The HOLY SPIRIT: In you, with you and for you

¹⁴ May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. – 2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV

Source: Google Images

This is perhaps one of the most quoted verses on a Sunday morning at the end of our worship services. I wonder if we even take the time to ponder it, I hope we do. We probably have heard quite a bit about the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how we are saved by grace through faith and how we are to grow in grace. I’m sure we’ve known and experienced the Love of God in our lives but I wonder if we have developed any kind of fellowship with God the Holy Spirit. Let us remember that we worship a triune God – God the Father, God the Son, that is Jesus and God the Holy Spirit, One God in three distinct persons, that’s the mystery of the Trinity!

At Jesus’ baptism we see all three Persons of the God head in action: The Father Speaking from Heaven, The Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the form of a dove and Jesus the Son of God being baptized. (Matthew 3:16-17)

In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit would mainly come upon kings, priests and prophets to enable them to carry out their functions. The Holy Spirit would come and go and if they disobeyed God, the Holy Spirit would leave. Samson and David are perfect example of this. This also explains why after committing adultery and murder and being confronted by the prophet, David cried out in repentance to God saying:

        ¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
        or take your Holy Spirit from me. – Psalm 51:11 NIV

We have every reason to be thankful to God that today under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit is here in us and with us forever, He doesn’t come and go, we’ll do well not to ignore Him for the Word instructs us not to grieve Him and not to quench Him. When the Lord Jesus promised to send us the Holy Spirit, He said:

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— - John 14:16 NIV

God the Holy Spirit desires to fellowship with us, that is to have one-on-one times with each one of us, He wants us to share our lives with Him and He wants to share His heart with us and in the process empower us to be effective witnesses for Christ (Acts 1:8). He desires to have moment by moment fellowship with us throughout the day not be confined to just a few moments in a service or in our scheduled private prayer times. Talk to Him about anything and everything and let Him give you ideas, insight and understanding, remember He is God, so He is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Many times we ignore Him, unknowingly (and perhaps knowingly in some cases), to our own detriment, not good, not good at all…

When the Holy Spirit fellowships with us, He takes what is of Christ and reveals it to us and He even reveals the future to us and that glorifies Jesus. Remember, the Holy Spirit will always glorify Jesus, always without exception (John 15:26). He will always point us to Christ; He will always remind us of what Jesus has done for us. When we fail, He does not condemn us, but points us to Jesus who took all our sins on the cross. That condemning voice you hear when you blow it, is from the enemy, pay no attention to it, instead, turn to your Saviour who took even that very sin on His body on that tree.

Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus also said this:

²⁶ 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. – John 14:26 NIV

He also went on to say:

¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth…– John 16:12-13 NIV

Source: Google Images

The Holy Spirit will remind us of everything that Jesus has said to us, notice He reminds us, this means we cannot be reminded of what we have no prior knowledge of, so spending time in the Word of God must be a priority in our lives, for the Holy Spirit will remind us of the Word (what the Lord Jesus says to us). He will also lead us into all truth as we continue to fellowship with Him by following His leading, no wonder the Word also say that those who are lead by the Spirit are the sons of God (Romans 8:14)  

The Holy Spirit is our Advocate, our Comforter, our Helper, our Teacher, our Guide, our Friend, our Lord, He is the Assurance of our salvation and adoption as children of God and He is much much more… and He loves us with an everlasting love. Let’s not ignore Him today…may the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.