Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast where we provide sound doctrine for everyday people. I'm your host, Kosti Hinn, and I want to welcome our listeners on Apple, Spotify, and those enjoying this on our YouTube video podcast format. As always, if you're new to our ministry, be sure to click subscribe on our YouTube channel at For the Gospel. And for ways to partner with us, learn about free resources, or pick up my new book, Knowing the Spirit, you can go to forthegospel.org. Thank you as always for your support. And let's jump into today's episode. It's the end of this series. We've been in on the Holy Spirit, and I'm answering all your questions that were sent in on this very important topic. So here we go. Number one, Jordan asked, How do I correctly say that I've heard from the Holy Spirit when he's guiding me? So that would be a really helpful question, I think, for all of us. How do we correctly say if the Holy Spirit led us somewhere or did something and we feel like he did, that we heard from the Holy Spirit or we were led by the Holy Spirit, how do we express that? Well, here's my answer. I would recommend terms that relate to what happens when God's word drives us to obedience and action. I would stay real biblical so that people don't get confused, but more than that, so that you're accurately expressing the great thing that God has done or led you to. So here's what I would say. I have a strong conviction, and then fill in the blank. Or based on what God says in and then chapter and verse, I believe we ought to do this or that. If you feel like the Lord led you and you're a believer, and there was some outcome that was just remarkable, you got to remember he does this constantly, and we would call that divine providence, which is to say that he's intimately acquainted with every detail of our lives. And so we would add this in God's providence, I ran into this person and or I thought about this or that, or in God's providence, I had this strong compulsion or conviction to obey him in this area, or to go here or do that. And then this happened or that happened, and it just turned out to be amazing. I'm so thankful for the grace of God. I just love how in control he is, and his providence never ceases to amaze me. That's what we would say. And all of that is more reliable than mystical phrases like, I feel like God told me, or I feel like God spoke to my heart. These are all just Christianese type phrases that people have picked up over the years to just say, I got a strong conviction, I was reading the word, or I simply lived my life out in obedience to God, or in his providence, this happened so much better, so much easier, and so much more clear. Sabrina asked, how do we explain that the baptism of the Holy Spirit with tongues is unbiblical if we were talking to Pentecostal Christians? Two passages here come to mind. These are passages that debunk what a Pentecostal might insist on if they said, Well, the evidence of being baptized in the Holy Spirit is tongues. That's unbiblical, and here's why. First Corinthians 12 13 says, For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, we were all made to drink of one spirit. And then in 1 Corinthians 12 30, later on in that chapter, Paul is explaining that not all speak in tongues, not all interpret, not all have gifts of healing, and so on. So not all, which means if we all are baptized into one body by one spirit, that means salvation baptizes us into the body of Christ. And in verse 30 of chapter 12 in 1 Corinthians, not all speak in tongues, you cannot, as an honest Pentecostal, if you want to be biblical at least in this regard, say that you have to speak in tongues as the evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And most certainly, you cannot say that people have to speak in ecstatic utterance, like not even known languages. There's so much healthy debate that can happen on this topic, but healthy would mean we are actually using scripture to create our positions and not just what we've heard or experiences or some leader we trust said that you have to gotta stay biblical. Those two passages debunk the idea that you have to speak in tongues as evidence of the Spirit's baptism. Next question: Does the Holy Spirit need certain conditions to be met during a worship or prayer service in order to break out and start working? This is a great question and maybe an interesting one to think about. So, first, I want to define terms. If by break out and start working, you mean that the Holy Spirit begins sanctifying us, he's bearing fruit in us, he's filling us and doing all of his biblical activities in a believer, then yes, a certain condition must be met. And those of you who are biblical thinkers know exactly what I'm gonna say. It is the condition of salvation. You must trust in Christ by faith. The gospel, the good news must be believed. Then the Holy Spirit takes residence in your heart and begins working. So let's make that clear. But if you mean to say that we need the right music, the right lighting, the right mood, some atmosphere, or superstitious phrases like Holy Spirit, come and we just ask you, we just and all the music is playing, and it's this moody vibe, and we're all going to this kind of euphoric, hypnotic state because he's coming and here he is, and I feel the feels and I got the goosebumps. Well, hold on now. That is not at all what the Bible says primes the pump for the Spirit's work. That is a lot of what you see at these faith healing services. It's also what you see in you know, kind of general evangelicalism today as things drone on and on and on, and they seem to be priming us for something. I think that's conditioning people. And at best, it's emotionalism. At worst, it's not even an event that God is present in. So the condition for there to be him working or him breaking through is the gospel and salvation. Oh yeah, he'll break through everything and start working in your life. But if it's some of these other ideas, no way. Number four, can I still be forgiven after severely blasphemous thoughts about God? Wow, this