Promise made good... life changed!

Listen along here:  https://www.pastorwoman.net/podcast/episode/4cf61c6b/promise-made-g...

Today is Pentecost Sunday,

50 days since Jesus Christ defeated death,

and the day that changed everything for Christians. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. 

[last Morning Briefing important for this one: Game changer: https://conta.cc/4kRsmt0]

Because I did not grow up in a church that taught much about the Holy Spirit, and also because folks have asked me plainly, "WHO or WHAT is the Holy Spirit?" some digging is required. We must step a little closer as we walk into the book of Acts, which could rightly be called the "Acts of the Holy Spirit through the first Christians".

Friends, the Holy Spirit is God - a Person, the third Person of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is not a vague, ethereal shadow, nor an impersonal force. The Holy Spirit is equal in every way with the Father and the Son.

Several weeks before Luke describes what happened in the 120 Jesus followers in the upstairs room in Jerusalem, Jesus himself had a lot to say about the coming of the Holy Spirit. We must keep Jesus' words in mind as we embrace the Holy Spirit today:

John records Jesus' words: He [God] will give you another Counselor to be with you forever.1 The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him or knows Him but you know Him for He lives with you and will be in you2

The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name will teach you of all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.3

Unless I go away the Counselor will not come to you.4

But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own. He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.

He will bring glory to me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine.

That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.5 

The Holy Spirit is a WHO, not a what.

What does the Holy Spirit do today, how does he change things in our lives?

Why would I call him a Change-maker, that His coming changes everything?

But first, a prayer:

Dear Heavenly Father, we have just read what Jesus wanted his disciples to know about the Holy Spirit, and those words are what You want us to know today. Wow, that's so amazing that words Jesus spoke to a small group of men 2000 years ago apply to us today! Jesus came as a baby to become a man to teach us and then die for us so that we could live with him forever, so too the Holy Spirit came to dwell in us, breathe new life in us... teach us, O God, I pray. Amen!

What does the Holy Spirit do today?

The Holy Spirit--

>takes up residence in us/believers/followers of Jesus Christ at the time of our decision to put our trust in him.  Note: there is to be a particular point in time where we make that decision for ourselves.  It is not something our parents or anyone else does for us, nor does it happen by any other religious activity, including going to church. It is a decision.

>prior to this point in the New Testament, [where we find ourselves right now in the start of the book of Acts] the Holy Spirit only empowered specific individuals for specific purposes--

>Jesus had told them that each would receive the gift of the Spirit... amazing.6

The Holy Spirit

>breathes new life in us

>initiates power for change in character->behavior - grows the fruits of the Spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.7

>comforts and also convicts us when we are doing wrong

>unites the Christian community -> creates the bond between 'brothers'

>gives believers unique gifts to fulfill our purpose in serving God and his people8

>guides and directs through promptings

>helps us to be effective witnesses--to tell others what we know and have experienced in Christ

>intercedes for us - that is to say, He goes to the Father on our behalf.

'Need some encouragement today? Your attention please.

Consider Romans 8.26: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

Another rendering of Romans 8.26, NLT: And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words.

Who is praying for you? The Holy Spirit! That encourages me and strengthens me, and I hope it does you as well.

The ways of the Holy Spirit can seem mysterious at times, but I pray that as we study WHAT He does in the lives of these early believers, we will desire to know the WHO that is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our individual lives like never before. 

Look over the above list--is the Holy Spirit alive and working in you? In what ways? Or, do you see lack? Talk to Him about it. . . Be desirous of Him. 

listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlyoylAsnE0

Come, Holy Spirit, we need you.

Christine - PastorWoman.net

Acts, no.4

1 - John 14.16

2 - John 14.17

3 - John 14.26

4 - John 16.7

5 - John 16:13 – 16

6 - Acts 1.8

7 - Galatians 5.22-23 

8 - 1 Corinthians 12.8-11, Romans 12.6-8, 1 Peter 4.10-11, Ephesians 4.11-13