Evidence of the Holy Spirit
I am busy working through some topics that God has been putting on my mind lately and one of them is evidence of the Holy Spirit.
Many churches today state that evidence of the Holy Spirit is the ability to talk in tongues. This is a highly debated subject, which Paul dealt with in his letter to the Corinthian church. Personally I think that any spiritual gift, if authentic is evidence of the Holy Spirit.
I do not wish to discuss the issue of speaking in tongues here as I am sure it already has been discussed in another thread.
I believe that all spiritual gifts can be counterfeited by man and the devil, eg. false prophecies, false healings, false tongues etc. Due to this fact, pure logic tells me that evidence of gifts is not 100% evidence of the Holy Spirit.
So I have turned to scripture and so far I have found only one where Paul states what is required to show evidence of the Holy Spirit. 1Cor 12 1-3
I have studied these verses in quite a bit of detail and I understand that the word "Lord" in context of this passage means God. I do not want to go into all the research I have done here but a simple look into Strongs Concordance or Vines expository dictionary will confirm this.
From this I understand that one cannot admit openly that Jesus is God unless they have the Holy Spirit.
Are there any other passages in the Bible where it clearly states that a certain thing is only possible with the presence of the Holy Spirit?
(I ask again, please lets not debate the gift of tongues).
Thanks
I am busy working through some topics that God has been putting on my mind lately and one of them is evidence of the Holy Spirit.
Many churches today state that evidence of the Holy Spirit is the ability to talk in tongues. This is a highly debated subject, which Paul dealt with in his letter to the Corinthian church. Personally I think that any spiritual gift, if authentic is evidence of the Holy Spirit.
I do not wish to discuss the issue of speaking in tongues here as I am sure it already has been discussed in another thread.
I believe that all spiritual gifts can be counterfeited by man and the devil, eg. false prophecies, false healings, false tongues etc. Due to this fact, pure logic tells me that evidence of gifts is not 100% evidence of the Holy Spirit.
So I have turned to scripture and so far I have found only one where Paul states what is required to show evidence of the Holy Spirit. 1Cor 12 1-3
I have studied these verses in quite a bit of detail and I understand that the word "Lord" in context of this passage means God. I do not want to go into all the research I have done here but a simple look into Strongs Concordance or Vines expository dictionary will confirm this.
From this I understand that one cannot admit openly that Jesus is God unless they have the Holy Spirit.
Are there any other passages in the Bible where it clearly states that a certain thing is only possible with the presence of the Holy Spirit?
(I ask again, please lets not debate the gift of tongues).
Thanks