Thank you Jennifer for your request. Yes I will gladly send that link.

Hi Johnny and thanks for visiting and for commenting. I read the article that you left for consideration and I will say that it is a fine article and it expresses a very popular view of the gift of the Holy Spirit as spoken of in Acts 2:38. However with that being said, I believe that popular belief is false. I do indeed believe that the “gift” of the Holy Spirit in this context is a “promise”, as stated in verse 39, and I believe that just as 1 John 2:25 states, the “promise” given by God, is the promise of eternal life. The author of the article that you submitted makes the common mistake of confusing the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” with the idea of the Holy Spirit dwelling within someone. But that just isn’t the case. A thorough study of the usages of that phrase in the new testament reveals that the phrase “filled with the Holy Spirit” or simply “filled with the Spirit” refers to a person receiving a miraculous gift, given by the Holy spirit. For example, the author suggests that Acts 2:4 is saying that the apostles were given an indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when in reality, that very verse makes it perfectly clear that what they were given was the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues. There is no suggestion in that verse nor in the context surrounding the verse, that any kind of indwelling of the Spirit is being spoken of. I urge you to read my article once again and take into consideration all that the scriptures have said on the subject. I would like to offer to you the invitation to study this subject in depth with me either thru this website or thru email, or by whatever means you would prefer. Will you kindly take me up on my offer to study this with you? Either way, I wish you all the best and I pray for God’s blessings to be with you in your Christian life. Thanks again for visiting. I truly hope we can talk again soon.

Thanks again for you comments. and of course thanks for reading these lessons. God bless.

Thank you So so much for this insightful article about the Promise and the Holy Spirit. I have struggled to get my mind around it until now
Thanks indeed Jim, for explaining in a childlike manner which makes. It so easy to grasp.
Kindest regards
Harris Cloete

Thank you so much for your comments and your words of encouragement. And God bless you in your studies and in your Christian life. If I can be of any assistance please don’t hesitate to ask.

What a relief to finally understand it!

Thank you so much for reading and for commenting. I appreciate your encouragement.

Thank you so much Marion. This is indeed a very misunderstood subject and so I’m glad that you took the time to read the lesson. I hope you will look around the site at some other lessons also. May God bless you.

Your Brother Marlon

You are certainly welcome. God bless.

Thanks

Hello Mary Ann. Thanks for your comments and questions. To be very precise, the gift of the holy Spirit mentioned in Acts 2:38 is the “promise” of eternal life. It is not eternal life itself, because eternal life will not become a reality until after the resurrection and the judgment. Then, after the resurrection, and judgment, the saved will enter into eternal life with our Lord. It’s the same as saying that we will enter into “heaven”. “Heaven” is simply another name for eternal life. But we receive the promise of that eternal life as a “gift” from God (given by the holy Spirit of God) after we have believed, and confessed our faith, and repented of our sins, and after we have been baptized for the forgiveness of those sins. Then after we have been forgiven of our sins, that’s when we receive the promised gift, of the holy Spirit.

The statement that “your body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit” is simply another way of saying that when a Christian lives and acts according to the words of the Spirit of God, then that very same “spirit” of God, dwells within you (within your body) A non-Christian doesn’t have the “spirit” of God dwelling within them, and that fact is demonstrated by their actions which of course would be in opposition to the word of God. You could say that for the non-Christian, the “spirit” of “satan”, (which is indeed the very spirit of opposition to God) is dwelling within them. But once again, for the faithful Christian, their actions will demonstrate that they are indeed influenced by the words of the Spirit of God, and that we indeed do have that very same “spirit” dwelling within our hearts and minds.

Again thanks for your comments, and if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask. And if yu would like to correspond by email, you may certainly do so at this address.. cocbuffalowy.com

Thanks so much for your kind comments. And of course thank you for visiting the website. If you have any specific questions regarding “gift” or about any other subject, please let me know and I’ll do all I can to answer those questions. Thanks again, and God bless.