“But the Helper, the Holy spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” - John 14:26
All of us want to know how to change. How do we not live so defeated? How do we not live so stuck? We're going to talk about how we change the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit might be the most under discussed, misunderstood person of the Trinity. We don’t understand the idea that God is with us. It is a crazy concept.
So, how are we supposed to explain this to our kids, when we barely understand it ourselves?
The moments that Jesus introduced the person of the Holy Spirit are really spectacular moments in the Bible. I think if we believed just a few verses about the Holy Spirit, this would change everything about our lives. I really believe this is why we do not live in power or freedom.
We don’t trust in the power of God to change us, gift us, and equip us for the work of building the kingdom.
So, what did Jesus say about the Holy Spirit? He said, “it’s better if I go away, because I'm going to send the Helper to you, the Holy Spirit” (John 16:7). He tells the disciples to not go anywhere until the Holy Spirit comes. Jesus knows these are a bunch of fishermen who keep misunderstanding Him. They kept not believing Him, making mistakes, doubting what they were doing, who they are, and whose they are. This sounds like us today!
But when the Holy Spirit came, they were filled with power, and they began to prophesy, preach, perform miracles, and God worked mightily through them. People were being saved. I want to live like this! This sounds fun. And this can happen now.
We don’t have to go back in time to live this way. Now, we see the power of God changing lives all around the world. The power of God has sustained the Church, and sustained the word being passed down from generation to generation.
The Church is now made up of millions and millions of people around the globe. Despite persecution, and the fact that following Christ is illegal in some countries, the church continues to grow. And this is because of the Holy Spirit.
Now, you’re probably wondering what this all means for you. You might be asking, “what does it mean for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to walk with Him?”
What we know, and what is clear in scripture, is that Jesus gives the Holy Spirit to anyone that calls on His name. John 14:15-17 says, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
This is the promise. The Holy Spirit will be with you and in you. For those of you that have trusted Jesus, the Holy Spirit is with you and in you right now.
So, what does the Spirit do? This is where it gets so good. And we can’t be afraid to talk about Him! This is part of the problem. It’s complicated, there’s division over it, and people have different opinions. Therefore, we don’t talk about Him. And we’ve got to change this.
The Holy Spirit is the power within you and within your kids if they’ve trusted Jesus. The Spirit will help them conquer sin and discern right from wrong. The Spirit of God prompts me and leads me to know what to do, and when to do it.
I never hear a voice and I’ve never heard a voice, but I absolutely believe that the Spirit nudges me and leads me.
When I pray and ask God about making decisions, I trust that the Spirit is leading me in the direction I should go. Sometimes it’s my own opinion, and that’s real. But if I’m truly surrendered and submitted to Jesus, He’ll stop me if I’m going the wrong direction. He has the power to do that.
Therefore, we are called to pray a lot. We ask God for a lot of wisdom, and we trust that the Spirit will give it to us (James 1:5). We seek counsel from our small group and mentors. Then, there are some things that are spelled out for us clearly in scripture, and we don’t have to wonder if these things are right or wrong.
My favorite thing about the Holy Spirit is that He is constantly reminding me of the truth.
When I’m being selfish or bratty, (my husband would call it cranky), I get a sense that calls me back to meeting with God. That’s the Holy Spirit helping me. He’s calling me back to meeting with Jesus. He’s reminding me, counseling me, helping me, and reminding me of my hope and my place in God’s family.
John 16:13-15 says, “When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for He will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
There is mystery about God that we don't understand. I want a God that I can't perfectly understand. Now, I want to know Him as much as I can through His word, but what the Spirit sometimes reminds me of is, “Hey Jennie, you don't have to have God figured out.”
There are some things I can’t imagine or fathom. There are things about His character and goodness that I can’t comprehend, because they would confuse me and overwhelm me.
When I think about the suffering in the world and I try to make sense of things, I come back to just letting God be God. I don’t need to figure it all out.
We don’t have to be confused about God, but we do have to understand there are things about Him that are incomprehensible in some ways. We stand in awe of Him, because He’s bigger than us.
Romans 8:26 says, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”
What I love about God is that it's okay if you can't even pray through a difficult season of suffering. I read this over to my sister when she was going through something really difficult and she felt like she couldn't even pray. That’s okay, because the Spirit is in you and interceding for you.
The Spirit that is in us is accomplishing so much more than we can imagine.
If Ephesians 6:12 is right, and we really are fighting principalities and dark cosmic forces, then we need the Spirit to help us fight, to pray, and to show us what to do. We need the Spirit to protect us when we don't even know we need protecting. He is that person.
God did not leave us as orphans. He put the Spirit of God with us and in us. He did not go up to heaven and just say, “good luck with all this!” But instead, He sent the Spirit to be with us so we wouldn’t be alone. He said it’s even better than Him being here, because Jesus was limited by the flesh.
The Spirit moves and acts for us. He causes so many incredible things to happen that we won't know until heaven. When you think of the Holy Spirit, you can think of Him as a friend and helper. You have somebody that you can always talk to and to always ask for help from. And he’s always ready and able to help you. In fact, He's helping you even when you're not asking for help.
