“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to YOUR ADVANTAGE that I go away; for if I do not go away, the HELPER will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send HIM to you. However, when HE, the Spirit of truth, has come, He WILL guide you into all truth; for He WILL not SPEAK on His OWN authority, but whatever He HEARS He will SPEAK; and He WILL TELL you THINGS to come. He will glorify Me, for He will TAKE of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

John 16:7, 13-14 NKJV

Though the Holy Spirit was given to us to give us an advantage in life we have neglected the person, ministry, power and place of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

The neglect is due largely to ignorance. We don’t know who the Holy Spirit is. We have been told all kinds of things about Him apart from what Jesus says about Him. We have called Him fire, water, wind or some unrelatable, non-living, mindless mystical force.

Now, let us hear what Christ has to say about the Holy Spirit. In our text, Jesus introduced the person and personality of the Holy Spirit as an intelligent, relatable being who has a WILL, can SPEAK, can TAKE, has an EAR, and is intelligent enough to KNOW THINGS. This is contrary to the image of a mindless force we have come to accept.

Amos 3:3 says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” How can you successfully walk with someone of whom you have a distorted image? The Holy Spirit is a PERSON who can talk to you, feel with you, walk with you, hear you, reason with you, and help you to differentiate things or issues. Therefore, the first step towards leveraging on your advantage is knowing the Holy Spirit and learning to walk with Him. He is here fulltime for you and me.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit is our ADVANTAGE. Let us therefore not neglect Him who is here to give us the edge. Read more about Him, cultivate a personal relationship with Him. Tell Him “Good morning”, “I love you”, “Can we please go out together?” Read your bible with Him, do your office work or house chores with Him. He will lead you in business towards profitable ventures, inspire you in your career to excel, reveal insight for invention and give you innovative ideas. He will prepare you ahead to be able to take advantage of coming opportunities or avoid impending dangers. It is my firm believe that if believers had learnt to walk with the Holy Spirit, He would have prepared us against all economic crisis that goes on the world; “in famine we should have been laughing” but we have neglected our advantage, we have confined Him to background as a religious make-feel-good entity. He is not a religious being, He was part of the team that created this scientific world. He is scientific, social, knows economics, and thrives in planning. He is creativity personified.

Holy Spirit, I am sorry for neglecting you, I acknowledge your presence in my life. Teach me to walk with you, be your friend and enjoy all you are and have for me in Jesus name. Thank you Holy Spirit. I love you.

Read and meditate on the following scriptures:

Nehemiah 9: 20, John 14: 15 – 18, 26. John 16: 7-15.