Elijah, John the Baptist, and Jesus

Malachi was a prophet who lived 400 years before Jesus was born. His was the last book in the Jewish scriptures, and he was the last Jewish prophet until the arrival of John the Baptist. It is recorded in Malachi's 3rd chapter; "Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming . . . He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them . . . so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness". Then at the very end of this last Old Testament book it says; "Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse".

The prophecy here has a double fulfillment because there were two types of restorations that were going to take place. The first is a restoration of hearts being open to God, so that what men would do for God (their offerings) would be acceptable to Him. John the Baptist came as a type of Elijah, according to Jesus in Matthew 11, for those that would accept it. The second would be a completion of God's promises to the Jews as a people and as a nation. And again Elijah, or one like him, would come to help prepare the way of the Lord who was coming both to restore and to eliminate all opposition to Himself.

John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus and no doubt they knew each other. John's father was one of the Levitical priests and was able to have a chance to serve at the main temple and be the one man for that year to enter into the sacred Holy of Holies. The nation would have been aware about the story of the angel appearing to him there announcing the pregnancy of Elizabeth with John, and indeed the common people believed that John was a prophet in their midst, the first since Malachi. The people, recognizing that John was a prophet, and hungry for God, sought him out in the wilderness to find what God's desire was for them. And John told them that God wanted repentance from all desires and actions that were apart from the law of God. When the people went into the water to be baptized they were publicly declaring their sinfulness and desire for a clean heart. John prophesied to them; "I baptize you with the water of repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I . . . He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (John 3:11)

The Pharisees, Sadducees and other religious leaders could not understand the ministry of John because his was a move of the Spirit outside of the Jewish rituals and laws, things they could obey without really having to surrender their hearts to God. And so they didn't recognize the times or the significance of what John was doing. One day Jesus, who was the fulfillment of everything that the laws and rituals represented, came to John to be baptized by him. This was just before the beginning of Jesus ministry. John understood that the purpose of his ministry was to prepare the nation for the coming of Messiah. He knew Jesus and must have talked with Him at times about the fulfillment of scripture. He knew the life and character of Jesus and the Holy Spirit would have witnessed to him that Jesus was, like him, a prophet sent from God. But John does not want to baptize Jesus, saying; "I have need to be baptized by You", and Jesus responds; "Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness".

Jesus was the second Adam, representing mankind in those waters. He was the legitimate and prophesied heir to the throne of David, representing the Jewish nation. And although He was truly God, He was also flesh and blood. His ministry began by being obedient to the Father, and when rising from the waters the Spirit of God descends upon Him, and a voice from the heavens declares; "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am wll pleased." The baptism by John was a prelude to a new life that was coming in the Son, brought by and outflowing with the Spirit of God.

You Shall Receive Power

The book of Acts records that Jesus appeared many times to His apostles during the time between His resurrection and ascension forty days later. Finally He gathers them together and tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" .

I believe it is possible that what we call "the church" had already begun prior to Pentecost. Jesus had gone to the cross, suffered and died in our place, and had become the Father ordained solution for mankind's separation from God. Man needed to appropriate what Jesus had done by having a rebirth of his spirit. Perhaps Jesus still had to ascend to the Father and take His rightful place in Heaven to be glorified by the Father, and then the Father would send the Spirit of Christ by the Holy Spirit to regenerate the hearts of men. And perhaps this didn't happen until Pentecost. The point to be made here is that "the church" consists of all who have a reborn spirit and are thus part of God's family. But there is also an empowerment that the Holy Spirit brings to the soul of man to help him both witness to the kingdom of God, and to live a life directed by the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2 it was said that a noise like a violent, rushing wind filled the whole house where the disciples were waiting and that tongues as of fire rested on each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit was leading them. Peter, who weeks earlier had denied Christ three times, is filled with boldness and stands in front of a large crowd of Jews from around the empire, saying that "God has made Him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus whom you crucified." At this point realize that even the best preaching cannot change the heart unless the words spoken are delivered to the spirit of man by the Holy Spirit. And Acts records that after Peter's talk there were added (to the church, by being born again through faith) about three thousand souls. Then in the months after; "And everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles."

