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Holy Spirit
The Counselor who guides you
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom… (Luke 4:18:19)
Another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of Truth. The
Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name… (John 14:16, 26)
When the Counselor comes…, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me (John 15:26).
John 16:8, 12-15 -
He convicts the world
“As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven” (John 20:21-23)
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:1-4)
After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly (Acts 4:31)
But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55)
Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus… has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17)
Be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) Do not put out the Spirit’s fire (1 Thessalonians 5:19)
The experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit is clearly not a one-off. Furthermore, we see that Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples, that the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, that they were again filled with the Holy Spirit after the prison incident. If we are told to be filled with the Spirit, it is therefore not a one-off either. The Bible shows that there is a need to seek (ask for) a fresh filling of the Spirit.
If the Holy Spirit is a power, we’ll want to get hold of it. If the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, we’ll want Him to get hold of us. If the Holy Spirit is a power, we’ll want it to accomplish our will and whim. If the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, we’ll want to surrender more to Him in awe and wonder. If the Holy Spirit is a power, we’ll be proud we have it and feel superior to those who don’t. If the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, we’ll be humbled that in His great love the very Third Person of the Trinity has chosen to dwell within us (R.A. Torrey).
Jesus refused to speak of the Counselor (Comforter) as an ‘it’. The word for ‘spirit’ in Greek (pneuma) would normally take the pronoun ‘it’ -- but Jesus showed the personhood of the Holy Spirit by speaking of ‘he’ instead:
“When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13)
He has an intellect
The Holy Spirit has the ability to explore, examine and search. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:10).
God’s Spirit has all knowledge, but even so he searches the depth and magnitude of the Father’s plans.
He shares knowledge with us
No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (v 11). [the Holy Spirit is described as ‘no one except’]
He has a mind
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will (Romans 8:26-27).
In this passage, we see that: 1. The Holy Spirit prays for us 2. He has a mind.
He has a will
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, as he determines (1 Corinthians 12:11)
The Holy Spirit has made you overseers (Acts 20:28)
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 2:7)
He has emotions
He is a person with feelings and heart. (1) The Holy Spirit can love: ‘I beseech you, brethren, … for the love of the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 15:30). God so loved us that he sent his Son. His Son so loved us that he died for us. And the Holy Spirit so loved us that He came and revealed the Lord Jesus to us. (2) The Holy Spirit can be grieved: ‘do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God ’ (Ephesians 4:30). Remember that Jesus was ‘deeply distressed (grieved) at their stubborn hearts’ (Mark 3:5) The word ‘grieve’ means ‘torment, cause sorrow, vex, offend, insult or cause pain.’ Prior to the warning not to grieve the Holy Spirit, we are told not to give the devil a foothold, to steal no longer and to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths (vv 27-29).
He
can speak (Gal. 4:6; Acts 13:2; 1 Tim. 4:1)
May
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor
13:14). > Both refer to the past. > But the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is to ‘be’ with us now.
Fellowship means: 1. Presence 2. Communion 3. Sharing together 4. Participation with 5. Intimacy 6. Friendship 7. Comradeship (in Greek sense of commander)
Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 8:14) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Gal 5:25)
Perhaps you have been a Christian for a long time, but something is missing in your life. Perhaps you need the reality of God to be deeper in your life. We know Jesus, but do we know the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person and he communicates. He desires fellowship. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus. Just as Jesus is our friend, the Holy Spirit is our friend. The Holy Spirit is the other Counselor, of the same type as Jesus.
The Holy Spirit is our Companion, our Counselor and our Guide. Ø Do we listen to him? Ø Do we communicate with him?
The Spirit and the bride say [to Jesus], “Come!” (Rev 22:17).
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