"Understanding the Holy Spirit" Lesson 158

Lesson 158: “UNDERSTANDING THE HOLY SPIRIT”

Jesus told His disciples or followers to baptize people in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This Biblical figure is your best friend and you can learn about Him in God’s Book, the Bible. “Now the Lord is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17), so we know that He is God. Also, a husband and wife sold their land and brought part of the money to Peter. They lied, saying they had brought all the money. Peter told them, Satan made you lie to the Holy Spirit and you have lied to God (Acts 5:3-4). He has qualities only God has such as being eternal; “He did this through the power of the eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14) and He is omnipresent; “How can I get away from your Spirit? Where can I go to escape from you? If I go up to the heavens, you are there” (Ps. 130:7-8). He is equal with God (Matt. 28:19) as He is one of the three persons of the One God (Matt. 3:16-17). He was involved in the creation as He hovered over the waters (Gen. 1:2) and He helps the people of this creation to be born into God’s Kingdom (John 3:5). He came from heaven; “At that moment heaven was opened. Jesus saw the Spirit of God coming down on Him like a dove” (Matt. 3:16).

The Holy Spirit feels, thinks and acts like a person. The Bible calls him “he”, never “it”. “But when the Spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). He knows things; “The Spirit understands all things” (1 Cor. 2:10). He gives gifts and makes decisions; “All of the gifts are produced by one and the same Spirit. He gives them to each person, just as he decides” (1 Cor. 12:11). Jesus says he will be our friend; “I will ask the Father and He will give you another friend to help you….the Spirit of Truth” (John 14:16-17). He can be lied to and he feels grief (Eph. 4:30). He is a person kind of like us, and he is God, not at all like us. What an awesome friend! Read the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to understand who he is and he will guide you to the scripture to explain him and his works.

Imagine that you only had a picture of someone that you have not met personally. What do you really know about this person? Not much! Now, you meet the person and watch as she/he does their work, in and out of the home. You watch them play sports, volunteer for charities and interact with Christian friends. Now you know a lot more about them, right? People’s actions show who they are. A great way to know the Holy Spirit is to see what he does. The Holy Spirit came on Mary so she would have God’s Son, Jesus (Luke 1:35), he came upon Jesus like a dove when He was baptized (Luke 3:21-22) and he anointed Jesus and filled him with everything He needed in order to do what God wanted. Jesus said; “The Spirit of the Lord is on me. He has anointed me to tell the good news to poor people, announce freedom for prisoners, make the blind see again, free those who are beaten down, and announce the year when He will set His people free” (Luke 4:18-19). Later, before Jesus was crucified, He told His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5).

A few weeks later, at the Feast of Pentecost; “a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house. The disciples saw something that looked like tongues of fire separate and settle on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2-4). They were filled with courage and told everyone about Jesus and what had happened. God had promised this would happen hundreds of years before when He said; “After that, I will pour out my Spirit on all people” (Joel 2:28-29). That was the beginning! The Holy Spirit had come to help all Jesus’ followers obey God and spread the good news. He helped them do miracles, including healing and raising people from the dead! He guided and changed them which are his main jobs, to make Jesus’ followers more like Jesus. His job has not changed and he will do for you what he did for the disciples.

The Holy Spirit did not start his work with Jesus but has been around since the beginning. In the Old Testament he came on people and helped them obey God. For example God chose Bezalel to make a meeting place for Him; “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts” (Ex. 31:3). He came on leaders and helped them defeat Israel’s enemies, came on King David with power, spoke to prophets, gave Daniel wisdom and helped Zerubbabel rebuild the temple. The Holy Spirit does all this work with a smile and a song. This I know because he is God and like God and God is love. This means that the Spirit’s attitude to everything he does comes from love. He is gentle (“Come to me, all you who are tired. I will give you rest. I am gentle and free of pride”…Matt. 11:28-29), and will never force his way into our lives. He wants to work with us but we can stop his work if we resist him (1 Thess. 5:19, Acts 7:51). He has feelings and his heart is open to us because he loves us. He pours God’s love into us (Rom. 5:5) and gives us joy (1 Thess. 1:6). Because of his emotions (Eph. 4:30) we know that he understands ours.

