The Holy Spirit: Our Divine Helper

The Holy Spirit: Our Divine Helper

When you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you probably thought things were going to be rather easy for you. It just may be that things got tougher for you and, as a result, you began to question God. Where was He? Why didn't He answer your prayers? Why didn't He keep His Word? Well, He has kept His Word. God always keeps His Word. He knows that all of us will face situations and circumstances in life that are difficult for us. We don't know which way to turn.

This is why He said to His disciples before He left that He was going to send them Someone called the Helper. This Helper would be with them throughout their life. This Helper is called the Holy Spirit. God has made an awesome deposit for everyone who is willing to believe Him and trust Him. The Bible talks about God being God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The three Persons of the Trinity can sometimes be confusing, so I want to show you a brief diagram to give you an idea that really they're all one. There is God, God the Father who is the Creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, God the Son, our Savior and Lord, and God the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Empowerer. All three Persons of the Trinity make up the Godhead.

The Misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit

Imagine living with such assets to your name and never drawing upon them. That's where a lot of Christians are. They know nothing about the Holy Spirit. At some point in their life, they got saved, no question in their mind about that. Then somebody said to them, "Well, now that you're saved, you do the best you can. One of these days you'll die and go to heaven." And so, the awesome deposit of the Holy Spirit, nobody ever tells them about it. Nobody ever explains it to them, and so they live their Christian life dissatisfied, having needs that they don't know how to answer. Thinking that they're praying to a God, they're not sure He listens. And so they die very dissatisfied with their Christian life, their spiritual gifts. They know nothing about their abilities and talents. They know nothing about it, and so they just live their life as best they can, with some sense of disappointment.

I've met lots of people who have been saved early in life, and they're saying, "Well, you know, this Christian life's not all it's cracked up to be." Oh yes, it is. You just don't know about it. There are no disappointments in Jesus, in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So in this message, I want us to see what God has done for you. What is at your fingertips? What is deposited in your heavenly account if you are willing to yield yourself to Him and draw from these awesome reserves that God has placed at your account?

Facing Difficult Times

What do you do when you go through difficult times? When you find yourself with your back to the wall and you don't know what to do, who do you go to? Do you cry out to God? You probably do at some point. But what I want you to see is this: God has very specifically said, "I have sent you a Helper." A Helper is someone who's going to be there for you when you need Him. In fact, this Helper's going to always be there.

So I want you to turn to the fourteenth chapter of John, because Jesus, right before He was crucified, the night before, told them some of the most awesome things. He was preparing them because He was going to be crucified the next day. He was going to the cross the next day. He was going to the tomb. He was going to be resurrected, and then at another point out there, He would meet them. But at this point, it looked very dismal. He'd made all these promises and now He's getting ready to die. And, in spite of all the things He said, He's going to die, which overshadowed everything else.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

If you'll look in the fifteenth verse of the fourteenth chapter of John: "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Then He said, knowing He's getting ready to leave them, "I will ask the Father," now watch this. Here's the whole Trinity in one verse: "I will ask the Father," that's Jesus speaking, "and He will give you another," and capital H, "Helper," who is the Holy Spirit, "that He may be with you," for how long? "Forever." Not a short period of time, but forever. He says, "I'm leaving you, but I'm going to give you a Helper," capital H. That is a Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. He's going to be with you forever. "That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."

At no point since the moment you trusted Christ as your personal Savior have you ever been alone. At no point have you ever been helpless. You may have felt helpless, but when you trusted Jesus as your Savior, God's seal upon you, His absolute assurance to you is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three Persons of the Trinity, your guarantee that you're going to heaven when you die.

The Role of the Holy Spirit in Your Life

I wonder in your personal life, what part does the Holy Spirit and what part has the Holy Spirit had in your life? You probably got saved like I did, and they told me at twelve years of age, "Charles, you be a good boy and one of these days you'll die and go to heaven." Being a good boy was a little tough at twelve years of age. But anyway, that's all they told me, that's it: be good. Well, oftentimes, I wasn't always good. That's all they knew. They never told me that I had this awesome Holy Spirit within me to help me to grow up, help me to be what God wanted me to be, help me to do what God wanted me to do. They didn't tell me any a thing like that.

