The Holy Spirit: The Game Changer

The Holy Spirit is one of the most important gifts God gave us when we accepted Christ. Before Jesus left, during His final days on earth, He kept telling the disciples about the Holy Spirit, introducing Him to them. Many things were to happen to the disciples once Jesus died, resurrected and ascended to heaven, and Jesus would have explained all of them to the disciples, before leaving: being recreated, forgiven, justification, redemption, freedom, deliverance, healing, receiving the wisdom of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit etc. Yet He didn’t tell them of these all. He kept His focus on one Person, and talked about Him a lot: The Holy Spirit. He said:

John 16:7 (AMP)

 However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away. Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you].

He was telling them that if they thought having Him around was a good idea, it was a better away for Him to go away, as that was the only way that they would have received the Holy Spirit. Even before Jesus came, going back all the way to the creation of the world (Gen. 1:1-2), the Holy Spirit was at work on earth. It’s just that people did not know Him, and did not have a relationship with Him. All that God did, He did by the power of the Holy Spirit. Consider this text:

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. ⁶ And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. ⁷ But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

The Holy Spirit is the third Entity of the Godhead. We have God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19). He is God. He is a Person. The Godhead always works together. As the above text says, God the Father is the ‘Author of activities’. He is the ‘Mastermind’, the ‘Initiator’. God the Son is the One who does the work, thus the One who ministers/serves. He is the ‘Operations’ Person of the Godhead. God the Holy Spirit is the One who brings out the manifestation of what the Father initiated, and what the Son did. It is by His power that all things are completed and brought to manifestation. He is the ‘Manifestor’. Picture this, to illustrate how the three work: when you go and switch on the bulb, lights come on. God would be the One who came up the idea of the light; Jesus would be the One who does the work of ensuring the idea becomes a reality, in that the idea of God really becomes electricity. The Holy Spirit would be the One who manifests what the Son has done, making it come out as electricity to be seen. So, when God said, “Let there be light..” (Gen. 1:3), God the Father was the ‘Author’ of the idea, and the ‘Initiator’. God the Son, being the Word, became the Light, making God’s Word a reality. God the Holy Spirit manifested the Light, for it to be seen.

All through the OT, the Spirit was at work, yet never known. God the Son was also at work, yet never known by men. It was only God the Father that was known by man. When God the Son came to earth, He continued to work, being at the forefront this time. For a while, it seemed that God the Father had taken a back-seat. Still, both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit were also at work, evident in Jesus receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit when He came on Him in form of a dove (Matt. 3:16), and Jesus saying that all He did and said was of the Father (Jn. 5:19, 14:10).

To demonstrate this, Jesus said:

John 5:17

"My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."

Before Jesus came, people were intimate with the Father, either directly or through prophets and priests. All through, through prophecies, the Father kept setting stage for the Son, Who would come to work on earth. It is said that there are over 300 prophecies about Jesus in the OT, all fulfilled when Jesus came and through His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. The Father was setting stage for the Son to come to work. When the Son came, He continued to work, revealing the Father and setting the stage for the Spirit to come to work. He did this through prophecies too. So, it can be seen this way, in summary: The Godhead has been working together, up until now. In the OT, it was God the Father who was at the forefront; it was His time to be manifested and reveal Himself to man. When Jesus came, it was God the Son who was at the forefront; it was His time to be manifested and reveal Himself to man. After Jesus went back to heaven, it was the turn of the Spirit to be at the forefront; it was His time to be manifested and reveal Himself to man. All three have been and are working, but have been taking turns to manifest themselves to man. Now, we are at the best position, to understand and know intimately the Godhead.

