Additional information
by M. Ted Forester (Author)
Jesus called. You responded. NOW WHAT? The Welcome Holy Spirit (WHS) Bible Study Devotional: Forty Days with Every Fruit is an opportunity to welcome the Holy Spirit into your life every day and to enrich your relationship with this amazing and wonderful Comforter that Jesus sent to us. The Holy Spirit makes our lives happy and full, and more importantly, establishes us as children of God: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Romans 8:16). The WHS Bible Study Devotional is both Bible study and devotional. One hundred percent Bible based, it offers serious analysis full of purposeful insights that improve our relationship with, devotion to, and understanding of the most misunderstood and neglected member of the Godhead: God, the Holy Spirit. It uses the Word of God to remind us to welcome the Holy Spirit into our lives every day to produce the powerful Fruit of the Spirit in us and through us. Whether Jesus called and you responded yesterday or fifty years ago, the WHS Bible Study Devotional will strengthen your ability to be a productive member of the Kingdom of God by cultivating your submission to the Holy Spirit as He teaches you from its pages. Sunday school classes and Bible study groups will find the WHS Bible Study Devotional to be very "fruitful." Each day's reading includes a passage of scripture, an insight about the meaning and implications of that scripture, and a "Welcome Holy Spirit Prayer" inspired by that scripture. When necessary the context of the scripture or passage is explained, and in some cases respected Bible study resources are consulted to clarify confusing passages or to illuminate richer understanding. The WHS Bible Study Devotional is, in that sense, a year-long Bible study. The subtitle of the WHS Bible Study Devotional is "Forty Days with Every Fruit." Throughout the Bible, the number forty is associated with a period of testing and spiritual devotion that results in miraculous and wonderful redemption, restoration, or blessing. During the time of the flood, for example, it rained for forty days and forty nights. All the earth was purged of humanity's wickedness. The ultimate result was redemption, a new covenant between God and all living creatures that God would never again destroy all life from the earth. Another example when the number forty represents a period of spiritual devotion that results in miraculous redemption, restoration, and blessing is when Moses fasted on the mountain top for forty days and forty nights. At the end of that time, God appeared to him and gave the Ten Commandments that has allowed so many to live well with one another and to be blessed. Again, after forty days and nights of testing, trial, and spiritual devotion, something miraculous and wonderful happened.Jesus provides us with yet one more example. He retreated into the wilderness where He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which He was severely tempted by the devil. Jesus resisted that temptation and overcame the devil. Then He began his ministry preaching the gospel. Forty days and forty nights of spiritual devotion resulted in the good news of the kingdom of God being preached on earth-a blessing that remains the greatest gift of all time for all people!Working through The WHS Bible Study Devotional, spending forty days with every fruit, will require commitment and devotion (hence the name "devotional"). On the other side of those forty-day periods, expect a beautiful and miraculous transformation as the Holy Spirit abundantly produces love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and temperance in your life more powerfully than ever before. Thank you for choosing The WHS Bible Study Devotional!
