Have you ever pondered the indispensable role of the Holy Ghost in your spiritual walk? Join me, JJ, as we venture into the heart of Christianity to uncover the profound influence of the Holy Ghost in shaping our faith and guiding our journey toward salvation. As we navigate through scripture, we delve into the doctrine of being born of water and the Spirit, as preached by Jesus Himself. We confront the perplexing questions head-on: Why is the Holy Ghost vital to our inscription in the Book of Life, and how does it empower us to sidestep sin? We unravel these mysteries while exploring context within the Bible for a complete understanding. The episode is a beacon for those seeking a transformative connection with the Holy Spirit, as we recount the palpable changes in the lives of early believers, witnessed in the Book of Acts.
Witness the electrifying moment when the Holy Spirit descends, marking a believer's faith with the external sign of speaking in tongues—a phenomenon often misunderstood and steeped in controversy. I'll guide you through the different expressions of this spiritual gift, distinguishing between personal edification and its purpose within the congregation. The journey doesn't stop there; we'll explore how the Holy Ghost acts as a compass, pointing us toward heavenly aspirations while equipping us with the discernment to differentiate the person from their deeds. This episode is an invitation to embrace the unity and strength that comes from the Holy Ghost, binding believers across diverse backgrounds with a common thread of divine insight. Tune in for a soul-stirring discussion that promises to enhance your understanding and bring you closer to the essence of your faith.
Have you ever pondered the indispensable role of the Holy Ghost in your spiritual walk? Join me, JJ, as we venture into the heart of Christianity to uncover the profound influence of the Holy Ghost in shaping our faith and guiding our journey toward salvation. As we navigate through scripture, we delve into the doctrine of being born of water and the Spirit, as preached by Jesus Himself. We confront the perplexing questions head-on: Why is the Holy Ghost vital to our inscription in the Book of Life, and how does it empower us to sidestep sin? We unravel these mysteries while exploring context within the Bible for a complete understanding. The episode is a beacon for those seeking a transformative connection with the Holy Spirit, as we recount the palpable changes in the lives of early believers, witnessed in the Book of Acts.
Witness the electrifying moment when the Holy Spirit descends, marking a believer's faith with the external sign of speaking in tongues—a phenomenon often misunderstood and steeped in controversy. I'll guide you through the different expressions of this spiritual gift, distinguishing between personal edification and its purpose within the congregation. The journey doesn't stop there; we'll explore how the Holy Ghost acts as a compass, pointing us toward heavenly aspirations while equipping us with the discernment to differentiate the person from their deeds. This episode is an invitation to embrace the unity and strength that comes from the Holy Ghost, binding believers across diverse backgrounds with a common thread of divine insight. Tune in for a soul-stirring discussion that promises to enhance your understanding and bring you closer to the essence of your faith.
Speaker 1:
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of walk with me. I am your host, jj. So good to have each and every one of you are with us today. So good to see everybody liking and sharing and sending me the questions. I really do enjoy answering questions and I know, before you guys get started, you probably been looking for this podcast earlier. No, they did not try to keep me off the platforms. This is just coming a little late. Well, actually a lot late, had some things I had to take care of today. But thank you all so much for your patience and still sticking with the podcast and and thank you all for listening and sharing and and everybody that is especially sending the question the questions are, will be going to Walk with me. Bible study at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:
If you have any questions about any of the episodes questions, comments it doesn't matter, just send them to that address. I trust me, I do answer them. As a matter of fact, today we're going to answer a couple of the questions at once that I've got over no, gotten over this week. And before we get started, that big shout out to its crazy creations Helping us with the mugs and big shout out to two bars of lyricists, who's also helped sponsor the program by providing audio equipment. So good to have each one of you, so good to see his walk with God progressed the way it has. Thank you so much, everybody, thank you, thank you. Y'all could be listening any of the podcast which you've chosen to take a moment to listen to this podcast, and to that I'm eternally humble and grateful. One of the things that we will talk about today, and it's a very pertinent question, and it also gets Kind of overlooked and not answered thoroughly, so people just kind of accept it.
