The Messengers Radio Show 03-21-15  (11)

Why Do We Need The Holy Spirit?

We learned last week that The Holy Spirit is the third person in the Trinity.  He is fully God. He is eternal, omniscient, and omnipresent.  He has a will, and can speak.  He is alive.  He is a person.   We receive the Holy Spirit when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We are sealed by the Holy Spirit.  But, as we said, having the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are two different things.  So, now we are going to find out WHY we need the Holy Spirit.  God sent the Holy Spirit to help and comfort us, but the real reason he sent Him is to glorify Christ, and lead believers into all truth.

The book, “How You Can be Filled with The Holy Spirit”, by Bill Bright, is going to be our main source of information along with the inspired Word of God.  This book has been a blessing to Marcus and me, and we pray it will help you understand things better, too.

Why Need to be Filled?

So, why do we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit?  First, we need to understand that learning to be filled (controlled and empowered) by the Holy Spirit by faith can be the most important discovery of your Christian life.  Jesus told His disciples, “…You need to be empowered with the Holy Spirit in order to be effective and fruitful as My witnesses throughout the world.”

In Mathew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15, (read ?)  In John 20:21-22 Jesus said “Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.  And with that He  breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Here we see that Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel.  But He emphatically said in Acts 1:4 “…Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.”  In Acts 1:8 He tells them, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The same power of the Holy Spirit is available to you to enable you to live a holy and fruitful life for Jesus Christ.  If you are willing for Jesus Christ to live in and through you, you will bear spiritual fruit as naturally as a healthy vine will bear an abundance of fruit.  We talked last week about the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.”  The only way you can produce fruit is through the Holy Spirit.

The Christian’s relationship with the Holy Spirit is important, in that the Christian life is a life of faith rather than a life of works, and is not based on emotions. We see in Romans 1:17 “The righteous will live by faith.”  It’s active, in that, as one walks consistently in the power and control of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in his life.

You cannot live a holy life apart from the help of the Holy Spirit.  It is impossible to even know Christ apart from the Spirit.  Jesus himself said in John 3:5, “No one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”  It is impossible for you to become a Christian, to understand the Bible and other spiritual truths, to pray, to live a holy life, to witness or do anything for the Lord Jesus apart from the person of the Holy Spirit of God.  So, that is why we need Him so much!

The Holy Spirit came to enable you to know Christ through a new birth, and to give you the power to live and to share the abundant life that Jesus promised to all who trust and obey Him.  We learned last month about trusting God.  This is a very important part of our walk with Him.  We can trust the Holy Spirit because He is our Guide and Counselor.  He leads us into all wisdom and truth.   John 16:13 states, “But when He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.  For He will not speak His own message; but He will tell whatever He hears, and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come.”  As you read the Bible, the Holy Spirit reveals its truth to you.  He makes the Word of God relevant and meaningful when you need it.  I can read a scripture at different times, but when I need a revelation for that time in my life, the Holy Spirit will reveal a new side of it that I had not seen before.

Joyce Meyer wrote a devotional and she explains that God knew you would need help in understanding His plan for you, so He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell inside you.  He is your Guide, your teacher of Truth, your Comfort, and Helper.  He is also our Paraclete which means counselor, advocate, and intercessor.”  He intercedes between us and the Father.  When we pray in the Spirit, we are talking to God in words we can’t understand, but God can through the Holy Spirit. Then, the Holy Spirit relays the words of God to us.  He is our intercessor.

Jesus was confined to a body and could only be one place at a time.  But He knew the Holy Spirit would be with your everywhere you go, all the time, leading and guiding you.  Trust the Holy Spirit in you, resting on the knowledge that in Him you are becoming everything God planned for you to be.

This is where we come in.  We, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, and are living for Christ, are responsible for those who lack knowledge.  It is just like an average non-believer.  They don’t know about Christ, therefore they can’t believe.  It is our responsibility to teach them and disciple them.  The point is not just to save them from Hell.  The point is to have a relationship with God.  This happens by the Holy Spirit.  So if we are not out there telling people about Christ, then we are held responsible and will answer for it on Judgement Day.  The same is true with the Holy Spirit.  We need them to know the truth and be filled with the Holy Spirit, so that they can not only have a close relationship with God, but so they can go teach others about Him.  That is how we can reach the world; teaching others to teach others.

We have learned a lot today.  To sum up let’s just point out some of the things we have discovered.  We have the Holy Spirit in us when we are saved, but we must be filled with the Holy Spirit to become an empowered Christian.  We must give of ourselves fully to Christ, and let the Holy Spirit take control.  He will comfort, guide, and intercede for us.  Together with the Holy Spirit, we can take the World by storm.  It’s not just a suggestion, it’s a command!  God loves us so much; He wants us to enjoy our time here on earth.  He doesn’t want to be an insurance policy.  He wants to have a close personal relationship with each of us.  He made us!  He loves us!