THE HOLY SPIRIT
Winning the battles with
the enemy is not something we can do on our own. Many times in the
Word of God and in a variety of ways we are instructed of our need
for the Holy Spirit. What is it that the Holy Spirit does? What is
the purpose of the Holy Spirit? Jesus gives us a good look at the
primary purpose, telling His disciples in John 16:14, “He (the
Holy Spirit) shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall
show it unto you.” The central goal or primary purpose of the
Holy Spirit is to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. If the spirit
that you are interacting with is not glorifying the Lord Jesus, then
it is not the Holy Spirit. The ONLY primary purpose of the Holy Spirit
is to glorify Jesus. There are many ways that the Holy Spirit glorifies
Jesus.
The very moment we accept Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit does
three things. First, as we learned in the lesson titled Victory by
Position, He immerses us into the death, burial, and resurrection
of Jesus (Rom.6:4-5, I Cor. 12:13). At this same instance the Holy
Spirit seals us. Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us, “In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: in whom also that after ye believed, ye were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest (guarantee) of our
inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto
the praise of His glory.” A seal was a sign that the contents
of a letter or document were indeed the very words of the one to whom
the seal belonged. The Holy Spirit seals us, demonstrating that the
contents are His, the Lord Jesus Christ being the owner of the seal.
By virtue of the fact that we have been sealed with the Divine seal,
God has declared that we are His possession, claimable only by Him
and no one else. We can no longer claim ourselves, He owns us. This
is a concept we will talk more about in a later lesson.
The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by helping us glorify Jesus. He does
this through many different methods. First, the Holy Spirit teaches
us. Jesus in telling His disciples of the coming Holy Spirit said
in John 14:26, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto
you.” This teaching is not just for the disciples. Paul in writing
to the Corinthians said, “But God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep
things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save (except)
the spirit of the man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God (I Cor. 2:10-12).”
The Holy Spirit is not only our teacher, but teaches ALL CHRISTIANS
the deep things of God so that we might know ALL that has been give
to us freely by God. That’s right, ALL believers no matter how
intelligent, how rich or poor, or how talented have access equally
to all the knowledge God has for us.
Next, the Holy Spirit is our guide. “For as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14).”
Paul making it clear here that if you are not led or guided by the
Holy Spirit, you are not one of His. The Holy Spirit guides us so
that we will not take the wrong paths but follow the road that keeps
us centered in the will of God. Upon arriving where He would have
us be, we need to be able to accomplish the task Jesus sent us there
to do and Jesus did many things through Paul “through mighty
signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God (Rom. 15:19).”
The Holy Spirit is our source of power to accomplish what God calls
us to do. Remember, Jesus said, “for without Me ye can do nothing
(John 15:5).”
Finally, the Holy Spirit is our prayer warrior. Romans 8:26-27 tells
us, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities (weaknesses):
for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
