The Holy Spirit

  

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” John 14:16 – 17. (See also John 16:5 – 15).

 

The “Helper”, the Paracletos in Greek, comes alongside us as our Comforter, our Intercessor, our Advocate, our Helper. We are not left as orphans because our Advocate, the Holy Spirit, lives within us. But note, that not only does the Holy Spirit live in those who believe and trust in Jesus, but the Father and the Son also live in them, “…My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23b).

 

God tabernacles within His People; Jesus first tabernacled among us (John 1:14), and now the Trinity tabernacles within us; in Christ we are the Temple of God (Eph. 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 10).

 

Let us please not miss the significance of these words of Jesus, “…He abides with you and will be in you.”

 

During the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus says (John 7:37 – 38), “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”

 

John, the Gospel writer, then adds in verse 39, “But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (See also John 16:7 and Acts 2:32 – 33).

 

Are we experiencing rivers of living water flowing out from us to others? Is this our Way of Life in Jesus Christ?

 

How is it that on the one hand we preach that we must be born again of the Spirit of God, and on the other hand we live denying and ignoring and suppressing (if we can use such language) our new life in the Spirit? Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

 

We often insist that the Holy Spirit conform to our notions of behavior and reasoning – and since God the Holy Spirit conforms to no man, we are left with our own diminished devices. We ignore the Holy Spirit epistemologically (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16), and we rationalize away our glorious inheritance as found in passages such as Romans Chapter 8. We think that the Holy Spirit can be confined and conformed to rationalistic and naturalistic wine skins (Mt. 9:16 – 17); (if we can use such language, for we are speaking of God).

 

O dear friends, when we live in the Throne Room, and the Throne of God is established in our hearts, His River flows to us and through us (Rev. 22:1; Ps. 46:4).  We become fountains of Living Water that others may drink from (John 4:7 – 14). Why is it that we insist on focusing on our supposed wants and needs when our Father has given us all things in Jesus Christ and we are to be about our Father’s business? Why do we not see that we are “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”? (Romans 8).

 

Why do we not confess that, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”? (Rom. 8:14).

 

If we consider 1 Corinthians 2:1 – 3:1 we see that there are “spiritual men” and “men of flesh” (1 Cor. 3:1); people who are learning to live in and by the Holy Spirit, and those who cling to the natural, the earthly and self – centered way of life. Paul is writing to those in the church, he is talking to Christians about Christians, he is writing to them about themselves.

 

O dear friends, Paul writes (1 Cor. 2:7), “…but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory”! This wisdom, this Way of thinking, this Way of Life in Jesus Christ, can only be received, understood, and shared with others in and through and by the Holy Spirit. How have we become so naturalistic in our thinking, our teaching, our preaching, and in our way of church?

 

Paul writes that God’s hidden wisdom (in Christ, see Col. 2:1 – 3) is for our glory. Jesus says in John 17:22, “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them…”

 

The creation is travailing for the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:18), so that it might be set free into “the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). Are we learning to live in His glory today? Are we living in the Holy Spirit as our Way of Life?

 

When we gather together, whether on Sundays or during the week, whether in large groups, small groups, or in simply meeting another Christian for coffee – are we gathering in His glory?

 

And lest you should misunderstand me, His glory radiates Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain who is Alive. His glory can be boisterous at times, it can be silent at times, it can be a whisper at times – this is not about artificial noise or artificial quiet or artificial decorum.

 

His glory radiates from the Cross, and it is Jesus Christ and Him crucified from whom all Life flows to us and in us and through us (1 Cor. 2:2 – 5). It is in the preaching of the Cross that we see the power of God, now and always. It is in the preaching of Jesus Christ crucified that we are transformed into His sacrificial image and participate in His sacrificial Life for His glory and the blessing of others (Phil. 3:10).

 

Are we knowing the joy, peace, power, and comfort of the Holy Spirit today? Are we trusting the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and teach us today? Is the Holy Spirit empowering our witness to Jesus Christ? Is the Holy Spirit our biosphere, or do we still breathe earth’s atmosphere?