The Holy Spirit

God accomplishes His purposes in and through us by His Spirit.  Its important for us to understand a few things concerning the Holy Spirit.

1) A believer is saved if he is born of the Spirit.  This is what it means to be born again.  This makes -all- the difference in a person or a church.  Unless a person has the Holy Spirit inside him, he is not born again and not saved.  This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

2) A person does not receive the Holy Spirit except by the will of God.  There is no singular determining factor except the will of God.  There is no clear time at which the Holy Spirit indwells a person, except for a few times recorded in the book of Acts.  The coming and going of the Holy Spirit is like the wind; its hard to know when and where.

3) Baptism is not required to receive the Holy Spirit.  There is at least one example in the Bible of a person we -know- received the Holy Spirit before being baptized (that being Cornelius and his household, Acts 10).

4) Speaking in tongues is not required to prove the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  In the book of Acts the Holy Spirit manifested different tongues/languages in some people for His own purposes.  God has a plan for all of human history, and the examples of tongues in Acts are one piece of that plan.  To show His power and to announce His presence, the Holy Spirit manifested tongues.  But nowhere in the Bible, which the Holy Spirit authored, did He tell us that this would happen every time.

5) The one clear indication that a person has the Holy Spirit inside him is the fruit of the Spirit.  Jesus taught us that a good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.  A tree is recognized by its fruit.  So we can recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit by seeing the fruit of the Spirit.

6) The Holy Spirit is essential.  While there may be a lot that we don't understand about the Holy Spirit, as they say, "God works in mysterious ways," there are some things that He has revealed to us.  What we do know about the Spirit, its important for us to talk about and understand.  It is also very important for us to understand the false doctrines about the Holy Spirit, so that we can counter them.  False doctrines about the Holy Spirit are very pernicious and destructive; we must teach/preach the truth concerning the Holy Spirit, from the Bible, as much as He has revealed Himself to us.