We are currently in the middle of a series about the Wonder of Discernment. So far we’ve talked about the importance of taking time to slow down and spend time with God to seek discernment, putting it into practice, and training our discernment. Just looking at that can seem a little daunting, but there is good news. We don’t have to do it alone. In fact, we can’t do it in our own power. We need the Spirit to help us.


In 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, Paul was explaining to the church at Corinth:


“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”


True discernment comes from God and our understanding comes from Him as well. So to grow in our discernment means spending time with Him and listening to Him.


I love the words that Paul uses in verse twelve, “so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” He has given to us freely. He wants us to understand and then share what we have so freely been given. The Spirit is God’s gift to help us understand. If you want to learn more about this great gift from God, please check out the series of articles on the Holy Spirit on this website. There are so many great blessings that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives, but this aspect of His giving us understanding and discernment is definitely one of the more wonderful ones.


The Spirit illuminates the Word of God in our lives and helps us to understand God in new ways. As Paul described it He gives us not “words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.” Sometimes as we exercise discernment we find ourselves thinking or saying something and wondering “how do I know that?” or “where did that come from?”.  As a believer, our discernment comes through God. The Spirit helps us to understand and gives us words when we don’t have them.


If you find yourself struggling with discernment, go back to where we started in the first article in this series: slow down and spend time with God seeking discernment. He is the source. The Spirit will help us understand and discern. That can’t happen if we aren’t spending time with Him. The more we dwell with Him, the more we will Wonder in Him and He will equip us to Wonder in the Discernment given by Him.

In last week’s article we start talking about some of the many things that the Holy Spirit does. This week we are concluding this series by taking a look at some of the many things that the Holy Spirit does in us and with us.

This first one might be the most important it because without it the rest of the work that the Holy Spirit does in us wouldn’t really be possible or effective. We know that the Holy Spirit abides in us and is with us forever. In John 14:16-17 Jesus says:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

As He abides with us, He is also pouring out the love of God in us. We see this in Romans 5:5 where it says:

“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Through that love of God, the Holy Spirit transforms us giving us a new heart and spirit, bringing fruit in our lives.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”
(Galatians 5:22-25)

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”
(Ezekiel 36:26-28)

As we see in the verses from Ezekiel, the Holy Spirit teaches and guides us reminding us of the Word and causing us to follow Jesus and obey Him. We also see this in John 14:26 in the words of Jesus:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”

There are so many ways that Holy Spirit helps us. He intercedes for us and He helps in our weakness. In Romans 8:26-27, Paul describes it this way:
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

Not only does the Holy Spirit help us in our weakness, but He also gives us power. He powers our hope and empowers us to witness.

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
(Romans 15:13)

“He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.’”
(Acts 1:7-8)

He will do all this and more, but like Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:5-8, we must be born of the Spirit.

“Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit’”

So, as we wrap up this series about the Wonder of the Holy Spirit, my first challenge to you is this: if you’ve never done what Jesus said to Nicodemus and been born of the Spirit by choosing to believe in Jesus then please talk to someone about doing that today. If there is no one else in your life that you can do that with, then reach out to me via the contact form on the website.

If you have been born of the Spirit, then you know that the He dwells in you forever. We are blessed to have His Spirit in us doing all of the things we have discussed today. Take sometime to thank God for who the Holy Spirit is in you and what He has done and continues to do. What a gift!    

We’ve talked before in a previous article about who the Holy Spirit is in regards to being one of the three Persons of the Triune God. If you missed that, you can check out that article here. Today, I want us to dive in a little deeper to what we know about who He is. We know these things from Scripture, so there will be a lot of verses that we will be looking at in today’s article. So, who is the Holy Spirit?the-wonder-of-the-holy-spirit.html

Let’s start with this. We know that the Holy Spirit is given to us by God and sent by Jesus. Now, you might be saying, wait a second, I thought He was God so how can He be given by God? That’s a great question and the answer to the first part is you are right the Holy Spirit is one of the Persons of the Triune God. My answer to the second part would be in much of the same way as I ended the article on that. My answer is: I don’t really know. I don’t fully understand how one Person of the Triune God gives us another Person of the Triune God and honestly when I spend a lot of time thinking about it my head often ends up hurting, but through faith I believe it’s true. Logically (but also through an element of faith), I also know that we’ve seen it before if we believe as John 3:16 says that “God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” the same Son who is also a part of the Triune God. Ultimately, if we trust God’s Word to be true we are shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Holy Spirit is given to us by God.

“If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
(Luke 11:13)

“And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
(Luke 24:49)

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
(John 14:16-17)

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
(John 14:26)

“And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
(Romans 5:5)
    
Just as it’s important for us to understand that the Holy Spirit is a gift from God, it is also important for us to know that He is for all believers. We see this in Peter’s sermon at Pentecost and in the falling of the Holy Spirit on the Gentiles in the home of Cornelius. We also see this clearly explained by Paul in Ephesians 1:13-14:

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Paul also helps us understand in Romans 8:6 that the Holy Spirit is life and peace.
“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”

Jesus taught His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be Truth and a Helper.

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
(John 16:7-15)

And as Isaiah prophesied about Him, he helped us understand that the Holy Spirit would also embody wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord. He said in Isaiah 11:12 that:

“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

The Holy Spirit, like each person of the Triune God, is pretty amazing. He is life, peace, truth, wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge & fear of the Lord, and a helper. What is even more amazing is that He has been given by God as a gift to all of us who believe! Let’s thank God for that amazing gift today!

As we continue this series on the Wonder of the Holy Spirit, this week and next week we will be taking a closer look at what the Holy Spirit does. He’s pretty active, so there was no way to get this all in one article. In fact, two articles will barely scratch the surface of what He does.

