The Holy Spirit 3

September 8th

Part 3

Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. An angel came and told some shepherds on the field about the birth of Jesus. The place was filled with a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, saying: “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Every boy who was eight days old should be circumcised according to the laws of Moses. The parents of Jesus wanted to do the same with Him and they took Jesus to the temple. There they met Simeon and the Holy Spirit was upon him. He had already heard from the Holy Spirit that he should not die before he had seen Jesus Christ. Simeon was led by the Holy Spirit into the temple and he circumcised Jesus. He held Jesus in his arms and said: “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word. For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You prepared before the face of all peoples.” You can read the rest of the prophesy in Luke 2.

We don’t read about Jesus in the Bible again before He was twelve years old and was with His parents in the temple. He chose to stay there when his parents left since He wanted to be with His real father. We can assume that Jesus was brought up as other Jewish boys and that He got prepared for His calling to save the world and the deeds He did in ministry on earth.

When Jesus was about 30 years of age, He wanted to be baptized by John together with many others. While Jesus was praying, the heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in a form of a dove and a voice from heaven said: “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” Here we see the whole trinity together. Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him and the Father talked to Him and confirmed that God was His daddy and that He was very pleased with His Son. In some of the other gospels it is written that Jesus is The One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

We continue to go through Luke and have come to chapter 4. It writes that Jesus was led by the Spirit out in the desert. I guess we hope that we always will be led to oasis, full of water, and where there are lots of tasty fruits. Jesus was led to the desert. Then we also can be led by the Spirit to places that look dry and where nothing seems to grow.

Jesus fasted for 40 days and when He was weak, the devil came and tempted Him. Every time when the devil came with a new temptation, Jesus answered: “It is written!” The devil finally left Him, but only for some time. We must not believe that the devil will leave us for the rest of our life. We must always be prepared to say: “It is written!”

After this, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit. He went back to Nazareth and went into the synagogue and quoted Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Now go to Matt.12. Jesus casts out demons and He was questioned with what authority and if it really was God. Jesus answers them: “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus surely drove out demons by the Spirit and we can do the same by using the name of Jesus and by the help of the Holy Spirit.

We move on to John 3. This chapter talks about being born again. Jesus says to Nicodemus who is one of the Pharisees that he had to be born again. This is a puzzle for him. He does not understand how he could come into the womb of his mother once more. Then Jesus answers him in verse 5: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit.” This conversation continues between these two men. Jesus says in verse 16 that God gave His only begotten Son so that we should have everlasting life. We often quote Joh.3:16 when we present the gospel for people.

In the next chapter we read about Jesus and the woman from Samaria. Jesus got a word of knowledge and told her that she had five men. Then she understood that He was a prophet. They are talking about God and Jesus says in verse 24: “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” We often mention this when we talk about praise and worship. The Spirit will always exalt the Father and Jesus and we cannot praise Them without the help of the Holy Spirit. You can always tell somebody that you love them, but it will soon be discovered if it is true or not. Our Father knows right away if we praise Him from the bottom of our heart or not.

In John 7:37-39 we hear about the promise of the Holy Spirit. He was not given yet since Jesus was not glorified. Jesus compares the Spirit with Living Water. The Spirit should be given to those who believed in Jesus.

When I went to Bible-school, we were asked to read John 14,15 and 16 in connection with this subject: the Holy Spirit. You could very well do the same.

In my Bible I have different parts and over John14:15-18 it is written: 2 Jesus promises another Helper.” Jesus says that He will ask the Father to give them another Helper, that will abide with us forever. Some places it says spokesman or counselor. We say at home that the Holy Spirit will help us in all areas of our lives.

Jesus calls the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of Truth. We as believers know Him and He shall be with us and in us. When I was born again, I also received the Holy Spirit, but He will also be with me and I can call on Him any time and He will come. I am so dependant on the Holy Spirit. We live in a world full of lies, and it is very, very good to have the Spirit of truth inside of us and call on Him to be with us at any time. When I come to countries that are under strong demonic influences, I often notice that people are lying. Then I understand why Jesus said that the world cannot get the Spirit of Truth and they do not know Him.

Jesus knew that He was going to suffer and He knew that He should die. He said that He did not want to leave His disciples as children without a father. In verse 26 Jesus says that He will send them another Helper and He will remind them of all the things Jesus taught them. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will testify about Jesus and the disciples should also testify about Jesus since they had been with Him since the beginning. The disciples got very sad when Jesus said that He had to suffer and leave them. Jesus says then that it is better that He leaves so that the Holy Spirit can come. Jesus says that the Holy Spirit shall convict the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. Jesus says that when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide them into all the truth and He will declare things to come. I refer to verse 14, 15 and 16.

“He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine.” We see here a strong example of how the Father, the Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit work together.

Jesus could only be at one place at a time, but the Holy Spirit can be everywhere and so it is better that we have the Holy Spirit.

THANK GOD FOR SENDING US THE HOLY SPIRIT, OUR HELPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mother Else