THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS GIFTS 1
Good evening dear reader. I hope you had an amazing, peaceful day and a splendid weekend so far. I welcome you to a powerful, fruitful, blessed, amazing and blissful coming week ahead. I pray for you reading this blog post that God wipes away your tears, pains and sorrows in this coming week. I pray for you that in this coming week sickness, deaths, accidents or hazards will never be your portion in Jesus name. Amen.
Welcome to living waters blog, a blog where write-ups that are inspirational, Life-giving, truth revealing, soul searching and drawn from scriptures as the Holy Spirit gives guidance are published. I enjoin you even as you read and get blessed by these posts to please share with friends, colleagues and family on any social network in your country. I want you who reads and get blessed by these write-up to realise that there are very few blogs out there that focus on teaching the truths from God's word, I have a vision to build a blog that causes more traffic than any pornography, film or football sites. One that persons who read the posts, get blessed and grow more and more into the stature of Christ, a blog that would teach only the truth about scriptures and the gospel of Christ which will spread into the seven continents of the world. So I ask you, will you join or assist me in achieving this dream? If you would then don't forget to share the blog post link.
John 14:15-18 (Amp)
AMP:If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.
AMP:And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever—
AMP:The Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive (welcome, take to its heart), because it does not see Him or know and recognize Him. But you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you [constantly] and will be in you.
AMP:I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless]; I will come [back] to you.
Today, we begin a new series titled:"The Holy Spirit and His gifts". I do not consider myself a scholar in the matters of teachings of the person of the Holy Spirit. There are fathers in the faith I know of who can teach about the person of the Holy Spirit accurately and efficiently. But this evening, the Holy Spirit has led me to teach about Him and His gifts. I trust He has certain things he wants us to learn. I adjoin you therefore to faithfully follow this series and be blessed.
The Holy Spirit is the best gift that Christ has given to us as believers but most of us don't know this. We thank God for the manifestation of the Spirit but hardly ever thank Him for the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person, not wind, not fire, not water, not smoke. He is only represented by these things to show us some of His characteristics, functions or personality. These symbols are not a sum total of His personality but only a fraction of it. So by the time we begin to picture the Holy Spirit as a thing and not a person, our relationship with Him become flawed. But when you realize and believe that the Holy Spirit is a person not just any person but He is the third person of the Holy Trinity who yearns for a relationship with you, your relationship with Him takes a blissful turn. I want you to realize that the Holy Spirit is a person who loves you and wants to be your friend and not some distant figure. The amplified version gives us six other translations of the original word for "comforter". These other names includes: counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener and standby. We will look briefly at each of these features or attributes Jesus tells about the Holy Spirit.
1. Comforter :
According to the Oxford English dictionary, a comforter is a person or thing that provides consolation. Since we have already established that the Holy Spirit is not a thing but a person, it means one of the things or personality of the Holy Spirit is that He comforts us, He soothes our soul. When the world brings a lot of problems, issues or challenges to your doorstep and you fill like giving up, you just only need to hand yourself over to His comforting embrace. The first time I wrote utme inorder for me to gain admission into Uniben, I scored 196 and my parents refused my buying a change of institution form so that I could switch to Aau. I became so enraged, angry, sad, unhappy because most of my friends and classmates were going into the universities but I wouldn't because I had failed. I wanted to even stop been a Christian self but then I remembered and turned myself over to the Holy Spirit. And I can tell you, He comforted me better than anyone could. Not my christian brothers, sisters, parents etc could comfort me the way He did. Dear brethren, the Holy Spirit is your friend that is ready always to comfort you.
2. Counselor :
The Oxford English dictionary defines the word "counselor" as a person trained to give guidance in personal or psychology problems. Do you see how much Jesus loves you. He has given you a divine personality who is not only your friend but also trained and experienced to give you divine guidance about your personal life so you won't make mistakes in your life. That means whenever you are confused or want guidance, you should remember that you have a divine friend who is an authority in that field. Glory to God.
