The Holy Spirit is the power of the Godhead which is comprised of the Father and the Son.  It is through the limitless, omnipotent, omnipresent power of the Spirit that God (Heb.–“Elohim”– “Gods”) renewed the surface of the earth (Gen. 1:2-25/ Ps. 104:30) and created man (Gen. 1:26-31/ Job 33:4).

It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ did everything He did, said everything He said and knew everything He knew while living as a man on this earth for 31 years.  As the perfect example for those who believe and obey God’s Word, the Man from Nazareth preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God, healed the sick (and thereby forgave the sins that caused the sickness), cast out demons (thereby healing physical and mental problems caused by sin), knew the minds of men, turned water into wine, stilled a storm, killed a fig tree, raised the dead, foretold the future, produced future-revealing visions, brought water out of a rock, caused quail to fly so that men could catch them, made the world stop turning, caused a wall to fall, turned sure defeat into victory, walked on water and enabled Peter to do so, etc.  And most important of all, the Holy Spirit’s power enabled Him to obey His Father’s Ten Commandment Law perfectly (1 Pet, 2:21-22) and thereby qualify to be man’s Savior.

As “the Word” (Jn. 1:1-4,14), Jesus had verbally proclaimed the Father’s commandments (Law) to Israel written them on stone tablets with His finger.  Read Jesus of Nazareth: God, Man or God-man.  Key word–God-man.  As a man He set the perfect example for those who would earn the right to spend eternity with Him by emulating His example.  Following His example–“walking as He walked”–is the WORK man must perform in order to receive eternal life (Mat. 10:22/ Jam. 2:10,14,17,18,20,24,26).

What the Almighty wants those who seek Him to know is that the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus to do everything He did IS AVAILABLE TO ALL WHO WILL FOLLOW HIS EXAMPLE.  The same Jesus of Nazareth Who spoke only what he heard His Father speak and did only what He saw His father do, Who confessed that He had no power of His own, Who admitted that He was totally dependent on the Holy Spirit, is the same Jesus of Nazareth Who told His disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father, that they would receive power after the promised Holy Spirit came on them, and that the Spirit would empower them to be His witnesses by perfectly obeying the Father’s Law (Genesis to Revelation).  On Mt. Sinai He condensed God’s Law into Ten Commandments and recorded them for all time.  That same Jesus of Nazareth promises the one who believes in, believes and obeys His Father’s Law that: “… the works that I have done will he do also, and greater works than these will he do” (Jn. 14:12).

Let it be known that Jesus of Nazareth was totally man.  He had divested (emptied/poured out) Himself of all of His Godly powers before coming to earth as a man.  This is brought out perfectly in Philippians 2:5-8: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of (a) God, thought it not wrong to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation (stripped Himself of all Godly power) and took upon Himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men.  And being a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”  Note that Jesus was a co-equal God with Yahweh before coming to earth.  He purged Himself all of his former God powers so that He could set the perfect example for those who would join Him in paradise.

In The Message of the Cross (key word–Message) I show that, contrary to popular opinion, Christ’s death on the cross, His shedding of His blood unto death and His resurrection from the dead was not designed to enable man to sin and get away with it.  Rather, it was to provide God’s Spirit of righteousness, holiness and power to those who would believe and obey Him so that they could do what Jesus did and even greater things (Jn. 14:12).

Jesus possessed incredible power, but none of it was innate in Him as a human being.  He said: “I can of Myself do nothing” (Jn. 5:30).  Few people, including Bible “scholars,” believe this.  I once heard an ordained, seminary-trained preacher say that, because Jesus was a God while on earth, He did not feel pain while being beaten almost to death prior to being crucified.  According to this Bible “scholar,” the Lord had felt nothing when the nails were driven through His feet and hands (actually His wrists).  I was told by seminary student that Jesus knew that His followers would not be able to resist Satan’s temptations to sin due to Adam’s miracle sin transfusion, therefore He died so that Christians could sin with a clear conscience.  As one church giant said, “God doesn’t like sin, but He won’t do anything about it.”  Why? Because Christ’s death made sin a natural part of the Christian life.  Therefore, when one inevitably sins, one only needs to repent.  According to these “Christians,” Christianity is simply one sin-repent cycle after another until Jesus returns to snatch the Sinning Saint up to heaven and spiritually cleanse him/her in route.  Anyone who doubts Satan’s absolute, total control over professing Christendom either does not know or does not believe God’s Word.

That Jesus is our human example which we are commanded to emulate is made clear in 1 John 2:6 where, writing under the power of the Holy Spirit, he declared that if we professed to be Christ’s spiritual brethren,  we “MUST WALK AS HE WALKED” while He was on earth.  Jesus declared that same message in Revelation 3:21 where He tells us that those who would sit with Him on His throne must “… OVERCOME (SATAN) EVEN AS I OVERCAME (HIM).”  He could command and expect man to WALK AS HE WALKED AND OVERCOME AS HE OVERCAME BECAUSE HE WAS A MAN LIKE ALL OTHER MEN.  

God writes His Law in the hearts of His true saints (Jer. 31:31/ Heb. 8:10) so that obedience to His Law will be a natural and automatic occurrence.  The Spirit is given by God (Acts 2:38) to those who believe in Him, believe Him and obey Him.  True Christian baptism (Mat. 3:11/ Jn. 1:33) involves receiving the Holy Spirit, after which the Spirit dwells continually in the heart (mind) of the saint (holy one) (Acts 2:38/ Eze. 36:27/ Acts 4:8,31).  Read John’s Baptism.  Key word–Baptism.  God will give His Holy Spirit to one who believes Him (Acts 5:32) and asks for it (Lk. 11:13).

It is only through the Spirit’s power that one can obey God.  It is through His Spirit that He reveals His secrets to His true saints, gives them revelation (Lk. 2:26) and brings things to their remembrance (Jn. 14:26).  The Apostle Peter clearly defined the way by which one receives the Holy Spirit: “Repent and be baptized … and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).  Note that Peter was talking to men whose hearts had been deeply touched by the Lord’s display of power and had asked the disciples: “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  This is the same question the Apostle Paul had asked Jesus as he lay on the Damascus road.  These people wanted to know exactly what God commanded of them–the sign of true repentance.

It is impossible to obey God by our own power, no matter how serious we might be.  Because religious man has rejected God’s gift of His Spirit, man has found himself unable to obey God’s command for personal righteousness and holiness, both of which are required for salvation (Rom. 5:21; 6:22).  Instead of searching out God’s Word, finding out how to receive the Holy Spirit and doing so, Satan-controlled man has circumvented God’s Bible-based religion by substituting church-based religion.   Jesus noted that the devil’s version would be extremely popular among salvation seekers.  As He said in Matthew 7:13,14, FEW would find and enter His (narrow, difficult) gate and walk His (strict, Law-keeping) way to eternal life.  However, MANY would enter Satan’s (“come as you are”) gate and walk his (“only believe”) way to destruction.  Looking in any phone book under CHURCHES and counting will prove that Jesus was right.  The Catholic/Protestant Church System is the end product of man’s attempt to enter paradise on his own terms.  The statement that “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 Jn. 4:4) does not apply to those who are not led by the Holy Spirit.  Only “They who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).  True sons obey their Father by obeying His Spirit “voice.”  L.J.