Week #91 Relying Upon the Holy Spirit

This week's post is coming from InTouch Magazine's Daily Devotionals (Nov. 17, 2009) by Dr. Charles Stanley.
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Imagine how Peter must have felt when Jesus announced He was going away. The impulsive disciple had a tough time following when the Lord was standing ten feet away; how much more difficult would obedience and loyalty be if Christ wasn’t around to offer encouragement? We can certainly understand the disciples’ fear and frustration. No one can follow Jesus in his or her own strength. But thankfully, we’re not left to figure life out by ourselves. We have a Helper.

For many years I had the idea that, though my salvation was by faith, God’s approval had to be earned. So I did my best but never felt it was good enough. I struggled, failed, tried again, and failed once more. I am grateful the Lord directed me to His better way.

Because God wants His children to experience victory, He equipped them with the Holy Spirit. When we yield to Him, He empowers us, guides us, and expresses the ways of Jesus Christ through our character, conversation, and conduct. On paper, this looks like a passive sort of existence, but in fact, we are constantly confronted with the responsibility to make a choice: we can either follow the Spirit’s promptings or act in our own strength. The latter frequently ends in despair, disaster, or both.

Think about those days when you are “too busy to pray”—or the times you think, Why bother God when there isn’t much going on? The truth is, you’re then relying on yourself. But even when life is routine and boring, the Father wants us depending upon His Spirit to guide us on paths of righteousness.

Week #90 The Trinity Breakdown

Matthew 28:19

Our God consists of 3 persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each is characterized by the same attributes. They are all:

• Eternal - always existing, no beginning or end
• Omniscient - unlimited knowledge
• Omnipotent - infinite power/authority
• Omnipresent - present everywhere at the same time
• Immutable - unchangeable

However...they each have a unique function. Here's a simplified breakdown mostly focusing on the "3rd person" the Holy Spirit.

#1 The Father - Our Creator

• The Father controls the universe and every aspect of our life.

• The Father oversees circumstances and events so that each situation can be used for our good. (Romans 8:28) *This doesn't mean that only good/pleasurable things will come to Christians...but if we read on in Romans 8, we see that even the difficult experiences (v. 35-39) can be used in God's overall plan for Good...and nothing can separate us from the Love of God.

#2 The Son - Our Savior

• Jesus Christ took on flesh and blood and became fully man-while simultaneously remaining fully God-and lived among men. (John 14:9)

• He came to earth with the express purpose of dying on the cross, where He paid the debt for our sins with a perfect sacrifice acceptable to a Holy Father.

• Today, the Son sits at the Father's right hand and intercedes on for us.

#3 The Holy Spirit - Our Helper

• The Holy Spirit resides within every believer, starting at the moment of salvation.

• From the spirit, we receive our spiritual gifts (prophecy, great faith, knowledge, wisdom, etc.) and the power to do the work the Father calls us to do (witnessing, teaching, sharing/giving our time, money, knowledge, etc...).

The "Person" of the Holy Spirit - John 16:5-15

• The Holy Spirit is a person. We know this because Scripture tells us He has four imporant qualities of a person - knowledge, will, emotion, and activity. The Spirit KNOWS God's thoughts and reveals them to Christians (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). He exercises His WILL in the distribution of spiritual gifts to believers (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). He is also FULL OF LOVE (Romans 15:30), and ACTS as our comforter, helper, teacher, and guide.

• The Holy Spirit is co-equal with God the Father and God the Son. After Jesus returned to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to Live within Believers.

• By having the Holy Spirit in us, we are identified as God's own! It separates us from the unbelieving world and serves as a divine guarantee that we belong to God forever.

• The Spirit's work is to conform us to Christ's image (Galatians 5:16) and to live Jesus' life through us.

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It basically comes down to us as Believers having Faith that God's Word is true. We are told that upon receiving Salvation, we are given the Holy Spirit and that He resides in us forever. God started it all...Jesus came to earth in the flesh and died for our sins so that we could be forgiven and have access to Heaven/God...and when Jesus ascended into Heaven He left believers with the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we could have Him with us at all times.

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Some material gathered from InTouch.org by searching "Trinity"