By the 6th chapter of Acts the church had grown large enough that the apostles, wanting to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word, had the believing community select seven men "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" to be in charge of food distribution and elderly care for the community. The apostles commissioned them by the laying on of hands. Two of those , Stephen and Philip, who were not apostles, later on became well known as evangelists. "And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people". Some Jewish leaders tried to debate him but were unable to cope with "the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking". The leaders bring Stephen before the High Priest and Acts 7 records the defense which Stephen makes. This time, unlike with Peter, their spiritual ears were not open to receive the word carried by the Holy Spirit, and they stonned Stephen, making him the first maryter for Christ.

The empowerment of the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost was not only the bringing of the Spirit of Christ for our salvation. It was not just a gift of wonder working power given to the apostles to jump start the church and to write the New Testement scriptures. The Spirit was sent to empower all believers with the grace and power to live lives holy and pleasing before God. And to empower all believers to be able to go out into the world to lead others into His kingdom. Many Christians live without that empowerment because the community around them have erected barriers, whether by ignorance or design, to the expectation that the Holy Spirit can move in power in each believer's heart today.

The Star Over Bethlehem

When I was about five years old our family took a vacation trip to Florida. One of our stops was at St. Augustine where there supposedly was a place where Ponce-de-Leon found the fabled fountain of youth. They had a cup of the water dipped from the little grotto spring for each person to drink, but when it came to me I refused saying; "I want to be a grandpa someday". I actually lucked out twice. Everyone else drank what they described as foul tasting water and still got old, and I've been blessed with a bunch of beautiful grandchildren.

About that same age two other things happened. I was walking with 3 young friends a block from my house and one of them suggested that we all pick up stones and throw them at the next car that drove by. Everyone gathered their stones, a car turned the corner, we each made a throwing motion, and I was the only one to actually let the stones fly. The automobile came to a screeching stop and a rather angry man came out of the car and asked; "Who threw those stones?" Each of my "friends" pointed their hands toward me and said; "He did!" "Well, don't do something so stupid again" the man said, then he got in his car and drove off.

It was a year or two later and our class at St. Francis de Sales was in training to receive our first holy communion. We would start each school day by going to mass and one day during communion the thought occurred to me that maybe this was the day we were suposed to go up and receive communin. Thinking about it now I don't know why I came to that conclusion. It certainly wasn't a special Sunday service, no one else from our class had gone forward, and I was sitting in the middle of the row. Well, I went up, opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue, got the host, and went back to the pew. A minute later the nun who was our teacher came over to me and wisphered; "Stich out your tongue!", which I did. She then turned around and went back to her own pew, but I never heard another word about it from her. Later that day when I was home I told my dad what had happened. "I think I just had my first unholy communion". My dad laughed and said: "Did the same thing myself when I was your age."

I bring up these old stories for two reasons. The first is because my daughter Becky "tagged" me, asking for a few little know facts about myself that I should post on my blog. But the second is that this is a good time of year to talk about Grace. Grace is receiving blessing and favor that you don't deserve. The man getting back into his car, the nun going back to her pew, and the attitude of my dad showed me grace. And I also learned at an early age that I might as well be good because it seemed I usually got caught.

The star over Bethlehem is a sign of God's grace. It pointed to the location of the birth of the Word of God who was "now in flesh appearing":. It represents a light that shines in the darkness, bringing God's grace and truth to mankind. "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ". (John 1: 14-17)

Enter The Holy Spirit

At the end of the 13th and into the 14th chapter of John, Jesus is telling His disciples that the time was coming soon when He would be glorified, and this would bring glory as well to the Father. This meant that He would be leaving them. Peter, wanting to follow Jesus, asked Him where He was going, and Jesus responds that Peter could not follow where He was going now (Jesus was talking about the cross), but later he would be able to follow (Jesus would rise from the grave, ascend into Heaven, and be with the Father). In my Father's house are many dwelling places . . . I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also". Note that the emphasis here is not that He is preparing a mansion for us in Heaven, but that our dwelling place is to be with Him and the Father.

Jesus assures His disciples that they will know the way He is going. Thomas then says that if they don't know where He is going then how can they know the way. And Jesus answers; "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me". Then Jesus teaches His disciples that they will know the Father by knowing Jesus, because His words are the Father's words and His works are the Father's works. "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father".

