I need to take some time and talk about the practicalities of walking in the Spirit for a New Covenant believer. My regular experience is that Messianic believers know very little about how the Holy Spirit works and what He is sent to do for the reborn believer. I have come to the conclusion that you are almost entirely ignorant about the ways the Spirit works to help reborn believers.
Starting with John 14–16
Yeshua tended to use the word parakletos—a counselor called alongside to help. That's a good starting place. He also uses Holy Spirit (hagios pneuma). It's my understanding that this is the spirit of the Father. I don't bother with any of that. I'm usually talking with Yeshua, sometimes with the Father. I feel like I am always talking to all three of them. I tend to see them as all the Father, with Yeshua being completely obedient to the Spirit of the Father. The Trinity is a manmade doctrine which has lost most of its usefulness, in my humble opinion. Yeshua is my closest friend, by far.
Regardless, Yeshua makes it clear He is going to ask the Father to send this Spirit to us—and that having this Spirit within us is actually better than walking with Yeshua in the flesh.
John 14:16–17 — "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you."
John 14:26 — "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."
John 15:26 — "But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me."
John 16:7 — "Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."
John 16:13–15 — "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
Yeshua makes it clear that the Holy Spirit will teach us all things. Whatever Yeshua tells Him, He will tell us—because all that the Father has is now under the authority of Yeshua. The Spirit will bring to remembrance all the things that Yeshua said while He was here.
What we learn very quickly
The Holy Spirit is the author—or has complete access to the author—of the Scriptures. That doesn't matter. I do tend to see the Spirit as the spirit who anointed the human authors to write spiritual truth throughout the Tanakh and the New Covenant writings. The Spirit knows everything the author knows. So, when I am studying the Scriptures I can ask Him what something means and He will quickly lead me to the answer. Many times very quickly.
I do not see Him as a separate person, though I see no problem with those who do believe that. It's all Elohim. I see the Trinity doctrine as an intellectual solution frozen in time to keep the uneducated in line while the clerical elite run the show.
For me, it's more like a really well-done network which is completely under the control of the Lord (it makes AI look very crude in comparison). Yeshua volunteered to be my IT director back in the early 90s. He's never failed me.
The spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12
These are part of my daily life. Now that I am by myself, I don't see them as often as Pat and I did when we were ministering together. But gifts of knowledge and wisdom are common, as is discernment. I do miss being in a group where most of the people flowed freely in the gifts. Hopefully, something like that will happen here at the Manor. But Yeshua has made sure that I always have Him to keep me on the strait and narrow.
I am increasingly aware of the fact that Yeshua came to baptize us in the Holy Spirit and fire. All we have to do is ask Him and He does it. It is highly recommended that anyone who does that has a mentor who can guide him or her through the intense learning cycle when the Holy Spirit becomes active in your life.
But this is supposed to be the normal state of all new believers once they become born again.
The Holy Spirit is available all day, every day, in the life of a believer. He provides the knowledge, wisdom, and power to live this life within the satanic world system.
The gifts are normally used in marriages and small groups
They empower believing marriages as the husband gives up his life for his wife to help enable her to be what the Lord made her to be. They also empower the wife's prayers for her husband as he seeks the path the Lord has for them. More importantly, the gifts make husband/wife relationships a wonderful time of power and joy as they talk these things out, discovering the Lord's plans for each one and both of them.
They are what we have to offer our co-workers at our jobs, our friends at our gatherings, and so on. Walking in the Spirit is a 24/7/365 process.
The Holy Spirit and Torah
The Holy Spirit is probably the power which writes the Torah on our hearts—but that is not clearly stated, as far as I know. Regardless, the Holy Spirit is the power who enables us to walk out what we have written there.
In general, meetings of the Assembly are dead as posts without the direct participation of the Holy Spirit. Obviously, the elders need to be experienced—and experienced leaders are very rare these days.
The Lord will use experienced elders to guide the meetings and keep the Holy Spirit flowing smoothly, with power. They have to know enough to gently encourage new believers when they speak out of the flesh or the soul, instead of the Spirit. They can commonly be specific and say things like, "It was the Lord until you finished the part about the new project. Then you quickly fell into your own thoughts about things."
It takes practice to walk in the Spirit, both by yourself and in groups. These skills are almost totally missing in the body of the Messiah today.
We always taught that if we received a prophecy, we stopped the service to talk out the prophecy and see who it was directed at, and whether it was of the Lord, and so on. We'd take ten to fifteen minutes—or much more—out of our Sunday service to do that. The idea was: if that was truly God speaking, we need to take it seriously. Pat usually spoke out a summary of what the elders had discerned. If we couldn't tell clearly, we said so. If it wasn't from the Lord, we clearly said that, as well.
When I write
I am seeking the anointing and the Holy Spirit is very involved with that. It is delightful to watch the Lord work through me—often with no conscious knowledge other than hindsight. But the Lord's presence is strong and He is very available to me to help. I can't explain how much I love Him.
To watch your eyes move across a wall and stop on the answer to my question is a delight I never get tired of. His power is amazing.
My point: I don't see this in Torah discussions
Sadly, the work of the Holy Spirit is completely missing in almost all cases. The Holy Spirit wrote the Torah, remember?
