Hebrews #64 - 7:1-3 (d)
Speaker Notes The Holy Spirit
Collect for Pentecost
O God, who didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people by sending to them
the light of thy Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things,
and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Savior,
who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
Hebrews 7:1-3
7.1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.
Charles Williams The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church quote (page 1)
The beginning of Christendom is, strictly, at a point out of time. A metaphysical trigonometry finds it among the spiritual Secrets, at the meeting of two heavenward lines, one drawn from Bethany along the Ascent of Messias, the other from Jerusalem against the Descent of the Paraclete. That measurement, the measurement of eternity in operation, of the bright cloud and the rushing wind, is, in effect, theology.
Nobel Laureate neuroscientist Sir John Eccles sees the interaction between mind and brain as leading
Nobel Laureate neuroscientist Sir John Eccles sees the interaction between mind and brain as leading “to the extraordinary doctrine that this world of matter-energy is not completely sealed, which is a fundamental tenet of physics, but that there are small ‘apertures’ in what is otherwise a completely closed system.”
1 Corinthians 2:10b-15 (NIV)
10b The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
“We receive the Spirit of truth so that we can know the things of God. In order to grasp this, consider how useless the faculties of the human body would become if they were denied their exercise. Our eyes cannot fulfill their task without light, either natural or artificial; our ears cannot react without sound vibrations, and in the absence of any odor our nostrils are ignorant of their function. Not that these senses would lose their own nature if they were not used; rather, they demand objects of experience in order to function. It is the same with the human soul. Unless it absorbs the gift of the Spirit through faith, the mind has the ability to know God but lacks the light necessary for that knowledge.”
― Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315–368), a Church Father and Bishop, from his treatise On the Trinity (De Trinitate) - Friday, Office of Readings
“What is the baptism in the Holy Spirit meant to accomplish in us?
Essentially, the baptism in the Holy Spirit is a doorway leading from a natural realm into a supernatural realm of life and experience. The average Christian, although truly professing Christ, operates largely on his own power, making his own decisions, living by his own strength, and controlling his own life. But through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Christian steps out of this natural realm into a realm where he can begin to experience the supernatural gifts and powers of God's Holy Spirit.
The following testimony of one who recently received the baptism in the Holy Spirit is typical of many:
For years I had been a faithful church member. I' came to worship, I listened to sermons, I worked on committees, I served in every way I knew how, yet I was not satisfied. When I heard about the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I knew this was something I really needed. And when I received it, Jesus became much more real to me. Everything changed! I began to love people. The church services suddenly came to life. All the hymns and prayers became almost unbearably sweet. The sermons sounded as if we had a new minister, only he had been saying the same things all along. I was the one who was changed.”
― Don Basham - The Baptism in the Holy Spirit, page 62 Chapter 17
“I was all the time tugging and carrying water. But now I have a river that carries me.”
- D.L. Moody after the experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit