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DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
1]
The Holy Spirit is the
essence, power, mind and spiritual extension of God. God begets
Christians as His sons through this Spirit. It strengthens a Christian
spiritually, converts his mind and serves as an earnest or guarantee of
eternal life.
DOCTRINAL OVERVIEW
2]
The Holy Spirit is
described in the Bible as "the Spirit of God," "the Spirit of the Lord,"
"the Spirit of Jesus Christ," "the Spirit of truth," and "comforter" or
"advocate." It is the power of God, the mind of God and the extended
means by which God accomplishes His work throughout the universe. As
such, the Holy Spirit is not a separate entity, it has no independent
existence as an individual entity or person within the godhead.
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3]
It was through His
Spirit that God created the earth (Gen. 1:2). It was through this Spirit
that David received his moral strength (Psalm 51:10-13), and by it Elijah
and Elisha-men with normal physical proclivities and weaknesses-were
made into powerful prophets of God (2 Kings 2:9, 15). Even though these
men and others had access to God's Spirit, it is also clear that they
were among the relative few who in the Old Testament era were blessed
with the privilege of actually having the mind and power of God work
with or dwell within them.
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4]
God uses His Spirit to
accomplish all His work. Whether causing prophets to prophesy, kings to
reign, craftsmen to create (Ex. 31:3), bodies to be moved (Ezek. 3:12,
14) or people to keep His laws (Ezek. 36:26-27), everything God does is
through the power of His Spirit.
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5]
God is spirit (John.
4:24); both members of the godhead ("Elohim"), Father and Son, are
literally composed of spirit; they are wholly made of spiritual
essence, in the same fashion as we are made of physical particles. Yet
God the Father and Jesus Christ are separate beings: each maintains His
own distinct identity and independent existence; and each, therefore,
utilizes His own "Spirit," though both the Father's Spirit and Christ's
Spirit are an integral part of the common Holy Spirit. The being
who later became Jesus Christ was the God who revealed Himself to the
patriarchs and prophets and worked with them. When He utilized His mind,
His nature and His power, He was doing so through His Holy Spirit which
was the projection of His own unique, perfect spiritual power. God the Father
was unknown in the Old Testament; Jesus Christ came to reveal Him in the
New. God the Father was the one who begot Jesus Christ; He did so
through His Spirit, which is the same Spirit He begets spiritual
children through today. Indeed, God the Father has retained to Himself
the unique capacity to beget new spiritual beings.
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6]
Under the New Covenant
the Spirit of the Father has been made available in a universal way, as
was explained by Peter on the day of Pentecost when the Church began
(Acts 2:17-18). Before His death, Christ
promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit, which then worked with
them should be given to them and should actually be in them (John.
14:17). This "Comforter" should teach the disciples all things and
remind them of all that Christ had said to them (John. 14:26).
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7]
This same Spirit which
was given to the disciples on the day of Pentecost is available to all
whom God calls. Upon true repentance granted by God and upon true belief
in Jesus Christ, one may be baptized and then receive God's Spirit
through the laying-on-of-hands ceremony performed by God's ministers
(Acts 2:38; 8:12-17). God further states that He gives His Holy Spirit
only to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32). God's Holy Spirit is
efficacious-it creates deep changes within the individual, actually
converting or changing the type of mind that the person possesses. The
Holy Spirit generates within Christians its very fruit, which "is love,
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance" (Gal. 5:22-23). It encourages us through trials and empowers
us to do the Work of God.
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8]
Once a person receives
the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, he must use it in order to grow in
the knowledge and grace of God. God's Spirit gives Christians the mind
of Christ (I Cor. 2:16) to enable them to view life from a godly
perspective instead of from a selfish one. It is this power that gives
us the capacity to obey God. The deep mystery of the plan of God for
mankind cannot be completely and totally understood without the Holy
Spirit (I Cor. 2:7-10).
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9]
Of even greater
significance is the fact that through this Spirit we are actually
"begotten" as sons of God and become members of the body of Christ-the
Church (I Cor. 12). I Corinthians 12:13 reads,
For by one Spirit are we
all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we
be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one spirit. The
seed of this Holy Spirit, planted by God after baptism, grows and
develops spiritually within us as we grow in obedience and submission to
God's law. The Holy Spirit is dynamic: it flows from God to and through
the Christian and is expressed in his attitudes and actions. The more we
use God's Spirit the stronger our new spiritual life becomes. Finally,
at the resurrection, this spiritual part of us becomes the totality of
our composition and essence and overtakes the physical, so "that
mortality [our physical essence] might be swallowed up of [spiritual]
life" (2 Cor. 5:4).
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10]
God's Word reveals that
the Holy Spirit is an "earnest"-a formal pledge or assurance-of eternal
life which God has implanted within us making us sons. As long as this
Spirit is living within us, we are actually sons of God and brothers of
Christ. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His" (Rom. 8:9). "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14). Indeed, the presence of the Holy Spirit is
the best criterion to define the true Christian: it is his only real
ratification, for one cannot be a true Christian without it. As long as
we nurture the Holy Spirit, and continue to renew it daily within us (2
Cor. 4:16) through prayer and diligent study of God's Word, then this
earnest of God's Spirit is the absolute guarantee that we will be
resurrected to spiritual life at Christ's return . (Eph.
1: 13-14).
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