Beginning with verse fifteen of the fourteenth chapter of John Jesus gives us the promise of the Holy Spirit.
The indwelling presence is huge in the life of a follower of Jesus.
I was nineteen years old before I came to understand that as a follower of Jesus I wasn’t just out there on my own. I was filled with the Holy Spirit. God was literally inside me.
That meant that I didn’t have to try and live depending on my own power. I could live filled with the Holy Spirit and depending on God’s power.
Ephesians 5:18 commands us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:13 says that God gives both the desire and power to do what pleases Him. He does that through the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus talks about what the Holy Spirit does in John 14, it is very important.
In John 14:17 Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth.
The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us.
When you read a passage of Scripture and the words jump off the page, that is the Holy Spirit revealing truth.
When you hear a sermon and the words convict, that is the Holy Spirit.
When you are in a Bible study and what you are studying encourages you, that is the Holy Spirit.
When you are dealing with a life situation and the solution becomes clear, that is the Holy Spirit.
All truth comes from God and it is the Holy Spirit who reveals that to us.
In John 14:18 Jesus says, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
The Holy Spirit is our companion.
He is in us and He will never leave us.
John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.”
The Helper, the Holy Spirit will be with us as followers of Jesus forever. He will not leave. We cannot lose Him, thus we cannot lose our salvation.
The Holy Spirit will teach us.
John 14:26
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 have said to you.
You don’t discover truth; The Holy Spirit reveals truth to you.
It is the Holy Spirit that teaches in a Bible study, when you read the Bible, when you hear a sermon.
The Holy Spirit brings to your memory all the things that you have learned through God’s Word.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
The Holy Spirit is our peace.
Peace as the world tries to give it is an absence of problems or conflicts. We live in a fallen world so we will never have a life free of problems or conflicts. The peace that is the Holy Spirit is a rest in the midst of problems and conflicts.
The peace that is the Holy Spirit is a confidence that even with problems and conflict everything is ok because God is in control.
John 14:28-29
You have heard Me say to you, “I am going away, and I will come to you. If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe.”
The Holy Spirit is our faith.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith. We know that grace is a gift from God and so is faith. The Holy Spirit brings faith when He comes into our lives.
God pours out His grace through Jesus, and the Holy Spirits gifts us with the faith to believe, and the grace then changes our lives.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is being filled with the Holy Spirit so He can be to you the revealer of truth, your companion, your teacher, your peace, and your faith.
There is a key to the Holy Spirit filling you and being to you those things revealed in John 14, It is OBEDIENCE.
John 14:15
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
John 14:21
Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
John 14:23
Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him .”
Three times in this section of Scripture Jesus says that if a person loves Him, they will obey Him.
The key to the Holy Spirit filling us is obedience to the words of Jesus.
In verse 21 Jesus promises that if we keep His commandments, He will manifest Himself to us.
In John 15:26 Jesus says, “But when the Helper comes, whom the I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, He will bear witness about Me.”
The Spirit when He is filling us will bear witness or manifest Jesus.
In verse 23 Jesus promises that He and the Father will come and make their home in those who obey Jesus’ word.
Obedience is the key to the Holy Spirit completely filling us as followers, and as the Holy Spirit fills us, Jesus and the Father make their home in our lives.
Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is obeying the words and will of Jesus.
If you are like I was and thinking that, now that Jesus has delivered you from the penalty of sin, you have to live out this relationship with God in your own power and strength, then I have great news: You don’t!
You have, through your surrendering your life to God’s authority, a new companion, the Holy Spirit, who fills you to empower and enable you to live as Jesus tells you to.
Zechariah 4:6
“This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel (and you): ‘Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.”
By God’s Spirit Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe
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