Essentials - The Holy Spirit

Notes: Essentials - The Holy Spirit

SPEAKER: John Collins

Thursday, July 17, 2014 — 7:00 p.m.

Things get lost in translation of the years. 

The Holy Spirit will not make you better than others, He will make you better than yourself.

John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Jesus is laying out the future of His church, He is telling His disciples that He will be leaving them. But He is not leaving them as orphans.

Greater works were done, not in magnitude but in numbers.

Who is the Holy Spirit? According to Jesus we already know Him. The Holy Spirit is not bound to the skin of a human being.

Many things have claimed to have been done under the Holy Spirit. But, not all things done by Christians are by the Holy Spirit. God moves through the Holy Spirit in profound ways, but always in reverential ways.

The Holy Spirit is as far and wide as the universe but also as close as our prayers. 

John 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Holy Spirit is just as much a person as God the Father and Jesus.

Six things that reveal the Holy Spirits personhood:

1. We can lie to Him
1. Acts 5:1-5 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” 5 Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. 
1. You can not lie to an inanimate object, you lie to another person, Peter references lying to the Holy Spirit.
2. We can grieve the Holy Spirit
1. Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1. Your behavior can bring sorrow to the Holy Spirit.
3. We can quench Him
1. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.
1. We can do that by denying the work that the Holy Spirit is putting on your heart.
4. We can resist the Holy Spirit
1. Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.
5. We can insult the Holy Spirit
1. Hebrews 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
6. We can blaspheme the Holy Spirit
1. Rejecting God’s work in our life, a life long rejection

We can accomplish the Holy Spirits work in three distinct ways. He is with us, in us and upon us.

John 14:17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

8 distinct ways the Holy Spirit helps us daily:

1. Our Teacher
1.  John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
2. Helps us testify of Christ
1.  John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
3. He convicts us of sin
1. John 16:8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
1. Only the Holy Spirit can convict us of sin and reveal it to us.
2. Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 
4. He converts us
1. John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
5. He reveals truth to us
1. John 16:13 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.
2. 1 John 3:19 And by this we know[d] that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 
6. He seals us
1. Ephesians 1:13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who[b] is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
7. He shapes us
1. Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
8. He empowers us
1. John 20:21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 
2. Luke 24:49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
3. Ephesians 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
4. Acts 2:3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance
5. Acts 8:16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
6. Acts 9:17 And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus,[b] who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 
7. Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 
8. Acts 11:8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9. Acts 19:6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

God will fill us with the Spirit. If we provide the sail, He will provide the wind.

He will use us if we want to be used.