Tag: spirit

  • Philip: Preaching to Good and Bad Samaritans

    Philip: Preaching to Good and Bad Samaritans

    ACTS of Philip the Evangelist

    Φίλιππος Philip who?

    Luke 3:1 Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod [Antipas] was tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis ..

    • (No, not that Philip, whose wife Herodias his brother Herod Antipas took as his own wife.)
    Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis

    Jesus chose Twelve Apostles at the beginning His ministry in Galilee. The Apostle Philip was one of the Twelve.

    Philip has been an Apostle for about five years now.
    The year c. A.D. 32 or 33.
    • (But it’s not that Philip, either. Don’t get confused like I did.)

    When Simon Peter healed a lame man and spoke at Solomon’s Portico just two years ago, Philip would have observed the entire miracle. (Actually, two men named Philip may have been present.)

    Our other brother Philip 🙂

    As we learned in An Apostolic Model: Administration of a Growing Church from Acts 6:

    As the church grew rapidly, the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples, asking them to choose seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom to lead in ministering to the Church: Steven, Philip and five others.

    • (Yes, this other brother Philip, a leading deacon of the Church, second in the list of seven, is known as Philip the Evangelist.)

    So now after Stephen’s trial, the Church in Jerusalem faces imminent persecution.

    Philip heads back north through the mountains of Judea, traveling one of their usual routes to Galilee through Samaria.

    mountains between Jerusalem and Samaria
    Samaria was destroyed by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, and again by the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus in 108 B.C. The city was rebuilt by Herod the Great between the years 30–27 B.C. According to Josephus, Herod expanded and renovated the city, bringing in 6,000 new inhabitants, and renamed it “Sebastia” in the emperor’s honor (translating the Latin epithet Augustus to Greek Sebastos, “venerable”). – Source: Wikipedia

    Acts 8:

    We will return to Luke's chronology shortly, but lets begin with a parallel timeline from his account of events in *Sebastia from the perspective of its people.

    The ‘not so good’ *Samaritan

    ..there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery [μαγεύω] in the city and astonished the people of *Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.”

    μάγος – magus
    • the name given by the Babylonians (Chaldeans), Medes, Persians, and others, to the wise men, teachers, priests, physicians, astrologers, seers, interpreters of dreams, augers, soothsayers, sorcerers etc.
    • the oriental wise men (astrologers) who, having discovered by the rising of a remarkable star that the Messiah had just been born, came to Jerusalem to worship him
    • a false prophet and sorcerer

    Luke had begun his account with Philip's departure from Jerusalem following the execution of Stephen.

    Philip went down to the city of Samaria
    and began proclaiming the [Messiah] Christ to them.

    ACTS of the Apostles 8:5 NASB20
    Philip leaves for *Samaria fully aware its reputation. He's been there before and passed through the town many times. And Jesus had illustrated general Jewish thought about this city and these northern tribes in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

    Miracles and Signs by Philip

    6 And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed;

    Philip, along with the Apostles and many other disciples following the Lord had witnessed Jesus’ power to command evil spirits. Peter healed a lame man in Jerusalem, just one of several Apostolic signs of power. Now we learn of Philip’s miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.

    ACTS (of the Apostle philip) 8:7b – NKJV

    GOOD vs. EVIL!

    Scripture records several contests similar to Philip’s opposition. Some of these contests between God (good) and evil have taken place on this very mountain where Philip encounters Simon Magus.

    False prophets and idolaters deceive others by spirits (i.e. demons, devils, angels) from all that is evil.

    Our 21st century Christian minds easily dismiss powers we cannot explain.

    • Do you really believe in such powers of the spiritual realms?

    Acts reveals the Power of the Holy Spirit [πνεῦμα].

    • “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit G4151; you are doing just as your fathers did. – Acts 7:51
    • But he, being full of the Holy Spirit G4151, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God – Acts 7:55
    • They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit G4151!” – Acts 7:59
    The HOLY SPIRIT of the ONE GOD, WHO IS One with God the Father and the One begotten Son Christ Jesus, works for good in the hearts and lives of sinful men and women like us once we turn to Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
    • Acts of the Apostles is a first century account of a continuing battle between Good and Evil.
    • The Good News (Gospel) of the Lord’s death and resurrection is that JESUS will win this war.

    Simon Covets Philip’s Power

    Of course this power is not from Philip, but from the Holy Spirit.

