He Is Present
The Holy Spirit | The God I Never Knew
A dear friend of mine and I are going through a 28-day YouVersion Bible app study contributed by Pastor Robert Morris, and based on his work, “The God I Never Knew”, which is about the Holy Spirit. Today’s post begins a multi-week series on the Holy Spirit. Check out the study on YouVersion
Holy Spirit 2023 Series:
He Is Present | He Helps Us | He Is Our Wisdom | He Is Our Comforter | He Is Our Counselor | He Is Our Helper | He Is Our Intercessor | He Is Our Advocate
God Is Always with You and Is in You
Have you ever felt alone?
Utterly alone?
Believe me, I’ve been in what I call the “loneliness pit”. I felt trapped, and I saw no way out. In those moments I had taken my eyes off of a core truth of the Christian faith.
God is always with me, for He is within me.
No matter how alone you may feel in any given moment, dear sister or brother in Christ Jesus, if you’re counted among His redeemed, you are never, ever alone.
Before He headed to the cross, Jesus spoke words of comfort to His confused disciples.
John 14:16-17 (ESV)
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
This is God’s truth and it’s your truth. Do you believe this?
Take a moment right now to ponder these words of Jesus. Breathe in Jesus’ words and exhale them as a prayer:
Father, You have given me a Helper, who is with me forever, Your Holy Spirit of Truth. Father, thank You for this amazing gift that Your Son Jesus asked You to give me. Your Holy Spirit dwells with me and is in me. Thank You, Father, that all of this is true for me today and every day.
Helper is “parakletos” [ παράκλητος ] in the Koinē Greek. What does it mean?
Advocate - An attorney who pleads your case in the courtroom
Intercessor - A prayer partner who lifts your requests, your needs, to the Father
Consoler - A grief counselor who sits with you when you suffer loss
Comforter - A gentle and safe friend who cheers you on, who gives you hope
This Parakletos is Who is with you, and in you, forever. Even when you feel lonely.
And when you do, chat with your Helper. It’s His job to help you in your time of need, a job given to Him by the Father. He wants to do His job, He longs to help you. So ask Him for His help, despite your loneliness, or despite whatever feelings you struggle with inside you.
Ask Him to advocate for you, to represent you as God’s child before the heavenly host in the heavenly realm, to intercede for you before the Father’s throne, to console you when you feel sad, and to comfort you when you need hope and encouragement.
Your Turn
Take time today, and every day, to find a quiet space. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to know Him better. Turn off your devices, all social media, and quiet your heart. Listen for His voice, and learn to recognize His voice, so you can hear Him above the world’s noise.
Soli Deo Gloria!
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To start off the comments, I have a short story to tell, what happened earlier on April 29th. I left my home to meet a friend, with plans to go clothes shopping afterwards. Summer's heat is coming, and I need new shorts. I've lost some weight, and am in between sizes. Finding clothes that fit well, on a tight budget, challenges me. So, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me. My friend told me about a consignment shop that was new to me. She encouraged me to go after our walk. I did, and found four pairs of shorts that fit me perfectly. As silly as this may sound, I felt the Lord helped me to find what I needed.
On a much larger scale, Jesus asked the Father to give us His Spirit to help us fulfill the Great Commission. If we feel hesitant, unprepared, to share our faith with the not-yet-saved, we can ask our Helper, the Holy Spirit to help us tell others about Jesus.