Understanding The Work Of The Holy Spirit Becoming a Follower of Jesus - Session 9 14 November 2012 Prayer We will begin our time together this evening with prayer for one another in our groups. Pray out loud for the person on your right. There is nothing more uplifting than to hear a friend pray for you. Thank God for them, for how He created them uniquely. Thank Him for the ways you appreciate them. Lift them up to Him and ask Him to grow them fully into the person He created them to be and to use them every day in exactly the way He desires to use them in this world. Ask for His blessing on them and their families and for His great favor with their families, in the church, their workplaces, with their neighbors, and in their communities. Ask Him to show them something this week that He desires them to know and to help them receive it and act on it. Exercise One Quietly, on your own, reflect on how Jesus has been speaking to you during the weeks of our training. Ask Him to bring His Spirit alive within you. Reflect on what He is/has been saying to you. On what does He want you to focus? Where is He asking you to change? What is He asking you to do? Is there something or someone He wants you to engage in or with and in a particular way? Respond to Him in love and gratitude for how He is revealing these things to you. Give Him your yes, your obedience. Introduction Many Christians have vague and foggy notions of the Holy Spirit. Some don t know if He exists. Others ignore Him. But the Holy Spirit is alive and real. He is active in our lives and wants to: teach, correct, lead, convict, bless, guide, empower, purify and encourage you in so many ways. This lesson will help you to get to know this Personal Counselor that loves you so much. God s Holy Spirit actually teaches you about God the Father, God the Son and Himself. The Holy Ghost (another older term you may hear for the Holy Spirit) will open and interpret the Bible for you and explain its mysteries to you. The Spirit of God will exalt Jesus in your life and teach you about Him. God s Spirit will help you pray and empower you to serve God and others. God s Spirit will do all of this and much more. You will love this dear Teacher and Comforter. The Holy Spirit is not a force or an idea the Holy Spirit is a person. This means the Holy Spirit can communicate, initiate actions and respond to you. You cannot necessarily see the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is always present. The Holy Spirit is closer to you than your skin. The Holy Spirit lives inside of you if you are a born-again child of God.
Without the Holy Spirit, you could never live in the power of God or know God s strength in your daily life. The Holy Spirit gives you the strength to face your battles and trials. The Holy Spirit is the One who gives you the ability to hear clear direction and guidance from God. God wants us to clearly understand how the Spirit works. Key Memory Verse John 16:13 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. Objective This Coming Week s Reading: Luke 9-11 The goal of this lesson is to help the Follower of Jesus understand all the various areas in which the Holy Spirit works, and why He is so important to us. Key Definitions / Concepts I. The Holy Spirit s Work In You A. He enables you to be born again. John 3:5-8 (NIV) Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." B. He lives with you and in you. John 14:16-17 (NIV) I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to 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. C. He causes God s love to be poured into your heart. Romans 5:5 (NIV) God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
D. He teaches you. John 14:26 (NIV) But the Counselor, 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. John 16:13 (NIV) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. The Holy Spirit will regularly remind us of what Jesus said. E. He gives you the power to be a witness for Him. Acts 1:8 (NIV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. The Holy Spirit helps us to be bold for Jesus. F. He enables you to speak as God would have you speak. This is especially true when we are under pressure to speak for Jesus. Mark 13:11 (NIV) Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. G. He will be your Counselor forever. John 14:16 (NIV) And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. [Remember that this word Counselor means defense attorney.] H. He helps you in your weakness. He also helps you to pray and He prays for you! Romans 8:26 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
I. He gives you hope. He also gives you joy and peace. Romans 15:13 (NIV) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. J. He sanctifies you. Romans 15:15-16 (NIV) I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. He purifies our hearts. (Acts 15:8-9) The Holy Spirit will work on you and help you and bless you and convict you all to make you like Jesus. He is very committed to conforming you into the image of Jesus Christ. K. He gives you various gifts, as He determines. 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NIV) There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. This is the very personality of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will make you like Jesus! L. He enables the fruit of the Spirit to develop in you. M. He causes righteousness, peace and joy to be in us.
Romans 14:17 (NIV) For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He gives us a new sensitivity to sin and uncleanness in our lives. He gives us a greater desire to be holy and pure and become like Jesus. N. He empowers you with spiritual authority. See: Matthew 10:1; 12:28-29 Luke 10:17-19 (NIV) The seventy-two returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. 18 He replied, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. Through the Holy Spirit, you are spiritually empowered to overcome the power of the evil one and win decisively! O. He exalts Jesus Christ through us. John 16:14 (NIV) He will glorify Me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. This is the high agenda of the Holy Spirit. He loves to exalt Jesus. He will receive truth from Jesus and help people who want to exalt Jesus. P. He witnesses to our spirits that we are the children of God and that we have eternal life through Jesus. Romans 8:16 (NIV) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God s children. See also I John 5:7-11 I John 5:7, 11 (NIV) There are three that testify And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The Holy Spirit witnesses in our spirits that we really have surrendered everything over to Jesus. He reminds us that real life is found in God s Son.
II. Four Reasons You Need the Holy Spirit in Your Life A. He gives you the power to become God s child. Humanity has lost its way and doesn t recognize that God wants to be our true Father. Without the power of God at work in us to draw us to God, no one can be saved. The Holy Spirit s job is to awaken our sense of spiritual need and point us to Jesus, the bridge back to God. John 3:3-5 (NIV) Jesus declared, I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. 4 How can a man be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born! 5 Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. B. He gives you power for daily living. The Holy Spirit gives you the power to live a daily life that is victorious and pleasing to Him. You can only live to please God through the Holy Spirit s help. Luke 4:13-14 (NIV) When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that gave Jesus the power to say no to temptation. If Jesus needed that power, we certainly do too! C. He gives you power to overcome the devil. Every Christian believer is under spiritual attack. We live in a war zone. You may not have known this, but before you become a Christian, you are on Satan s side (Matthew 12:30). After you choose to follow Jesus, you joined God s side. That means you now have an angry, evil enemy. The battles we fight are not just what they appear to be on the surface. They are spiritual battles, fought in the spiritual realm. If we are to be victorious, we need to use the weapons God provides to us, through the power of his Holy Spirit. Ephesians 6:10-18 (NIV)
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. After you choose Christ, spiritual warfare and attack will increase in your life. This is how Satan attempts to stop you from following Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit within you, God makes His power available to give you strength and the ability to win your spiritual battles. 1 John 4:4 (NIV) You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Romans 16:20 (NIV) The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. D. He gives you power to be a bold witness for Jesus. Acts 1:8 (NIV) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In this verse, the Greek word for power is dunamis. That is the Greek word that gives us the English word dynamite. God wants you to be filled with explosive power so you can be a witness for Him. Witnessing is not just about what you say. It is who you are. The best witness of all is a changed life that those around us see. God wants to totally fill you with His Holy Spirit every day. He wants to give you fresh boldness to witness for Jesus every day. (Acts 4:29-31; Ephesians 5:18; 6:18-20)
Jesus prayed for His Follower s and Disciples to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was called by John the Baptist the One who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus said that the Father had promised the Holy Spirit to His followers. Peter said that the Holy Spirit would be a gift to all those who would repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be given to anyone who asks for Him. (Luke 11:13) Exercise Two Thank God for the wonderful Gift of the Holy Spirit! 1. Identify tonight s group facilitator. It is the person having the most siblings. 2. Discuss What is the most difficult thing for you to understand about the Holy Spirit? Remember the 60 second rule... keep your comments to 60 seconds or less until everyone has an opportunity to speak. If you recognize you are the one doing most of the talking at the table, keep your contribution to a minimum tonight and listen to what others are saying. This may mean letting there be silence at the table for awhile. Some people need time to reflect and think about their response before they speak. Give them the opportunity to do that. If you recognize you don t usually contribute around the table, ask God to give you the courage to do that tonight. When you keep your thinking to yourself, you deprive everyone around the table of the insights you hold. Your insights may be the exact thing God wants to reveal at your table. Everyone at the table has permission to remind someone taking up a lot of the talk time of the 60 second rule. Exercise Three Discuss at your table, What specific, concrete differences does the Holy Spirit bring in the lives of Christians? Remember the instructions in Exercise 2.