The Holy Spirit (16)
By Abraham Eli
This study was first taught on August 28, 2012
Topic: Now That the Holy Spirit is in You (2.1): You Have a Trustworthy Companion (2)
(use the audio to study)
Background
Last week, we noted that it is one thing to have a companion, and a completely different thing to be able to trust that companion. We therefore set forth to establish the trustworthiness of the Holy Spirit as our Companion for life. In doing so, we noted that when the Lord was speaking to His disciples just before His death and resurrection, He made it known to them that the Comforter He was going to ask the Father to send could be trusted absolutely, because He is “the Spirit of truth”. By this title, “the Spirit of truth”, we noted that the Lord was telling His disciples at the time, as He is telling us, His disciples today, that the nature of the ‘other’ Comforter was truth; meaning that the Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of God, and also God, cannot ever, ever, tell a lie; neither can He ever, ever, deceive; nor can He ever, ever mislead.
We saw that one of the problems many believers in Christ today have, is that they tend to equate the Holy Spirit, with man. Although a man may speak the truth from time to time; it is nonetheless not in his nature to be truthful. But for the Holy Spirit, whenever He speaks, it is truth He speaks, because He just cannot tell a lie! Also, unlike men, the Holy Spirit does not change His mind and refuse to do what He promised; neither does He say something or make a promise, and is unable or unwilling to keep it. Indeed, He can be absolutely trusted.
Another challenge with when the Holy Spirit is telling us truth is that our understanding or comprehension of what He is saying may becloud our faith or ability to trust Him and His word. For example, we saw that when God promised Abram a son, Abram thought that he was the one who would make it happen; he did not realize that God was going to make it happen by Himself, and that it had nothing to do with him (Abram). And although Abram’s walk with God started with him stuttering in his faith, yet he got to a point in his life where all that mattered was what God said! Abraham’s faith in God was the result of his personal, first-hand experience with God, not a second-hand testimony from someone else, which is what made it possible for him to yield to God when it mattered the most. In the same way, our faith in God must result from a personal first-hand experience of God, even if we would stutter in the beginning, because, unless we are able to have that personal, first-hand experience of God as Abraham did, we would continue to struggle with trusting our lifetime Companion when He is leading us in a particular direction. But when we trust in and yield to His instruction and direction, we have an anchor that keeps us safe in the troubled waters of the world system. That anchor is our confidence in the Holy Spirit, our lifetime Companion!
Scripture Text(s)
John 14:16-17
We shall continue with our look at the trustworthiness of the Holy Spirit by taking another example, which is, the experience of the children of Israel from Egypt to the wilderness and beyond. May the Holy Spirit help us to learn deep lessons in trusting Him, in Jesus' name, Amen.
As we look at the example of the children of Israel in their interaction with God from their exodus out of Egypt, to their wilderness travails, and beyond, we see a people, who were never able to come to trust God and His Spirit. This is unfortunately, the lot of many Christians today!
Psalm 78:2-4, 6-8, 10-58; Acts 7:51; Jeremiah 6:10; Matthew 13:3-23; Romans 8:5-8; 1 Samuel 15:1-31; Acts 8:5-24; 2 Timothy 3:6-7; Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6; Ezekiel 36:25-27; Colossians 2:11; Romans 6:6-11; Colossians 3:1-3; Ephesians 4:17-31; Philippians 3:3-8; Genesis 6:3.
Conclusion
In contrast to Abraham’s relationship with God, which grew better over the years, Israel’s relationship with God was marked by the manifestation of progressive stubbornness. They just could not be turned away from their determined course of wrong or evil action. So, no matter how many miracles they witnessed, no matter how many powerful sermons they heard, no matter the physical evidence of the presence of God, and even their own personal experience of these things, they just could not be swayed away from their chosen path, which unfortunately always led them to destruction. They were called a “stiff-necked” people (a term usually ascribed to an ox which is unyielding, and so, hard, tough, or difficult to be brought under the yoke and moved in a particular direction), and “uncircumcised in heart and ear” (an expression which refers to the intact foreskin of an uncircumcised man, which traps filth and bacteria, causing diseases in the man, and discomfort in intercourse), and as a result, they “do always resist the Holy Ghost”!
This is unfortunately the case of many people in our churches today. Some are unyielding to the Holy Spirit; some others are bound up in iniquity and are never able to break free of it; some others still are unable to worship God in spirit and in truth; and, there are those who just blatantly resist the Holy Spirit, refusing to do what they know He is asking them to do—including those who claim to have known the Lord for a number of years. It is not about whether or not they believe what the Holy Spirit is saying; it is about their stubborn and rebellious nature which always resists the Holy Spirit. Such is the nature of the old man, the carnal man, and the worldly man. For such people the nature of sin and evil desires (desires that are contrary to God) is still very much at work in them, and unless they come to terms with the reality of their sad situation, they will continue on the path that leads to eternal damnation! Resisting the Holy Spirit is to mortgage your eternal future!
The solution lies in a heart that is totally surrendered to the Lord, with nothing held back: a genuine repentance, along with a full understanding that you died with Christ, and have thus died to sin and to the world; and, a voluntary submission to the Holy Spirit, to circumcise every sinful nature, fleshly desire, and worldly passion still in your heart. You must allow the old nature of sin, and, wrong affections and desires to be ‘cut off’ and ‘stripped off’. Only then can you heed the truth, which the Holy Spirit is saying to you.
Back to all Bible Study Outline List