Compelling Love

The Holy Spirit is the most neglected Person of our triune God Whom we do well to know.  Pastor Robert Morris writes, “I encourage you to realize three truths before we go further on this journey: (1) the Holy Spirit was sent to be your helper, (2) He wants to be your intimate friend, and (3) the truth that makes those two statements most amazing of all is He is God.”  [The God I Never Knew: How Real Friendship with the Holy Spirit Can Change Your Life (p. 192-193). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]

John the Baptist introduced the soon to be revealed Messiah as the one who would baptize people “with the Holy Spirit and fire”:

Luke 3 (NKJV)
¹⁵ Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, ¹⁶ John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Jesus urged His followers to pray diligently to receive the Holy Spirit, our Heavenly Father’s good gift.

Luke 11
Keep Asking, Seeking, Knocking
⁹ “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ¹¹ If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

 Jesus teaches about this Gift of the Father in John 14, telling the disciples that the Helper He would send is the Spirit of truth, who would live in them.

 John 14 (NKJV)
Jesus Promises Another Helper
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 declares in John 15 that our Helper, the Spirit of truth, will testify of Jesus, bearing witness of who He is.

John 15 (NKJV)
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. ²⁷ And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

Jesus again describes the importance of the Holy Spirit in John 16, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world.  He convinces people of their need for Jesus to be right with God, and of the multi-faceted judgment to come.

John 16 (NKJV)
The Work of the Holy Spirit
⁵ “But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ⁶ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. ⁷ 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. ⁸ And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: ⁹ of sin, because they do not believe in Me; ¹⁰ of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; ¹¹ of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Jesus then describes the Holy Spirit’s work in the life of the believer, guiding us into all truth.

John 16 (NKJV)
¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 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. ¹⁴ He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. ¹⁵ All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Jesus gave final instructions to the apostles “through the Holy Spirit”, including for them to wait for the Promise of the Father, that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.  Filled with the Spirit, they would receive power to become witnesses to Him, “in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1 (NKJV)
Prologue
¹ The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, ² until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, ³ to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit Promised
⁴ And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; ⁵ for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” ⁶ Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 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.”

When we allow the Holy Spirit to fully dwell in our lives, He gives many benefits: power for evangelism, supernatural love, fruit of character and of souls, and gifts for ministry.  The Holy Spirit pours out the love of God into our hearts, making it possible for us to walk in the love of God toward others: “… because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  (Romans 5:5 NKJV)

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/  12/4/2016