Bringing Scripture to Life

Years ago when I was working for the Phone Company in Southern California, I was privileged to be able to lead a coworker to Jesus. After the Lord graciously opened up her heart and saved her, she immediately began growing in her faith. Jesus had transformed her so dramatically that she soon joined a Home Fellowship to meet other Christians and continue growing in her faith.  After a few months of going to her new Home Fellowship, she asked me the following question: “My Bible study teacher left me a message on my machine saying that Friday we will be doing spiritual gifts. I am unsure of what he meant. Do I go to the Christian Book Store to find them?” To this day, that is still one of the sweetest, and most memorable questions I have ever been asked. What innocence and pureness of heart she had! How blessed God must have been that she was taking her new walk with Jesus so seriously, wanting to participate to the fullest at her home group, but just a bit uncerta...

I recently had someone ask me if I believed the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit are still relevant today. Here is how I answered him. What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit Scripture tells us the moment we place our trust in Jesus we are baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13; cf. Titus 3:4-6). At that moment, we immediately become a “work in progress” for God in which the Holy Spirit becomes the Chief Architect in our lives. As a work in progress we begin a transformational process, in which t he Holy Spirit indwells (John 14:17), seals (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30), comforts (John 16:7), guides (John 16:13), and ultimately conforms us into the image of Jesus (cf. Rom. 8:29). When talking about Baptism of the Holy Spirit beyond the conversion experience (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:13), I believe it is important to have a clear definition of what we are talking about when we use this term. If baptism of the Holy Spiri...