A. That’s correct. In order to redeem mankind, He could only work in the manner of a man, becoming in effect Adam’s next of kin, his Kinsman Redeemer. So He set aside His divinity while on Earth, doing His miraculous work through the power of Holy Spirit.

This is the point of the wilderness temptation. Satan was tempting Him to use His divine powers, thereby violating the provisions of His mission (Matt. 4:1-11). It’s also why He accused the pharisees of blaspheming the Holy Spirit when they attributed His miracles to Beelzebub (Matt. 12:22-32). And finally it’s why He could tell his disciples that they would do even greater things than He had (John 14:12).  He was sending the Holy Spirit to them.

A.  The Bible uses three phrases used to describe the Holy Spirit’s interaction with men.  In the Old Testament He was with men.  The Apostles received the Holy Spirit late in the day of the Lord’s resurrection and from then on He was in them, as He is in us (John 20:22, 2 Cor. 1:21-22).  The Holy Spirit’s visitation on Pentecost was a special event where He came upon them (Acts 2:3) .

A.  I have heard a number of believers bear witness to the fact that they never understood the Bible until after they were saved.  I myself had the same experience.  Therefore I believe Paul was in fact saying that it’s impossible for an unbeliever to understand the word of God. He said the person without the spirit cannot understand things that come from the Spirit of God because they are spiritually discerned.

The fact is, most people don’t become believers because they understand God’s word. They understand God’s Word because they have become believers. In Romans 8:29-30 Paul explained the process.

Long before the first man was created, God looked down through time and “saw” everyone who would choose to accept the pardon Jesus purchased for us at the cross. At that time He reserved a place for us in Heaven. At the appropriate time in our life He called us to make the decision He had already “seen” us make.  When we responded, as He knew we would, He applied the pardon to our sins and saved us.

At that moment God gave us two things; the first was the gift of faith to believe we were saved (Ephesians 2:8) and the second was His Spirit, who He put in our hearts (2 Cor. 1:21-22).  Having received these two things, we could finally understand His word, and what had been confusing to us became clear. This clarity caused the seed of faith He had given us to sprout and grow, yielding a deeper and more abiding  faith.

A.  According to Ephesians 1:13-14 we’re marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit at the moment we believe Jesus died for our sins, as deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.  Children under the age of accountability are deemed to lack the intellectual maturity to understand the sin/salvation issue.  Therefore I don’t believe they have the Holy Spirit’s seal.  Romans 7:9 tells us they have eternal life because their sins are not counted against them.

A.  John 20:21-22 is where the disciples became the apostles in that they went from being students to being the sent ones. To help them achieve the purpose for which they were being sent, the Lord gave them two things.  The first was the Holy Spirit by which they were equipped for ministry, and second was the authority to welcome into the Church those whose prayers of confession they judged by the power of the Holy Spirit to be sincere. They weren’t forgiving anyone’s sins in the direct sense but were authorized to extend the Lord’s forgiveness to a repentant sinner in the same way a pastor does today. If the Holy Spirit judged the sinner’s prayer to be insincere they were authorized to withhold the Lord’s forgiveness. An example of this can be found in Acts 8:18-23.

A.  The Pharisees had two problems with Jesus.  One was that they believed they were saved by keeping the Law and didn’t need a Savior. But the more serious problem was they didn’t think it was possible for Jesus to be the son of God. Their Scriptures plainly said there was only one true God (Deut. 6:4), and they didn’t understand how He could become a man.  Therefore they believed Jesus was a false prophet and guilty of blasphemy.

In Matt. 13:10-17 the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables.  He said there were two reasons.  One was so believers would gain an even greater understanding of the secrets of the Kingdom and the other was so unbelievers would lose even the little understanding they had.  Paul clarified this statement later by saying that without the Holy Spirit to guide us it’s impossible to understand the things of God (1 Cor. 2:14). To an unbeliever it’s all foolishness.

A. According to 1 Samuel 16:14 the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,  and in 2 Samuel 28:16  Samuel told Saul the Lord had turned away from him and become his enemy. I take this to mean that if he had been saved, he lost his salvation, most likely because of his disobedience.  Remember, the Holy Spirit was not sealed within believers before the Church Age, nor will He be afterward.  It’s a promise given exclusively to the Church.  Also, there is no mention of Saul in the Psalms.

A. You know the Holy Spirit is in you because in three places the Lord promised you that He is. (Ephes. 1:13-14, 2 Cor. 1:21-22 and 2 Cor 5:5) Every believer sins knowingly from time to time, and then like you feels sad about it later.  That’s the Holy Spirit convicting us, and moving us to confess so we can be forgiven and restored to fellowship.   When believers sin it doesn’t mean they aren’t saved.  Even the great Paul said that no matter how hard he tried He couldn’t stop sinning  (Romans 7:18-20).

The Holy Spirit is an adviser, a counselor who will guide you but you have to learn to listen for His voice.  Some people who are very busy or have difficulty relaxing find that to be easier said than done.  If that’s your problem take some time each day to just be still and ask Him to speak to you. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

A.  Three Greek words are used to define the role of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s life. Para means “with” and applies to everyone before the Resurrection.    Eperchomai (a compound form of epi and erchomai) means to “come upon” and describes events in Acts 2, Acts 10:44, and Acts 19:6, resulting there in the manifestation of tongues. En means “in” and refers to the result of having heard and believed the Gospel, as in Ephesians 1:13-14.

Taken together, these passages agree that the Lord sealed the Holy Spirit within you at the moment of belief, determined what gift(s) you would need to make your unique contribution to the body, and invested you accordingly. From time to time, for His own purposes, He might also cause the Holy Spirit to “come upon” you to perform a special assignment.

A.  In Matt. 13:11 Jesus said in effect that the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom has been given to believers but not to unbelievers. And in 1 Cor. 2:14 Paul said that because unbelievers don’t have the Spirit of God to help them, they can not understand things that come from Him.  This has the dual effect of providing knowledge and understanding to the Lord’s followers while keeping unbelievers in the dark.  It’s similar to the way military commanders put battle plans into a code that their troops can decipher but their enemy can not understand.

This is why Paul said that the End Times judgments will come while the unbelieving world does not expect them, but that believers should not be surprised to see them approaching (1 Thes 5:1-4).  This dual purpose could not have been accomplished if the Lord had instructed John and the other writers to present all of end times prophecy in clear language.