Holy Spirit and the Church
As this reinterpretation emerged, it became, and remains, a mystery of what was missing from Jesus‘ first words as He left the empty tomb (John 20:22) It is truly amazing that He simply charged everyone to receive the Holy Spirit, and be open and receptive to Its gifts for them. Did He choose to lay out specific, undeniable instructions on how to have church? No. Did He indicate specifically what doctrines to teach? No. What about all of the dos and don'ts that crept into the
modern church, did He indicate their necessity to live righteously? No, He did not do that! He did not give them any warnings about what to be sure not to do.
Obviously, He knew all that one needs is to receive daily from Spirit—this must be
the most important message for humanity. That message leaves the Holy Spirit as the new personal Master Teacher of the spiritual life—not the church and not some doctrine or set of rules and regulations.
Thus, the Holy Spirit took its rightful place of power on the Earth. In His glorified body, Jesus visited and sat with those who loved Him and cherished His words (Luke 24:36-49, Mark 16). As they sat in
amazement and wonder of the resurrected Son of God, Jesus tells them to receive the Holy Ghost and that the sins of those that they forgive are
forgiven, and those that they do not forgive, their sins are not forgiven. Jesus gave common man the power to forgive sins through the gift of the Holy Ghost.
No longer did God solely hold the power to forgive sin. However, the power that
they were to receive brought an amazing ability for them to escape death to live free of the world. The Holy Spirit was to be their Comforter, Healer, Teacher, Counselor, and the Giver of the gifts of Spirit.