Today I want to talk to you from the Lord's Word about how God the Holy Spirit, after His outpouring, comes to play this key role in the life of every believing follower of Jesus.
Jesus talks about it in passages such as John 14-16. I would like to mention a few important things to you about this.
Our relationship with Jesus himself, and everything He said and did, and continues to say to us and do in us, is the essence of this "life" and "eternal life" that we are currently talking about.
This also includes what Jesus tells us in John 14, from verse 6 onwards.
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you knew Me, you would know My Father also. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him."
Therefore, Jesus goes on to say the following about the Holy Spirit and when He comes to dwell in the body and life of every believing follower:
“I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” (Verse 18)
Then Jesus continues in verse 25: “...when the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, is sent in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
The more I read and meditate on God the Spirit and His role 24/7 in the life of every believer, I realize that ...
We in the "reformed" tradition from which I come struggle to make everything that God says in His Word about the Holy Spirit and His role in our lives a practical part of our faith and life as followers of Jesus.
Do you realize, for example, that Jesus himself says, in my own words, that people can say anything about Him, but that it is literally deadly, and can even be "unforgivable," what they say about the Holy Spirit and about His work!
Go and read for yourself what is written in Mark 3:28,29:
"Truly I tell you, everything will be forgiven people, whatever blasphemy they may speak.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but remains guilty of sin forever."
Therefore, we must listen carefully to what Jesus himself, and the rest of the New Testament, says about the Holy Spirit and what He will do in us as believing followers of Jesus.
It is also important to hear that everything the Spirit will do in us and tell us will always focus on Jesus, everything He did, and what He said!
Because God the Spirit, in this new season, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of which Acts 2 tells us, dwells in us, but is also “upon us” to equip us with “power from on high”, equips us with the gifts of the Spirit, that is why we hear Jesus promise us the following in verses 12 to 14 of John 14:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do also; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Do you now understand why I said that, in many church traditions, we have not yet fully assimilated and made our own everything that is said about the Holy Spirit and His work?