The Holy Spirit – Jesus’ PartnerSample
The Holy Spirit – Jesus’ Partner
BEING FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT – DETERMINATION AND PERSEVERANCE
MAIN IDEAS
• It is important to note that the man in JESUS’ parable does not intervene for himself but for a friend.
• Regarding the filling with the HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS teaches us that when praying to God, we must be bold, determined, insistent, and persevering.
• Our determination and perseverance show how much we value God’s promises.
• When we ask God to be filled with the HOLY SPIRIT, we must not be afraid that we might get an evil spirit.
• The one freed from evil spirits through being Born Again must experience being filled with the HOLY SPIRIT to be protected from the return of evil spirits.
In these parables, JESUS teaches his disciples about the importance of being filled with the HOLY SPIRIT and how we can get this ourselves. This filling with the HOLY SPIRIT is a fundamental need in our life of faith and is so important that it is worth insisting on it from Him, no matter who is offended by it and how much. The Born-Again believer is characterized by a hunger that makes him want to experience God all the more, and the hungry one is encouraged to insist on filling with the HOLY SPIRIT, with no fear of ever receiving any evil spirit. JESUS also teaches the disciples that determination and perseverance with which a person seeks to experience the HOLY SPIRIT is the necessary and compulsory path established by God for this filling. Another teaching of JESUS is that Satan easily regains a liberated but empty heart. When a person is Born Again, all evil spirits leave that person’s empty heart, but if that heart is not filled with the HOLY SPIRIT, then evil spirits who are perverse and insistent will come back in even greater numbers. Suppose you have returned to God and still have not noticed great changes in your life. In that case, it is time to decide to redouble your efforts with even greater determination and perseverance and continue to seek the filling with the HOLY SPIRIT, so that you can live a life of victory for the KINGDOM. Our insistent search must not be for earthly happiness but a life of abundance, full of redemption and heavenly blessings, which God gives us on top of everything as He sees fit.
Scripture
About this Plan
Chapter 9 of the book God Loves You explains the meaning of the Holy Spirit's person and work.
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