A reader asks...
In an email, Beth from Arizona asks,
“Is the Holy Spirit within all people including non believers? If not, then how does God communicate with or guide us before we are baptized? Isn’t something leading us to the desire to be baptized?"
Blessings, Beth
Thank you for your email and your questions, Beth. The answers, happily, can be clearly drawn from the Scriptures.
When we hear the Gospel preached - which comes to us by sound waves carried across space to our ears - we hear God's very own Word spoken. When we read the Scriptures - paper and ink bound in a book - we are seeing the the Word that God wanted to preserve for us so that we may know about the Saviour. God uses all these physical means to convey his Word to us.
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16
The Holy Spirit creates faith in us by the Gospel, and all who receive this Word in faith are saved. If we desire to be baptized, it is solely by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. (1 Cor. 12:3 again: "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit".)
I hope this is helpful to you Beth. Anybody else care to chime in?
The Scriptures indicate in a number of places that there are those who are in the Spirit and those who are not.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:5-8
Forthe one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:8
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3
Just as a distinction was made between the Isrealites - God's chosen people - and the Gentiles, so too is there a distinction between those who have been regenerated by the Spirit and those who have not. All are God's creatures, but not all are His children.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1
Believers have been adopted into the family of God and are heirs to the Kingdom. Believers hear and understand the that which is of the Spirit, while unbelievers do not - indeed cannot.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18
But God does not speak to us exclusively through his indwelt Spirit - he uses ordinary physical means to communicate with us as well. Scripture teaches that God's grace is conveyed to us through the Gospel (that is: God's saving word about His love for us in Jesus). Forthe one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:8
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13
Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3
Just as a distinction was made between the Isrealites - God's chosen people - and the Gentiles, so too is there a distinction between those who have been regenerated by the Spirit and those who have not. All are God's creatures, but not all are His children.
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1
Believers have been adopted into the family of God and are heirs to the Kingdom. Believers hear and understand the that which is of the Spirit, while unbelievers do not - indeed cannot.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18
When we hear the Gospel preached - which comes to us by sound waves carried across space to our ears - we hear God's very own Word spoken. When we read the Scriptures - paper and ink bound in a book - we are seeing the the Word that God wanted to preserve for us so that we may know about the Saviour. God uses all these physical means to convey his Word to us.
Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. Romans 10:17
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16
The Holy Spirit creates faith in us by the Gospel, and all who receive this Word in faith are saved. If we desire to be baptized, it is solely by the work of the Holy Spirit in us. (1 Cor. 12:3 again: "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit".)
I hope this is helpful to you Beth. Anybody else care to chime in?
5 comments:
I think you did a great job with that one. Much better than I could ever hope to.
This is good. Would you say though, that the Holy Spirit influences individuals (and leaders, world events and so on)? - not by indwelling unbelievers but in some other way? If it is God who enables an unbeliever to become a believer, then wouldn't that be God, the Holy Spirit exerting an influence?
Hmm...Sara, interesting question. I don't want to speculate and I'll have to give this some more thought, but off the top of my head I'm thinking of the Pharoah in Exodus and doesn't the Scriptures say that God hardened his heart? That would seem to me to be a direct influence. How and why God did this though I don't think we can say with absolute certainty. Perhaps God, foreknowing that Pharoah would ultimately reject God, used that for His purposes? But that's just a guess on my part. I'm not sure that it can be supported by Scripture. But it sure does make one think.
I think you did a great job with this.
Shannon Dul at 2:21pm March 11
Are you sere you shouldn't be "the pastors wife", you're way better at this than me.
So then, it is by hearing the Word that the desire to be baptized happens, and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us at baptism. So then the Holy Spirit is not in everyone, not in non believers. So then the question may be what causes people (old enough to decide... Read More) to be baptized? (I was baptized as an infant so I am not speaking from personal experience.) It is the work of Christians to bring others to God, we are "the workers in the field, bringing in the harvest". Christians tell about God and attempt to live in a God pleasing way so that others will see, hear and learn. So, in short, how are non believers lead to faith? By Anita, and others like her! Praise God!
May the Lord Bless and Keep you Anita. Amen!
However, that being said, it should also be clarified that Scripture says that the Holy Spirit comes to us through the means of Grace, which are the Word (Bible) and Sacraments (Baptism & Communion). So, the Holy Spirit can dwell in non Baptized people, the thief on the cross beside Jesus for example. Those people who have heard the Word and have... Read More the Holy Spirit would then naturally desire to be baptized.
"How can they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?(...) Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." ( Romans 10: 14,17)
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