Today’s message by Pastor Andy Elmes is the fourth in the series “Turn the Power On” and is titled “Walking with the Holy Spirit”. Andy speaks about the Holy Spirit today and how He lives in us and what we can expect from this. Last week Andy spoke about us hosting the presence of God in our lives. Today Andy speaks about the purpose of God’s Spirit in our lives; we have the indwelling of God or the inner presence of God within us and ongoing unbroken fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This means an ongoing walk with the Holy Spirit every day! The Second book of Corinthians 13:14 (NIV) says “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
The Holy Spirit is likened to many things in scripture….a dove representing the peace of God; fire which has refining capabilities; oil as in the power in a lamp and also for anointing and also wind, like the mighty rushing wind in our lives. Andy then spoke of four aspects that the Holy Spirit does and provides for in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is our helper; we experience divine help as in John 14. This means we have an invisible assistant to help or assist us and also comfort us. God’s plan was not just to leave us after salvation but to provide the Spirit to assist us in our lives. We are not vulnerable or abandoned as orphans, we are children of God. We do need to accept this help and reach out for it though!
The Holy Spirit is also our teacher. John 14, 25-25 (NIV) says “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. The Holy Spirit comes to be the teacher within us helping us to understand what we couldn't understand with our own ability or reasoning; but without mocking or scorning. So the Spirit will help us discern what the words of scripture really mean, rather than us just reading it as any other book for example. Jesus said that when the Spirit of Truth has come, He will guide us into all truth. He will not speak on His own authority, whatever He hears He will speak. The Holy Spirit is listening to the conversation of the Father and the Son and He's transmitting what's being said by God into our hearts and helping us to understand. This is Revelation knowledge - He says He will tell us things to come.
Thirdly, the Holy Spirit is there to be our Leader and our guide. John 16:13 (NIV) says “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth”. The Lord has provided his Spirit within our lives to guide us and to lead us in the things that we're doing, but also the things yet to come. So are we just making it on your own? The Spirit is now the leadership of God in our lives and we should be looking to Him for all direction for the way forward. We all need a guide in our lives.. In Acts 8:29 (NIV) it says “The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it”. If Philip had ignored this guidance, the eunuch he met would never have been baptised.
Lastly today Andy spoke of the Holy Spirit being the refiner in our lives, to sort out and get rid of the things in our lives that ought not to be there any longer. Although we are partakers of a new divine nature, old habits die hard. The Holy Spirit is there to put these things, thinking, mentalities etc. to death. Romans 8:12-13 (NIV) says “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live”. Here, Paul is telling us that to put to death the misdeeds of the body or the old nature will enable us to live free.
The key agenda that the Holy Spirit has for us is to make us Christ-like. Jesus has placed His Spirit in us and as we yield to His Spirit we become like the one whose Spirit now resides within, which is the spirit of Jesus Christ. Powerful verses are in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. The Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty freedom. We all now with unveiled (married) face are a bride of Christ beholding as in a mirror the glory of The Lord (ie see the glory of the Lord) which is now in us because the Holy Spirit resides inside us.
