The most rejected part of the life of the believer is reliance on the Holy Spirit. He is the One Who Jesus said, "The Father would send to us another Comforter" after His ascension. The Holy Spirit's title is really much more than a Comforter, He is the One to Whom the Father has entrusted the growth and maturity of His family.
The primary ministry of the Holy Spirit is to point people to salvation by revealing the redemptive work of Jesus at the cross and resurrection. Once He has revealed salvation through the Blood and grace of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has to reveal to the Church what all that really means to us.
Jesus said in John 14:26 (Amplified), "But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Stand-by), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My Name (in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf). He will teach you all things, and He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you." In John 16:13 (Amplified) Jesus said, "He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come (that will happen in the future)."
Remember how the things we know now about the Church, the new birth, the sonship rights, the return of the Lord, the redemption from the curse, the covenant of grace and the time of the end, had not yet happened and were for the future. It's been the Holy Spirit's ministry to reveal all these things we now know, to the Church. He has been ever busy about the appointment the Father has sent Him to do.
The Holy Spirit has brought the Love of God into the hearts of God's family, according to Romans 5:5 (Amplified) which says, "Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us." We've failed in so many aspects about having His presence in our lives and it continues today.
The Holy Spirit is the One Who the Father has entrusted His family to. The promise of the resurrection has even been given over to Him. Romans 8:11 (Amplified) says, "And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
For many in the Church,the Holy Spirit has been and remains a mystery or at least Someone Who isn't personable or Someone with Whom one could actually have a relationship with. The Holy Spirit was inspiring men to write down what the Father was speaking to His children. 2Timothy 3:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Every scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience (and) for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose and action)." Verse 17 says, "So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well-fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work."
It requires the Holy Spirit's presence and His ministry, to reveal to the hearts of Christians, the fullness of what Jesus has done. Romans 8:15-17 (Amplified) tells us, "For (the Spirit which) you have now received (is) not a Spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption (the Spirit producing sonship) in (the bliss of) which we cry, Abba, (Father) Father. The Spirit Himself (thus) testifies together with our own spirit (assuring us) that we are children of God. And if we are (His) children, then we are (His) heirs also; heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (sharing His inheritance with Him) Only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory."
When man read this scripture without the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, he always centers in on the phrase of "Sharing in His sufferings." This gives us leave to justify whatever goes on in our lives as "God's will" and the "suffering we must endure." Although it's true that there has been much suffering since the Church was breathed to life, this scripture isn't about focusing on suffering, but on being children of God and heirs of His glory and majesty.
We will suffer persecution for being Christians because of the Name of Jesus, but through all of these things, we are "more than conquerors through Christ" Who loves us. Without the Holy Spirit's revealing the spiritual things of God's Word, we bring the spiritual truth into a carnal "religion" that brings us once more, into bondage to the world.
This is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. God established the old covenant and the Law through Moses, but before that, there was a covenant of grace that came through Abraham. The only way to return to this grace covenant, was to destroy sin and not just cover it up through animal sacrifice. The ministry of Jesus had to come to earth. He was to be born without sin, fulfill the Law, die as a sinner or in the place of sinners, pay the Full penalty for our transgressions, be separated from the Father, buried in death and raised as Lord and Savior of the Church, ascend into the heavenlies on our behalf and take upon Himself the ministry of the High Priest over the covenant people and to be our intercessor before the throne of God for all time. His earthly ministry was completed and now would come the next part of God's work, which was bringing man back to Himself.
The Holy Spirit was now God poured out in the hearts of man, to live in them and walk with them (through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit). No longer would God have to deal with man in the flesh, but in the spirit. Now, the inside of the cup would be clean by sacrifice, instead of just the outside. Matthew 23:25-26 (Amplified) says, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites) for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but within they are full of extortion (prey, spoil, plunder) and grasping self0indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the plate, so the outside may be clean.?
No matter how we kept the Law and how hard we tried, we were still under the sentence of "spiritual death" from the Garden. The only way to "be clean" was from the inside out and only the Holy Spirit of the Life of God, could do this. Once the inside was clean, the outside would then conform to the new life within us by His presence.
The Holy Spirit was now to reveal to us what this new life in Christ was really all about. He was to show us all things and cleanse the vessel of all things not from God. As he began unveil Jesus to the spirit of the believer, we were to be changed "from one glory to another glory, from glory to glory."
The Holy Spirit would reveal the power of this sacrifice and the completeness of it for the removal of sin in our lives. He would show us, by His ministry in us, that through Jesus, we are completely in right standing with God and righteous in His eyes. The Holy Spirit would teach us about the mystery that had been hidden before the foundation of the world and we would have this mystery revealed to us through Him. The Holy Spirit isn't just for the Upper Room or for speaking in tongues. He is living in us as the Guide, Teacher and God Himself.
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