    11 They [the Samaritans] were attentive to him {Simon] because he had amazed them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.

    13 Even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he followed Philip everywhere and was amazed as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed.

    • Philip’s signs are more powerful than the power of Simon Magus, who the Samaritans called, ‘the great power of God!’
      • Was Simon’s baptism a complete turning from evil and a permanent cleansing?
      • Did Simon receive the Holy Spirit
        • (even as Ananias and Saphira had claimed, yet sought to deceive the Holy Spirit and other believers)?
      • Luke tell us: 16 ‘They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
        • Baptism alone does not make you any more faithful to Jesus than Ananias and Saphira OR Judas.
    Philip continues teaching of new believers in Samaria with great success.
    

    Meanwhile, back in Jerusalem..

    14 When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

    Why Peter and John?

    About eight days after these sayings, He took along PeterJohn, and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.

    Luke 9:28 NASB20
    Stained glass window of Jesus with James, John and Peter at the transfiguration

    Peter, James and John know the Person of Jesus more intimately than the other nine Apostles.

    1. These three comprised an inner-circle of leadership for the Lord Jesus.
    2. The Twelve in turn lead other disciples (hundreds of them at times), so that now these Apostles lead a growing Church.

    The Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven! (At the conclusion of Luke’s Gospel and opening of ACTS of the Apostles, leadership passes to them.)

    Simon Peter leads this inner circle of the Apostles, all of the Twelve (including Mathias), Jerusalem’s seven deacons (including Stephen and Philip); and NOW [c. A.D. 33] many disciples of Jesus beyond Jerusalem as they, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.’


    Peter and John join Philip in Samaria

    ACTS 8:15 After they went down there, they prayed for them so that the Samaritans might receive the Holy Spirit because he had not yet come down on any of them..

    Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

    • Apparently Simon is not of one accord with these new believers in Samaria. So the magician has missed out on the blessings of the Holy Spirit;
      • But the powerful always covet more power.

    18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying,

    “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

    If Simon’s story had ended here

    • Would you recognize this false prophet, a teacher with power?
      • Do you realize that such a man must bow down to the LORD God or face judgment with eternal consequence?
    • Does Scripture not warn us how to handle such sheep in the designer clothing of wolves?

    ACTS of the First Century Church

    Stephen had just called out such false leaders in Jerusalem! For two years now the Apostles have demonstrated signs from God to Jerusalem’s leaders. Revenge and persecution fill its political streets.

    These leaders of the Great City of religion misused Scripture. AND false accusation meant to silence opposition to the Truth of the Gospel, resulted in their false leadership condemning Stephen to death!

    The Lord Jesus Christ had warned of others to come. Simon Magnus could have been one of the first.

    “And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people.

    Gospel of Matthew 24:11 NASB20

    Jerusalem

    Peter’s Reaction to Simon

    YOU want such power, right? To make a lame man stand? Heal someone’s cancer? Help someone paralyzed with pain to get up and walk once more? Even to save a young man or woman from death? (Stephen was just thirty years old)

    So did Simon, who like so many just offered to pay Peter for such POWER.

    “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

    ACTS 8:19 NIV – Simon’s request to Peter

    PETER would have none of it.

    20 But Peter replied,

    “May your money be destroyed with you for thinking God’s gift can be bought! You can have no part in this, for your heart is not right with God.

    Acts of the Apostles 8:20-21 NLT

    Is YOUR heart right with God?

    8:21 οὐκ ἔστιν σοι μερὶς οὐδὲ κλῆρος ἐν τῷ λόγῳ τούτῳ ἡ γὰρ καρδία σου οὐκ ἔστιν εὐθεῖα ἔναντι τοῦ θεοῦ

    21 وَلَيْسَ لَكَ حِصَّةٌ أوْ نَصِيبٌ فِي هَذَا الأمْرِ، لِأنَّ قَلْبَكَ لَيْسَ سَلِيمًا أمَامَ اللهِ. 22 فَتُبْ عَنْ شَرِّكَ هَذَا وَصَلِّ إلَى الرَّبِّ، لَعَلَّهُ يُسَامِحُكَ عَلَى الفِكرَةِ الآثِمَةِ الَّتِي فِي قَلْبِكَ. 23 فَأنَا أرَاكَ مُمتَلِئًا مَرَارَةً وَعَبدًا لِلخَطِيَّةِ.»

