Lesson 84 The Work and Ministry of the Holy Spirit

     We've been studying the difference between the Gifts of the Spirit and the new life of the Spirit.  When we were born again by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God,  we became a new creation.  We became an entirely new being altogether.  With this new birth into the Kingdom of God, we took on a new nature (the nature of God) and became once again "alive" unto God and God to us.
     This new birth is more than just going to heaven when we die, as some have taught, but now heaven (the Spirit of God) has come into the earth in earnest.  Our citizenship changed from the natural man, into what God had intended when creating the first Adam.  When God created man in "His likeness and Image," He created man a spirit.   Genesis 2:7 (Amplified)  says that God made a body or a physical house to inhabit for man, making it possible to contact and rule in the physical earth God created for man.
     Man is a living spirit, indwelling a natural body, making him able to rule the natural world and fellowship with God.  Man was to be ruled by his spirit, by the Holy Spirit, and rule over all of earth's creation.  God would be the Directing Voice and Mentor, while ma would be in perfect fellowship with God by his spirit.  After the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, man was "cut-off" from the life and fellowship with God because Adam's act of treason in disobedience.  Satan became the de facto father and mentor of man, by death and sin.
     Man now had to learn from only his natural sources and five senses.  He could only count on what he saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted.  Man no longer had the Guidance of the Holy Spirit in his life...he actually didn't have life at all.  God told Adam that the day he partook of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, "that day he would surely die."  Adam only had the memories of the things the Father had taught him.  And, as he was drawn further and further from who he was, he depended more and more on who he had now become.
     Throughout the Old Testament (the old covenant), the Holy Spirit is seen only "abiding on" those whom God chose for certain ministries and not "in them."  God's plan for man hadn't or hasn't changed since He set the plan for redemption in motion, after Adam's fall.  God's dream of having a family wouldn't be stopped by the adversary (the devil).
     Jesus died, resurrected and then He was accepted by God as the Perfect Lamb.  His Blood did what all the animal blood couldn't do for thousands of years.  His Blood was sinless and perfect.  After Jesus was made "after the likeness"  of sinful flesh or in the likeness thereof.  Through Jesus, God did what satan couldn't have believed possible, He made a "new creation," according to 2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old ((previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     Through faith in Jesus, man has now been created again, like he was intended from the beginning.  Man was a living spirit, housed in a flesh and blood body, living in his natural home on earth.  Now, he is once more alive in his spirit and led by God Himself, through the Holy Spirit's living in him.  We've been restored into perfect union and fellowship with our Heavenly Father.  The Gifts of the Spirit are only God's means of meeting the natural and physical needs and repairing and restoring the house (the natural body) man lives in.  The Holy Spirit is to minister to the body and the spirit of God's Family.
     When man became born again by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit could educated this "baby in Christ" by revealing God's Word to his spirit.  The new spirit baby would grow and mature in the Words of Life, Truth and Spirit.  God gave man a new language, which was a language of the spirit, by the Spirit.  God gave us His Word, in our earthly language and also gave us a "Heavenly Language." This Heavenly language would be used to reach beyond our natural intellect and be led again by our Rightful Father.
     The speaking of tongues is simply the heavenly language by which we can speak to our Heavenly Father and learn from Him once again.  The Gift of Tongues and Interpretations is God speaking to His family, through the Holy Spirit.  The unknown tongue or praying in the Holy Spirit or speaking in unknown tongues is simply the new language of the new creation, who is back in fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
     Both the Gift of Tongues and the unknown tongue are brought about by the same Holy Spirit.  One is God speaking to His Own Family, by the Holy Spirit, through the interpretation of tongues.    The language of tongues is my spirit, by the Holy Spirit within me, speaking to God in secrets and mysteries.  Both are part of the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
     We try so hard to make the things of God complicated, that we miss the simplicity of what He has done.  If we would simply allow the Holy Spirit to lead and direct our lives, then we would see just how simple God has made it to reach Him again.  Why would God make a new creation and still have no communication with them as before?  Jesus said that He "could only do what the Father told Him to do" and He could "only say what the Father told Him to say."  Jesus drew all of His "education" of the Spirit from the Holy Spirit Who lived within Him.  Wouldn't we then learn the same way?
     We've struggled for many years, trying to communicate with a Spirit Father, from a "natural" standpoint.  We've tried reaching and walking with God by our own terms, through tradition and efforts, not His terms.  Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amplified) that, "It is the Spirit Who gives life (He is the Life Giver) the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
     If the Holy Spirit is the Life Giver and His Words are Spirit, then how can we, as natural man, possibly receive life (the full life and understanding) of the Spirit without the Spirit?  Only the Holy Spirit can release the Life and Spirit of God's Word.  Man can only create religion and more bondage in the natural.  The speaking of tongues, the new language of the new creation, is the Life breathed into the Words God has spoken.
     How can we possibly know and communicate with God (Who is a Spirit), without the Holy Spirit's speaking to our spirit?  Our limited language of English (or whatever language you speak) is simply "baby talk" that doesn't begin to take us into fellowship and communication with our Father.  We've heard "baby talk" spoken by babies and even though we thought it was cute, we knew it wasn't communication and couldn't commune with them in that language.  We were only moved by what we thought the baby needed or wanted.  As they grew and learned the language, we could fellowship and mentor them.  God is no different with His children.
     Speaking in tongues, or the language of the Spirit, brings life and truth and answers to what our carnal mind (and its language) could never produce in our lives.  1Corinthians 2:14 (Amplified) says, "But the natural, non spiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts or teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them (of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them) because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated."  We must necessarily then, have a language of the Spirit to receive of and understand the things of the Spirit.
     Having the ability of praying in the Spirit, has been my most direct way of knowing and understanding my Heavenly Father.  In order to know His will, His heart, His character and His voice, we must enter in by the spirit.  If you are truly born again and are a new creature, like the Word says you are, then within your new life, you have a new language.  If won't manifest in your carnal mind as English (or whatever language you speak), but will proceed directly from your new being, from your spirit.  Your new being will speaking in spirit and will contact God, Who is a Spirit according to 1Corinthians 14:2 (Amplified) which says, "For one who speaks in an (unknown) tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the Holy Spirit he utters secret truth and hidden things (not obvious to the understanding)."
     Do you know how much more simple it is to walk with the Father, when He can tell you "secret truths and hidden things"?  All the things we've been trying to learn and understand by our own intellect are wasted, but in the Spirit (tongues), God reveals them all to us by the Holy Spirit living inside us.