3. Helper :
The Oxford English dictionary defines the word "helper" as a person who helps someone else. Isn't it just wonderful that when you need help you can ask the Holy Spirit and He will gladly offer His assistance. Come on, don't you see that with the Holy Spirit you will never run short of help or helpers.
4. Intercessor :
The Oxford English dictionary defines an intercessor as a person who intervenes in behalf of another especially by prayer. ROM 8:26, states this aspect of the Holy Spirit much clearly. We have an intercessor who is ready to always and at any point in time offer intercessions for us. Do you see that He prays for you. Can you thank God for this magnificent gift of the person of the Holy Spirit.
5. Advocate :
Oxford English dictionary amidst many of it's other definition gives two very good definition which we will consider. Firstly, an advocate is a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. You see from this definition that the Holy Spirit publicly supports you through the manifestations of His Spirit in your life not privately. Scriptures also tell us that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a seal of our guarantee for the day of redemption. That is publicly approving us as ripe fruits for redemption. It also defines advocate as a a professional pleader in a court of justice. Isn't that amazing, not only do we have a divine highly trained counsellor He also doubles as a professional barrister. Come on now, when the accuser of brethren begins his accusations, the Holy Ghost is there to completely silence him. Fear not.
6. Strengthener :
The Oxford English dictionary defines the word " strengthen" as the ability to make or become stronger. That is to say, a strengthener is someone who enables or encourages a person to act more vigorously or effectively. So the Holy Spirit enables you to be stronger than you were yesterday, He enables you to do more for God than you did yesterday, He enables you to work more tirelessly for God than you did yesterday. He makes you hunger for God more than you did yesterday. So you see that when you need strength, you go to the Him. That is why apostle Paul said, " I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me". Glory.
7. Standby :
Oxford English dictionary amidst many of it's other definitions defines standby as readiness for duty or immediate deployment. Now those are interesting military terms. But does what does that mean about the Holy Spirit. It means we have a reservoir that is always filled and never dry. When you run out of strength, you go to Him because He is full of strength, when you run out of options or counsel, you go to Him because He is always full of wise counsel. When you no longer know what to pray about despite the burden you have, you go to Him to tell you what to pray for because He is an intercessor who is always praying for and through you. O boy, I wish someone grasps what the full implication of been friends with the Holy Spirit means.
In summary for you who has received the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues and other spiritual gifts, it means you have the third person of the Holy Trinity who is an ever comforting, full of wise counsel, ever interceding, always defending, always enabling and pushing you to do more, be more, ever faithful and always at your side as a friend. What more can you ask or ever need in a friend. Why not appreciate Jesus more for the gift of the person of the Holy Spirit.
In the opening of this series, I said that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a thing or an emotional feeling. Since we have treated the name translation that Jesus Christ called the Holy Spirit which I believe have made you begin to see the Holy Spirit in a better and different light. I will like to take us through scripture to show us just how truly the Holy Spirit is a person. 1 Thess 5:17, tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit, it is only a person that can be grieved not a thing nor a symbol. Neh 9:20, tells us that the Holy Spirit instructs, only a person can instruct not things or symbols. Rom 8:14, tells us that the Holy Spirit offers guidance and direction, only a person can do that not a thing or symbol. I say again, the Holy Spirit is a person not a symbol or emotional feeling. He is not fire, water, wind or dove. These are symbols with which He chooses to represent Himself because of what He intends to do at that particular time.
If you realise that men need to hear the gospel more than any other thing in the world then assist us in increasing our world audience by being a constant visitor to the blog and see sharing of the blog as an opportunity to evangelise the gospel to the ends of the earth that you may never get to but internet has made possible. God bless you as you do so in Jesus name. Amen. Remember the world is in dire need of the word of God, so join us spread this word. God bless you richly and do have a wonderful day. Shalom!!
Comments
Post a Comment