We are going to start with what is arguably His most important task. The Holy speaks what He hears, revealing the thoughts and words of God to us, teaching and guiding us, and glorifying God. We see examples of this throughout Scripture, but it is probably most clearly explained first by Jesus in John 16 and then by Paul in 1 Corinthians. Let’s take a look:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
(John 14:26)

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
(John 16:13-15)

“But just as it is written, ‘Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.’ For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
(1 Corinthians 2:9-13)

It’s important that we embrace the truth of these verses first, because knowing what the Spirit says to us is God’s truth helps us to fully embrace and understand the significance of so many of the other things that He does and says including this next one.

The Holy Spirit testifies that we are children and heirs of God. The very presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives indicates that God has given us this gift because we have been adopted into His family as His children and His heirs. Think of the significance of that.

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
(Ephesians 1:13-14)

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
(Romans 8:15-17)

We see in the Ephesians passage that this miraculous adoption and inheritance come after we listen to and believe the truth of the message of the gospel. The Holy Spirit plays a big role in this too, because this area of His responsibilities including convicting the world concerning sin. We see this in John 16:7-11 which says:

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”

We can see already that the Holy Spirit has some serious responsibilities, and we will see even more of this in next week’s article. The significance of Him sharing God’s words and thoughts and that He is responsible for convicting of sin, righteousness, and judgment help us to possibly understand why in Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus said this about the Spirit:

“Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Sprit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

Because of who the Holy Spirit is and what He does, speaking against Him is speaking against the words and thoughts of God. We need to take His words and promptings seriously.

As believers, we are blessed to have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. As He speaks to us, teaches us, guides us and directs us, we can be assured that He is doing that because we are God’s children and heirs and He loves us and wants the best for us. Let’s listen and obey in gratitude today.

The last couple of weeks we’ve talked about who the Holy Spirit is. We saw how Jesus taught His disciples about the Holy Spirit, promised His arrival, and told them to wait in Jerusalem for it.

In Acts chapter 2 we see that they’ve done just that. Then we see the Holy Spirit arriving among these believers in a dramatic way in Acts 2:1-8:

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language which we were born?’”

I have a pretty good imagination, but I will admit I struggle with being able to imagine just what it might have been like to be there on that day. “A noise like a violent rushing wind” took place and apparently it drew attention from all over the city. If that wasn’t enough “tongues as of fire” rested on each of the believers in the room. Then to top it all off the Spirit’s first work in them was giving them words to speak in languages that weren’t ones they normally spoke. I feel like the description of the crowd as “amazed and astonished” seems like it might have been understating it a bit. “Bewildered” definitely seems like a possibility. I would have to think that hearing and observing the whole thing for those outside the room would have been concerning, confusing, and maybe even a little fearful.

My imagination can easily picture all of that. What I have trouble imagining is what the experience must have been like for those in the room who had the tongues as of fire resting on them and found themselves speaking a language they didn’t know while feeling the Spirit in them for the first time ever. It is incomprehensible to me. While I know what it feels like to have the Spirit in me and the sense of peace and promptings and guidance that He gives, I also had others in my life who had received the Holy Spirit before me and taught me about Him. This was completely new for all of the them in the room, but of course they had just spent three years with the Master Teacher and had seen more amazing things than this with their own eyes especially during the previous few weeks.

In response to the crowd and through the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter begins to preach. He reminds the crowd what God said about sending His spirit in Joel 2:28-29:

“It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”

Peter went on to explain how those listening could receive the gift of the Holy Spirit as well. In Acts 2:38-39 he says:

“Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

Acts 2 goes on to tell us that about 3,000 people believed and were baptized that day. They listened to Peter’s words and believed. Peter’s words there, prompted by the Spirit, had a deeper meaning than even he knew that day. As he said that the promise was for “all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself”, he probably didn’t imagine that a short time later, after seeing this rapid expansion of the number of believers within Jerusalem and even beyond that due to the rising persecution they were facing, he would have a vision from God that would once again change everything.

The vision and subsequent message that God brought to Peter on a rooftop in Acts chapter 10, led Peter to do the unthinkable for a Jewish man at the time and go and stay in the home of a centurion named Cornelius to share God’s message. Peter did as God asked him even though it probably didn’t make sense to him. He shared with Cornelius and all of those gathered there the message of Jesus. Acts 10:44-48 tells us that:

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, ‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’ And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.”

Not only had the Holy Spirit come upon the Jewish believers in a miraculous way at Pentecost, but now Peter got to witness the Holy Spirit fall upon Gentile believers for the first time as well. I find myself wondering if the words that Peter spoke at Pentecost came back to him in that moment. “For the promise if for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

As one who was once “far off”, I’m so thankful that the promise of the Gospel and the gift of the Holy Spirit was for me (and you) too!

We are continuing in our series on the Wonder of the Holy Spirit. Last week we talked about the importance of embracing the concept of the Trinity and how God clearly demonstrated throughout Scripture that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the One God we worship and serve. Before we dive into the arrival of the Holy Spirit, I want us to take a look at how Jesus prepared His disciples. He didn’t just tell them at the last minute to wait for the Holy Spirit, but He had been teaching about Him and preparing them all along.


On more than a half dozen occasions during His time with the disciples, Jesus spent time talking with them about the Holy Spirit.


He explained that the Father would be giving them a good gift in the Holy Spirit:

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Last week, we finished a series on encounters with Jesus after the resurrection. In the last one, we saw the disciples encounter with Jesus as He ascended to heaven. Before His ascension, He said to them: