{"id":49,"date":"2026-08-11T19:48:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2026-08-11T20:59:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T20:59:43","slug":"the-greatest-gift-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/?p=49","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Gift, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Have you ever heard at Christmas time, \u201cJesus is the Greatest Gift?\u201d\u00a0 It seems to be a popular theme.\u00a0 During my study of Holy Spirit I have come to what I feel is a more complete understanding.\u00a0 I now believe that the greatest gift from God isn\u2019t Jesus Himself, it is His Spirit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First of all, Holy Spirit is the only God on the earth today.\u00a0 He was left here by Jesus to be our Helper, as He stated in John 14:26: \u201c<\/span>I have told you all these things while I am with you.\u00a0 But the Helper will teach you everything and cause you to remember all that I told you.\u00a0 This Helper is the Holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity, the Triune God. He is in fact, a divine person, just as the Father and Son are divine persons, each with a particular role. The Christian can and should relate with each person in the Trinity.\u00a0 The indwelling Holy Spirit in the believer allows for that because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all present together when the Spirit comes to dwell in you.\u00a0 They have never been out of fellowship, except for the time when Jesus hung on the cross and took on our sins.<\/span><\/p>\n

And thirdly, God\u2019s limitless wisdom and truth are available to anyone who receives Jesus as their Savior, as Holy Spirit is a Teacher and Counselor. \u00a0 This amazing gift can come to anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world!\u00a0 The fact that God can multiply His Spirit and indwell every believer at the time of salvation across the globe is something far greater than the God-Man could accomplish while He was earth-bound.\u00a0 This is why Jesus said in John 16:7: \u201c<\/span>Nevertheless I tell you the truth.\u00a0 It is advantageous for you that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 And he goes on to list all the benefits that His Spirit will be equipped to provide to us, in verses 8-11.\u00a0 In verse 13, Jesus tells His disciples, \u201c<\/span>When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 That makes perfect sense, and gives us another reason to believe that Holy Spirit is the Greatest Gift.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that God can multiply His Spirit and indwell every believer at the time of salvation across the globe is something far greater than the God-Man could accomplish while He was earth-bound.<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When I was first prompted to study more about Holy Spirit, I was led to a few books that have benefitted me greatly \u2013 as if studying the Greatest Gift would result in anything less than great.\u00a0 The first of the books was <\/span>Smith Wigglesworth\u2019s Holy Spirit<\/span>, another was <\/span>The Sermons of John G. Lake<\/span>.\u00a0 Both I highly recommend.\u00a0 One additional book was very impactful and I\u2019ve now read it three times, which included leading a book study group two of the three times.\u00a0 It is, <\/span>The God I Never Knew<\/span>, by Robert Morris.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The subtitle of Morris\u2019 book, How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life, has become a passion of mine.\u00a0 My hope is for every Christian who has either never heard a teaching on Holy Spirit or have been warned to avoid the Holy Spirit to fully appreciate God\u2019s amazing gift.\u00a0 Some Christian leaders have been wrongly taught that Holy Spirit is \u201cspooky\u201d or \u201cweird.\u201d Some of that may come from what some have called, \u201cthe evidence of the Holy Spirit,\u201d which is speaking or praying in unknown tongues.\u00a0 It is an important part of the gift that Jesus gave us, and I will elaborate on the Gift of Tongues in Part II.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If we as Christians choose to overlook or downplay the importance of Holy Spirit, we will miss the Greatest Gift.\u00a0 Wouldn\u2019t that be a shame?\u00a0 All believers need to do is capture the meaning of scripture and ask the indwelling Holy Spirit to teach us.\u00a0 But that is the glaring issue!\u00a0 When believers aren\u2019t aware there is a Holy Spirit, they will lack the advantages that Jesus died for us to have. \u00a0 Let\u2019s look at another important scripture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In Acts 19, we read that when the Apostle Paul reached Ephesus, he asked the believers, \u201c<\/span>Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 They answered: \u201c<\/span>We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.<\/span><\/i>\u201d\u00a0 After two-thousand years, we haven\u2019t made much progress!\u00a0 The lack of teaching about Holy Spirit is a huge issue in the church today.\u00a0 With cultural relevance taking over some denominations, what we used to think of as Christian churches may not even base their teaching on the teachings of Christ and God\u2019s Word.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Many Christian pastors are wonderful at communicating and teaching God\u2019s word, but in my years of attending both denominational and non-denominational churches, the desire to completely understand and apply God\u2019s truth about Holy Spirit is absent from a large percentage of them.\u00a0 Thankfully, Robert Morris found out about Holy Spirit even though his pastor told him as he left for seminary, \u201cDon\u2019t let anyone talk to you about Holy Spirit.\u201d After attending my share of denominational and non-denominational churches, I believe this thinking is pervasive in The Church in America.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus prayed for all believers to be in unity, in John 17:20-21, and I believe Holy Spirit is the unifying force.\u00a0 When I came to Christ, I had a childhood friend who also grew up Catholic as I did.\u00a0 We were neighbors and attended the same church.\u00a0 When she found Christ, she invited me to the Baptist church she was attending.\u00a0 Later, when I found my personal relationship with Him, she seemed more than a friend, but a real sister, a true family member, and closer than my biological family members who didn\u2019t have a personal relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 That sense of family and unity is what Holy Spirit brings!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like-mindedness would please Jesus and answer His prayer in John 17. But Satan has done his best to divide us with various denominations and doctrines, incorporating fear and pride into the mix. Church doctrines or man\u2019s doctrines put a spiritual lid on the ability to be led by God\u2019s Spirit. I believe there is only one true way to follow Jesus, attain unity and like-mindedness, to be the family, the Bride that Jesus will return to receive.\u00a0 We must accept and honor His Spirit as part of the package.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever heard at Christmas time, \u201cJesus is the Greatest Gift?\u201d\u00a0 It seems to be a popular theme.\u00a0 During my study of Holy Spirit I have come to what I feel is a more complete understanding.\u00a0 I now believe that the greatest gift from God isn\u2019t Jesus Himself, it is His Spirit.\u00a0 First of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/70"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/believe4more.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}