John 7:38
I made a mistake! I underlined the wrong passage to write on today as I was highlighting my assignments for this month. Jacob wrote on this passage yesterday and explained beautifully our necessity for Living Water. As I was preparing this week for this post, the Spirit lead me in a different direction from what Jacob covered. Since I discovered my mistake too late in the day to rewrite, I present “Living Water” take two…
As I think about God and try to describe His three persons, I have an easier time knowing and listing functions of Jesus and God than I do the Holy Spirit. As I pray and think, I give God credit for creation and being the Sovereign Father, Leader and Protector of people, especially in the Old Testament. Jesus is my Savior. He came to earth as a human, lived like we live and then gave His life on the cross to pay the price for my sin. The Holy Spirit seems more mysterious and maybe has less tangible traits than Jesus or God. Today the character trait of God’s we are looking at is “Living Water” and in our verse, Jesus tells us He is speaking of the Holy Spirit when He says Living Water. So I thought today we should look at some of the functions of the Spirit written about in the Bible so we can more easily recognize Him and His work in our lives.
John 14:26 tells us that the Holy Spirit teaches us and helps us remember the things we have already learned about God. He is our helper and counselor as we are trying to learn Gods ways and put them into practice in our daily lives.
John 16:7-8 say that the Spirit convicts the world of sin. He is the One who “speaks” in our minds to let us know when we are thinking wrongly about an issue or making a self-serving choice. He is the One who points to righteousness so we know what is right and wrong.
1 Cor 3:16 tells us that God’s Spirit dwells in us. This verse is maybe where some of that “mystery” comes in. It is very hard to explain this “dwelling” unless you have experienced it yourself. I can confidently attest to the fact that I notice His dwelling in me more when I am watching for it and listening for His voice. When I am not seeking Him, He seems much more quiet.
1 Cor 2:10-11 says that the Spirit is a source of wisdom in our lives. Because He dwells in us and He is God’s Spirit, He knows the thoughts of God and reveals those thoughts to us when we believe in Him.
Acts 1:8 says that “we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on us”. In Eph 1:17-20 Paul explains the Spirit’s power more clearly by telling us that the power we receive from Him is the same as the mighty strength He used to raise Jesus from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of the Father in heaven. This is a very tangible explanation of the Spirit’s power!
John 16:13 proclaims that the Holy Spirit is the called the “Spirit of Truth”. “When the Spirit comes, He will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on His own but will He will only speak what He hears. He will glorify Me (Jesus) because it is from Me (Jesus) that He will receive what He will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine (Jesus), which is why I (Jesus) said that the Spirit will receive from Me what He will make known to you.
1 Cor 12:7-11 lets us know that our spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit. We are all given wisdom, knowledge and power and then verses 9 and 10 give more specific gifts that the Spirit gifts to people. Verse 11 says that “The Spirit alone decides which gift each person should have”.
A few weeks ago we looked at Rom 8:26-27, explaining that the Spirit is our intercessor. You can look back at Apr 29 if you want to read over that again.
Eph 1:13 lets us know that the Holy Spirit is a seal in our lives. The term “seal” may not be very familiar to us, but as we look more closely it is actually a beautiful promise that I would like to close with this morning. The Holy Spirit is our mark/seal of adoption as God’s children. “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.”
After looking at all of these verses and their meanings, the term “Three in One” (that we hear so often describing God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit), seems to make much more sense. I was struck as I thought through these verses how perfectly each One of the Three has specific functions, but that they all work from the same truth and knowledge. They all work together to the same end. My mind will never comprehend this relationship or personhood fully, and I’ll never have words to articulate God while on this earth, but reading God’s word and thinking through His word pictures helps me understand a little bit more than I did before I started this morning. Thank you Holy Spirit for dwelling in me, teaching me, convicting me, giving me wisdom, giving me power, being perfect truth in my life, being my intercessor, and for marking me with Your seal as one of God’s children!