Tag Archives: John 14
The Forgotten Third: Developing a Relationship with God the Holy Spirit — He INDWELLS the Believer!
We believe that some Christians overemphasize the Holy Spirit, but also that many of us overlook Him. As the so-called “Shy Member of the Trinity,” the Holy Spirit is personal and deserves to be treated as a Person! As fully divine, He can (and should) be worshiped!
A major part of my thesis in these posts is that we can have a personal relationship with God the Holy Spirit which includes praying to Him and worshiping Him. Directing our prayers to the respective member of the Godhead who is most intimately connected to a certain ministry in no way minimizes the absolute primacy of the Lord Jesus.
One area I’ve never heard a sermon on is the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. He lives inside the believer! Where do we get this idea? We read in John 14:
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 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.
Both I Corinthians 3 and I Corinthians 6 touch on His indwelling the follower of Jesus. We read in I Corinthians 3:
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
We also read in I Corinthians 6:
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Are you with me? What do I mean by that question? I’m not asking if you are in the same room I am, but are you tracking with me? There is a difference between spatial language and relational language.
The omnipresent Holy Spirit indwells the believer. What does this mean? We learn from John 14 that He is that other advocate who will help us and be with us forever. And we are told that He not only lives with us but will be in us. We are God’s temple and God’s Spirit dwells in our midst, I Corinthians 3 tells us. From I Corinthians 6 we are challenged to flee from sexual immorality because our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit — “who is IN you.”
A Challenge: Thank God the Holy Spirit today for His indwelling presence which motivates us to live godly lives.
The Spirit, the Preacher, and the Word (Part 4)
In his book Fishers of Men, William Barclay wrote, “You will find a certain type of 
preacher and evangelist who claims that he is entirely dependent on the Holy Spirit. It is a blasphemous thing to saddle the Holy Spirit with the blame for rambling, wearisome, and unprepared effusions.”
If God is a God of order, then we would expect God the Holy Spirit to assist the preacher in studying for, developing, and delivering his best understanding of the biblical text. Let’s think about this section of John 14 in Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse once more . . .
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 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[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
The Spirit, the Preacher, and the Word (Part 3)
We are working our way through some of the biblical material on the Holy Spirit. In our last post, we saw a number of ministries He has toward the believer in general.
But what are His specific ministries toward the preacher? Let’s look at our first section of the Upper Room Discourse once more . . .
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 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[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Psalms of My Life (Psalm 49)
Psalm 49
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah.
A psalm.
1 Hear this, all you peoples;
listen, all who live in this world,
2 both low and high,
rich and poor alike:
3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom;
the meditation of my heart will give you understanding.
4 I will turn my ear to a proverb;
with the harp I will expound my riddle:
5 Why should I fear when evil days come,
when wicked deceivers surround me—
6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their great riches?
7 No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them—
8 the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough—
9 so that they should live on forever
and not see decay.
10 For all can see that the wise die,
Residing in Paradise!
that the foolish and the senseless also perish,
leaving their wealth to others.
11 Their tombs will remain their houses[b] forever,
their dwellings for endless generations,
though they had[c] named lands after themselves.
12 People, despite their wealth, do not endure;
they are like the beasts that perish.
13 This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,
and of their followers, who approve their sayings.[d]
14 They are like sheep and are destined to die;
death will be their shepherd
(but the upright will prevail over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave,
far from their princely mansions.
15 But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;
he will surely take me to himself.
16 Do not be overawed when others grow rich,
when the splendor of their houses increases;
17 for they will take nothing with them when they die,
their splendor will not descend with them.
18 Though while they live they count themselves blessed—
and people praise you when you prosper—
19 they will join those who have gone before them,
who will never again see the light of life.
20 People who have wealth but lack understanding
are like the beasts that perish.
Dr. Larry Dixon
larrydixon.wordpress.com 