I remember the first time I played golf. When I was in high school, I got a job at a local golf course, even though I had never played golf before. A perk of my job was that I was able to golf for free. So, I figured I might as well learn. My cousin was back home for a few days and he and another one of my cousins decided to play a few holes.
I walked up on the first tee box, put my tee in the ground, and balanced my ball on top of it. As I stood there, I thought about how I had seen guys swing a golf club at the course; I had watched professionals play on TV; I had even played a bunch of rounds of Mario Golf on my Nintendo. I had seen plenty of examples and figured I would have no problem doing this myself.
I lined myself up with the fairway, stretched a little, took a few practice swings and I was ready to go. My swing felt pretty good, and the club made decent contact with the ball. As I watched the ball fly, I could see that it had good distance and I was amazed to see it land right in the middle of the fairway. Unfortunately, it landed in the middle of the 18th fairway and not the 1st fairway where I wanted it to go. This taught me very quickly that professionals and video games make golf look really easy, but in reality, it is incredibly hard. I learned that I didn’t just need an example at which to look but also someone to personally help me be a better golfer.
The last post looked at some of the highlights of the life of Jesus. Those highlights show Jesus as an incredible God who did amazing things for His followers. However, for Christians, that’s not all that Jesus’ life is about. His life is also an example of how Christians are to live their life. While Jesus made it look easy to live with humility, compassion, and love, anyone who has tried to live out His example knows that it is incredibly hard. So, like my golf game, Christians need an example but also some personal help to live like Jesus in our world. In this post, we will examine the help that God has provided in the form of the Holy Spirit.
We see this need throughout the four books of the Gospels. The Twelve Disciples have Jesus’ example physically with them every day. They can talk to Jesus and seek advice from Him. Yet, they only have limited success, especially when Jesus isn’t right beside them. So, as Jesus prepares to leave this world He knows His followers will need major help.
In John 16, Jesus is explaining and preparing His disciples for His departure from this earth. He knows this will be hard for them. He knows they will fail on their own. So, in verses 7-14, He comforts them by promising a Helper who will come when He leaves. This Helper will convict them of their sin but also teach and guide them in truth so that they can do what is right. This Helper will not just show an example but actually dwell inside them (Romans 8:9) and help from the inside (thinking, motivation, emotion) to accomplish external actions.
In John 16:13, Jesus calls this Helper, “the Spirit of truth.” He is referred to elsewhere as the Holy Spirit. He is the third member of the Trinity (a concept discussed in previous posts). In Acts 5:3-4, the Holy Spirit is used in parallel with God, showing that they are the same being. As alluded to by the name, the Holy Spirit is a spirit and thus has no physical form but, like God the Father, He is a personal being and not just a vague force. Also in Acts 5:3-4, a couple lies to the Holy Spirit and in Ephesians 4:30 the Holy Spirit is grieved. These are things only a personal being can experience.
So far, we have seen that this personal spiritual being, the Holy Spirit, is a helper sent to aid Jesus’ followers through conviction of wrong and teaching of truth. As mentioned earlier, Romans 8:9 explains that anyone who belongs to Jesus has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them to aid by changing them internally. This is called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and has a couple important benefits for the Christian.
This indwelling creates a deep connectedness and unity between the Christian with God and the Christian with other Christians, even across societal and cultural lines. (1 Corinthians 12:13) It is an incredible thing to experience this type of connection with other Christians. When I visited the Philippines it was amazing to feel the connection with the Filipino believers even though I was only able to spend a little over a week with them and had many language and cultural barriers. This connection across cultures also means that one does not have to completely give up their culture to become a Christian. There may be some aspects of the culture that disagree with the Bible and will need to be given up, but overall, the individual can maintain much of their cultural uniqueness and still wholly follow Jesus. This is not the case for some religions that demand complete cultural uniformity within the religion. This allows Christianity to peacefully cross the borders of the world to share the love of Jesus.
The presence of the Holy Spirit within the Christian is also a seal or guarantee from God that the individual belongs to God and will one day spend eternity with Him. (Ephesians 1:13-14) The Holy Spirit is a deposit to give a taste of what is to come in the future for those who place their faith in Jesus. The Bible Knowledge Commentary describes it this way, “the Holy Spirit is a little bit of heaven in believers’ lives with a guarantee of much more yet to come.”
The Holy Spirit is a powerful helper, but help must be received to be effective. As a guy I like to work on things and fix things. However, many times fixing things is not a simple process. Multiple times I’ve found myself in a situation where I’m trying to work on something but struggling to really accomplish anything. As every guy probably has experienced at these moments of struggle, my mom and/or girlfriend inevitably walks into the room. Being a kind, caring lady and seeing my struggle, she asks if I need help. Of course, I know that I desperately need help because this project is going nowhere. However, being the prideful guy that I am my answer is always that “I’m fine” and “can get it,” usually in a tone that doesn’t help build up my relationship with the lady. She may or may not have been able to help me in that situation but, until I am willing to be humble and allow her to help, I will receive no help.
The same is true of the Holy Spirit. Help is there but we have to accept it. There are two main ways that one can receive this help from the Holy Spirit. FIrst, as mentioned a couple times already, one must put one’s faith in Jesus as one’s savior and then the Holy Spirit will come and dwell within them.
Second, as in the story above, one needs to humble oneself and accept help by yielding over control in one’s life. Ephesians 5:18 uses the analogy of drinking alcohol to explain this. As one consumes more and more alcohol, thoughts and actions are controlled more by the alcohol and less by the individual. Paul says that this yielding of oneself to alcohol leads to debauchery, sinful behavior. We probably have either done it ourselves or know someone who has done something stupid because they were drunk. Paul instructs that instead of giving over control to alcohol, Christians should give over control to the Holy Spirit. Just like with alcohol, the more of the Holy Spirit that is consumed through prayer, Bible study, worship and service, the more the Holy Spirit can work in an individual’s life. Then, unlike alcohol, the Holy Spirit’s control will lead to good benefits.
The Bible explains these good benefits of the Holy Spirit as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. These are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the characteristics that Jesus embodied as He lived out His example on earth. It is important to note that fruit in this verse is singular. All these characteristics are being built simultaneously in the Christian, if they are accepting the help of the Holy Spirit. An individual might find some easier than others but, with the help of Holy Spirit, will be expressing more and more all of the fruit.
The plan and provision of God is amazing. In the last few posts, we have seen that God created a world and humans in the world and in relationship with Him. God cared so much about this relationship that He sent His Son to live and die on this earth to give men access to that relationship and as an example of how to live that relationship. Finally, God sent His Holy Spirit to give men the help they needed to enter into and live out the example of His Son. God has given us every piece that we need. We simply need to accept it.
