Expert: Richard Aberdeen - 9/23/2009

Question
what would you suggest as the most effective method to seek the gift of the holy spiri?

Answer
BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL ANSWER I GAVE YOU, FOLLOWED BY AN ADDITION MUCH MORE SIMPLE ANSWER AS I PROMISED I WOULD TRY TO PROVIDE.  

ORIGINAL ANSWER:

I have been working on a simple answer for this for a long time and if you wait a week or two, I will come back and try to provide a better response to your question at that time.  What I think is true regarding your question is, that it is the same answer as to these two questions:  1) How do I believe in Jesus? and 2) How does forgiveness work in the reality of our daily lives?

If you listen closely to what Christian priests and preachers say, you will notice, as I have, that they are rather long-winded on saying that people are supposed to believe in Jesus and, are rather "short" on actually explaining how.  For example, try asking any person who calls themselves a Christian "How does somebody believe in Jesus?" and see what kind of response you get.  I would be willing to bet you a year's wages that they don't know how.  

In my opinion, nobody fully understands forgiveness or anything else past the name "Jesus", as the New Testament says, at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and, whoever calls on the name of the lord shall be saved.  Beyond his name, we only partially understand, for now we see "as in a mirror, dimly".  Two of the key things to understanding how to believe in Jesus and thus, how to be filled with his spirit, are "by grace we are saved" and, "we are not under the law, but under grace".  We know "grace" is of paramount importance because of it's frequent use by the New Testament authors.  Note that Jesus told Peter he would give him the "keys" (plural) to the kingdom of heaven.  Freedom is central to understanding and following Jesus, "for we are not under the law, but under grace" and as Jesus said, "you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."  Thus, being free and knowing what is true are tied together, like hand and glove.  We can infer from this statement of Jesus, that the better we understand what is true, the more free we will be.

Suffice it to say, as far as I understand, nobody fully understands forgiveness, which is why the term "grace" is often used in the New Testament.  In other words, the term "grace" represents what is not fully understood, for now we see in part "as in a mirror, dimly".  In my opinion, forgiveness is what matters in life, "for by grace we are saved."  And again in my opinion, if we have asked Jesus to forgive us, we have very great and growing freedom, "for we are not under the law, but under grace".  

As you might suspect, I have never heard modern Christians teach this, which is why among other reasons, I have long believed they don't know what they are talking about.  If they did, they would be trying to help the sick and poor and striving for peace and goodwill, rather than supporting wars of obvious economic aggression and wicked leaders who not only ignore the plight of the sick and poor, but make their lot worse through various self-serving and extremely wicked legislation that favors the wealthy at the expense of everybody else.  Anybody who supports this kind of nonsense is practicing the opposite of what Jesus very clearly taught.  

I think it is fair to say that someone who ignores the sick and poor is not following Jesus.  The Bible clearly teaches, if we don't care about people who we have seen, how can we profess to honor God who we have not seen and, how does the love of God live in us if we ignore the plight of God's children?  As Jesus said, this is my command (singular), "that you love one another".  And as he very clearly taught, "this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent" and, we should treat other people as we ourselves wish to be treated; "for this is the law and the prophets".  Thus, knowing God and having "love, one for another" is the end result and purpose of forgiveness, salvation and being filled with God's spirit, for "God is love".  

At least, that is my opinion.  It is not wise for someone to teach as fact what they themselves do not know or fully understand.  Rather, whatever we do not know, we should state as being our opinion and/or, our partial understanding.  As Paul clearly taught in the New Testament and as Psalm 103 clearly agrees, no human being understands God very well, "for now we see through a mirror, dimly".  Priests and preachers who do not take this approach before God are liars and will answer to him accordingly.  It is never okay to pretend to know what one does not know concerning either God or anything else that is true.  One of the fundamental ideas and results of forgiveness, in my opinion, is to understand better, to "see" better day by day.  As Jesus taught if we listen to him, "And you shall know the truth and, the truth shall make you free".   