Now Jesus tells His disciples that the Father will give them another "Helper" (Paraclete) who would be with them forever, that is the Spirit of truth, who the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you". A little later Jesus says; "These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you, 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".

Earlier in His ministry Jesus sent out seventy of His followers in the power of the Holy Spirit to do the works of the Father; proclaiming the kingdom, healing the sick, and casting out evil spirits. And the Holy Spirit that was imparted upon them enabled them to come back with joy saying that "even the demons are subject to us in Your name." (Luke 10). But now Jesus was telling them that soon this same Holy Spirit would be living in them. In Acts 1, forty days after the resurrection and just before Jesus ascends to Heaven He commands the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for what the Father had promised through Him; "John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now . . . you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses". And the Father poured out the Holy Spirit upon the church at Pentecost 10 days later.

All believers have a reborn spirit that is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Baptism speaks of an immersion, and the baptism with the Holy Spirit given at Pentecost was an immersion of the Holy Spirit into the soul of man, for the purpose of doing the works of the Father. The soul (mind, personality, will, desires) usually changes a lot after salvation because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the spirit. And all born again believers yield to the working of the Spirit that ministers to their soul to one degree or another. But God also has available to man a baptism, an inflooding, a surge of the Holy Spirit into the soul that clears away many of the barriers of doubt, fear and pride that reside there even after being born again. Surrendering our souls to the mighty wind and the incoming flood of the Holy Spirit should result in the "greater works" that Jesus spoke about.

Our Eternal Home

Many people understand salvation as being the place where one ends up at after death. They believe that if some eternal scale ends up weighted in their favor they will go to heaven. Religion then is the effort to tilt one's fate toward a favorable location. Life is a journey. You are either walking away from God (or Heaven), or toward Him. Thus they believe that when you have made a commitment to follow Jesus you have stopped walking in a negative direction and are headed to a positive one, hopefully earning enough points along the way to pay for your heavenly ticket.

Well, there is a place that we know as Heaven, and God does reside there, but the problem with the above view is that salvation is not a pie-in-the-sky hope for a peaceful resting place type of thing. The tendency of man always has been to "show me the rules and tell me what I need to do".  But that viewpoint, that attitude, is actually the outcome of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil through which Adam sinned. Instead of relying on the direction of the Holy Spirit we want knowledge and religion to point us toward actions that will balance things our way because we can then outwardly work toward the goal of Heaven while inwardly remaining the lord of our own lives.

The suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus was not done to create bonus points that would outscore sin. It was done so that Jesus, who was truly God, present with the Father from the beginning, but also truly man, would have a glorified human spirit. This Spirit of Christ could now unite with our dead spirit so that two things that were separate (His Spirit and our spirit) would unite (as do sperm and egg at conception) so that our spirit could become a new creation. 

The confession of our sins to God and our request for Jesus to forgive those sins and to live in our hearts is much more than an intellectual decision to follow Christ and to walk the right path. It is not a sacred religious act designed to earn value. Rather it is our admission that we cannot be justified by our own efforts and our surrender to Jesus to be the Lord of our lives.

Salvation then is becoming part of God's family through the new birth of our spirits. When this happens the Holy Spirit, now residing in our spirit, ministers light and truth to our souls. And many things change at this point because our interests and desires and the way we view things become more Christ-like. We have salvation because our spirits are new, and although this almost always results in the process of our souls being renewed we still retain a streak of rebellion in our souls. 

This rebellion (sin) does not nullify our salvation. Sin does not kill our spirit again. We will not be eternally flip-flopping in and out of being a child of God. That is because although we say that salvation is a free gift from God, that there is nothing we can do to earn or deserve it, we must remember that our lives are no longer ours. Our life now belongs to God. 

The gift is free, but by accepting the gift we surrender all. When we sin as a believer we are hurting our fellowship with God but are not changing our relationship. The desire of a believer, because of relationship and fellowship, is to be where the Father and the Son are.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,

who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious that gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Teach Us To Pray

We pray to worship God, to confess our failings and our weaknesses, to make our needs known to Him, to intercede for family, friends, country, and for those in authority over us, to ask His blessing. We pray to a God we do not see but who sees us. A God who created all physical and spiritual matter, who planned and designed the atoms and the cell, who is beyond our comprehension, but who has revealed Himself to us in three persons. This God has made us part of His family and wants to have a relationship with us. And prayer is how we come to know Him and who He is.

