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What is The Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Part 4

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  Picture from Wallpapers.com - twodazza We will keep moving along, exploring what it means to be baptized by the Holy Spirit. As you can see above, this is my fourth article on this subject, and I encourage you to read the previous three if you haven't already. They provide a foundation on which I will continue building in this article, and if you do not have that foundational knowledge, what I am writing here may not make sense to you. My first article investigated how the the Bible talks about baptism by the Holy Spirit and it included a look at Jesus' own water and Holy Spirit baptisms. My second article presented the evidence that there are actually two separate experiences of relationship with the Holy Spirit; the first being the receipt of the Holy Spirit upon our confession of faith, and the second being living under the influence of the Holy Spirit so that He empowers us with gifts of the Spirit in the same way that Jesus was empowered and was able to act in th...
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What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Part 3

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   Picture from Wallpapers.com - twodazza This is the third instalment in my series in which I am actively exploring what the nature of Holy Spirit baptism is, when it happens and what it looks like; and I am taking you along on the ride. If you haven't read my first two articles, I strongly encourage you to do so so that you can follow along properly. I am building on foundations that are already laid, and jumping in in the middle of the series could leave you confused or misdirected. In my first article , we looked at how the Bible talks about Holy Spirit baptism and we touched on Jesus' own Holy Spirit baptism. In my second article , I presented the idea that there are two distinct aspects of our relationship with the Holy Spirit; that which begins when we confess faith in Jesus, which I referred to as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and a second experience of Holy Spirit baptism which empowers the Believer into better obedience to God. As I think that this topic ...
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What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Part 2

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P icture from Wallpapers.com -twodazza This is the second article that I am writing on the topic of the baptism by the Holy Spirit. As I stated in my first article , I am not writing this as if I know all the answers that this topic may require. I am on a journey of exploration with this topic and you are walking that path with me as I write this. That being said, please keep in mind that this is opinion and not a theological foundation; though I hope that it can amount to something like a foundation if, in hindsight, there is actually some insight into what I write. We have already looked at how the Bible refers to the baptism by the Holy Spirit, and we have touched on Jesus' own Holy Spirit baptism. Now, I think I will tackle trying to figure out the nature of that baptism and how it comes about. In the case of Jesus' baptism, we see that there are two separate and distinct baptisms that happen. First, Jesus is baptized with water by John the Baptist. Now, John the Baptis...
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What is The Baptism of the Holy Spirit? Part 1

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    Picture from Wallpapers.com - twodazza  I have been sitting on this topic for quite a while. It first occurred to me many months ago, but I think that there has been something about it that has seemed daunting to me. I felt that now it was finally time to try to tackle this topic, and as I began my research, I began to understand why this is a daunting topic to try to explain. As I look at the material that I have collected for the discussion of this topic, it is looking like this will be another multi-part article, and I encourage you to read all of the parts in order to gain a full understanding, to the best of my abilities to present it to you. I found one particular article about this topic on blueletterbible.org, that helped me to wrap my head around the basics of this topic; I have noted that article at the bottom of the page. But to say that it was helpful in understanding this topic would be overstating things. For example, following is a quote fro...
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Mark Carney is Now a Whisker Away From His Desired Majority

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   It hasn't even been a year since our latest federal election in Canada, and Mark Carney has managed to all but ensure that he will gain the majority that Canadian voters denied him. He has not done so by earning the trust of the Canadian electorate; he has done so by the use of shady backroom deals to bribe weak members of other parties, elected by those who trusted them to have integrity, to join his own low integrity Liberals as floor crossers. The wheeler-dealer, self-identified global elite banker turned politician and, somehow, top statesman has taken the initiative to manufacture the authority to act almost unilaterally, as the Prime Minister is empowered to do so, and somehow people are surprised. This has been a topic of political discussion for a several months now, ever since Chris d'Entrmont crossed from the Conservatives to the Liberals in November, which has been followed by Michael Ma and Matt Jeneroux. This has always left Mark Carney's Liberals short of a...
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God's Heart for Israel

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There is a theology out in the world that God has rejected Israel in favour of the church; that is to say that Believers in Jesus the Christ have taken the place of the nation of Israel in God's eyes, including inheriting all the promises to Israel. I am here today to state unequivocally that this theology is false.  Hebrews 13:8 tells us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Jesus was born a Jew, raised a Jew, worshipped as a Jew, taught the Jews as a Jew, and He died as a Jew condemned under Jewish Law by jealous Jewish leaders who only had authority over the Jews. Jesus came to the chosen people of God, through whom God promised to send a Saviour for the whole world. Jesus' ministry was primarily to the Jewish people whom He knew would reject Him, as had to happen. There is absolutely no indication in Scripture that the new covenant church of Believers will ever replace the nation of Israel. In fact, in Romans 11 the apostle Paul argues ...
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