Holy Spirit And Jesus

We must pause and take a moment to give God thanks for bringing us through the first month of the New Year. We give Him thanks for this day, for graciously giving us to see the beginning of the month of February.

Holy God, we acknowledge that it is by Your choice, Your desire that we are here today. Let us know that Your pleasure is not to leave us in ignorance, but to have us grow in wisdom and in understanding, that we may come to know more and more of Your Living Word, working, growing and blossoming in each of us. Amen!

The Holy Spirit And Jesus

We continue and conclude with the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Here is a simple, straightforward word. The Holy Spirit gives instructions to humans, through the Servant Jesus. This information, we are inclined to believe and readily accept, because Jesus is the seen and the Holy Spirit is the unseen. However, when told that Jesus gave instructions to the apostles through the Holy Spirit, the first response of some of us was to question and set our backs up against it.

Let’s listen to the text again. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. Acts 1: 1 - 2.

Thanks be to God, now that we have been put straight, now that we have been dethroned from our self-made podium, as it were, and have been made to see our utter ignorance and folly, we are able to receive this truth in faith. This allows us the freedom of unfathomable closeness, oneness and joyfulness of this Spiritual Place.

Jesus has been in human, mortal flesh, living with His disciples. Before their confused, disbelieving eyes, they see Him die on a cruel cross. They have spent three long days and nights in deep sorrow, hopelessness and disappointment. Then Jesus, their Risen Master, returns to them showing Himself to them and giving convincing proofs that He is indeed alive. For forty days and nights Jesus stayed among His disciples, speaking to them about the Kingdom of Heaven.

But Jesus is different, in a different form, for the Body, the Person they now see with their natural eyes and the voice they now hear with their human ears, is that of their Lord and Master all right, but in Resurrected Form. Jesus, fully ready in New Form, is about to return to Spirit. He is on His way to leave them, but not to leave them alone and without leadership, as it were. What does Jesus in His Risen Nature do? Jesus speaks instructions to them, through the Holy Spirit, so that the Holy Spirit is He who is working it all out in them.

This is what I mean. Before Jesus died and rose, He led the disciples and worked with them, being ever open and upfront that what He was doing, was not His will, but the will of His Father. In simple terms, Jesus was the Servant, the Vessel who carried out God’s work and nothing of Himself. But when Jesus died, and rose from the grave, He was no longer carrying a human will and human nature. He was fully God the Son, on His way back to the place from where He came. The Holy Spirit, however He who is to take over, as it were, from Jesus, is the Person who will now lead and guide the disciples. So Jesus, knowing all that resurrection has returned Him to, and knowing that He would be leaving them in a short space of time, does what is the present reality. It is that He will instruct His disciples, through the Holy Spirit.

Let's continue. There is something more about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, before Ascension, which is even more spell-binding than the thought of Jesus giving instruction to the apostles through the Holy Spirit. We are told that on one occasion when Jesus went to them, He spoke plainly to them about the Holy Spirit.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Acts 1: 4 - 5.

Bear in mind that Jesus is on His way to heaven. All that He is doing is what needs to be done before He leaves. He is alive and they know this, but they are never to feel that His leaving them again, will cause a fresh set of depression, helplessness, uncertainties and lethargy. Jesus gives them a Word of Promise, a promise which they have heard Him speak of previously, but today, there is finality and urgency in His voice. Today, He is telling them not to leave and go their own separate ways, not to break company when He ascends, into heaven. They are to remain in Jerusalem for one reason and one reason only, and it is to receive a gift.

The Risen, prepared to ascend Lord, is ready to shower upon His disciples, the gift my Father promised. I ask you, is this not absolutely marvellous and powerful? Here is Jesus, in His changed form, reminding them of the Gift of the Father which He has been previously telling them about. In other words, this is no surprise Gift from the Father, because Jesus has been telling them about it. But today is different, for when He speaks, He is speaking with knowledge that now is the time. He makes sure to tell them to wait, and not leave.

At this point, our Lord drills three facts into my head, which I cannot but swallow. I can’t chew on them. I just have to swallow them as is. As I share them, how will you receive them? Will you, by faith, hear the Lord speaking these truths to you?

My Holy Spirit is no posthumously given Gift.

What! How has this come about? Too many people are waiting for when they die and go to heaven, to live the Spirit-filled and Spirit-powered life. What’s the testimony of your life?

My Holy Spirit is no passed on given Gift.

What! Do I think this and expect this of Him? Too many believe that this is passed on from generation to generation, in some sort of spiritual DNA fashion.

My Holy Spirit is no presumed Gift.

What! Am I taking the Spirit for granted and presuming upon His promise? Do I think that because I have been born again I am entitled to this Promised Gift of the Father?

This is cause for many to stop where they are, drop everything and have these made right in them. This is the time to blank the deceiver and all the lies with which he has filled your head. It’s time to face the Spirit’s Truth in our lives.