    ACTS of Repentance

    “Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours,
    and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart will be forgiven you.

    Acts of the Apostles 8:22 NASB20 Peter’s admonition to Simon Magnus

    23 for I can see that you are full of bitter jealousy and are held captive by sin.”

    24 “Pray to the Lord for me,” Simon exclaimed, “that these terrible things you’ve said won’t happen to me!”

    Returning to the scene of the crimes against Christ and His Church:

    Acts Apostolos - Acts of the Apostles - the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church including early leaders like Stephen, Philip the Evangelist, Paul, Barnabas and many others

    25 After testifying and preaching the word of the Lord in Samaria, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem. And they stopped in many Samaritan villages along the way to preach the Good News.


    ACTS of Philip (the Deacon Evangelist): TO BE CONTINUED...
  • Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    Acts of the HOLY SPIRIT

    “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

    Gospel of John 3:8Jesus Christ teaching on the Holy Spirit

    Introducing the Third Person of the Trinity:

    Acts 1:

    Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.

    We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.

    What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.

    Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).

    4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …

    Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:

    “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,

    but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

    Acts 1:4b NASB

    God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV

    Baptism

    And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.

    The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.

    Ascension of the Lord Jesus

    The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.

    Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.

    He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.

    Acts 1:7 CSB

    but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses G3144 ..

    Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20

    μάρτυς Witness (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)

    • martys [gk.] [Strong’s 3144] Definition:
    • a witness
      1. in a legal sense
      2. an historical sense
        • one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
      3. in an ethical sense
        • those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death

    Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.

    Roger@talkofJESUS.com

    Jesus was taken up as the Apostles watched!

    Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!

    The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!

    How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?


    You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.

    The Holy Ghost in Acts – KJV

    The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

    To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

    And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.


    Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.

    For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

    Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)

    ἁγίου  πνεύματος – hagios pneuma the Holy Ghost

    Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.

    So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.

    hagios – HOLY

    • from ἅγος hágos (an awful thing) (compare G53, G2282); sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):—(most) holy (one, thing), saint.

    pneuma spirit

    KJV translate this as:

    GHOST

    people receiving the Holy Spirit descending like a dove
    (May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)
    
    READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:

    Outline of Biblical Usage 

    1. the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
      1. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
      2. sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
      3. never referred to as a depersonalised force
    2. the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
      1. the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
      2. the soul
    3. a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
      1. a life giving spirit
      2. a human soul that has left the body
      3. a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
        1. used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
        2. the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
    4. the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
      1. the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
    5. a movement of air (a gentle blast)
      1. of the wind, hence the wind itself
      2. breath of nostrils or mouth

    ACTS in the Spirit

    Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.

    • And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
      • Acts 4:31

    And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

    Acts 5:32
    • And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
      • Acts 15:8
    • And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
      • Acts 19:6

    Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWEfilled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:

    • Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38

    Acts Apostolos - Acts of the Apostles - the chronicles of Christ's Apostles - a history of Christ's Church

    to be continued..

    Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

  • Life in the Holy Spirit

    Life in the Holy Spirit

    Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to those God the Father draws to Him, but Who is this unseen spirit from the LORD God?

    “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”

    Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…

    John 7:38-39a ESV the invitation of Jesus

    Promise of the Holy Spirit

    Heart of the Spirit

    I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart... Psalm 111.1 with picture of cornucopia
    Psalm 111:1

    Every illustration of the Holy Spirit fails in part because spirit is unseen, a concept we explored last time in Life in the Spirit. One Hebrew concept of the place of the spirit is the heart. Moses tells us of the LORD’s heart (prior to the Shema):

    5:29 מִֽי־יִתֵּ֡ן וְהָיָה֩ לְבָבָ֨ם זֶ֜ה לָהֶ֗ם לְיִרְאָ֥ה אֹתִ֛י וְלִשְׁמֹ֥ר אֶת־כָּל־מִצְוֹתַ֖י כָּל־הַיָּמִ֑ים לְמַ֨עַן יִיטַ֥ב לָהֶ֛ם וְלִבְנֵיהֶ֖ם לְעֹלָֽם׃

    ‘Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!’ – Deuteronomy 5:29

    But Scripture also points to the inherited evil in the hearts of mankind.

    The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,”
    They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice;
    There is no one who does good.

    Psalm 53:1

    Jesus cautions us, explaining the heart as the source of the words flowing from our mouth. The conversation has been about water and cleansing.

