Revealing the Holy Spirit in Humans: Stories from the Bible

By Jacob Wilson Chikuhwa

The history of the transmission of the biblical text is definitely an empirical subject, for it has left in its trail textual evidence, much of it available for research and evaluation.

Thanks to the great advances in philology in general, the discipline of biblical philology has been released from the bonds of religious polemics and has become an important tool for straightforward, literal interpretation, with Protestant researchers leading the way. Revealing the Holy Spirit in Humans: Stories from the Bible is meant to be a continued adherence to the popular historical interpretation of the sanctity of the Holy Spirit in particular and not as a disregard for the available textual evidence in the contemporary Christian doctrine.

The theme in the book is to convey that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit as a compensation for his absence, to perform the functions to advance our goals, which he would have done if he had remained personally with us.

An exploration has been made of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives starting with the church, the congregation and the composition of its human talents, and the personalities and the circumstances in which we find ourselves. In the process, I have been compelled to apply imaginative emendation to the question of life after death. This book is intended to provide a foundation for Bible study by groups and persons interested in Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9781546295884

Book preview

STORIES FROM THE BIBLE

REVEALING THE

HOLY SPIRIT

IN HUMANS

JACOB WILSON CHIKUHWA

43541.png

AuthorHouse™ UK

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403 USA

www.authorhouse.co.uk

Phone: [phone]

© 2018 Jacob Wilson Chikuhwa. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/22/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9589-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-9588-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Defining The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit Through The Church

The Holy Spirit In The Gospel

The Holy Spirit Through The Word Of God

The Holy Spirit In Our Giftings Or Talents

The Holy Spirit In Our Hearts

The Holy Spirit In Our Personality

The Holy Spirit Through Our Circumstances

The Holy Spirit And Life After Death

The Twelve Apostles’ Fate

Conclusion

Appendix

Scripture References

About The Author

For the present and future generations.

God promised love and prosperity to many descendants.

(Hebrews 6:14)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Right from the beginning, I knew that writing on a subject involving Scriptures and the interpretation of Bible verses won’t be easy. I was aware walking that path would mean stepping on thorns and crossing infested waters; arousing controversy as I am just a layman. Yes, this sounds melodramatic and full of foreboding, and I am not big on either, and true, there is something menacing about talking about the Holy Spirit. At times I was challenged on the subject of spiritualism with some people thinking that I was claiming to be the Holy Spirit itself.

I want to thank Pastor Chris Peterson of the Immanuel International Fellowship for his leadership and for the discussions at the Spring Retreat centred on A Praying Faith in May 2018. I was struck by his choice of Bible verses: Don’t worry about anything; instead pray about everything. (Philippians 4:6). This is what inspired me into writing this piece.

The Information Communication Technology (ICT) and its emerging technologies has made it easier for writers by its literally infinite areas of scientific studies and techniques: media management and broadcast; intelligent systems; data handling, processing, storage and transmission; network-based solutions; as well as audio visual monitoring processes. This made my research easier. I want to thank all contributors and authors I found during my visit on the planet Internet.

Last but not least, I want to thank my family and friends in the Bible-study groups, in which I participated, for forming the network that kept me afloat in the infested Scripture waters. When one gets into something that is a reflection of God Himself—the nature of God is such that we finite people can never fully comprehend it—so one can imagine something that is so sophisticated that one can misunderstand and misinterpret (unless we spend the time studying the Scriptures and praying about everything).

My gratitude to the editors and members of staff at AuthorHouse for their sterling job in making the publication of this book a reality cannot be over emphasized.

DEFINING THE HOLY SPIRIT

A study of the Holy Spirit has to start with the definition of the Trinity; that is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity holds that God is one but there are three coeternal and coequal Persons, the same in substance but distinct in subsistence—the Father, the Son (JESUS Christ), and the Holy Spirit—as one God in three Divine Persons. I am obliged to believe that God is unique as eternal, self-conscious and loving; as there is nothing in the universe like Him in this respect. Therefore, I cannot help conceiving of Him as embracing in His unity some form of plurality—Nature itself.

The Holy Spirit is God’s power in action, His active force. But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin. (Micah 3:8). And the angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35). And therefore, we experience that, GOD sends out his spirit by projecting his energy to any place to accomplish His will.

