Holy Spirit NoG13

We have been looking at the different names of God and thus Gods different characteristics. So tonight I wanted to look at the three big divisions of Gods character. We’re going to look at God in the Trinity. As I am sure we are all aware the Trinity is made up of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We are going to look at a few of the things that all three do and then look at a couple that that only one or two share. This way we can get a picture of what the different responsibilities and attributes of all three Trinity members is.

This idea of the Trinity, the idea that God has three parts that do different jobs is interesting. Because unlike most of the ideas we get from our Bible where the idea is spelled out in scripture and then supported with other scripture references there is no single verse that ties all three aspects of the Trinity together. It is an idea that we gain through studying scripture as a whole. It is the idea that God accomplished things in different ways. There are some aspects of God character that are so foundational that all three parts of Trinity do them to varying degrees but there are also some aspects that are done by only one or two members.

Let us begin by looking at a few of the attributes that all three members of the Trinity share.

Creator

Let us begin with the first instance of God being named in our Bible  Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. So we are looking at God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as a creator. We are all familiar with this passage about God creating the heavens and the earth. So I would say we are comfortable with God the Father as a creator. We will now move to an instance where our Bible tells us that Jesus is also responsible for creating.

John 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Then let us look at the Holy Spirit in this role as well.

Job 33:4  The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

Spirit of God is another name for the Holy Spirit. What these three passages together are showing us is that in the beginning when so much of the creation is taking place that all three members of the Trinity were there and they all had a part in it. What we must realize is that God is, was, and will be in all three forms all of the time. thus there are certain jobs or characteristics that all three do and we have looked at one of them but there are also jobs that not all of them do.

Resurrects

The next thing we will talk about is resurrection or raising people from the dead. This once again is another aspect that all three share. 1Th 1:10  And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.  

In this passage we are assured that God raised Jesus from the dead. Let us take a look at Jesus raising someone from the dead.

Joh 11:43-44  And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.   And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

I am sure that we are all familiar with this story. But the big point here is that Jesus being fully God was  able to bring someone back from the dead. The Jews were not familiar with or didn’t know about people being raised from the dead. This was a display of Jesus’ power on earth. This was a sign given so that people would believe. So then the question for us tonight is does the Holy Spirit resurrect people?

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

That word quickens means to bring back to life. so the Holy Spirit is able to heal the body physically in the same way that Jesus did to raise Lazarus and just as the Father was able to raise up Jesus in a physical body.

Searches Hearts

The next trait we will look at is how all three members of the Trinity search the hearts of believers.

 Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Looking back into our Old Testament God is telling the Jewish people that he is looking at their hearts and why they are doing things.

We learn in Rev 2:23 that Jesus is looking into our hearts right up until the end of time.  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.

1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

The Holy Spirit is also looking into our hearts. But he is looking into our heats to try and lead us to the correct decision.

We now get into the different thing that are completed by different parts of the Trinity. We are going to look at some of the different characteristics that are completed by one or two of the members of the Trinity. But we will be focusing on what the Holy Spirit does because the other lessons in this series have focused on God the Father and God the Son.

Indwells

The next part of God we are going to look at is how God is with us though we can’t see him. Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: this verse tells us that Christ is in us. Then let us look at the Holy Spirit because he too is in us.

John 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

This is Jesus talking about us receiving the Spirit. And that Spirit being in us. What does that mean, what is the point why should we care. One of the major jobs of the Holy Spirit is to guide us and he only does that after he has come into our hearts.

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

This verse also confirms that fact that even though we are talking about the Holy Spirit, this is about God. You cannot separate them. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are three parts of one whole. 

The big thing about the Holy Spirit that makes him different is the fact that he was sent to us with the purpose of being with us throughout our lives. Meaning God the Father has been in heaven since the beginning and has never left. Jesus came down to earth for a time to offer the sacrifice that needed to be made and to direct people to God through his teaching. But the Spirit is in us always, he is always there. He is the one that once we have accepted the gift of salvation is guiding and directing us.  One of the most important ways that the Holy Spirit guides us is in understanding Gods word. Just like we just read in

Joh 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Gifts

One of the big things that the Spirit does that is sometimes overlooked and I didn’t connect this until doing this study,  is that the Spirit provides us spiritual gifts.

Gal 5:22-23  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

 Let us focus for a bit on these. Because this is how we know if someone is truly a follower of God. Because once you accept Christ’s gift, the Spirit is in you. We’ll look at these gifts on an individual basis starting with love. The Greek word for love here is agape which is the love God shows to us and the love we show to God. So through the Holy Spirit it is reveled to us how much God love us; and how we are to love God.

I know this has hit me in the last couple weeks. God loves us so much that he has done everything for us, so we should strive to show him the same level of love in return. Once we have the Spirit we are joyful. Now this does not mean that we will always be happy or that bad things won’t happen but what it means is that we are to go through life knowing that God had our best interest at heart.

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

We know no matter what happens that God is always there and he is always the same no matter what is going on so we should be going through life ready to face any challenge that comes our way with our head held high. Then we should also have peace because it doesn’t matter what situation we face because we have a promise from God that is fulfilled through the Holy Spirit

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We move onto looking at longsuffering, now what does this mean, it means that we are to have to fortitude to do what God wants. We all know that this life isn’t always easy, and that things don’t always work out the best but even when things are going bad, the Holy Spirit causes us to wait for the good and to be able to withstand the negatives that come up in this life.

Moving onto the next trait that Spirit causes in believers, that is gentleness. If you look up the Greek for this word it means moral excellence. Now this means that once we have the Holy Spirit it doesn’t matter what happens or what temptations we have in our life, we have a way to overcome them. The Spirit is in us and guides us or provides us a way out of bad situations.

Goodness is related to gentleness because the meaning for goodness is to be virtuous. That is we need to have conduct that is in line with what God commands us. Because all that God commands or says is virtuous. Our God will never steer us wrong. The Spirit is there to help us hear the voice of God and to understand what he is saying to us.

The next thing the Spirit does is to give us faith. Now this is faith in our salvation but it is more than that. It is faith in all of the promise made by God. It is a faith that God has our best interest at heart. It is a faith that no matter what happens we are children of God. The fruit of faithfulness is a faith in God alone. To be filled with the Spirit we must rely on God and God alone for our answers.  Meekness is not weakness. We are not to just stand by and let injustice happen in world. But we are supposed to be meek, this means that we do not think more highly of ourselves then we should.

The first part of  Rom_12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly… but we should not use this as an excuse, what I mean is I have heard people say that they can’t or wont don’t something because that would put them in the spotlight. So they are using the point that we are to be meek as an excuse to not do something.

We are called by the Spirit to bring glory to God and sometimes that takes putting yourself out there and in the spotlight, if that is where God is calling you. But we are to be meek, this is a heart issue you should not do something just for the sake of being noticed but if someone notices you because you did something you should have done then that is fine.

 Then finally we are to be temperate.  Now this means we are to have self-control. It means that we need to only be doing things that bring glory to God.

We have talked about a few different jobs that all three member of the Trinity share. Then we focused on one of the major jobs of the Holy Spirit and how we are provided spiritual gifts through that. The major point of this lesson is to get us to think about all of the different jobs that God has and all of the different things that he does. But also, to get us thinking about how he has chosen to complete those jobs through the use of the Trinity. I ask at this time that we all stop for a moment and examine our own lives and see if the fruits of the spirit are evident in each of our lives.