In God’s revelation to us as being one God in three persons, He has presented Himself in scripture in a way that allows us to know how to approach Him. Isaiah 63:16 says; "You, O Lord, are our Father, Our Redeemer, from of old is Your name". Jesus tells His disciples in Matthew 6: "when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father", and again "Pray then in this way: "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be your name". Jesus is telling us to address our prayers to the Father. And notice that the best way to begin our prayer is by worship and praise. Yes, we can address our prayers to Jesus, and I believe those prayers will go directly to the Father, and that is because we come to know the Father through Jesus, who said; "All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son, except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father, except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him". (Matt. 11:25) We need to realize, though, that (as my Hispanic friends might say) it is "more better" to address the Father.

Here is an example from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in chapter 3. "I bow my knees before the Father (this reflects the attitude we go to prayer with)

from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, (acknowledging that we all owe our existence to Him)

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, (proclaiming our faith that He is able to answer our prayer)

to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, (Paul’s request for the Ephesians)

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; (the reason for the request)

and that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." (the desired result).

And that is also my prayer for you.

The Well That Never Shall Run Dry

In John's 4th chapter is a story about Jesus stopping at Jacob's well, which was in a Samaritan town. He meets a woman there and asks her for a drink of water. She thinks this was quite unusual because normally Jews advoided any contact with Samaritans. The Jewish people hated the Samaritans because they were a people brought in to resettle a part of Northern Israel by the Assyrians a couple of generations earlier, and their blood was mixed Jewish, non-Jewish (Gentile) blood. The Samaritans center of worship was not in Jerusalem, but at Mt. Gerizim. When she questions Jesus He answers; "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." And Jesus goes on to say; "Everyone who drinks (of the water at this well) shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

The woman does not understand the spiritual point that Jesus made. He then gives her a word of wisdom (knowledge about someone or something that is revealed by the Holy Spirit) to the woman, and still not understanding, but impressed, she responds with a theological question. "I perceive that You are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place that men ought to worship." Jesus tells her that even though her people were worshiping the Father, they didn't understand who He was. The Jews did, because salvation is from the Jews. But there was coming a time when if would not matter where the Father was worshiped. An hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

After Adam and Eve sinned the Spirit of God was not flowing through their spirits. They had made a decision to elevate the soul over the spirit, so God gave them physical signs to represent spiritual realities. The blood sacrifice was one of those. God chose Abram to be the father of a special people, the Jews. The Jewish people would have hearts (spirits) that would be able to be receptive to temporary giftings of the Holy Spirit, and would be able to approach the Father spiritually to a greater extent than could non-Jews. To signify being set apart God instituted another physical sign, circumcision, for Abram (afterwards called Abraham) and His descendants. Circumcision represented a cutting through of the flesh (body) to the spirit.

And God also set up the tabernacle, which would later on be incorporated into the temple in Jerusalem, and gave His people the oral and the written word, and the commandments written on stone. But here is the part that was usually missed, both then and today. The physical things represent spiritual realities, but because God is spirit He is approached on a spiritual basis, and that comes through faith. For example, God set up through the tabernacle a sacrificial system, yet several times in scripture God tells us that the sacrifice itself was not His purpose, that He takes no delight in the blood of bulls and calves. God was looking for both obedience and for the desire of the heart; for true repentance, and for faith that God was both Just and Loving. (see Psalm 51: 16-17)

God instituted the law to compel the Jewish people to the tabernacle (temple). And in the center of the tabernacle, in the Holy of Holies, was where (for a time) the glory of God rested. And every part of the tabernacle speaks of Jesus.. Later Jesus would come, and by being the perfect sacrifice for sin, He is able to enter into our hearts to change them, and to live there. Our hearts then become a tabernacle where the Holy Spirit dwells, and out of our hearts should come as well, rivers of living water.

You Must Be Born Again

In the 3rd chapter of John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night and says to Him what many would say today; "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 answers Nicodemus by saying; "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus asks the obvious question; "How can a man be born when he is old?" To which Jesus replies; "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."