is a deep question. And I'm gonna say absolutely, we were all blasphemers, liars, adulterers in heart, maybe adulterers in our actions too before conversion, slaves to sin. But God, rich in mercy, caused us to be alive in Christ. First John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. I was a person who had so many blasphemous thoughts and beliefs about God, like many others, including you, I'm sure, including former atheists. Maybe you're a former just pagan. You were a completely lost idolater. God's mercy made a way, didn't he? For you to be saved, for me to be saved. We were blasphemers, sinners, and he forgave our sins when Christ was our Savior and Lord. If you've repented of your sin and turned to him in faith, you are forgiven. In the book, I do talk about what the sin of blasphemy is or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which Jesus says is the unpardonable sin. That's not referring to your former state and now you're saved. It's the outright, ongoing, blasphemous rejection of Christ as Lord. And there's a lot more about that in the book, but that should answer your question here and now. Number five, can the Holy Spirit communicate with you? I believe he does through the word. And I believe he does through the conviction he brings on your heart when the word is preached to you. It's not some like, well, I think I feel the Spirit, and I just really feel like the Spirit's telling me. No, no, no. The Word of God penetrates your heart. You're filled with this zeal and a desire to obey, deep affection for Christ. Where does that come from? The word of God and the Spirit is working through it. Number six, what are some common proof texts that charismatics use to back up their behavior? All right, here's a few. Paul falling to the ground in Acts chapter eight, and then described again in Acts chapter 26, verses 13 and 14. This beam of light shines. God calls him out for persecuting him and then commissions him. I often like to call that uh Paul getting knocked off his high horse, if you will, because he was this prideful, arrogant Hebrew of Hebrews, Pharisees of Pharisees, and God knocks him down and says, You need to stop persecuting you, you're mine now. And that's of course my paraphrase. Another is when Jesus is arrested in John 18, 5 through 6, and all of them who are arresting him fall back to the ground. Those passages, there's several others as well, and I don't have time and don't want to go into every single one of them because I'm going to tell you where to find a big study on this that we did it for the gospel. But all of those and more are illustrative examples from charismatics at times for why people fall and the Holy Spirit falls on them apparently, or supposedly they shake, they convulse, all of that. But none of these passages condone the chaos that we see today. Let me explain a few. Number one, Jesus' opponents still arrested and killed them. This wasn't some moment where they all were slain in the spirit or fell under the power of God and were saved. This isn't like the Holy Spirit was working powerfully, look at them all over the ground. No, they got up, they arrested him, they took him to a bunch of bogus trials, and then killed him. They did not experience the Holy Spirit's true work. In Paul's case, they fall to the ground. He goes to the ground. And like I said, I call it getting knocked off his high horse. He's so proud, big persecutor, big shot, and then he's done. He was not slain in the spirit. He was not like electrocuted or convulsing like some of these people do today. It was out of fear and utter shock. Now, there's a number of other passages that we should make mention of. All of them are in an article, like all of our resources, you get it for free on forthegospel.org. Go to our blog or go to our Instagram page and look up Mythbusters Slain in the Spirit. I also did a video episode on this, and it's all on for the gospel. It digs into a number of passages that charismatics will use as proof texts. None of them stick. Number seven, is the Holy Spirit and Christ's Spirit two different things? This is a really insightful question. So there's several passages in the Bible that refer to the Spirit of Christ and God. And the Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit and then the Spirit of Christ. And people start to wonder, are they different? Are they the same? Which is it? So first I want to make a delineation here. We're not talking about when Jesus gave up his spirit, like when he died on the cross. That was his actual spirit, as in his life, when he laid it down. When we read about the spirit of Christ in, say, Philippians 1 19, when Paul says, For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, we're seeing a close correlation between the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of Christ. They are separate persons in the Trinity, but they work closely together. The term of could be referring to the fact that he was sent by Jesus Christ and the Father. Luke 24, 49 records Jesus saying, I will send the Holy Spirit. And again, it's likely conveying the closeness of the Holy Spirit and Christ's work. Like when Paul uses all the terms in Romans 8 9, he writes this However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. So they are two distinct persons of the Trinity, yet they work closely and are described as such in Scripture. Number eight, does the Holy Spirit come and go? Is the Holy Spirit present in a believer when committing sin? Good questions. He does not come and go in and out of your life as a believer. We are indwelt by him upon conversion, and we become and always are the temple of the Holy Spirit, just like 1 Corinthians 6 19 says. Now, he can be grieved, Ephesians 4 30 says so. He can be displeased with our sinfulness, and certainly he will convict us when we're acting sinfully and unrighteously. But nowhere in the Bible can we find a verse that describes him departing from us, like he was in us and now he's out. Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14 says, In him you also, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him, talking about Christ, with the Holy Spirit of promise. You're sealed when you're a believer. When you get the Holy Spirit, you got him. Now, again, he can be grieved, he can be convicting you, you need to smarten up as a believer. Yeah, there's many times over when we need to be convicted in our sin and respond in obedience, but he's not coming and going. When he's in, he's in to stay. Number nine, should I pray to God or the Holy Spirit? Uh and then maybe a clarification here. Should I pray to the Holy Spirit separate from God? So a lot of questions about this. No, the Holy Spirit is God. So when you pray to him or about him, you're praying to God and about God. I have found a number of prayers by early church fathers, including Augustine, that address the Holy Spirit according to his role, very personally, very specifically. And I think that's the most biblical way to pray to or about his work. We pray in line with what he does, never separating him from God, because that's impossible to do theologically or spiritually. He is God. Number 10, what's your view on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament believers? My view would be what the Bible teaches and showcases. He indwelled some individuals we're told. And I went over this in the first episode we did in this series about essential things you should believe about him. And we mostly see him coming upon believers in the Old Testament, mostly, not always, but mostly. Whereas in the New Testament, the normative pattern is him coming inside of believers. Basically, here's the long and short of it. We become the temple of God in the new covenant. It's not that people were ever saved by any other way or means, but by grace through faith in the Old Testament, but most certainly there's a universal distinction that after the cross, you no longer went to the temple to find the presence of God. You didn't need to sacrifice to atone for sin. Christ did the work only he could do. And now the temple of the Holy Spirit is us. Pretty cool and pretty amazing. Number 11, what do we call the Holy Spirit in prayer? The Holy Spirit or God, you would simply say, Holy Spirit or God. Kind of simple. We would say anytime you're praying about or to the Holy Spirit that you would refer to him as deity. And we would say, maybe in prayer, we ask that your spirit would fill us. Maybe if you're referring to the Godhead, you're talking to the triune God. If you're praying and you're mentioning the Holy Spirit directly, you would just use the name that Scripture uses to describe him and saying, Holy Spirit, thank you for filling me. Thank you for sealing me. Help me to glorify Christ is like the most awesome and most obvious prayer we should frequently be praying. I don't know about you, but every day I want to glorify Christ. So we would pray in line with what the Bible says he does and always refer to him in terms that we see in Scripture. Okay, number 12, does the Holy Spirit reveal things about the future? I would say he has in Scripture, and 2 Peter 1, 19 calls it the prophetic word, more sure. I would look to Scripture for wisdom on the future. Number 13, does the Holy Spirit help me discern between right and almost right, or just between the gospel and heresy? This is such a good question. And I think we should wrestle with this one. Based on what Scripture teaches, the more you let the word of Christ saturate your life, Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell within you richly. I think the more you'll be living the continually spirit-filled life because the word is filling your life and permeating your thoughts and actions. There's one baptism, but there are many fillings. What do I mean by that? Well, Ephesians 5.18 speaks about being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a command to be filled, and it's be being filled. The verb means ongoing, present, active. You continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Theologians and scholars would say it this way: there's one baptism, but there can be many fillings. And the filling of the Spirit is this walking yielded and submitted to the Holy Spirit all the time, not under the control of any other influence, but under the control of this Holy of the Holy Spirit. So what do I mean? Well, look at the Corinthians. They were spiritually arrogant, they were abusing gifts, they were sinning left and right, they were suing each other, sexually immoral, and yet Paul calls them saints. Though some were false Christians and needed to be put out, they would be a good example of the saved, they're baptized into the body of Christ, but they're not be being filled. They're not living that ongoing, constant, continuous, present, active, spirit-filled yieldedness. Clearly, when they do begin walking obediently, the second letter comes and it's a beautiful picture of repentance and faithfulness. So here's my answer to your question based on what scripture shows us about being filled with the Spirit. I believe there are lots of churches today where people are saved, but they're not living present, active, filled lives. Therefore, they're constantly being led astray and confused, and then they come back, and it's this windy, kind of knee-jerk, choppy road, or like picture a car just constantly tapping the brakes and jerking your head back and forth. And they think they're going the right way. They're not really going the right way. They end up sort of wrong. They're a degree off here, a degree off there, and you're going, What gives? And then you enter a church that is spirit-filled and loaded with sound doctrine, and it's vibrant and balanced. There's a people who are baptized and they're yielded to the Lord, and you go, Where has this been all my life? I was in a church. They believe the gospel. I mean, I think people were saved, but this is entirely different. You have just experienced the Holy Spirit's work in your life, where he takes you from being in this sort of almost right environment that gets close to this or that, and certainly is the gospel, but is sort of off still in