At this stage, it’s essential to go on to write an exposé of the Son born of the Virgin Mary. Although born in Bethlehem, according to Matthew and Luke, JESUS was a Galilean from Nazareth, a village near Sepphoris, one of the two major cities of Galilee (Tiberias was the other). He was born to Joseph and Mary sometime between 6 BC and shortly before the death of Herod the Great (Matthew 2; Luke 1:5) in 4 BC. According to Matthew and Luke, however, Joseph was only legally his father. They report that Mary was a virgin when JESUS was conceived and that she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:35). Joseph is said to have been a carpenter (Matthew 13:55)—that is, a craftsman who worked with his hands—and, according to Mark 6:3, JESUS also became a carpenter.

JESUS began his career by being baptized by John, an eschatological prophet, and an understanding of eschatology is pivotal to interpreting JESUS’ world. He proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God; he predicted the destruction of the Temple (Mark 13:2) and possibly its rebuilding without hands (Mark 14:58); he entered Jerusalem on a donkey, symbolizing his kingship (Mark 11:4-8; Matthew 21:1-11; see Zechariah 9:9 for the symbol); and he had a final meal with his disciples in which he said that he would drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it in the new kingdom of God (Mark 14:25). It is no surprise that after his death his disciples formed a small community that expected JESUS to return and inaugurate a kingdom in which the world would be transformed.

JESUS’ proclamation of the kingdom and his apparent threats against the Temple were based on his view that the kingdom was at hand and that he and his disciples would soon feast in it. It is possible that even to the end he expected divine intervention because among his last words was the cry: My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15:34). The lunar Jewish calendar leaves only two plausible dates within the reign of Pontius Pilate for JESUS’ death, and both of these would have been a 14 Nisan as specified in the Gospel of John: Friday 7 April AD 30, and Friday 3 April AD 33.

In John 19:28-30 we read: Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, I am thirsty. A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, It is finished. With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

What happened next changed history in a way quite different from what JESUS seems to have anticipated. As of 2010, Christianity was by far the world’s largest religion, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, nearly a third (31 percent) of all 6.9 billion people on Earth, the Pew report says. However, the mysterious phenomenon began right a day after Crucifixion. Some of his followers claimed to have seen him after his death. The details are uncertain, since the sources disagree on who saw him and where he was seen (the final sections of Matthew, Luke, and John; the beginning of Acts; and the list in Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians, 15:3-8). ….that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

According to Matthew, an angel showed the empty tomb to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and instructed them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee. While still in Jerusalem, the two Marys saw JESUS, who told them the same thing, and he appeared once more, to the disciples in Galilee. According to Luke, while the disciples remained in Jerusalem, the women (Mary Magdalene; Joanna; Mary, the mother of James; and the other women) found the empty tomb. Two men in dazzling clothes told them that JESUS had been raised. Later, JESUS appeared to two followers on the road to Emmaus (near Jerusalem), then to Peter, and later to the disciples. John mentions sightings in Galilee and Jerusalem. Acts provides a more extensive series of appearances than Luke, though written by the same author, but like it places all of these in or near Jerusalem.

The sources describe the resurrected JESUS as neither a resuscitated corpse, a badly wounded man staggering around, nor as a ghost. According to Luke, the first two disciples to see JESUS walked with him for several hours without recognizing him (24:13-32). Luke also reports that JESUS could disappear and reappear at will (24:31, 36). For Paul, the bodies of Christian believers will be transformed to be like the Lord’s, and the resurrection body will not be flesh and blood (1 Corinthians 15:42-53).

According to these two authors, JESUS was substantially transformed, but he was not a ghost. Luke says this explicitly (24:37-39), and Paul insists on using the word body as part of the term spiritual body rather than spirit or ghost. Luke and Paul do not agree entirely, since Luke attributes flesh and bones to the risen JESUS (24:39). Luke’s account nevertheless requires a transformation. The authors, in other words, were trying to explain something for which they did not have a precise vocabulary, as Paul’s term spiritual body makes clear.

To understand the Gospel accounts regarding JESUS, we must consider the faith of the early church regarding Christ. In this sense it is valid to maintain that there is no distinction between the JESUS of history and the Christ of faith and that the only way to get at