The Holy Spirit in the life of the believer

[Lamb]

One thing that Luther teaches in the Lutheran catechism is the following

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.

What I love about that text is that I see that the Holy Spirit is there from the very start, giving us faith in order to believe...but that isn't the end! He continues to be a part of my walk and I know I'm never alone. I don't worry about whether or not I believe enough or if I'm doing enough because I know the Holy Spirit does what the above text says He does.

What are your thoughts on the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

 

[BruceLeiter]

One thing that Luther teaches in the Lutheran catechism is the following

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; just as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian Church He daily and richly forgives me and all believers all our sins; and at the last day He will raise up me and all the dead, and will grant me and all believers in Christ eternal life. This is most certainly true.

What I love about that text is that I see that the Holy Spirit is there from the very start, giving us faith in order to believe...but that isn't the end! He continues to be a part of my walk and I know I'm never alone. I don't worry about whether or not I believe enough or if I'm doing enough because I know the Holy Spirit does what the above text says He does.

What are your thoughts on the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

He is with me every step of my way, @Lamb, from the Father through Jesus!

 

[Edward429451]

What I love about that text is that I see that the Holy Spirit is there from the very start, giving us faith in order to believe...but that isn't the end! He continues to be a part of my walk and I know I'm never alone. I don't worry about whether or not I believe enough or if I'm doing enough because I know the Holy Spirit does what the above text says He does.

What are your thoughts on the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?

Not a lot of people had the Holy Spirit i the OT. When God told told Abraham to go on a long journey to a land he's never been to before, and...I'll talk to you when you get there! That's all God said. Abraham had no clue where he was going or for what. But Abraham Believed God, so he went and left for the journey. So God counted it as faithful righteousness for Abraham because he trusted God and Believed God, and "Believe" in Hebrew has an action connotation with it. Abraham believed by leaving on the journey.

Then a woman in the NT, a Samaritan woman? And Jesus called her a dog and turned her down! And she said, yeah but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall...and that changed everything into faith for Jesus.

Now Jesus had not been crucified yet at that point, so the promise of the Holy Spirit had not been given yet. So that little lady was a time traveller, lol. She reached into the future to grab hold of that promise and on that she held onto it and challenged Jesus with it!

Matthew 15:26-28
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour..../KJV

Great is thy faith, He said. and things went well for her. Conclusion, Holy Spirit.

 

[BruceLeiter]

Not a lot of people had the Holy Spirit i the OT. When God told told Abraham to go on a long journey to a land he's never been to before, and...I'll talk to you when you get there! That's all God said. Abraham had no clue where he was going or for what. But Abraham Believed God, so he went and left for the journey. So God counted it as faithful righteousness for Abraham because he trusted God and Believed God, and "Believe" in Hebrew has an action connotation with it. Abraham believed by leaving on the journey.

Then a woman in the NT, a Samaritan woman? And Jesus called her a dog and turned her down! And she said, yeah but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall...and that changed everything into faith for Jesus.

Now Jesus had not been crucified yet at that point, so the promise of the Holy Spirit had not been given yet. So that little lady was a time traveller, lol. She reached into the future to grab hold of that promise and on that she held onto it and challenged Jesus with it!

Matthew 15:26-28
26 But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

27 And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour..../KJV

Great is thy faith, He said. and things went well for her. Conclusion, Holy Spirit.

You're right, @Edward429451, that in the Old Testament, a remnant or minority of the people had the Holy Spirit operating faith in them (Hebrews 11), but the emphasis of the history is not on personal faith but on the history to prove a spiritual point by the prophets who were inspired to write those books.

It's also a remnant in the New Testament who really trust in Jesus. For example, Mark emphasizes the 12 disciples' lack of faith, because of their wrong expectations of the kind of Messiah they and the rest of the Jews.