WHO ARE YOU?
I want to reflect with you on who and what you are as a human being. What is a human being? I also want to clear up some misunderstandings about who you are as a baptized Christian.
Wha... View MoreWHO ARE YOU?
I want to reflect with you on who and what you are as a human being. What is a human being? I also want to clear up some misunderstandings about who you are as a baptized Christian.
What is a human being? How are you made up?
Some Roman somewhere humorously defined human beings as “Bipedes Implumi” – creatures with two feet and no feathers.
Western Philosophy says that we are made up of a body and a soul.
Scripture speaks of us as being spirit, soul, and body. This constitutes your Personal Space.
Your body has two main systems: a chemical system and an electrical or nervous system.
Your spirit is the deepest part of you that you mean when you say “I”. I feel, I think, I choose. Your spirit is directed toward relationships: with you self, with others, and with God. The quality of the relationship of your spirit with God’s Spirit determines the quality of your relationships with others. So, the relationship with God is your most important relationship that determines all your other relationships throughout life.
When you are born, you are born in a state or condition of separation from God because of the Original Sin of disobedience by your first parents, Adam and Eve. This sin is not your fault but is the consequence of their sin. So, you are a sinner by nature and later by your own wrong choices. To be reconciled with God, you must be born again, that is, you must be begotten from above by God the Father. Your spirit must be rejoined with God’s Spirit.
In the Gospel of John Chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above by water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit.” Reunion with God is accomplished by Baptism in water and the Holy Spirit. First Peter 3:21 says that Baptism now saves you. Baby dedication doesn’t do it!
When you are baptized, even as an infant, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, comes to live in you and will stay with you as long as you let them. God the Father unites you with him and begets you as his child, and you will always be his child, even if you later reject him. The Son Jesus saves you and teaches you what the Father wants from you. The Holy Spirit works in you to make you holy and pleasing to the Father. All they ask of you is to believe in and obey them so that you can live with them forever. You also become a member of Christ’s Body, the Church, from whom you receive the faith to live as a child of God.
Baptism is, therefore, the work of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is something that God does. It doesn’t require anything on your part, so if you were unconscious and dying, even an unbeliever can baptize you as long as it is done in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit as the Church requires. This is the Baptism of rebirth taught in Scripture and by the Church according to Matthew 28:19& 20.
There is another Baptism with which you must be baptized. This is the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, a Baptism of power for witness and service.
John the Baptist proclaimed, “I baptized you with water; he (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). In John, chapter14, Jesus tells his apostles, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth (v. 16). The Advocate, the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my Name will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you” (v. 26). ”The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth” (John 4:23 & 24).
In Chapter 16, Jesus says further, “If I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world regarding sin and righteousness and condemnation (vv. 7b & 8). When he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own but will speak what he hears and will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify me because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you” (vv. 13 & 14). Acts 1: says that as he was ready to ascend to his Father, Jesus told his apostles, “Wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:4 & 5, 8).
Acts 1:13 & 14 says that the apostles “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his relatives.” Chapter 2:1-4 says ,” When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”
Now there were many devout Jews from every nation staying in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his or her own language. They were astounded and in amazement asked, “How does each of us hear them in his or her own native language. We hear them speaking in our own tongue of the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:5 & 6, 8, 11b). This is one manifestation of the gift of tongues.
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and proclaimed to them, “This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘It will come to pass in the last days’ God says, ‘that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Indeed, upon my servants and my handmaids I will pour out a portion of my spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. And I will work wonders in the heavens and signs on the earth below,…and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the Name of the Lord” Acts 3:14, 16-21).
Your spirit is joined to God through the Baptism of rebirth through his action. “Peter said to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). “When Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:6). The Holy Spirit may fall upon you in power at Baptism or when he chooses or you can surrender your spirit to God’s Spirit and receive the Baptism for power and service to others anytime you choose.
The Baptism with the Holy Spirit awakens the Holy Spirit’s gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, holiness, and fear of the Lord that you receive when you confirm your faith in God and begin to live as a mature Christian. The Holy Spirit will manifest his other gifts through you as he chooses and as you will let him. These gifts are found primarily in Romans 12:3-8 and 2 Corinthians 12-14.
The gift of tongues is an indication, but not the only one, of the Baptism with the Holy Spirit because it is one of the gifts of the Spirit. Paul said that he spoke or prayed in tongues more than anyone else. According to Corinthians, the gift of tongues is manifested in prophecy, but this requires someone to interpret the tongues so people can understand what was said. The gift of tongues is also manifested as a supernatural prayer language that allows the Holy Spirit to pray to God with and through your spirit according to the will of God, bypassing the limits of your natural language and your mind. This gift of tongues is under your control, so you can manifest it any time you choose to.
“We have not received the spirit of this world but the Spirit of God so that we may understand things freely given by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12). Without the Holy Spirit leading you and working through you, you will be an incomplete and powerless follower of Christ. It is the Holy Spirit in you who directs your emotions, thoughts, and will in order to accomplish what God wants to do in you and through you. But you must surrender your spirit, your I, to him constantly and allow him to do so.
Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord with all your heart (spirit), with all your soul (emotions, mind, and will), and with all your strength (through your body). Once you get your relationship with God right and realize how much he loves you and wants to give all of himself and his gifts to you, you can then love God, your self, and others as your self. That means you can love in the same way and to the same degree that you love your self.
Jesus said, “if you, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13). If you haven’t done so already, ask the Father to baptize you with the Holy Spirt so that you can be effective in your life with him.
Now let’s take a brief look at your soul.
Your soul has three main parts: emotions or feelings, mind (thoughts, ideas), and will (choices). The emotions are the lowest part of you but always try to control your thoughts and our will. Your thoughts are supposed to control your emotions and behavior and present ideas to your will to make good choices.
Emotions and thoughts form attitudes that are expressed in behaviors or actions. If you watch one’s behaviors, you can often determine one’s attitudes.
Where do emotions and thoughts or ideas come from. They come from God, from your enemy Satan, or from your self. Sirach says, “A word is the source of every deed, a thought, of every act. The root of all conduct is the mind” (Sirach 37:16 & 17). Jesus says, in Mark 7, 21, that your emotions and thoughts come from within you. Verses 21 and 22 of Mark, Galatians 5:19-22, and Romans 1:29-31 list negative ones that come from a spirit that is not in a proper relationship with God.
But Galatians 5:22 lists the fruit of the spirit that is joined to God’s Spirit. So Paul exhorts you to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new I, created in God’s ways in righteousness and holiness of truth” (Ephesians 4:23 and 24).
He further says in Philippians 4:8, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything of praise, think about these things.” You must learn to let all these things direct the choices of your will.
The will is the highest part of your soul where you make choices about what you feel and what you think. What emotions and thoughts are brought to your will determine what behaviors or actions you choose. Because of free will, neither God nor Satan can make you do anything you don’t will to do. St. Paul tells you to “take every thought captive in obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your attitude and behaviors must be those of Christ.
In the Lord’s Prayer, you pray “your kingdom come, your will be done.” That should always be the first choice of your will. St. John tells you that if you ask anything according to God’s will, he will hear you (1 John 5:14). St. Paul tells you to be a slave of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart or spirit, your I, willingly serving the Lord, knowing that you will be responded to from the Lord for whatever good you do (Ephesians 6:6-8).
I conclude with the words of St. Paul, “I urge you, by the mercies of God, to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship. Do not conform your self, your I, to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect. Think no more highly than you ought to think but think soberly, each according to the measure of faith that God has apportioned” (Romans 12:1-3). Surrender your spirit, your I, to the Holy Spirit and walk every day of your life in one accord with him and with others.
Heavenly Father, by the Holy Spirit, allow your healing hand to heal me in body and spirit so that I may serve you with all my strength. Touch my soul with your compassion for others. Touch my mind with your wisdom so that my mouth may always proclaim your praise. I surrender my will to your will and purpose for me and allow you to work in and through me as you choose. Baptize me with your Holy Spirit as you promised. Make me effective in witness and service for you. I ask these things in the Name of Jesus, your Son and my Savior and Lord. Amen.
Please pray for us and for this to go throughout the earth. Thanks, and God bless you.
In 1974, when we got married, my wife Penny and I chose to sell out completely to God. Our only desire has been ... View MorePlease pray for us and for this to go throughout the earth. Thanks, and God bless you.
In 1974, when we got married, my wife Penny and I chose to sell out completely to God. Our only desire has been to make God known in all his fullness and majesty throughout the earth. You can learn all about us and our call at www.familytofamilies.webador.com.
We are at the beginning of the greatest move of God that mankind has ever known. I believe that God has shown me an easy way to reach the most people throughout the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to disciple them according to the mandate of Jesus in Matthew 28:19 & 20 in the most efficient and least expensive way. That is through smartphones, iPads, and the “Starlink” satellites that more and more people have access to today and will have in the future.
Review our website and access my YouTube bible studies. Then simply forward this email to pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and others who may be open to it, who then can access the bible studies and forward the bulletin to their contacts. These people can then access the bible studies and forward the bulletin to their contacts, etc. Parents can forward it to their own children and have family bible study together. I have tested this with my own iPhone, so I know it works.
Through this one bulletin, hundreds of thousands of people can access the bible studies on YouTube whenever they want without the tremendous expense of printing and distributing them.
So far, I have distributed over 100 of my bible studies by email to over 42 contacts in several countries since February of 2021. Most of these are pastors who are learning more about God and his ways for themselves and who are then sharing the bible studies with their people. Forwarding this bulletin offers another easy way to do it without overloading peoples’ smartphones.
Please become a “Virtual Missionary” with and for Jesus Christ and forward this email to all your contacts who would be open to receiving it and let’s watch what God does!
In God’s Service,
Patrick Hession
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