other ways. And he sets your feet on solid ground, friend. He does that. And I believe strongly, based on what scripture teaches, that filling, that guiding, that accuracy in your life and ministry and in the church, it comes from being yielded and in the scriptures. That's why you got to be in the word. Otherwise, you could end up at a church that gets the gospel right, but it's as shallow as a kiddie pool. Number 14, can you feel the Holy Spirit's presence in places like churches? Uh, if you're talking about zeal, passion, joy, hunger for the truth, motivation, feelings of uh desire to obey, a feeling of love or peace, totally. Where the Holy Spirit is, you will find all of those feelings and desires, uh, including when we gather together, we're the temple of the Holy Spirit. So why wouldn't we feel good about that? You've got God taking residence in you. So yeah, you will feel great about that. Uh, you could be going through trial, but you feel peace, etc. Now, if you're talking about goosebumps, though, or feeling pumped because the music notes hit just right, or when the bass dropped, or the drums hit, everyone started raising their hands, but they looked half dead before that. I think it's worth a second look and just asking, are we being primed to respond emotionally? And is this kind of turning into a show or maybe something else entirely? Number 15, how do you know you have the Holy Spirit? Uh, simple answer, he bears fruit in your life. So I would encourage you to read Galatians chapter five. You got it all there. Ephesians chapter five, there's plenty there too, and then Colossians chapter three. Galatians five, Ephesians five, and Colossians three, you're gonna see all of the evidence for the residence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Uh, number 16, what if something you wished, what is something you wished churches would uh preach more uh regarding the Holy Spirit? I would say the hard parts. If you're charismatic, go deeper. Like get out of the the shallow end of experience. And charismatics, I know, have said that too, so I'm not picking on you guys. Just simple. Get out of that shallow end and counter and counter encounter, got to feel it. Like go deeper. Preach the hard stuff. Get in there. Uh flip the mirror on yourselves. Stop worrying about everyone else. And if you're reformed or like Baptist and more kind of conservative, you'd say, in these things, I would double check, I'll say our tradition and our man-made preferences isn't stifling a richer, deeper, more vibrant understanding of the Holy Spirit's work. So again, quit worrying about what everyone else is doing, flip the mirror on ourselves. Number 17, how does he help me in everyday tasks and challenges? Good question. His fruit in Galatians 5, 22 and 23 should be helping you and is what I need, I'm sure you need daily. I need all nine, all nine that are listed in the fruit of the spirit. Patience with people, love for my wife. I'll give you a few more examples. Self-control with emotions, food, my thinking, talking, spending, reacting, resting, even recreating. Peace to trust that he's in control. Joy to remember heaven is my home, no matter what I face here on earth, and glory is coming. How about kindness to help me treat others like Christ would have me? What about goodness to do good works, do all that I do to bring glory to my Father in heaven? And then the fruit of gentleness, because harshness stirs up wrath, Proverbs says. And then faithfulness to walk in truth and endure. I think he helps you in all of those ways, bearing fruit all the time. A few more. What is praying in the spirit? Praying in the spirit across the board, we could all say and agree, is the same as praying in Jesus' name. That is to pray in line with his will, under his control, seeking the things he does and will do. It's a surrendering of all your plans and your desires, ultimately saying your will be done. Now, some theologians and more Pentecostal ones would add that it includes praying in tongues in the early church, and some, of course, that would insist that still now praying in the spirit is referring to speaking in tongues. I don't agree. I think it creates categories that are not clear in scripture. And what we do know and what we could all agree on is praying in the spirit or even in Jesus' name is about praying in line with their will. Number 19, is there a primary responsibility that he has, or are all his works equally important? Yeah, I would be careful of delineating or ranking his role and responsibility. Most certainly he's the agent in salvation, we would call him, as in he applies the work of Christ to our lives. That's vital because it's salvation, but everything he does matters, and we should take it all in, relish in it, and have reverence for the third person of the Trinity. Lastly, what inspired you to write about this? Well, surprisingly, maybe for some of you, not charismatic abuses, not reformed neglect. It was studies that showed some 60% of people don't believe in the Holy Spirit or they have some skewed view of him. I think the body of Christ can do better. And so I wanted to write about it because the Holy Spirit is the one residing in us, so we really should get his work right and relish in especially the truth that we can all agree on. Well, that's it. I pray that this series and the book will help you sharpen you and give you lots to think about. Mainly that you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit and bring glory to Christ in your life. Be sure to drop a review on the podcast and let us know if these episodes have blessed you and if the book has served you well, please go on to Amazon, Barnes Noble, ChristianBuck.com, wherever you purchased it from, and leave a written review to encourage folks. I would love to see more people get a chance to understand the Holy Spirit's work and more unity in the body of Christ where we can find it. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe on YouTube for free resources every single week. I'll be back next Monday with another episode. Keep on living for the gospel.