(Read John 14:17-20)
This morning we continue our series “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing to teach on “Minimizing Your Humanity and Maximizing Your Divinity.” After studying our way through passages in John chapters 5, 6, 8, and 12, we are taking our time thought chapter 14. Yesterday I told you that God is looking to use you like He used Jesus. God knows you are not perfect and He does not require you to be, in order to be used. God is just looking for you to be submitted. If you submit and surrender, God will provide you the words and He will do the work! Today we take a closer look at how God does this. The answer: the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. The Holy Spirit is a person and He is part of the Trinity. Jesus said, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” The Holy Spirit is not an “it.” He is the third person of the Trinity and He is no less God than the Father or Jesus. He, the Holy Spirit, God Himself, has come to you to take up residence IN you. Acknowledge and appreciate His presence.
2. Jesus lived WITH the disciples, but the Holy Spirit lives IN us. When Adam sinned in the Garden he died spiritually and the Holy Spirit left him and Eve. Jesus came to restore all that Adam lost in the Garden. Jesus said the following to His disciples about the Holy Spirit, “You know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” The Holy Spirit lived with the disciples, because He was IN Jesus. But there was coming a day (on the Day of Pentecost) when the Holy Spirit would be restored to mankind. While we don’t get to walk around with Jesus, in the flesh, we do get to walk around with the Holy Spirit IN us. The Holy Spirit provides for us, internally, what Jesus provided for the disciples, externally.
3. Part of the Holy Spirit’s role is to lead us. Jesus said, “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” Have you ever attempted to lead someone who refused to follow you? Isn’t that frustrating? I am sure the Holy Spirit is equally frustrated when He attempts to lead us, day after day, only to find that we are not paying any attention to Him at all. The Holy Spirit will do the leading, but you must do the following. Are you giving the Holy Spirit your attention? Or are you so busy that you just rush into your day, and then rush through your day, without taking any time to hear from the Holy Spirit?
4. The Holy Spirit is the key to becoming ONE with God. Jesus said, “Since I live, you also will live. When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” Jesus was clearly ONE with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Jesus also wanted us to be ONE with Him. Jesus said that there would come a day when we would be IN Him and He would be IN us. That day has come. The Holy Spirit connects us to Supreme nature of the Father, the Lordship of the Son, and He gives us access to the supernatural power of God.
I will close with a question Paul asked the believers in Corinth: You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you? (1 Cor 3:16).
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for Your amazing and undeserved grace. By grace You love me with an everlasting love and You made plans for me before the foundations of the world. Your Son Jesus operated in grace towards me. Jesus willingly took on the penalty for my sin; paying a debt He did not owe, for a price a could not pay. The Holy Spirit also operates in grace towards me. He took up residence inside of me, and He tirelessly offers to lead and guide me, even though I have ignored Him more times than I want to acknowledge. By grace the Holy Spirit keeps trying to work in me, and He even sticks with me when I take Him places He should not be, and I cause Him to hear and see things He should not be exposed to. The Holy Spirit lives in me, going with me everywhere I go, chipping away at the hardness of my heart with His kind love, until I get to the point where my heart is soft towards Him, and ready to allow Him to lead me and guide me into all truth. The more I study Your grace towards me, the more unworthy I feel, but the more appreciative I become of who You are and what You have done for me. By faith I declare that I die to self, I yield to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and I allow Your love, light, and power to flow through me for all the world to see. I minimize ME, so that You can maximize YOU through me, to make the impact You desire to make in the earth. As I enter this day I declare that thy Kingdom has COME, thy will is going to be DONE, here on earth, as it is in heaven, THROUGH ME! Not by my power, but by Your grace. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
