Filled with the Holy Spirit Bible Class

The Holy Spirit may well qualify for the least studied Bible topics among brethren. That’s not a scientific fact, but rather an educated and arguably well-informed guess. The reasons for that might equally be reasonably inferred.

One reason for this might be that as a topical study through the Bible, there are not “as many” passages from which to draw. Although, there are more than one might think – many of which we’ll explore in this study! In fact, we’ll spend a fair amount of time on passages that might seem at first to be unrelated to gaining a better understanding of the Holy Spirit.

Fundamentally, too many take a “New Testament = New Covenant = Christianity” view of the Bible. They ignore the fact that our New Testaments don’t actually equal the New Covenant. Sadly, even tragically, too many don’t even want to acknowledge that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” This is by and large the purpose for spending the time on Part Two. The Mystery Kept Secret.

There’s little doubt that another reason is the surface complexity and confusion of terminology used in reference to the Holy Spirit. Consequently, taking a casual or ‘knee-jerk’ approach to this topic can lead to a host of bad conclusions. It’s not unlike jumping into the book of Revelation without first understanding books of Bible prophecy generally and how God used these messengers specifically. We’re then forced into taking liberties of interpretation that extend God’s language from above, leading to devastating doctrinal conclusions.

Some of the leading contenders for confusing terminology would include “full/filled with the Spirit”, “praying in the Spirit”, “baptized with the Holy Spirit” [“and fire”], “gift[s] of the Spirit”, and last but certainly not least “led by the Spirit”. What do these mean? How are they related “in the Spirit”? Are they distinct attributes or conditions, or do they overlap? We should be mindful of the fact that “God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” Properly understanding and contextualizing these phrases will be a major objective of this study and the primary focus of Part Three. The Holy Spirit & the Church.

The material includes lessons with questions (and answer key) that would comfortably cover thirteen class periods. If you are interested in this material free of charge, please get in touch with us.