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The Holy Spirit as Revealed in the Gospels As it Relates to We Disciples- Part II

Here are the last eight principles in the four gospels that relate to His disciples then and today.  All of them happen to come from the gospel of John.

 

The Spirit will give/produce rivers of living water in those who receive & believe in Him – “”…Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. 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.” John 7:37-39

Please note that Jesus did not use “creeks” or “streams”, but mighty flowing “rivers” as His chosen metaphor for what the Holy Spirit can produce in the life of a committed believer, who regularly comes to Jesus and clings to Jesus – trusting Him for all that He has promised us.

 

He will abide in us and be in us – “that is 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.” John 14:17

When Jesus says the world cannot receive Him because it does not see Him, He means the world does not have the supernatural ability to see Him at work or to see the effects of His presence.

We don’t know the Holy Spirit because we can see Him physically, but rather because we sense and feel His presence, and we see the effects of His Holy presence in our lives. The fact that God enables us to be “temples of God” is soley due to the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. (see I Corinthians 3:16). One of His primary purposes is helping us be worthy or fitting temples of God Himself. And one of the primary ways He accomplishes that is by transforming us by His truth.

 

He will teach us all things – “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 said to you.” John 14:26

“All things” is quite comprehensive. But specifically it refers to anything and everything that will be necessary for us to know and walk with a holy God and to do His will. The Holy Spirit is a teacher like none other. He in no way is hindered or limited by our age, our ethnicity, our language, our upbringing, our education, etc. He knows the best way to help us  - in keeping with all of that – to grasp the truth we need to grasp on any given day or in any given situation. He teaches us directly and He teaches us via human teachers and mentors.

 

He will bring to our remembrance all that Jesus has said – “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 said to youJohn 14:26

Besides teaching us He will also faithfully remind us every day and in any and every situation of what we need to remember regarding Jesus’s words to us – both written and directly spoken or revealed. This of course requires us to daily meditate on Jesus’s words in the gospels. Even the Holy Spirit cannot remind us of things Jesus said that we are not familiar with and have not meditated on. We highly suggest that believers try to find some way to interact with Jesus’s words in the gospels on a daily basis.

 

He will testify about Jesus –  “When the Helper comes whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me,” John 15:26

Not only is the Holy Spirit our teacher and reminder, He is also our Helper. And one of the primary ways He wants to help us is by helping us better see and know and love Jesus – for He lives to testify about Him. The Holy Spirit (unlike the best most effective teacher on the planet) sees and knows and loves Jesus perfectly. We teachers see in a mirror dimly (lit. in a riddle) (I Cor. 13:12), and are born in sin. We constantly have sin, this evil world system and Satan and his demons to deal with/fight against or resist. Every human teacher has his blindspots and biases. The Holy Spirit has neither.

 

 

He will guide us into all the truth and disclose the future to us – “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” John 16:13

Truth is wonderful and life transforming! It is the first piece of armor mentioned in Ephesians 6. But we don’t need it all at once. We need it when the Father sees we need it and then instructs the Spirit to speak it to us. And the Spirit of truth knows how to best communicate the said truth to us in language we can understand.  He might speak it directly. He might speak it through His written word as we meditate on it. He might speak it through one of His servants. Not only will he faithfully and effectively do that, He will also disclose to us what is to come, both in terms of the bigger eschatological picture, and regarding our own life circumstances and the plans and purposes He has for us.

 

He commanded His disciples to receive the Holy Spirit – “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22  Jesus fully expected His disciples to gladly and fully receive the Holy Spirit and embrace all of His wonderful ministries to them. He had spoken much to them and often to them about Him.

But the specific context of this command is His commissioning them with these words, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” (vs. 21).  It would have been utterly foolish and futile for them to try to fulfill their mission without the Holy Spirit and all of His fullness.

 

This concludes our observations about the Holy Spirit and disciples of Jesus in the gospels.

May the Holy Spirit continue to fill you and thrill you for the glory of God in Jesus’s name. Amen.

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