A very wise man told me a long time ago that it is wise to "take it easy".  Thus, I would not tell you any of the above without this admonishment as well.  There is far more to Jesus and his forgiveness than meets the casual eye, thus it is wise to take it easy concerning God and everything else in life.  As Paul very clearly taught, love is patient and kind and if we have not love, whatever we do is in vain and profits nothing.  As Jesus said, "my way is easy and my burden is light".  If our daily walk is not an experience of "easy and light of burden", then we are walking askew of what love really is.  

I might add as a word of caution, in my opinion, freedom that does not come easy is not true freedom.  A lot of people try very hard to be free and if one has to try hard to be free, then they are not really free but rather, they are a victim of peer pressure and other sin.  It is wise to seek out and develop good friendships and depend on each other for our survival, but it is also wise to understand that neither we ourselves, nor anybody we know, understands everything about what is true.  Thus, we need to depend on Jesus, rather than other people, to help us understand what is really true.  

The best advice anybody can give anyone, in my opinion, is to read the Bible slowly and carefully, a little at a time, centering especially on the actual words and deeds attributed to Jesus.  As Jesus himself said (see quote in more complete context in John chapter 8), if we listen to him, we will know the truth and the truth will make us free.   

(I'm not sure if I will be able to still respond to this question in a week or two because I don't know if the system will allow me to, but I will respond again if I can.  If you email me off of my website at www.richardaberdeen.com I can respond again that way as well.)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND MUCH SIMPLER ANSWER:

The most important thing, according to First Corinthians 13, is to "have love".  Thus, it makes sense that after asking Jesus to forgive you, this is what matters in terms of being filled with God's spirit, because God "is love".  The purpose of forgiveness, in my opinion, is to be saved over time.  Being saved is not a "past tense" event, as Paul very clearly talks about "being saved" in the present tense.  Thus, the idea of grace is to know Jesus better and better over time and thus, to know and understand God's love better over time.  As Paul says, as we move from "grace to grace" or, as we move to a better and better understanding over time.

Because "God is love", we can conclude that without God's help, then all we have as human beings is a "shell" concept of love, which is a result of how we were raised and our various lifetime influences in inter-acting with other people.  Thus, without God helping us to understand love better, than at best we are stuck left only with what other people think love is and quite often, other people don't even care what love is or, care about either us or themselves very well.  It is fair to say that without God's help, not only can we not care about other people very well but, we can't even care about our own selves very well.

Thus, in my opinion, the idea of forgiveness and salvation, is to gradually over time be brought by God into a better and better awareness of God's love and understanding of what love actually is, as opposed to what we are taught love is by those who raised us and, by other human beings and by our own experience and opinion, which of course is not the same as how God sees love.  None of the authors of the Bible nor anyone else fully understands God or forgiveness or love or anything else about God, as this same chapter says, for now we "see through a mirror dimly".  

Thus, the idea of salvation is to "see" better over time; as it says in this same chapter, love is patient and and kind.  In my opinion, God's love is ALWAYS better, easier, more patient, more kind and less demandanding and harsh than any human being's love, thus in forgiveness, we can count on God's love being "easier" rather than harder than what people teach us love is.  As Jesus said, "for my way is easy and my burden is light".

And so to answer your question, I think the best answer is as follows below.  Notice that I said "I think" rather than saying that I know.  You should be very wary of anyone other than God, who teaches you as though they know, for now we "see through a mirror, dimly".  So this below is the best answer to your question as far as I understand and, my answer may well change later on down the road, because like you and every other human being on our planet, now I only see in part.

The answer to how to be filled with God's spirit in my opinion, is the same as the answer to the question, "how do I believe in Jesus" and, it is the same as the answer to the question, "how do I know Jesus better and better" and, it is the same as the answer to "how can I have love as described in I Corithians 13" and, "how can I have love better and better".

So, this is the best answer I am aware of, to your question, which is the same answer as, "how do I belive in Jesus".  

FORGIVENESS, HOW TO BELIEVE IN JESUS

1) Ask Jesus to forgive you for being a sinner.

2) Take it easy


FOOTNOTE: I have tried a myriad of other things and I do not believe there is a better answer than the simplicity as noted above.  I could well be wrong, but this is the best answer I know of.  As the Bible says, be very wary of anyone who would corrupt you from the "simplicity" in Jesus, thus the way to knowing God better and better over time is simple, rather than theological and complicated.