The Holy Ghost My Resident Friend

By Raymond Burks, Sr

If you are seeking a unique and personal closeness with God, befriend the Spirit of God. God has assigned His Spirit to reside in the body of the followers of His Son, Jesus Christ. In the gospels, Jesus Christ declares that He has selected His followers, including you if you are one of them, as His friend. The wise follower of Jesus Christ will accept that selection and then choose to select the Spirit of God as their friend, too. This makes the relationship mutual, dynamic and functional. This book will assist in making this process more achievable and beneficial. Welcome to an exclusive friendship with the Holy Ghost, who resides in His temple, your body.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Burks, Sr
• Release date: Mar 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9780578264103

Raymond Burks, Sr

Raymond Burks is a Christian and a motivational speaker dedicated to discipleship and Biblical life application principles. He has served as senior pastor at multiple charismatic Pentecostal churches. He has also served his country as a member of the USAF for over twenty years.

Book preview

The

Holy Ghost

My

Resident Friend

Raymond Burks

ISBN 978-0-578-26409-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-0-578-26420-3 (Digital)

Copyright 2022 by Raymond Burks

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopy, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without prior written permission of the author. For permission requests, solicit the author via the address below.

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - The Important Connection

Chapter 3 - Target the Holy Ghost

Chapter 4 - The Spirit of God is Waiting

Chapter 5 - The Beneficial Compromise

Chapter 6 - My Discussion With the Holy Ghost

Chapter 7 - But Can I Really Trust the Holy Ghost with That

Chapter 8 - When the Message Does Not Make Sense

Chapter 9 - It is Unwise to do this Alone

Chapter 10 - My Weakness Allows God’s Strength to Be Manifested

Chapter 11 - Conclusion

About the Author

My Friend the Holy Ghost

Chapter 1 - Introduction

All Christians are given a deposit of the Spirit of God as a consummation of their commitment to a relationship with Jesus Christ and their acceptance into the family of God. This was not a requested opportunity, the Christian had nothing to contribute to compensate God for the gift and the responsibility for the connection is strictly up to God. The Christian’s only contribution to this exchange is being the recipient of this gift. This could cause one to question why we typically invite the Holy Ghost to join us, to manifest Himself to us or to accept our welcome. It is obvious that since our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost He must be somewhere around, however, maybe the temple is not opened for business or worship all of the time. Thus it makes sense to welcome the Holy Ghost in when He may have been absent from the temple. To make sense of this concept, we Christian believers are aware that Samuel was raised in the temple because he was dedicated to God by his mother. So he was in the temple all of the time. Our society does not entertain such concept and so although the place of worship is indeed inside, we must invite the Holy Ghost to manifest Himself in worship in our bodies. When our body the temple is closed for business we are open to successful attacks of the enemy. When the temple is closed for business or worship we are more than likely to entertain carnal thoughts, temptation and sinful behavior. It is our mandate to keep the temple of the Holy Ghost opened for business all the time and the occupant of that temple as one we communicate with enough to call our friend. When the temple is closed for worship communication with the principle worshipper and resident is nonexistent.