Speaker 1:
Okay, now, before we get started that, I've got to tell you that we have one rule in this podcast. For the sake of time, just kind of keep it from being like an eight hour podcast we read maybe one or two verses of scripture. However, your homework as a walker, for someone who listens to this program, is to read more than just the scripture that we are getting from, the scripture that we are giving you during the podcast. You want to kind of read a verse or two above, a verse or two below, but preferably the whole chapter. And why is that? The reason why we do this, reason why I stress this each and every time I think about it.
Speaker 1:
God allows me to think about it is that context is key. You can take a line that someone says out of the context and turn it to me, whatever you want it to mean. However, when God is saying something, he's saying what he means and not what we think it means. Okay, so context is key. I had a preacher tell me that you can take two scriptures out of context and make an entirely new doctrine, but Judas went and hanged himself. And then another scripture where Jesus said go, do you likewise? Yes, the Bible says those two things, but it doesn't say those things in the same context and therefore there is no context that you should go in and hang yourself. So just be careful when you're reading, when we go over scriptures or anything like that.
Speaker 1:
It is imperative that you read a few verses above, a few verses below just to get the context of the scripture that we're talking about, but preferably the whole chapter. Reading the Bible is is absolutely necessary. It'd be like trying to learn how to pass a driver test and never having never, ever looked into the the tribe of test manual is just not going to work. Learning how to do math without picking up a math book. It's just not going to work. So for that reason, we should always be reading our bible, okay?
Speaker 1:
So today's question and and again I cannot express how happy I am about getting the questions but today's question Is why do we need the holy ghost? Now, it's just a simple question. It it seemed like it should have a simple answer, but it really doesn't. It's. It has a multi layered answer and that's why we're going to talk about it on the podcast today, on the show today. Why do you need the holy ghost? Why can't you just be saved without the holy ghost? Why can't you just believe on the Lord, jesus Christ? Well, you got to have the holy ghost for two reasons or three. One, jesus said you have to be born with water in the spirit. That's number one. Number two, that's your ticket to be written into the last book of life and, biggest thing especially, why you're still alive. Number three is to help you live sin-free, is to help convict you when you've done something wrong and also help you avoid those things. We're going to talk about these things today.
Speaker 1:
And the biggest question I used to ask people when they asked me that is well, why wouldn't you want God in you, but I I've come to realize they may not be answering the question, because one thing you hate as a person who's asking a serious question is to be answered with the question. I know I do it all the time. Just, I do it when patients, sometimes, when they're trolling people. I, yes, I do troll people, but it's it's important to understand that when you people ask a question out of the seriousness of their heart and we have an answer for them. So we're going to start in romans.
Speaker 1:
Eight and nine. Now let's understand In in the context is where it is, because people take this and use this as a? Um, a doctrinal salvation thing. Romans, the people at romans and everywhere, from romans to jude, these people had already gone through the things that happened in the book of acts and what happened in the book of acts. They were in one place, um, the spirit of God sat upon each of them and they began to speak another tongues, as the spirit gives the utterance, not as somebody taught you how to do, but how the spirit gives the utterance. I will never forget, um, when I got the holy ghost, I no one taught me I was praying, I was praying, I was praying, I was praying, I was praying, I was praying, and then there's something like all of a sudden, my tongue just stopped working correctly and then I felt it. So Please understand, everybody's um experience may be a little bit different, but there's once you've gotten the holy ghost, you can tell when somebody is just Speaking gibberish and then when somebody's speaking in tongues. Okay, that being said, let's let's go back to romans eight and nine.
Speaker 1:
The romans eight and nine talks about you are not controlled by your sinful nature. Now, this is the new living translation. I prefer the king jane, but I'm just going to give it to you, the new living translation, just to make it easier. You are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the spirit. If you have the spirit of god dwelling in you, so there, it is right there. If you don't have the spirit of christ living in you, then you don't belong to him. That's the first and foremost. You gotta have that spirit in you so that you can be called by his name. It's like when you get married, in all of you that are married, you actually have to have that person with you so that you can be called by their name. Do you get? Take on the last name and your husband's can be called so-and-so's husband. You there has to be a marriage there. So, and Christ lives within you. Even so, your, your body will die. The spirit lives on and if you the, if you make yourself right with god, then it makes sense. But remember John.
Speaker 1:
Three and three is what jesus said when jesus was talking to nicodemus. Except the man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of god. Nicodemus said well, what are you talking about being born again? I, some people like to preach that nicodemus was being sarcastic. I don't think so. I think nicodemus was generally asking a serious question how can a man be born again when he's old? Are you saying that unless you know when I'm old, I can't be saved? It's not what Jesus was saying. So Jesus had to clarify it. If the sceptre may be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God the water through baptism, in the spirit of God, through Holy Ghost baptism. So now we're still in Romans.
Speaker 1:
Now understand that when you get the Holy Ghost, it allows you a little bit more latitude. As far as having a choice Now, latitude may not be the right word. Powers to right word. For instance, when you get the Holy Ghost in you, it allows you the choice to know what you're doing beforehand is wrong. Yeah, I know that sounds a little tongue in cheek, because you should already know right from wrong. But what if you don't think a thing is wrong? What if you think? What if, where you grew up, taking a candy bar to the store was okay? The Holy Ghost will check you and say, hey, listen you, that's not right. You didn't pay for it, you didn't earn it, put it back. Now that does not mean that it will forcefully stop you. You can still override the Holy Ghost but that sin. And then when the preacher comes and talks to you or he's preaching in the congregation, you ever notice how sometimes you're the preachers preaching the congregation. The preacher don't know you Preacher, don't know anything about you, but it seems like he's talking directly to you or at you. That's how the Holy Ghost works.
Speaker 1:
Now, in John 3 and 1 is what we were talking about. This was Nicodemus talking about you know how can a man be born of a gammonese old? But verse 10. I want to talk about verse 10 because we already talked about John 3 1 and John 3 5, but we're just recapping. John 3 and 3 says I tell you the truth unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. And verse 5 it says I assure you now, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born to the water, the spirit. So we could produce human life, but we cannot reproduce spiritual life.
Speaker 1:
This is why, even though you have this and it's one big difference between people and animals and when you give birth to a child, that child may be a genetic product between you and the person that you had the I don't want to use word copulation but between you and the other person that created that child. But that child can end up not being anything like the two of you, because that's actually the spirit in that person, the human spirit in that person that God gave them. The same way, you cannot be, the same way that you cannot have a intimate relationship with God while being in the flesh. Let me explain that again you may be a genetic, looking like you, may look like your mother, may look like your father, but your, your soul, your spirit is yours. Your soul, your spirit, created by God, and that's going to be you. The same way, the Holy Ghost comes in and helps guide you through some of these things after you've gotten it. Now you don't. You're not born with the Holy Ghost when you you come out of your mother's womb. Let's let's not get that confused. You're not born with it, you have to be born again. That's why Jesus specifically said twice born again a second time. And Jesus emphasizes that need to be born to those spirit in order to end his kingdom.
Speaker 1:
Now you had to simply say to yourself either Jesus was not being correct in verse 5 or or he was telling the truth. I mean, you know he meant we said. But if he didn't care, what if born with, born of the warden board, the spirit was saying, then why would he instruct us to be born of the water and of the spirit? So, and the way verse 10 points out that even a lot of masters of the Bible, scholars, gets it wrong sometimes. So what now? People always ask me when we're talking about getting the Holy Ghost, jj, what about that guy that was on the cross? They always go back to that guy. You know the thief that was hanging next to Jesus. You had one guy who was mocking Jesus. Maybe he's only half mocking because maybe he was trying to ingratiate Jesus. But then you had the other guy who was saying hey, um, this guy, he didn't do any wrong. This, this, this guy was God. And then Jesus said today you'll be with me in paradise. Now a lot of people will come to USA. Well, if you had to be born again, that guy didn't wasn't born again because he was hanging on the cross for his sins too.