God poured out the Spirit freely on us and gave us new life because of what Jesus Christ our Savior has done (Titus 3:5-6). When we pray for God to save us and make the decision to accept Christ as our Savior, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and we are never alone again. This salvation is the beginning of a lifelong adventure. Philip had such an adventure when he met an Ethiopian reading the Bible. The Holy Spirit was drawing the Ethiopian to God and he told Philip to talk to him. The Ethiopian asked abut the part of the Bible he was reading and Philip explained it was about Jesus. The man believed and was baptized (Acts 8:26-40). As Cornelius, a Roman commander, was praying, an angel told him to send for Peter. The Holy Spirit told Peter to go with Cornelius’ messengers to tell Cornelius’ family about Jesus. The Holy Spirit came on all of them and they were saved and baptized (Acts 10). There is no more exciting adventure than leading someone to Jesus Christ. I will attest to this as I am sure will Philip and Peter.

We are not born full grown Christians. We have to “grow up” since sin had us separated from God and try as we might we cannot grow without the “new spirit” that will move us to follow God’s rules (Eze. 36:26-27). When we believed He marked us with the seal of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13) and put His Spirit in out hearts (2 Cor. 1:22). God wants us to live great lives so He planned for to become like His Son (Rom. 8:29). The Spirit’s job is to guide us to become loving and obedient, allowing God to work in us to become more like Jesus (Phil. 2:13, 2 Cor. 3:18). If we say; “I’ll never be what God wants me to be” then you are trying to do it yourself and need to back off and allow the Holy Spirit to do his work. He will give us strength and help us make right choices and if God is on our side, who can be against us (Rom. 8:31)? We find comfort through the Holy Spirit, and then God’s peace will watch over our hearts and our minds because we belong to Christ (Phil. 4:6-7). We will learn all things (John 14:26) and be guided into the truth (John 16:13) he is all the teacher we will need (1 John 2:27).

The Spirit helps us to grow and produce good fruit (Gal. 5:22-23), love God and others (1 Cor. 13), gives us joy (Neh. 8:10) even in trials (Acts 16:25-34). God’s peace can never be completely understood (Phil. 4:7) but since we know and believe that God is in charge and is taking care of us (Phil. 4:11-13). Through the Holy Spirit we understand God’s patience (1 Cor. 13:4), and treat others the same (Ps. 37:7). God saved us when we didn’t know or love Him (Titus 3:4-7) and we return this love with kindness to others (Acts 11:24, Acts 11:25-26). We become faithful (Gen. 39-41), gentle (John 8:1-11) and self-controlled (Prov. 16:32, 1 Cor. 9:24-27).

Don’t you love gifts that are free, bought especially for you and suit you just as you are? The better a person knows you the better the gift matches you. God, through the Holy Spirit gives each and everyone of us gifts that perfectly match who God made us to be. God planned for each of us to have a special place in the Body of Christ in order to use our gifts (Rom. 12:4-8). Do not keep your talents (gifts) to yourself and do not always expect to “do it right” the first time. Doctors have to start out as students and may take years to become excellent at what God called them to do. Remember that these gifts are not for showing off but to build up the Body of Christ and all must be used in love. The “gifts” are listed in 1st Corinthians 12:8-11. Churches have different ideas about how they work, because of tradition and this is of no spiritual consequence. The main thing is to listen to God and follow the Spirit. The Bible is for tradition when it supports the teaching of the Apostles (2 Thess. 2:15) and is consistent with Biblical revelation, yet it is against tradition when it “transgresses the commands of God” (Matt. 15:3).

Following the Holy Spirit is like an amazing roller coaster ride. We know something exciting is around the corner, but we are not sure what to expect. God knows, His Spirit prepares us and IF we believe and trust then we should go for it!