BIBLE STUDY
Enlightened by the Major David Taylor reminds us of the assurance the Holy Spirit brings STUDY PASSAGE: EPHESIANS 1:13–23
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HE opening chapter of Ephesians is a majestic summary of the incredible things God has done for us in and through Jesus Christ the Son. Paul wants us to take time to reflect on God’s initiative, on God’s will for us, which he enacted long before we had to do anything. Not that we do nothing of course! It is clear in verse 13 what our part is – first of all, to hear the gospel, God’s word of truth, and then to believe.
QUESTION How did you come to have faith in
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Through the week with Salvationist – a devotional thought for each day by Major Howard Webber
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Salvationist 23 February 2019
Jesus? If you are alone, take some time to think about this. If you are in a group, share briefly with each other about the way God brought you into his family. Paul says that something significant takes place when we come to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour: we receive God’s Holy Spirit into our lives. In verses 13 and 14 Paul tells us three things about the active presence of God’s Spirit within us. First, he is literally ‘the Spirit of the promise’ (Young's Literal Translation). God and Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit. He is available today to all who repent and believe the good news. Second, the Holy Spirit is God’s ‘seal’ or his mark of ownership on our lives – not as an external mark like branding on cattle or sheep but as an internal mark in our hearts that assures us that we belong to him.
Third, the Holy Spirit is God’s ‘deposit’ or ‘guarantee’. This means that the Holy Spirit is God’s down payment. God has paid part of the purchase price in advance. Our inheritance as God’s children – to be with him for ever – is not only assured but also he gives us now a foretaste of what that will be like. Doctrine 8 of The Salvation Army states that ‘he that believeth hath the witness in himself’. This is what it means to have the experience of the Holy Spirit within us as God’s promise, seal and deposit. It is God within us by his Holy Spirit assuring us that we are his children, that he is our Father and, as such, is deeply committed to being in relationship with us. QUESTIONS O Can you describe a particular moment or moments when you have been aware of the deep experience of belonging to God, of knowing that he
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I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people. (Ephesians 1:18)
O send thy Spirit, Lord,/ Now unto me,/ That he may touch my eyes/ And make me see;/ Show me the truth concealed/ Within thy word,/ And in thy book revealed/ I see the Lord. (SASB 802)
For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
