Holy Spirit
Jesus promised His disciples that it was for their good that He should go away and the main reason He gave was that then Holy Spirit would come in a far greater way than He had previously:
Joh 16:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
It is pretty well impossible for us post-Pentecost Christians to understand the difference that the coming of Holy Spirit has made to us. In all probability we all under-appreciate it. But it is at times like this that we have opportunity to better appreciate some aspects of indwelling Holy Spirit’s work.
Firstly there is His work as our guarantee:
Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
With all of the uncertainty surrounding us, and all of the questions hanging over our future as individuals and as nations, Holy Spirit guarantees our certain future with Christ in the New Heavens and New Earth.
Then there is His work in our prayers. There can have been few times in most people’s lives when they felt a greater need to pray but at the same time less awareness as to how to pray. As we were looking on Weds nights before this virus so rudely interrupted us – generally speaking we don’t know God’s will beyond His moral will and His sovereign will in Redemptive History as revealed in His Word. I have no idea how long God intends this virus to last, which nations will be most affected by it, who at a personal level will contract it, whether or not I will be affected, or a million other things that would shape my prayers. But Holy Spirit directs my prayers, He shapes my prayers, and He intercedes with my prayers.
Rom 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.
Rom 8:27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And then there is His work in helping me to study God’s Word and grow in Christ-likeness. It is hard enough when we can attend church each week, when we have a Christian family around us to support, encourage and correct us, but so much harder when we are on our own…but then we’re not, are we? Holy Spirit is there, and not as a brother or sister, but as God. And His is the work to interpret God’s Word to us, His is the work to renew our minds by it, and His is the to enable us to live lives pleasing to God – even when there is no other human there to help.
1Co 2:11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
1Co 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Php 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
And then there is His work to give constant assurance –
Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
How easy it is to become swamped by all of this, to feel overwhelmed, to feel defeated and discouraged, but then Holy Spirit is there to assure, to remind, to reinforce within that whatever this world throws at you, you are a child of God, and this is not your true home for you have a home already being prepared for you with Christ above.
Praise God for the person and work of Holy Spirit.