Grow: First Steps with JesusSample

HOLY SPIRIT

In our first week, we discovered that God is revealed to us as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Today we take a look at the 3rd person in the Godhead, the Holy Spirit. 

The first time in the New Testament that we read about the Holy Spirit was when Jesus was baptized in Matthew 3:16. The people who were there saw how the Holy Spirit came and rested on Him. 

Then as Jesus started His ministry in Luke 4:18, He made it clear that it is the Holy Spirit who empowers Him to do the work of His Father.

This important topic brings us now to the end of Jesus’ ministry where He began to prepare His disciples for the reality that He would not be on earth forever. 

John 16:7: Truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.

Thousands of years later we see that it is still good for us that Jesus is no longer physically on this planet. Why? Because Jesus implicitly stated that the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) will not come unless He goes back to heaven. 

Jesus made this promise which is still relevant and important to us today; that the Holy Spirit will come and empower us to live as His disciples. He will live in us and never leave us. Please study these two scripture passages with me:

John 14:16-18: And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

John 14:25-27: All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

Consider the task of an advocate in a court of law. An advocate assists us and speaks on our behalf when we do not have the knowledge or the skill to defend ourselves. This is the picture that this scripture paints about the Holy Spirit. He stands next to me; He helps me. 

Some of the other translations talk about the Comforter. He carries us and makes us stronger than we would be on our own. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever. He actually also promised that He would come and live in us. That means that God resides in us as normal human beings through his Holy Spirit. That is how we are able to experience the existence of God in our natural state. 

The Holy Spirit further wants to become the teacher that we need in life. He reminds us of the words Jesus taught. He establishes the values of Christ in us. (See the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22) 

In the last line of this scripture, Jesus now promises that through the gift of the Holy Spirit we will have His peace for everything that we may encounter in life.

This topic has so much more that we would want to share with you. We encourage you to contact any of our Doxa Deo campuses via our Website if you need us to teach you more about the wonderful promise of the Holy Spirit.

Daily Affirmation: "Thank you Jesus for the promise of your Holy Spirit."

Action Step for Today: Just make a list of all the areas in your life where you would love the counsel of the Holy Spirit.