Church of God, New World Ministries

Which Church Has The Holy Spirit?

Somewhere on this earth God is using and guiding His Church! That Church is empowered by His Holy Spirit to do His work. Do you know where that Church is today?

People are told: “Attend the church of your choice.” It is assumed that this must be all right with God. And, it is assumed, at least by most people, that every church on every street corner is in some way led by the Holy Spirit. After all, they all talk about the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. They all appear to know something about it. Just what is the truth?

Does everyone just automatically receive God’s Spirit at birth, or at baptism or confirmation? The plain answer of your Bible is a resounding “NO.” The Holy Spirit is a precious gift from God that after Adam’s sin was not even available to mankind in general until the Day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. At that time, the Apostle Peter was inspired to state how men might receive this gift. “Then Peter said unto them, “repent, and be baptized every one of your in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Notice the two conditions for receiving God’s Holy Spirit. These conditions don’t “earn” the Holy Spirit – nothing could earn this precious gift of the very nature and life of God. But a person must show his humility and obedience by fulfilling these conditions, or God will not grant him the Holy Spirit.

First, repentance of your personal sins and of your vain, selfish “self” is absolutely necessary. Since you are baptized “for the remission of sins” and “sin is the transgression of the law” (I John 3:4), you must repent of breaking God’s holy, spiritual law contained in the Ten Commandments.

More than just repenting of your letter-of-the-law sins, you must repent of your carnal self! You must be brought down and humbled to the place that you are willing to look at yourself as you really are. Notice how God brought Job to this place of real repentance. “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).

Once you have come to this place you are willing, in unconditional surrender to the God of the Bible, to symbolically bury yourself in baptism, which is the next step. For baptism pictures the burial of your old self (Rom. 6:3-4), and your resurrection to a new life in Christ Jesus.

This repentance and baptism must be real. To repent not only means to be sorry, but to be sorry that you are willing to quit sinning, quit breaking God’s Commandments!

After Pentecost, Peter showed that this is what repentance really means. He stated, concerning Christ’s death and resurrection, “And we are witnesses of these things, and so also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him” (Acts. 5:32). So you can see that not just “anybody” is granted the priceless gift of the God’s Holy Spirit. Only those who have truly surrendered to the Creator, who have been conquered by the true Creator God and submit themselves to His Word and His law, they and they only, are granted the precious gift of the very Spirit and nature of God Himself.

“If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knows Him: but ye know Him; for He dwells with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:15-17).

In this passage, the Christ of your Bible showed that those who were obedient to God would receive the “Comforter.” In this day of mass frustration and mental sickness, it is important to realize that the Holy Spirit of God gives real comfort that can be derived from no other source.

Notice the results which the Holy Spirit will produce in the lives of true Christians possessing it: “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, faith, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance (or self-control): against such there is no law” (Gal. 5:22-23).

Where do you find people who are literally filled with love and joy and peace? These are things to look for in the lives of those who possess God’s Holy Spirit. If these qualities are missing, then very frankly the Holy Spirit is missing also!

In Romans 5:5, Paul tells us that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy spirit which is given unto us.” How is this divine love manifested in our lives? The inspired answer is given in I John 5:3: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” God’s love is expressed in obedience to Him, and in wisdom, unselfishness and self-control in our dealing with our fellowman.

A softness and humility, and a willingness to change and grow are evident in one who truly has God’s Spirit. For Christ stated: “Howbeit when He, the spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:13).

We are promised that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, and we are exhorted: “But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18). Therefore, those who truly have God’s Spirit will reflect these attitudes and qualities.

Wherever God’s true Church is on earth today, it is guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit. “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).

On the negative side, the apostle Paul was inspired to warn: “Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9).

Notice some of the attitudes we have already discussed which distinguish those in God’s true Church, those who are led by the Holy Spirit and therefore have these attitudes.

First of all, they do not “join” the Church, for they cannot!

