“paul further taught that spiritual gifts are given to believers for the benefit of the whole church. these are supernatural, spirit-given abilities that are addressed in 1 corinthians 12:1-11. although there are a variety of gifts, they are given by one spirit for the common good, the spirit of jesus christ. these include wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, the discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues, service, teaching, encouragement, sharing, leadership and showing mercy.”

i offer for consideration that god instantiates gifts as linguistic neural codes within memory accessed and applied by a believing, ‘sealed’ individual when following the leading of the holy spirit. this concept is derived through the research discussed in detail in both of my books. the proposal reflects concordance between applicable scripture and current findings of neuroscience.

“paul admonished believers to walk by the leading of the holy spirit. in doing so they manifest fruits of the spirit. these include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. the source of these effects is the character of jesus christ. the desire of the flesh reflects an attitude of defiance to god. but believers who live in obedience to the leading of the holy spirit are ‘sealed,’ signifying that god has ownership of them, that the lord is their shepherd as identified in psalm 23. the indwelling by the holy spirit is the first installment of all the coming benefits of eschatological salvation [already but not yet], and it functions as a guarantee that the benefits will come.”

in the fourth chapter of my book i include a discussion of the meaning of ‘heart’ in the bible:

“to what the word ‘heart’ refers can be confusing. it is a word used over 1000 times in the bible. . . . ‘heart’ refers to the center of emotional, intellectual and moral activity, of will and of reasoning. ‘the heart in scripture is variously used, sometimes for the mind and understanding, sometimes for the will, sometimes for the affections, sometimes for the conscience, sometimes for the whole soul. generally, it denotes the whole soul of man and all the faculties of it, not absolutely, but as they are all one principle of moral operations, as they all concur in our doing of good and evil.’. . . for the purposes of this book ‘heart’ will refer to the soul, which includes the mind, will and emotion, and the conscience interactive with the human spirit.”

In chapter 4 of my book i wrote the following:

“romans 8:11 states, ‘and if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit, who lives in you.’ . . . this verse shows that the holy spirit can live within a person. likewise, 1 corinthians 3:16 states, ‘don’t you know that you yourselves are god’s temple and that god’s spirit lives in you?’ this verse provides further confirmation that god does live in a believer.”

“‘the impression is everywhere in acts that the normal and expected condition of christians is that of being men and women under the spirit’s control.’ the holy spirit reveals god’s truth and will and speaks to and through people to guide them in their service to god.”

my research reveals that the indwelling of the holy spirit has been restored to repentant believers in our time by god’s grace through the sin sacrifice of the resurrected and living jesus christ. he is our counselor and helper.

“that the fulfillment of the kingdom will occur in the future is an ‘already but not yet’ concept developed by the princeton theologian gerhardus vos early in the 20th century. in the letter to the hebrews it is said, ‘yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. but we see jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of god he might taste death for everyone.’ the kingdom of god has ‘already’ been entered by the giving of the holy spirit to church believers. ‘but not yet’ refers to the kingdom to come described in 1 john 3:2-3, ‘dear friends, now we are children of god, and what we will be has not yet been made known. but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.’ we will be glorified.”

article 20 of the belgic confession states:

we believe that god - who is perfectly merciful and also very just - sent the son to assume the nature in which the disobedience had been committed, in order to bear in it the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. so god made known his justice toward his son, who was charged with our sin, and he poured out his goodness and mercy on us, who are guilty and worthy of damnation, giving to us his son to die, by a most perfect love, and raising him to life for our justification, in order that by him we might have immortality and eternal life.

“oh, how boundless is our father’s love for us!”

“we look to athanasius (296-373 AD) to confirm the reality of salvation offered to fallen mankind through jesus christ. athanasius is regARDED AS THE FATHER OF CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY, AND HE CHAMPIONED THE ‘VIEW THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS A FULLY DIVINE PERSON LIKE THE FATHER AND THE SON.’ ATHANASIUS ‘FOCUSED ON HOW THE IDENTITY OF CHRIST IN THE INCARNATION MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR HIM TO ACCOMPLISH SALVATION. BEING BOTH GOD AND MAN HE COULD REPRESENT BOTH PARTIES AND RECONCILE THEM THROUGH REDEMPTION. . . . THE LOGIC OF NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE ON SALVATION ASSUMED A DIVINE-HUMAN CHRIST.’ HIS BIBLICAL ARGUMENT WAS THAT ONLY GOD CAN SAVE PEOPLE FROM THEIR SIN. JESUS CHRIST SAVES PEOPLE FROM THEIR SIN. THEREFORE, JESUS CHRIST IS GOD INCARNATE. NO HUMAN CREATURE CAN SAVE ANOTHER CREATURE; THUS IT WAS VITAL TO SALVATION THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GOD-MAN.

“RESTITUTION OF AN INTIMATE, DIRECT, PERSONAL COMMUNION BETWEEN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT AND REPENTANT SOUL OF MAN HAS BEEN MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE LIVING JESUS CHRIST. MANKIND IS REDEEMED. SIN IS FORGIVEN. THE PENALTY HAS BEEN PAID.”

“jesus committed his human spirit to the holy spirit of his father god as he was dying. when the purpose of the father for his death had been accomplished, giving death to sin, the spirit of jesus could be reunited with the holy spirit. by the belgic confession we see that the glorified jesus remained fully human in unity with his deity, the hypostatic union. so his spirit became again fully at one with the holy spirit in eternal triune communion with god the father and with power within and beyond our human space-time dimensions. . . . the tearing of the temple curtain in the ninth hour signified that man’s spirit again had direct access to the [indwelling] spirit of god. mankind no longer was necessarily condemned to an eternal spiritual death.”

In the beginning of chAPTER 3 IN MY BOOK i share THE FOLLOWING:

“IN THE BELGIC CONFESSION WRITTEN IN 1561 BY GUIDO DE BRES AND ADOPTED BY THE REFORMED CHURCH OF AMERICA IN 1792 THE SPIRIT AND SOUL OF JESUS THE MAN ARE ADDRESSED. IN article 18 it is written:

the son took the ‘form of a slave’ and was made in ‘human form,’ truly assuming a real human nature with all its weakness, except for sin; . . . and christ not only assumed human nature as far as the body is concerned but also a real human soul, in order to be a real human being. for since the soul had been lost as well as the body [at the fall of adam], christ had to assume them both to save them both together.

“in article 19: the two natures of christ, it states:

we believe that by being thus conceived the person of the son has been inseparably united and joined together with human nature. . . . thus his divine nature has always remained uncreated. . . . and even though he, by his resurrection, gave it [his body] immortality, that nonetheless did not change the reality of his human nature, for our salvation and resurrection depend also on the reality of his body. but these two natures are so united together in one person that they are not even separated by his death. so then, what he committed to his father when he died was a real human spirit which left his body. but meanwhile his divine nature remained united with his human nature even when he was lying in the grave, and his deity never ceased to be in him. . . . these are the reasons why we confess hiim to be true god and truly human - true god in order to conquer death by his power, and truly human that he might die for us in the weakness of his flesh.