Pentecost in the New Testament marked the commencement of the present age of the Holy Spirit. Believers are under the guidance even as the disciples of Jesus were under Him. From heaven Jesus still exercises lordship over us, but, not being physically with us now, He transmits his directions by means of the Holy Spirit who makes Christ real to us. Since Pentecost the Holy Spirit is the link between the first and second advents of Jesus. He applies the work of Jesus Christ to men in this age….

Pentecost . . . assures us that the Spirit of God has come to achieve his certain purposes in the world, in the Church, and in the believer. . . . The advent of the Holy Spirit fulfilled Christ’s promise; and it also testified that God’s righteousness had been vindicated. The age of the Holy Spirit, which could not commence until Jesus was glorified, had now begun.

…God both blesses and curses, delivers and punishes. The Old Testament often attributes the salvation of Israel to the Spirit of God. He strove with people before the flood (Gen 6:3). I believe that He is striving with people today exactly as He did before the flood. Jesus said, “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it shall be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). The same sick perversions, moral decay, and erosions are prevalent today. The Holy Spirit is mightily striving but the vast majority of the human race will not listen.

At the beginning of this series of blogs (The Holy Spirit) it was shared that the most important issue in theology in our time is the Holy Spirit, and there is great ignorance about the living and personal Holy Spirit in the Church. My books describe the dual interaction between the Holy Spirit and the spirit and soul of Man through the neural synaptic networks of the human brain. The Holy Spirit is living and personal and is available to commune with us in repentance to provide Counsel.

Genesis 2:7 also says that the Lord God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” … clearly man owes his very life to God according to this passage. And the breath of God that started man on his earthly journey was, in fact, the Holy Spirit, as Job 33:4 tells us. (The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.)

It is pointed out in my second book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story, that the Fall of Adam accounted for the loss of indwelling communion between the Holy Spirit and the spirit and soul of Adam since God does not abide with sin. But by the grace and boundless love of God for mankind through the sin sacrifice of HIs Son, Jesus Christ, the indwelling has been restored to those who are in repentance and choose to follow the Counsel of the Holy Spirit sent as promised by the resurrected and living Jesus Christ.

As we study the Bible, the work of God the Father is especially emphasized in the Old Testament. The work of God the Son is emphasized in the Gospels. From the day of Pentecost until the present, however, the emphasis is on the work of God the Holy Spirit. And yet the Bible also tells us God the Holy Spirit has been at work throughout history, from the beginning of the world.

In lieu of writing a third book, I have chosen to offer posts on the blog of my website that expand on the points presented in my two books. Dualist interaction between the immaterial and material has been defended, hopefully in a compelling manner. Concordance between Scripture and neuroscience and information theory has been demonstrated. The case has been made for indwelling of the Holy Spirit in people who are repentant and faithfully seek to follow the Counsel of the Holy Spirit. That Christian faith is evidential has been explained through Biblical and contemporary descriptions of personal events and experiences, so that we can believe in the Truth of the Holy Spirit as Counselor and Helper in our time.

The next posts on this blog will feature quotes in italics from Billy Graham’s book, The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power in Your Life. Doctor Graham’s worldwide evangelical ministry was guided by the Holy Spirit through prayer and with unrelenting faith, explaining to millions the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before he died, Pope John was asked what church doctrine most needed emphasis today. He replied, "The doctrine of the Holy Spirit.” Billy Graham asked Dr. Karl Barth what he thought the next emphasis on theology would be. He replied without hesitation, “The Holy Spirit.”

Doctor Graham expressed concern over the misunderstanding and even ignorance in some Christian circles concerning the Third Person of the Trinity. How the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit relate is explained as follows: …we say that we pray to the Father through the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. …functionally the Father came first, then the Son became incarnate, died and rose again. Now the Spirit does His work in this age of the Spirit….trinitarianism preserves the unity of the Godhead, and at the same time it acknowledges that there are three persons in that Godhead which is still of one essence. God is one, but that oneness is not simple - it is complex. God the Father is fully God. God the Son is fully God. God the Holy Spirit is fully God. The Bible presents this as fact….although the Father is the Source of all blessing, it is through the Holy Spirit at work in us that all truth becomes living and operative in our lives.

I have presented evidence from neuroscience in my books and in several blogs posted to date that confirm dualist interaction between the immaterial Spirit of God and the human spirit and soul through the material neural synaptic networks of the human brain. The human cognitive capacity to interpret linguistic neural codes actualized within spike trains of action potentials enables work of the Holy Spirit within us.

Edited From F. F. Bruce’s Commentary on the Book of Acts (ASV, 1901):

When Saul was on the road to Damascus a bright light from heaven flashed around him and his companions about noon of that day. Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” Jesus answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they saw the light but did not hear the voice of Him that spoke to Saul.

These verses from Acts 9: 3-7 provide testimony to the internal communion Man can have in our time with the indwelling Holy Spirit by the grace of God through the sin sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, who sent the Counselor and Comforter as promised upon HIs resurrection.

From F. F. Bruce’s Commentary on the Book of Acts:

Since His ascension it is by His Spirit that Jesus communicates with his people; we may recall Paul’s description of Him as “the last Adam: who became a “life-giving spirit” (1 Cor. 15: 45)

In my two books I consider at least in part how the Spirit of Jesus communes with us via linguistic neural codes distributed through coherent neural synaptic networks, showing concordance between neuroscience and Scripture.

I am posting quotes from the wonderful book by Billy Graham, Just As I Am, which reinforce points I offer in my book, The Boundless Love of God: A Holy Spirit Story:

One of the New Testament’s most compelling images of spiritual conversion is found in the phrase born again or new birth. . . . Jesus used it in His interview with the religious leader Nicodemus: “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3). We each need what Jesus was teaching: a spiritual rebirth or renewed from within, by the power of God. . . . a spiritual rebirth is something only God can do. . . . God Himself takes up residence in our lives through His Holy Spirit. He begins to change us from within and gives us a whole new reason for living.

God created us in His image. He created us and loves us so that we may live in harmony and fellowship with Him.

He yearns to forgive us and bring us back to Himself. He wants to fill our lives with meaning and purpose right now. Then He wants us to spend all eternity with Him in Heaven, free forever from the pain and sorrow and death of this world.

On July 9, 2020 I posted a blog entitled, “The Redeeming Power of God’s Dual Revelation.” In his Commentary on the Book of Acts F. F. Bruce made the following comments concerning God’s general revelation in HIs creations:

…[God] “overlooked” the times of ignorance before the full revelation of His will appeared [in Jesus Christ]. Yet the ignorance should not have been so great as it actually was, for the way in which God ordered the seasons, so as to give food to all flesh, ought to have made men mindful of Him and of His claims upon their worship. In Rom. 1:19* Paul also emphasizes that if men had paid heed to the works of God in creation, they might even in them have found tokens of His “everlasting power and divinity”.

*…since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1: 19-20)