    “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

    Matthew 15:18-19

    John 7:

    Once again in Jerusalem at the Feast of the Booths the crowds look for His return after Jesus gave signs confirming that He IS the Messiah of God.

    11 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?”

    12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.”

    This time the controversy with Jesus brings the Lord to promise the Holy Spirit to those God chooses.

    Note that we do not initiate it, but must only respond to God the Father IF He draws us toward the Christ, Jesus.

    Rivers of Living Water

    37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.

    He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

    the Good News of John 7:38 NKJV

    Do you believe?

    painting of Jesus sitting on brim of a well with a woman seated on the ground listening to the Lord

    Earlier in His ministry to the Jews, Jesus had met a woman at a well of Jacob along a road in Samaria.

    John 4:

    9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

    Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

    She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?

    “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

    John 4:13b-14 NASB

    Even prior to this sign that Jesus is a Prophet (and more), the Lord converses with one of the most learned Pharisees about the Holy Spirit.

    John 3:

    “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” …

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    John 3:5-6 NASB

    the Holy Spirit is spirit

    and that Spirit is life

    When Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a teacher and ruler of the Jews about the Holy Spirit, He points directly to the Spirit of God!

    Just one example here to consider:

    Now these are the last words of David.
    David the son of Jesse declares,
    The man who was raised on high declares,
    The anointed of the God of Jacob,
    And the sweet psalmist of Israel,
    “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
    And His word was on my tongue.
    - 2 Samuel 23:1-2 NASB

    Later as Jesus enters Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey for His Passover Sacrifice on the Cross, crowds of Jews will praise the Lord:

    Hosanna, Son of David!

    Nicodemus and many others had already heard of the signs and reliable witness by the Prophet John the Baptist, confirming Jesus receiving the Holy Spirit of God the Father.

    Jesus receives the Holy Spirit

    Consider a young Jewish man born in Bethlehem of Judea, taken to Egypt as a child to return to Nazareth and Capernaum in the Roman Syrian province of Galilee. Even as a boy Jesus had visited the Temple.

    He later returns regularly to Jerusalem with confirmation of His own deity by a Prophet nearly all of Judea has recognized.

    John 1:

    15 John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ ”

    face of john the baptist in prison

    John answered them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know. It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” – John 1:26-27

    32 And John bore witness, saying,

    “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me,

    ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

    34 And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

    The Son receives the Holy spirit from the Father

    Jesus describes Himself as the ‘Son of Man,’ yet He IS the Very Image of God the Father walking among the men of an unredeemed Israel.

    He lived without sin before receiving the Spirit, praying directly to the Father, but now a part of the LORD, of which He IS a living man receives the spirit from above – the Holy Spirit.

    The familiar imagery of a dove may mislead eyes which cannot see. The Gospel records something mysterious and undescribable (much like angels) that the Spirit descends like a dove, He (the Holy Spirit) descends from the sky upon Jesus.

    Then the LORD God the Father SPEAKS from Heaven confirming the Jesus IS the SON.

    HOLY, HOLY, HOLY

    Is your flesh cleansed enough to receive the living water from the Holy Spirit?

    It cannot be, unless the LORD draws you to the well of the Living Water of the Christ, the Messiah Jesus. And then, you must receive Him, the Son of Sacrifice and eternal life.

    image of angelic seraphim from Isaiah 6: towering over earth and a man with clouds and lightning.
    6:2 שְׂרָפִים עֹמְדִים מִמַּעַל לֹו שֵׁשׁ כְּנָפַיִם שֵׁשׁ כְּנָפַיִם לְאֶחָד בִּשְׁתַּיִם יְכַסֶּה פָנָיו וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְכַסֶּה רַגְלָיו וּבִשְׁתַּיִם יְעֹופֵֽף׃

    Isaiah 6:

    … I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

    Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

    And one cried unto another, and said,

    Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

    Isaiah 6:3b KJV

    And the Prophet Isaiah says (witnessing these angels above angels, but below the Lord Jesus in obedience):

    Woe is me! 
    for I am undone;
    because I am a man of unclean lips,
    and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips:
    for mine eyes have seen the King,
    the LORD of hosts.

    John the Baptist, Prophet of God who witnessed the Holy Spirit descend upon the Son Jesus says:

    “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

    And before the return of Jesus to the Father He testifies to the Disciples drawn to follow Him:

    “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.

    John 14:26 NASB

    ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John