Give the Holy Spirit Room - Part 1

John 14:15-18 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

This last Sunday, I traveled up to Bass Lake, California to spend some time with my father and attended Sunday Worship at The Little Church in the Pines (www.thelittlechurchinthepines.org) with dad. Pastor Herk Rolff preached how the Holy Spirit (the third person of the godhead) has been hard at work from the very beginning of Creation: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light - Genesis 1:1-3. Everyone, who has received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, has received the indwelling Holy Spirit from Father God. We need to consciously make room for Him and understand that God, the Spirit is working within us. Jesus kept His promise of the Holy Spirit to us – God dwelling within us, in the third person of the trinity abiding with us forever - on Pentecost.

John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”

Pastor Herk highlighted ten works of the much-too-forgotten Holy Spirit in this world. (1) The primary work of the Holy Spirit is to exalt the person and work of Christ. It’s all about Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit is excited about His work, we need to get excited about it also. The Holy Spirit is lives within us to lift up the Lord and keep us focus on his finished and continual kingdom work in this world. (2) The Holy Spirit inwardly convicts us of our sin. He is the Prosecutor that gives us an awakened sense of our personal sin, then helps us save ourself from our sin by reversing our inequity and unbelief to trust and believe in Jesus in redemption and salvation, while revering our worldview so that we look to Jesus alone for lordship and leadership, as we realize that judgment has already taken place on Satan and this fallen world. Then our desire is to live a life pleasing in the eyes of God. (3) The Holy Spirit regenerates us. We are made up of body, soul and spirit. Our spirit died due to “original sin” in the garden of Eden, which separates from God. It is this spirit which is regenerated by the Holy Spirit when we repent (turn from our sin), trust, believe in and accept the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for our sins as a gift from God. Do we still not get it that the Holy Spirit is in us because of Jesus? God breathed life into us in the Spirit; Jesus Christ breathed eternal life into us in the Spirit. (4) The Holy Spirit lives in us. Do not take it for granted that God’s Spirit lives within us. The key to an abundant life is to acknowledge our indwelling comforter and counselor and proclaim to the Lord: “Fill me with the Holy Spirit!” Never be insensitive to the fact that the abiding Holy Spirit is there to talk to.   

Let stop here today, but pick up right here tomorrow as Pastor Herk continues his sermon on the Holy Spirit.

In Christ, Brian