Tag: Holy Spirit

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5 Things the Holy Spirit Does for Jesus’ Followers

A few months ago, we celebrated Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost was a feast of the Old Testament that commemorated the giving of the Ten Commandment. It was a harvest celebration at the end of the barley and the beginning of the wheat harvest. It was on the day of this feast that the Holy Spirit came in power upon the 120 disciples in Acts 2. This gave me occasion to think a bit more deeply about the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit can be a mysterious concept, especially when we use the term “Holy Ghost.” Sometimes, we associate the Holy Spirit with the gift of tongues or ecstatic experiences. This may be part of His work, but what occurred to me was that Jesus spoke very clearly to His disciples about what the coming of the Holy Spirit would mean. We have a record of this explanation in John 14-16. What does Jesus teach there about the work of the Holy Spirit? I see five things.

First, He will glorify Jesus. “He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you” (John 16:14).
“When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me” (John 15:26). Where the Spirit is working, there Jesus is praised and honored.

Second, He will convict us about the wrong we do. “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment . . .” (John 16:7-8). When the Spirit comes, we will have to confront the things in our lives that do not line up with what is good and just. Continue reading “5 Things the Holy Spirit Does for Jesus’ Followers”

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Is There Hope for My Future? (Study of Romans, Part 5: Romans 8:17-39)

Note: How do we find joy, hope, and peace in our lives? The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans is all about that. He teaches that we do it by having more faith, hope, and love. In the 5th part of this study, we consider, is there hope for my future? This is the 5th of an 8 part study of Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians. You can read part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here.

Key Thought: You grow in joy, peace, and hope by developing a confident expectation that the the future will turn out well for you.

Hope and Hope
What do you think the future will be like for you and for the world? If you really knew that the future was going to be great for you, wouldn’t you have greater joy, peace, and hope?

When we talk about the virtue of hope, we are talking about the future. Hope is a confident expectation that things will turn out well. Do you tend to view things that way?

We can view hope in two different ways. On the one hand, it is an emotion that enables us to feel that there will be good things in the future. On the other hand, it is a virtue or excellent character trait that we develop that enables us to see that the future is filled with good things.

What Paul does in this passage is to teach us to re-think the future to develop the virtue of hope so that we will feel more hope about the future. Continue reading “Is There Hope for My Future? (Study of Romans, Part 5: Romans 8:17-39)”

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Why Do We Believe in the Trinity?

Here’s a series of questions and answers on this topic that I wrote many years ago for my congregation. If you have questions about why Christians believe in the Trinity, the doctrine that there is one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, here is a brief explanation in a series of questions and answers.

1. What do we mean by God? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. He made all things out of nothing by the word of His power. He preserves and governs all His creatures and all their actions.

2. What does the Bible reveal uniquely about who God is? It reveals that there are three persons in the one, infinite essence of God.

3. What do we mean by nature or essence? We mean what something is. For example, the essence or nature of a dog is that it is a dog, of a chair that it is a chair, of man that he is human.

4. What do we mean by person? Each nature has particular instances of its nature. For example, you are one instance of human nature, and I am another. However, by person we mean also that a particular individual of a nature is also intelligent and capable of personal interaction. Continue reading “Why Do We Believe in the Trinity?”

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Power on the Way: Thoughts on the Holy Spirit

Who is the Holy Spirit?

When people hear the word “Holy Spirit” today, it may seem strange and mysterious. This is especially true when we use the old English term, “Holy Ghost.”

As mysterious as the word may sound, it’s really no more mysterious than God Himself is. There is mystery, but the Holy Spirit is the presence of God with us for comfort, encouragement, guidance, and power.

Christians believe that God is one, but we also believe that God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (read more about this here).

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed forever. You can find references to the Son (as The Angel of the Lord among other references) and the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. However, the Son is uniquely revealed when He comes in human form and reveals Himself as Jesus, the Son of God. The Holy Spirit comes into the world after Jesus’ resurrection as the unique revealer of Jesus to the world (see John 14:15–18 and Acts 2).

The Holy Spirit is the one who makes Jesus real, known, and believed in by human hearts. People from all over the world with different languages, cultures, socioeconomic backgrounds, and educational levels have embraced the crucified Jesus as “the unique Son of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). How can this be? The answer is: the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not merely the one who reveals Jesus, He continues to apply Jesus’ love and care to Jesus’ followers throughout their lives. He is the one who brings His followers love, joy, and peace. These are all “fruits” of the Spirit in their lives (see Gal. 5:22–23).

However, the Holy Spirit is there not merely to give us personal peace. He wants to use us to spread the love of God and bring restoration and redemption to a world in need of hope. He invites us to be a part of a larger project. Continue reading “Power on the Way: Thoughts on the Holy Spirit”

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