The same God who saved you saved me, the same Holy Spirit who indwells me indwells you. And when I think about people who go to church twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years, and that person lived their whole life and never knew the treasure of their life living within them and they never were told about Him. And I think about whoever you are and wherever you go to church, if you never hear about the Holy Spirit, you need to change churches because somebody isn't telling you the whole story. The whole story is God the Father, God the Son, and God our Helper, the Holy Spirit.

The Work of the Holy Spirit

So He said to them, "I'm going away and I'm going to send you another." That is, the Holy Spirit will be your Comforter. Now watch this carefully. What is the work of the Holy Spirit? What does He do in a person's life? What I want you to realize is this: I'm simply going to tell you what's true. I'm going to tell you what's true about you. I'm going to tell you about this awesome asset that God has deposited within you to help you every single moment of your life. As much as you're willing to call upon Him, trust in Him, rely upon Him, believe Him, what He'll do for your life? I'm simply saying you have God the Holy Spirit living within you.

Notice what Jesus called the Holy Spirit: Helper. How many of you have ever needed help? Every one of us needed help. And we have the great, infinite, awesome, all-powerful Helper living inside of us, willing to give us direction and guidance and other help when that help is needed.

So, let's look at it for a moment. What is one of the first works of the Holy Spirit? When you were saved, how were you saved? The work of the Holy Spirit. "And when the Holy Spirit comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment." That is one of His first works in our life, to convict us of sin, to make us realize that we're sinning against God and that we need a Savior. And He lives within us. Therefore, when you and I daily in our life, when we have a bad thought or say something we shouldn't, treat somebody the way we shouldn't, fail to do what we need to do, that feeling we get is not just a feeling. That is the work of the Holy Spirit reminding us of who we are, followers of Jesus, and that shouldn't be in our life, this shouldn't be in our life. That's what should be in our life. That's who you should love. In other words, He's at work in our life. Whoever you are, whether you recognize it or not, He's at work in your life. You may think it's just your feeling. The Spirit of God is at work in your life.

The Seal of the Holy Spirit

A second thing He does, very important, is found in Ephesians 1:13, which says this: "In Him," that is in Jesus, "you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, also believed." He says, "You, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise." Now, what does that tell you? Watch this carefully. A seal in those days meant something was authentic. Something was authentic. It also spoke of ownership. It also spoke of protection. We have within us an awesome protector. And so, he says the Holy Spirit of God has sealed us.

Now, what does that mean to you, for example, who had been taught that you can be saved and lose your salvation? That's not true. Listen, God doesn't break His own seals. He sealed you, which means just what we said: you're owned by God. God is living within you. You're under His divine protection. And everything we need, He has provided. And so, when we think in terms of the Holy Spirit, we're not talking about some spirit. We're talking about the Person of the Godhead living within you, who has sealed you.

Now, what does that say about people who think you can be saved and be lost? Watch this: who can break a divine seal? The devil can't. You can't. You wouldn't want to. So here's what God's saying: when you trusted Him as your personal Savior, He sealed you as one of His children. You are forever a child of God. Now, I know what some people are thinking: "Well, that means I can just sin like the devil and I'll be saved." Try it. The Holy Spirit within you, first of all, will convict you and make you miserable. He's going to make you miserable for years if it's necessary, keeping reminding you that you're living an ungodly life, you're living an unholy life, God isn't pleased with that. You're going to miss blessing after blessing after blessing. And then people wonder, "Well, what's wrong with my life?" What's wrong with your life is sin in your life. You're ignoring the Holy Spirit, who's trying to say, "Look, look, look! Look what you're doing. That's not necessary." That is God's awesome love. The Holy Spirit has sealed you with a divine, heavenly seal. You are His. He's your Helper.

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

Then a third thing He does, in a simple way of saying what we are saying, is in Romans 8:11: "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Holy Spirit, who indwells you." That is, we have a gift that is an eternal gift, and that's the Holy Spirit marked by His ownership. So when you and I sin against God, we are violating His principles, violating the very person He sent to seal us, to make us one of His own, to be our Helper. We are His children. We are under His divine leadership. He says He indwells us.

I wonder how people would live if they thought every day, "I'm indwelt by Holy God." If you thought in your life every single day when you wake up in the morning that you're indwelt by Holy God, because you are. The Holy Spirit, He's there to indwell us, to enable us to do anything and everything that He's required of us.