As we have already seen, one must repent to get in, and then be baptized as an outward symbol of the willingness to bury the old self in surrender to God and His laws. People in God’s true Church have this yielded attitude of repentance, submission and humility. They don’t have a “cocksure” or “know it all” argumentative attitude. They have been humbled, beaten down to size by their Creator. All the chips are off their shoulders, they are through arguing and making excuses.

This is a very important attitude and you should reread this description carefully to fully grasp what is meant.

Secondly notice that the Holy Spirit guides those in the true Church in a certain way of life. In fact, in the book of Acts, it is called “this way” and “that way” many times (Acts 9:2; 18:25-26; 19:23). This way of life is based upon obedience to the Commandments of God. It is based upon Jesus’ searching statement: “if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matt. 19:17).

Those guided by God’s Spirit are willing literally to live by every Word of God (Matt. 4:4). They daily search the scriptures to find, not what men think, but what God says about how to live and what the laws and purpose of life really are. This is a basic attitude of the true Church. It can not be successfully counterfeited.

A third basic attitude we have seen that the Holy Spirit imparts is a willingness to admit error and change. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth. Peter said that we must grow in grace and in knowledge. Each converted human being therefore must change and grow. A church is simply the sum total of its members. So the church that is truly guided by God’s Holy Spirit will be constantly growing in grace and in knowledge of God’s revealed will.

As the true Church’s leaders and membership grow in each age, they will not have to admit past mistakes and change quite as often as they once did, but nevertheless they will acknowledge error and change whenever they are proved wrong by God’s Word! Besides this, they are constantly growing into new truth that may not have been revealed before.

For instance, most of the end-time prophecy had been closed and sealed until the time we are now living in (Dan. 12:9)! Where on earth today is the church that has proved itself willing to acknowledge error, and when necessary, to grow in new truth? Only God’s Church will do these things! And only the church with these “fruits” is guided by the Holy Spirit!

Christ said: “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe me not, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in Him” (John 10:37-38).

Throughout the New Testament, the true Church is consistently referred to as the “body” of Christ (I Corth. 12:27; Eph. 1:22-23). Christ Himself having ascended to the right hand of God in Heaven, the Church is the instrument or physical “body” through which Christ now does His work on earth today. Who is doing that work?

In John 16:13, Jesus not only stated that the Spirit “will guide you into all truth,” but that “he will show you things to come.” Wherever the Holy Spirit is working, it reveals the true understanding of Biblical prophecy! Stating in principle the way God works, the inspired prophet Amos wrote: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing but He reveals His secret unto His servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7).

Then Amos continued: “The lion has roared who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy” (v. 8)?

Wherever God’s Church is in this climactic end time in which we are now living, it is bound to be prophesying and warning the world to exactly and specifically what is ahead so they may understand and repent before it is too late!

In the prophecy extending through the centuries to His second coming, Jesus tells His Church today: “For verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come” (Matt. 10:23).

Very few professing Christian leaders or organizations have the faintest idea where “Israel” in fact really is today. Lacking this understanding, and lacking even the willingness to obtain it, they are certainly not carrying this message to God’s people in Britain and America.

Possessing the key to our national identity and the key to the Book of Revelation, we are able to tell you definitely what is going to happen to the major nations of this earth during the next few years of your life!

For more than 60 years this work of God has definitely and specifically warned of a coming United States of Europe dominated by a great false church. We have specifically stated that this revival of the “Holy Roman Empire” would take place in Central Europe and be an amalgamation of ten nations or groups of nations which would all pledge their allegiance to one military-political leader and to one great religious leader whom the Bible describes as the “great false prophet.” In the face of physical evidence that pointed to the contrary, we have repeatedly stated that it will not be Russia which attacks and conquers the United States and Great Britain, but rather this fast-rising European combine.

These are not nebulous theories which may go untested and unproved for generation. They are definite prophetic statements affecting the major nations of this earth. You can know whether God’s Spirit is working today, if you honestly want to!

May God grant you understanding to find where He is working, where His servants, the prophets are today, where His true church is working and changing the lives of its members to be like Him through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Is it possible that you just may have come in contact with that True Church?

 
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