The Holy Spirit is a person, more of a person than any of us could hope to be. Have you ever had a friend or known someone that is so good, kind, and compassionate that their mere presence makes your days sweeter than you ever thought possible? Well, the Holy Spirit is that multiplied by infinity. He is gentle and beautiful in every way. He’s all powerful and he wants us to love him as much as he loves us. He wants us to know who he is, and he wants us to know how he helps us to live a successful Christian life, so that we can fulfill God’s call and purpose. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, and as a precious and incomparable gift from God, he is our Comforter, Friend, Teacher, and Guide.
The Comforter and Friend
In John 15:26(KJV), Jesus Christ said, “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, [even] the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” The Holy Spirit is the gift that Heavenly Father promised to pour out on His people. He lives within us to help us from the inside out. His power knows no bounds and we desperately need it because life on earth is rocky terrain. It’s often filled with exciting and exuberant highs and devastating lows. Sometimes we are very discouraged by the challenges in life. We go through trials and tribulations and they can make us feel like giving up, but God wants us to know that we are never alone, because His Spirit lives inside us. He’s our Comforter and our Friend, and he is willing and able to help us in ways we can’t imagine.
Jesus Christ is the blueprint of our design. In him is everything that God wants us to be. The Holy Spirit testifies of Jesus Christ. Praise and glory should be given to our Lord and Savior because he finished God’s mission and reconciled us, his brothers and sisters, back to God. Hebrews 12:2(NKJV) tells us, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus Christ is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is Lord, and the Holy Spirit testifies, gives proof and evidence, of his Lordship as well as the sonship that we have received because of Christ. When life seems as though it’s beating us down, the Holy Spirit will comfort us in Christ, reminding us of his love, sacrifice, and example, and this will bring to us a peace that passes all understanding.
Teacher
As His children, God calls upon us to be humble so that we are teachable, pliable to correction and instruction, and repentant when we learn that we have erred. In our hearts, we must seek to please God in all that we do. We must also understand that we are works in progress, and this work will not cease as long as we are above ground. Our purpose is to be a blessing to God’s Kingdom, but sometimes, despite our most earnest effort, it feels that we are not able to meet the mark. In most cases, this is because we have not fully comprehended God’s Word.
We all have a destiny in Christ, and we need to be led to it continually. The Holy Spirit will aid our understanding and teach us in a way that helps us to comprehend the direction of Christ. Reading the scriptures once or twice isn’t enough for them to become a part of us. We must digest God’s Word like a scrumptious meal, so that it is deeply rooted in our hearts. On our own, we’re not going to get it. We’re students, and we will always be students. The Holy Spirit is the Teacher, and it is our responsibility to pray and ask God to work within us through His Holy Spirit. When we humbly pray to obtain wisdom and understanding regarding God’s Word, the Holy Spirit will teach us as we apply ourselves to become believers with great faith.
Our Guide
Jesus Christ teaches us in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” As children of God, we must be led. God tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that He knows the plans He has for us, and they are very good plans. Our Heavenly Father is the One with the plan. He’s the Leader and we’re the followers, and we are to follow wherever He leads by faith.
The Holy Spirit will tell us what He hears from Jesus Christ. This means that the Holy Spirit will tell us the deep truths from God’s Word, because Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God. So, we can be sure that the Spirit is not going to lead us outside the boundaries of the truth. He leads us through the direction and truth of what God says. If you and I don’t know God’s Word, because we’re not reading and studying it, we’re not going to fully comprehend the Spirit’s guidance. He is not going to go outside the knowledge of truth that you and I possess. This is why we must do as God commands and study His Word. He tells us in 2Timothy 2:15(NKJV) to, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” We have been called by God to be good stewards of His Word. Reading helps to anchor it in our hearts. The Spirit partners with the knowledge we have, and he will take us even higher in our understanding and comprehension of it.
We should face every day with gratitude that the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, Friend, Teacher, and Guide. He is the promise of the Father and a member of the Godhead. Jesus Christ commanded the disciples in Matthew 28:19(NKJV), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Romans 8:9(NKJV) says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” We must have the Spirit living within to be a child of God, and if we ask our Heavenly Father, He will freely save us and give us His Spirit so we can be led by him and live by his power!■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Our Helper, the Holy Spirit”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.