Nicodemus, recognizing that Jesus was sent from God, wanted to gain understanding in his mind (soul) as to what the will of God was. Jesus tells him that the will of God is to be "born again". He goes on to say that one must be born of "water", which I think is referring to both physical birth and to the baptism of repentance happening with John the Baptist at that time, and "the Spirit", which I believe is talking about the regeneration, or rebirth, of the dead human spirit through the action of the Holy Spirit. "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Jesus then gives Nicodemus an example from scripture that will also apply to Jesus. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." In the 21st chapter of Numbers the Jewish people complain against God and Moses that they were brought out of Egypt only to die in the wilderness, to which the Lord responds by sending fiery serpents among the people. Many were bit and many died. The people then go to Moses, repent, and ask Moses to intercede for them. The Lord instructs Moses to make a fiery serpent in bronze and set it on a standard, and then if anyone is bitten they should look at the standard and they would live. Jesus uses this as an example. He too would be lifted up on a standard, detestable like the firery serpents, because the sin of mankind would be put upon Him on that cross, and the result would be that all who look upon Him (in faith) would live.

Jesus was without sin, but sin was put upon Him on the Cross. He suffered, bled, and died as the perfect, God proscribed sacrifice. And God raised Him from the dead. Here we find that there is again something new in creation. Jesus, who always was, who had a human body, soul and spirit, paid the cost that God demanded. This means that the human spirit of Christ that went to the cross, brought to us by the Holy Spirit, can now unite with our dead spirit, and we can become "born again". The exciting thing here is not only are our sins forgiven, not only will the sin of Adam be canceled, but we can have an alive spirit where Christ will dwell. And the Holy Spirit, who reveals to us that Jesus is God, who brings the spirit of Christ to unite with our spirts so that we become a new creation, will also live in our reborn hearts as well. This allows for fellowship with God, but more than that, we now are part of God’s family, truly brothers and sisters with Christ.

In The Fullness of Time

God is spirit, and He created both the spiritual world and the physical world. From time to time in the Old Testament God appeared in a physical form to interact on a personal basis with individuals. We understand that this was Jesus, and these instances are refereed to by Bible scholars as appearances of the "pre-incarnate Christ". One example can be found in Joshua 5, when prior to the battle of Jericho, Joshua looks up and sees a man standing opposite him with a sword drawn. "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" asks Joshua, and the man answers; "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." That this was Jesus instead of an angel is known because in scripture angels never accept worship, but God does.

All people born after Adam and Eve sinned were born with a spirit that is dead (separated from God), and this included Mary (Rom. 3:23) Mary was chosen by God to provide the human dimension that would unite with God so that Jesus could be born human. From Mary came an egg that had the potential for a body, soul and spirit person. In Luke 1 the angel Gabriel says to Mary; The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God". The Holy Spirit provided what was needed for the egg to become fertilized, and the result was something totally new. Jesus, who was not the Father but was one with the Father, who always was and through whom all things were created, became a human whose makeup was totally human; body, soul and spirit.

The one difference was that because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, His spirit was alive to God. There must be a defect in the DNA of man, caused by the sin of Adam, that causes the spiritual deformity leading to a dead spirit. And Jesus did not have the defective gene that would normally come from the father. Even though Jesus's spirit was alive and in union with God, He was still in a position where His communication with the Father came through prayer and through His having learned to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit and the miracles performed came not because Jesus was God. Recall that Jesus often spent entire nights in prayer, and that His ministry began after His baptism by John, when the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. The Holy Spirit then drives Jesus into the wilderness where after 40 days He is tempted in the flesh; "tell this stone to become bread", and in the soul; All this domain and it's glory will become yours if you fall down and worship me." (Luke 4). And Satan also suggested to Jesus that it would be much easier for Him if He simply jumped off the temple tower and got caught by angels (so the people would immediately proclaim Him the messiah).

The good news for us as believers is that because of what Jesus did on the cross, our sins are forgiven, our spirits are reborn, and we have dwelling in us the same Holy Spirit that moved in power through Jesus. In remaining sinless Jesus was the spotless sacrificial lamb, able to be the perfect substitute to meet God's demand, truly human, and truly God.