The Teacher of Truth

A fourth thing He does is: He teaches us. Listen to the fourteenth chapter of John, the twenty-sixth verse: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance." Now think about this: the moment you and I were saved, we have the Teacher, the Teacher above all teachers within us. He's the One who helps us understand the truth. He's the One who helps us convey truth to other people. He's the Teacher. For example, when you find yourself in a difficult situation and you're looking for a passage of scripture, "Lord, what should I read?" He's the One who will show you where to go. He's the One who will interpret the Word of God. He's the One who will encourage you. He says He's our Helper. He encourages us, bringing us to the right passage, helping us to see what God thinks about our situation, what the circumstances are. We have this awesome asset that many people ignore in their life. They'll say, "Well, I don't read the Bible much because I don't understand it." How do you learn to understand the Word of God? By reading it and by trusting the Holy Spirit.

Think how many times you've faced a difficult situation in your life, and what did you do? You turned to a passage of scripture or you were just flipping through the Bible and this particular verse hit you. And you think, "God, you know I needed that." Yes, He does. That's why He led you there. Watch what He says: "I'm sending you another capital, H, Helper." We have a divine, supernatural, godly Helper within us to help us in every circumstance of our life. He is our Teacher. But following being our Teacher, what does He do? He reveals truth to us. Look if you will in First Corinthians chapter two and verse twelve: "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God that we may know the things freely given to us of God." There are many things we don't understand, and yet we have the Holy Spirit living within us to give us understanding.

How many times have I listened to people tell me how discouraged they were because they had read the Bible and didn't say anything to them? Listen, the Holy Spirit, who is our Teacher, that's one of His works. He will teach us the truth if we will come to the Word and ask Him to show us. That's one of His responsibilities as the Holy Spirit, teaching us to help us, to show us the truth.

If you don't like the way things are in your life, ask yourself the question: Why? Why is this happening in my life? Why don't I feel God's presence? Why don't I know about heaven? Why don't I have people loving me? Why do I have such a hard time on my job? Maybe the fact that you have ignored the Helper. You've ignored the Helper, who wants to help you through someone else, give you something through someone else, help you in your occupation through someone else. He says He sends the Helper in order to help us. And usually, what does He do? He speaks through some other believer oftentimes to show us exactly what we need and how to find what we need.

The Fruit of the Spirit

So He reveals the truth to us, and oftentimes people say, "Well, I read that verse and I don't understand it." Well, listen, nobody understands all of it. If somebody says, "I got it," then you don't have it. In fact, you're ignorant if you think you understand every single verse in the Word of God, because this is divine knowledge. This is holy knowledge, godly knowledge that reaches far beyond our universe. He's our Helper, revealing the truth to us. When I think about that, I think oftentimes of verses that I've read that I thought, "Now, Lord, how do I apply that to my life?" Here's what I've discovered: if I read a passage of scripture and I don't quite get it at that moment for whatever it might be, and I want to know what is the truth, who were You saying it to, how did You say it, what did You mean then, and then what do You mean today? He's our Teacher. He's the One who translates for us what a verse of scripture means. And I think about people who never read the Bible and wonder why life is the way it is. If you don't read the Bible, what you do is you ignore this treasure. People who reject Jesus, reject life at its very best, reject the Helper, and then wonder why things are not going right for them. For the simple reason they turned their back upon this awesome asset, sealed by the Holy Spirit. He seals His believers. He seals us today, teaches us, gives us understanding if we're willing to listen to Him.

I think sometimes people have their Bible by their bed at night or something and every once in a while they'll turn a light on and say, "Well, I'm going to start reading a passage here or there and whatever." But oftentimes, not till something's bad do they open the Word of God. It's there for you. All of this awesome truth is there for you if you will open the Word of God, if you will ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding, He will. You say, "Well, does that mean all of it's understandable the first time you read it?" No. Tenth time, you read it? No. Sometimes -- listen, we're talking about God. We're talking about knowledge and wisdom far beyond human capacity, but nothing that we don't need. That is, whatever we need, the Spirit of God's going to give us understanding.

My name is Cesar and I’m a Voice in the Desert

www.avoiceinthedesert.net