Sadly, not many people know the Holy Spirit, His Work, how to relate with Him and so on. He is just as an important entity of the Godhead as God the Father and the Son are. Consider this verse:

John 16:16-17

"And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--

 ¹⁷ "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”

Jesus called the Holy Spirit “another Helper”. If there is “another”, it means that there was a Helper. If I say, “I’ll give you another pen,” it means there was a pen, and now what I am giving you is an additional, or a replacement. So, this statement can only mean that Jesus was the Helper, and now that He was going the Holy Spirit was to come as His replacement, to do exactly what the Son had been doing. The disciples were supposed to know and relate with Him just as they knew and related to Jesus. They were supposed to depend on Him just as they depended on Jesus. When with Jesus, they never worried about performing miracles, praying, knowing things, being defended when accused by the Pharisees and other accusers and so on. Jesus was their everything: their Teacher, Comforter, Defender, Advocate, Counselor, Helper etc. Now, He was telling them that One just like Him was coming, and the difference is that He would be unseen, but this was so that He would abide with them forever. He would not come and go as Jesus, but would abide forever. This didn’t mean that God the Father and God the Son would stop working, as even when Jesus was on earth both were working. It only meant that it was time for the Spirit to work and manifest Himself to man, as God the Father and the Son worked with Him.

The disciples ought to have relied on the Holy Spirit as much as they relied on Jesus: to teach them about the Father, to help them perform miracles, to comfort them, be their wisdom, defend them before accusers, tell them what to say, help them understand life and the things of God and so on. In short, as long as they had Him (the Spirit), they were as okay, even more okay, than they were when with Jesus. This is why He said that it was to their advantage for Him to go, as the Spirit would not be limited to a physical body and be only at one place at a time, as Jesus was. He would get to work through them just as He worked through Jesus. If they thought that what Jesus was doing was awesome, now they would be empowered to live and do things just like Him, as He was leaving them the power and enablement to do it all, the same that He had.

Today, we still have the Holy Spirit, God’s empowerment to live life just as Jesus did. Whether we know or acknowledge Him or not, He is with us. If we thought Jesus lived an awesome life, we have the same Ability He had to live it all, and the Ability is called the Holy Spirit. Jesus could not start ministry without the Holy Spirit coming upon Him; He spent His entire ministry time depending on the power of the Spirit. Even His resurrection from the dead was by the power of the Holy Spirit, as well as His speaking:

Romans 8:11

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Acts 1:2

…He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen…

Christianity is not just hard to live on our own, without the help of the Holy Spirit; it is impossible to live it. This is why Jesus told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them (Lk. 24:49, Acts 1:4,8). Yet, how many believers are living life without the help of the Holy Spirit, without the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and even doing ministry? Some say they are waiting for the promise of the Father, which Jesus promised, and that is why they don’t have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The promise came, in Acts 2:4, and since Jesus said that once He came He would abide with us forever (Jn. 14:16), He hasn’t left so that we say we are waiting for Him again. Since He came, He has been on earth, working. Waiting on Him to be “poured out” again is similar to what the Pharisees and many Jews were doing during the time of Jesus, waiting for the Messiah while He was still with them. All they needed to do was embrace Him and follow Him. Today, you don’t need the Holy Spirit to be sent or poured out on you; you just need to acknowledge Him, know Him, and receive His baptism. Peter said:

Acts 2:38-39

Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."

Peter would have told the people then to repent, and then pray for God to pour out His Spirit on them, if the Spirit hadn’t yet been sent. However, He said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…” The gift has been poured out, now it is upon us to acknowledge and receive. Still, Peter didn’t say as some demoninations believe today, that the promise of the Holy Spirit was only for the apostles and disciples; He said that the promise was to them (the people present then), for their children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord will call. This is us, Gentiles, who the Bible says were once afar off, but have been drawn nearer to God by the blood (Eph. 2:12-13, Col. 1:21-22). 

To Be Continued...

 -- Sam Gitonga. 

28/04/15 Sunday Service Sermon, Teaching Transformation Ministry. 

Brother Sam is the Youth Leader at Teaching Transformation Ministry. We are located along the Thika-Ruai Flyover Junction (at the Thika Rd./ Bypass intersection), Next to Eastgate Restaurant.