Often there is no recognition of the presence of the Holy Spirit until much later in the relationship. When the presence of the Holy Ghost is manifested in the person, they are typically filled with a variety of positive emotions. Still, they are most likely unaware of the significance, purpose or benefit of the presence of the Holy Ghost in their lives. The presence of the Holy Ghost establishes a relationship that appears to remain stagnant until the landlord chooses to engage the Holy Ghost in some form of activity. This writing is dedicated to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. It doesn’t matter what title and definition that you apply to the commitment. Your relationship with God may be identified as a believer, being sanctified, converted, saved, redeemed, and born again, a disciple of Christ and/or any number of denominationally specific title assignments. It doesn’t matter how strong or how weak you believe yourself to be in the relationship with Jesus Christ, this is written directly to you. You are an owner of the human body that is the resident temple of the Holy Ghost or if you are apprehensive about the term Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit. This fact is documented in the Holy Bible, acknowledged as the word of God who cannot lie according to that same book. You have a strong association with the Holy Ghost by default because He has claimed your body as His temple. We acknowledge a temple as a place of special interaction with our sacred deity, the Almighty God. The Holy Ghost represents God in you, God with you and God for you. Although it may never be spoken, many Christians behave as though the Holy Ghost is completely external to them. They don’t acknowledge that they carry the Holy Ghost with them wherever they go. So if the Holy Ghost didn’t come with them to a specific location He isn’t with them at all from their perspective. They behavior is compounded by the fact that many beg the Holy Ghost to come to where they are. Or they request that the Holy Ghost rain on them which merely imply that they desire to be baptized in the Holy Ghost, which is another topic all together. The Holy Ghost has many different and specific responsibilities to the temple that He resides in. It is your responsibility to acknowledge that the Holy Ghost really is there inside of you and is in a relationship with you by default. The Holy Ghost does not dictate to the landlord of the temple what type relationship that you can have with Him, should have with Him or will have with Him. If you find that you are having challenges and difficulty with earthly relationships, a spiritual relationship will require special attention and focus. Only the Holy Ghost can assist you in having a functional relationship with Him, that can be considered as friendship. This relationship can take many forms but the one we would like to focus on is friendship. Since Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of God are one, you can accept that the Holy Ghost is your friend because Jesus Christ decreed that He selected you as His friend in the gospel of John. (John 15:14, 15) But, you the physical lord of your body may treat your tenant in any manner that you choose.

Understand that although the Holy Ghost is your friend by default, that connection does not make you and the Holy Ghost friends. The feeling and relationship must be mutual. It is improvable that you will ever be as committed to the Holy Ghost as He is to you, but your level of commitment to the relationship must be sincere and with total loyalty. Such a commitment will make you a more powerful servant and you will experience more peace in all your endeavors.

Some Christians treat the Holy Ghost as a squatter. You may act as though He doesn’t belong at first and that is why I labeled one form of treatment as that of a landlord to a squatter. A squatter has reason to be where he or she is even if their presence there is not acknowledged as legal, though the landlord may not know they are on the property and possibly don’t want them there. In the case of the Holy Ghost, the landlord may not acknowledge His presence but the Holy Ghost has a mandate to be inside of you as long as the relationship with Jesus Christ remains legitimate. The Holy Scriptures must be fulfilled and the Holy Ghost’s presence in you is part of that writing. Thus, the Holy Ghost is in you whether you acknowledge or desire His presence or not. The scriptures must be fulfilled in our everyday lives despite our ignorance to the fact that the fulfillment is occurring. You invited the Holy Ghost into your life by default when you invited Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior. And while you are somewhat unaware of His presence the Holy Ghost is making the initial changes to your body in order to feel comfortable in His new resident temple.

The Holy Ghost can be treated as a simple tenant where there is an exchange of various tangibles such as recompense for privilege of residing in the temple. You, the landlord, and the tenant Holy Ghost do not have to have any other communication or interaction between each other. The interaction is merely service in exchange for undisclosed service. Since communication may be extremely limited, what you receive in exchange is typically supplied due to covenant and promises mandated in the Holy Scriptures. You may not be aware of any of these until the necessity surfaces and requires it. If you are not familiar with the presence of the Holy Ghost in your body, you may find yourself telling others that something told me or I had a feeling about this or that. And of course you may discover that your lifestyle behaviors may gradually be altered to become more desirable from a Godly perspective. This is included in the transformation of who you are by the renewing or rebooting of your mind. The Holy Ghost behind the scenes is working to develop you into an effective citizen of the kingdom of God with understanding of the requirements of the kingdom, the protocols and the culture of your new Lord and Master.

Then there is the option of treating the Holy Ghost as your family member and friend. To validate that, God always planned to put His Spirit inside of you, I reference the Old Testament Ezekiel 36:25-27. This is further supported by scripture in the New Testament scripture First Corinthians 6:19. So, the presence of the Holy Ghost inside of you is a product of the gift of salvation that comes directly from God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost does not have the characteristic or legacy of being dormant inside the temple, your body, where He lives. The Holy Ghost is dynamically functional in the life of the Christian if that Christian allows the Holy Ghost to do so. The Holy Ghost adheres to the wishes of the landlord of the temple, so if you don’t desire to talk to the Holy Ghost, the conversations are limited. How you treat your resident Holy Ghost should be important to you, because it is