Speaker 1:
Here's the issue. The issue was that that dispensation had not begun yet, because Jesus had not died yet. Therefore, he had not resurrected yet. Therefore, the church had not begun yet. Remember, the church didn't begin until the book of Acts. Jesus spoke about it, but he'd never. There was no mention of an actual church until the book of Acts, so that plan of salvation had not been involved now.
Speaker 1:
So let's go to John, chapter 7. We'll talk about this. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink, for the scripture say the river of living water shall fill from his heart. Now, when he said living water, he was speaking of the spirit, but the spirit had not been given yet. So, being that the spirit had not been given yet, all that guy had to do was firmly believe that he was God, and he was at his dying day. Now, being that the spirit has been given, that guy no longer applies, that thief on the cross no longer applies. So, and it should come afterwards, joe 228, afterwards, that I will pour out my spirit upon all, especially your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams and young men shall see visions. That is another product of getting the holy ghost. This was afterwards, though. This is after um, the death, after the burial, after the resurrection. So why do you need the holy ghost? No, let's stop here. No, you do not need the holy ghost so that you can speak in tongues. Let's get that out of the way right now. Let's nip that in the bud.
Speaker 1:
Getting the holy ghost while speaking in tongues is kind of like a byproduct of um, a byproduct of having the holy ghost. It's, it's the evidence that you have it. Um, how do I put this? So let's say, let's say you go to the store and you spend money. All right, you spend money and you buy stuff and you put in your cart and you walk out the door with it. You've already done the action. You've gone in the store, you filled the cart up, you've paid the stuff, right. So when you walk to the, to the door because you know I have the heart of all these places for self-check out now. So you walk to the door and they say, well, where's the evidence that you paid for this stuff? And you say here's my receipt To the outside person the speaking in the tongues is the receipt of you having the holy ghost.
Speaker 1:
But there's going to be other things that will be obvious when you get the holy ghost that somebody can look at you and say, hey, you got the holy ghost one. You're trying to live holy To your. Your avoiding sin as much as you possibly can. There's no sin a little bit every day kind of business. There's no, and and your mind now, your heart now, is turned Directly towards making it to heaven. It's like that's all you really care about. Yeah, you're gonna go to work. You're gonna do all the things you gotta do to take care, because the bible says he that don't work shall not eat, and he that don't take care of the his own is worse than an infidel. So you gotta do all those things. You're going to live the day to day. But you're going to live the day to day as christ would instruct it, and that's why you need the holy ghost.
Speaker 1:
Um, and I'm trying to really kind of paraphrase this could literally take two or three episodes and it may end up Do it. So I feel like if I skim over some stuff, um, it won't answer the question fully. Now it's important to understand that, uh, again, tongues are the receipt of having the holy ghost, but is also a way for you to communicate directly to god, for your soul to communicate directly to god. Now, it's not to say that you even understand what you're saying Now, in other words, you're not translating anything. And I know somebody's gonna point you to scripture where it says well, this tongue is an interpretation. Listen, that's a completely different tongues, that's a completely different situation. And in those things, in those times, yeah, tongues and interpretation, god is not just speaking to you, god is speaking to the entire congregation at once.
Speaker 1:
And I've seen this maybe eight or nine times in my life when, um, someone will give the tongues and then someone else will do the interpretation, and it's not something, um, that generally and Generally, I've kind of only seen it most of the time when god was pretty upset. I've seen a couple times where god was uplifting and and Motivationally speaking, so to speak, and you know I really love you and this and that, but a lot of times when I've seen it is because there was sin in the congregation, and I mean big sin in the congregation, and god was addressing it directly. So Now, please understand, and and I'm not that I'm thinking about it we got to talk about this because a lot of people just say that when they were speaking in tongues in Acts, chapter 2, they were speaking to the benefit of the people that I'm talking about, to the benefit of the people that were around them. This is not true Is that's why, when, in verse 14, peter stood up and talked to the people, he didn't speak in tongues. He spoke in aramaic, which was the common language spoken at that time. And now, just like in here in america, english is, um, a common language, even though, like many other people will speak in spanish. You see people speak in french and some people see, is you speak in russian and arabic, or latin or whatever language, or chinese, japanese, korean, and I don't leave anybody out, but you know what I'm saying. People will speak in their native tongues, but the common language here Is english and this is English, and I know a lot of people. I don't want to go down that road, but the common language here is english.
