Your Counselor

Jim Piper | June 22, 2010 | Comments (0)

"While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul traveled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" he asked them. "No," they replied, "we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." -Acts 19:1-2

"You can't see the forest for the trees."

I do not remember when I first heard this phrase, but I do recall I was young and, at the time, did not understand what it meant. Sometimes life can get so busy and crowded you feel like your wandering aimlessly through the woods. Those who have been lost in the forest say that after awhile everything begins to look the same.

Search and Rescue teams tell us that many people who become disoriented in the woods keep walking in circles, never making progress. And so it is with us. We bury ourselves in tasks, schedules, worries and too many relationships. Eventually, we lose perspective and wander aimlessly.

Like the forest, life is a gorgeous sight when you are looking down upon it from a high place. From the right distance and elevation, life is beautiful-not intimidating, dark or confusing. Instead, it is a masterpiece. Once a person clearly sees the forest and knows how to use a compass, re-entering the trees becomes an adventure of further discovery, not darkness or fear.

Christ sent the Holy Spirit to equip us to follow Him through the forest of life. The Holy Spirit helps you see from the right elevation-from God's perspective. The Spirit helps you navigate through thousands of obstacles, keeping you moving in the right direction. The first two verses in Acts 19 serve as a reminder that it is possible to be a believer yet unaware of the importance of knowing the Holy Spirit. These disciples were God "fearers," but had never been introduced to the person of the Holy Spirit.

WHAT DOES GOD THE SPIRIT DO?

The Holy Spirit is your Counselor.

When Jesus told His followers that He would soon leave to go back to the Father, they were obviously concerned. He was their strength and hope-their teacher and they all knew of His love on a first-hand basis. Sensing their concern, Jesus made two important facts clear. He would return someday to finish God's redemptive plans and He would send God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus declared, "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you" (John 14:15-17 NIV).

Love for God is a desire to know Him and be like Him. But this is impossible in our own strength. He must reveal Himself to us, teach and empower us to understand and obey.

The Spirit is called Counselor because He helps us as only God can-revealing the truth of Scripture. The Holy Spirit never contradicts the Bible because He was the divine influence ruling within the human authors. The Spirit has always been present among us but as a believer, He now resides within your very being. You are the house He lives in. He is not a mist or a force; He is God living in each believer. He can do this because He is omnipresent; everywhere all the time.

What makes His presence effective in you rather than an unbeliever is your willingness to give up control of your life to Him. You recognize the nearness of God because He speaks to your heart and mind. You were once dead or deaf to God but now you are alive to Him and can hear His voice. The Spirit in you is your most rewarding relationship on earth.

The Holy Spirit is God's mark on your life.

His presence is God's seal of ownership, and His ruling in you is your guarantee of eternal life. He is the transforming power which continues to create in you the person of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul explains: "The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him" (Ephesians 1:14).

This verse reminds us what we have learned earlier: we cannot do anything to earn God's favor. Salvation and sanctification are the result of God's

we cannot do anything to earn God's favor. Salvation and sancitification the result of God's power, not ours.

power, not ours. Sanctification is the promise of God to set us apart as a people to Himself. It is the ongoing process of salvation. This is why we say, "We have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved."

Yes, it is true that believers want to please God and accomplish His pleasure. However, we cannot lose sight of the fact that even our desire and ability to please Him comes from Him alone. A spiritually nearsighted person can only see the personal accomplishments, but cannot see well enough to thank God for giving the desire and the ability in the first place. It is the Spirit working in us that reminds us to Whom we belong-and this is cause for great joy.

The Holy Spirit is Christ alive in you.

The Spirit of God is sometimes called the Spirit of Christ because the Spirit always honors the person and ministry of Christ. Jesus said of the Spirit, "He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me" (John 16:14).

Because Christ is the living model for us to imitate, the Spirit continues to encourage us to follow in His ways. As the apostle Paul explains, "But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all)" (Romans 8:9).

Paul's words are powerful. As a believer, to be controlled by the sinful nature is not normal, but it is standard Christian behavior to be controlled by the Spirit. To act in sinful patterns requires deliberate acts of rebellion.

There is a difference between human weakness and the sinful nature. Our human weakness is the reality that we have the ability to sin, the experience of being tired and hungry. It is the reality of dependence; we require certain conditions to survive. The knowledge we can get sick and die; that the chemical make-up of our bodies can create many challenges; that our childhood still impacts us today. All these are human weaknesses.

The sinful nature exists beyond the realm of human weakness. It is devious and dark and seeks to please itself at the expense of all others. It cannot be trusted and is consistently evil in all thoughts and actions. When the sinful nature is not restrained in the life of a person by the grace of God, there is no limit to its potential damage to self and others. It is what brings about great evils and false teaching.

In the believer, however, the sinful nature no longer has power over the new creation of God within. The apostle John writes: "But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world" (1 John 4:4-5).

To obey the sinful nature is to consciously and willingly choose to accept the carnal things and darkness over the voice and power of the Spirit-and what is good.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Being filled with the Holy Spirit is to be directed and empowered by Him. Consciously, by choice, be dependent upon the Spirit in all manners of life.

To be filled by God's Spirit is to surrender every area to Him. It requires you to turn away from your own methods and sin and reach out to God. One of the best teachings in Scripture on becoming dependent upon Christ is found in John 15:1-8.

Read this text and imagine yourself as a branch connected to a vine (Jesus). Realize the implication. Everything you need for sustenance flows from the vine, and in order to bear fruit, you must remain connected.

After you read the Scripture, make a list of the things in your life where you have not relied upon Christ. Then ask Him to give you the faith to trust Him for these things. If you make this a habit, you will begin to experience a daily relationship with the Spirit of Christ.

POINTS TO PONDER

Why did the Holy Spirit come?

What does it mean to be "filled" with the Holy Spirit?

What does He produce in you as a result of "filling"?

Why is the average Christian not filled with the Holy Spirit?

According to Scripture, what is the difference between human weakness and sinful nature?