. For the most part, God no longer dealt with the world and His chosen ones via the angelic agency, but now He began working in the world and the church through the third (not third in rank or importance) member of the Godhead - the Holy Spirit. He has always been in the world, prior to Jesus resurrection, but after Jesus going to sit at the Father's right hand, there began the direct and very active working in His people and the world by the Holy Spirit. Now, God via the Holy Spirit has been sent to directly live in human beings. But only those who have turned from their own ways to God's way, believed in Jesus Christ, and now yield to Him. Since the Holy Spirit is invisible, even as the Father and Jesus are now invisible, somehow He (the Holy Spirit) is not often mentioned, and at times forgotten or ignored. He has become the forgotten God.

The Holy Spirit manifests God in some unique ways. He manifests the gentleness of God. He has the tenderness of God, and is greatly grieved at times because of the attitudes, conduct, and resistance to Him by the Christian. It is His responsibility to "seal" the Christian to be redeemed for resurrection to eternal life. He is particularly grieved by our words. He is in us. So He knows us. And He hears us (Ephesians 4:29-32).

There is at least one other huge responsibility of the Holy Spirit in the world. Not is He only is He living in us as God's children, He is the unseen Spirit that governs all the activities of mankind in the world. He is directly involved in the affairs of the modern world, and all of its nations and peoples. If it were not for the restraining power and influence of the Holy Spirit, there would be even more evil workings in the world than those we can see. He is restraining and gauging the evil activities of Satan, of men, and of nations. It is He who permits or restrains all the affairs of nations and powers on earth.

The Holy Spirit is the restraining force in this world, curbing the many antichrists as they exist today, and the final antichrist who will appear in connection with the Second Coming of the Lord (1 John 2:18). An antichrist cannot come now, and will not in the future, be able to do anything without the specific permission of the Holy Spirit who regulates the events of the world to accomplish God's eternal plan. The Holy Spirit has always been accomplishing the will of the triune God. At times, He has come in unique ways, at Christ's incarnation, at Pentecost, in working with the churches.

It is the Holy Spirit - "the forgotten God" - who will allow certain things to take place in the world in order to accomplish God's plan according to His own timetable (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12).

That plan directly involves you and me.

"Do you not recollect that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining him [from being revealed at this time]; it is so that he may be manifested (revealed) in his own [appointed] time. For the mystery of lawlessness (that hidden principle of rebellion against constituted authority) is already at work in the world, [but it is] restrained only until he who restrains is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming." - 2 Thessalonians 2:5-7 AMP)

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

Honoring A Father