Speaker 1:
Now, when the apostle was speaking in tongues, the crowd heard them by accident, because they were because this, this thing was spilling out into the street. When they were up in the upper room, it was only them, the 120 people, that's it. They were crammed into a room together but this thing spilled out onto the street and this is where people started hearing the other tongues. Now, remember, they did not do it so that you know, jim and Jackie, and this one could understand X, 8 and 12. But when they believed, philip preaching the things to certain, the kingdom of God had the name, would you just, christ. They were baptized, both men and women. See, there's the water, baptism. These things have to go hand in hand. The assignment himself believed also and was baptized, and he continued with Philip. And wonder, behold, in the miracles of science which were done, that when the apostles, which are atrocious and have heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they said unto them Peter and John.
Speaker 1:
Now Let me stop right there, please understand. At the time the Jews didn't like Samaria, the Jews did not like Samaritans, and we'll talk about that in a different thing. That can go off on attention with that, but this Holy Ghost thing brought the two of them together and this is another reason why we need the Holy Ghost. It will allow you to see your fellow man in an entirely different light it does not and at the same time, it allows you to distinguish between the person and the thing, or the person and the sin, the person and their faults. So you can see a person who's a thief, who deal things, who has stolen something, even from you, and it allows you to forgive them Because you love them as a person, even though you dislike what they did. That is a key benefit of having the Holy Ghost, and a lot of people Think they have it. That is a one-sure test of Does that person really have the Holy Ghost? Because that's how God looks at us. He looks at us even when we were in the world and we were sinners. He died on the cross for us because he saw the value in us.
Speaker 1:
So, going back to X to 15, when they will come down and pray for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost, for as yet the Holy Ghost was falling upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of Lord Jesus, so that does show that there is a separate in action. So, yes, you do need both. They go. They do go hand in hand along with repentance, but there's three separate things and you need that receipt to get into heaven on. This message shows us that receiving the Holy Ghost is a separate baptism. It's the baptism of the spirit and it takes place when we pray for it. Now, I know I have seen a lot of people get baptized in Jesus name and come up directly out of the water, speaking in tongues. You know why? Because they've been praying for it forever. They were praying for it when they went down and they were praying for it when they came up. That's what they, that's what you see right there, even though it happened almost at the same time. It is two separate things.
Speaker 1:
So I accept the 10 verse 44. Why, peter, you expect these words? The Holy Ghost fell on all of them, which I heard the word and they are the circumcision, which were, which believe, were established, astonished as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. Why? How did they know that is the gentiles that got in the holy house. How did they know that the spirit of God was poured out of one of them? It says right in the very next verse for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Now it does not say they heard the speaking other languages. This is a spoken tongues and magnified.
Speaker 1:
Yes, we will be taking this into a separate lesson, a different lesson, because we are out of time. We are out of time but, yes, we do need the Holy Ghost. It is an absolute must. Don't let anybody tell you any different, and we will continue this on the next one. I do. Thank you so much for your patience. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for your love and support everybody. Yes, I am in the process of constructing this place so we can go live, and that will be a day to behold the whole different process there. But thank you so much for your love and support and sharing and your emails. Remember, if you have any questions, email at walkwithmebiblestudyatgmailcom. Walk with me Bible study all in word at gmailcom. Tell somebody that you love and tell someone that Jesus loves it, because the same way you had to find out, the same way somebody else needs to find out. All right, I love you all. God bless you. Bye, bye.