The Two Trees - Part II

"the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them." (Genesis 3:21)

Before Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they obviously were not wearing clothes, yet they also were not embarrassed or ashamed to be that way in front of God or each other. One reason may well be that they were, in a sense, clothed with light. Their spiritual bodies were filled with God's glory because His Holy Spirit was freely moving there, and their physical bodies were both projecting spiritual truth into the physical and reflecting God's glory by being in His presence during those evening walks. "God is light, in Him is no darkness at all." (1 Jn. 1:5) An example of the physical body reflecting light from God is found in the third chapter of 2 Corinthians, speaking of the condition of Moses after he had been in the presence of God (Edodus chapter 34), "the sons of Israel cound not look intently at the face of Moses, because of the glory of his face."

Moses wore a veil over his face until that glory faded because that glory was temporary. And the solution that God had for Adam and Eve by making garments of skin for them was also temporary. To provide leather garments God took an innocent animal and killed it, shedding it's blood, to provide a covering for the people who had sinned. This is a spiritual law for man that God first showed Adam, and which is carried on throughout the Old Testament. The solution was temporary because when God saw the blood mixed with the faith of the one making the blood sacrifice, He would withhold his judgment of the sin, but He did not restore the condition of the spirit of man.

The offspring of Adam and Eve, and all of their offspring, would be born with a spirit that was separated from God. God would, from time to time, inject into those spirits a gifting from His Holy Spirit to do a special work or ministry. Thus we see the OT prophets as well as the great persons of OT faith listed in Hebrews 11. But Jesus even said of John the Baptist, who was filled with the Spirit from the womb; among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he". (Matt. 11:11)

Getting into the kingdom of heaven was made possible by the shedding of Jesus's blood for all, from Adam to me and you. His sacrifice was not to cover sin, but to remove it. And He would remove it by doing something that would change the spirit of man. Sin caused a change in the condition of man's spirit. All are born with a nature that is in conflict with God because, thanks to Adam, all are born with a spirit that is separated from God. The solution then is not just the forgiveness of sin. It also requires a rebirth of the spirit.

The Two Trees - Part I

"And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2: 8-9)

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die." (Genesis 2: 16-17)

In the early chapters of Genesis we find the following things happening. God is the designer and the creator of all that is in the heavens and the earth and he sees that all that He has created is "good". He decides to make man "In Our image, according to Our likeness" so that man will rule over every living thing. He instructs Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it." God's only warning for Adam is to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sometime later Eve is near that tree and Satan, disguised as a serpent, questions the wisdom of God's warning. Eve sees that the tree was "good for food . . . and desirable to make one wise" and she eats the forbidden fruit and gives it as well to Adam, who also eats. For the first time they realize they are naked and they cover themselves with fig leaves. When they hear God taking His evening walk in the garden they get frightened because they were naked and so they hide. God finds them and asks "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" God tells them that now the ground is cursed because of what they did and that their physical bodies would eventually return to dust. He clothes them with animal skins and sends them out of the garden so they will not eat of the tree of life and live forever (condemed).

Isn't it strange that the sin of Adam and Eve was in eating the fruit of a tree called "knowledge of good and evil?" To understand the problem we go back to the idea that man is a three part being; body - soul - spirit. We know that God is spirit (John 4:24) and although He took on a physical form and spoke with an audible voice, for Adam to be able to recognize that what he saw and heard was God he needed to receive this information through his spiritual senses, not just his physical senses. Before Adam disobeyed God his spirit was in communion with God through the Holy Spirit. I believe it was God's design and plan for the body of man to be subject to his soul, which was in turn in union through his spirit with the Spirit of God. Or think of it this way. The Holy Spirit was in a sense an umbilical cord from God, connected to man's spirit, bringing truth and life to the whole being of man.

When Adam ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he was trying to obtain spiritual (moral) truth in a reverse direction. The physical would give knowledge to the soul, apart from revelation from God through the spirit. The effect on man and mankind was profound. His spirit was cut off from the ongoing action of the Holy Spirit, the umbilical cord was severed, and spiritually, man died. He still was body, soul, and spirit, but his spirit had no life because it was separated from God. The soul now would be in constant battle with the body, a body that now would eventually grow old and return to dust.

The world would wait for the promised "second Adam", who would one day bring a rebirth to the spirit of man, restoring what God had originally designed, and adding something even better; access to the tree of life, eternal life with God.