God Rules Presently through His Spirit

Prologue

               But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s

               people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
               Numbers 11:29

               Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me
               on level ground.Psalm 143:10

               “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is
               on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth
               will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their
               descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the Lord. Isaiah 59:21

God the Father and Christ Jesus the Son are in heaven. In their place, they have sent the Spirit to indwell the true Israelites. (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19)

God Promises the Spirit to
ALL TRUE BELIEVERS

Ezekiel 36:24-32

“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign Lord. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, people of Israel!

The Holy Spirit Commands
Paul, Barnabas and other Disciples

Acts 13:1-11

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off

The two of them, SENT ON THEIR WAY BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues.John was with them as their helper.

They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcererand false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, “You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun.”

N. B. All scripture taken from New International Version by BibleGateway.com