“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 un-relatable, 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.
To be continued…