Lesson 3 for July 19, 2014
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper [paraklētos], that He may abide with you forever. (Juan 14:16) Jesus called the Holy Spirit paraklētos (John 14:26). para = beside klētos = called The Holy Spirit is one called to the side of. He is sent to be beside us, to console us, to help us and to exhort us. Before ascending to Heaven, Jesus told to His disciples, I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:18). That coming was not a physical one, but the coming of a representative. Jesus had been their advisor, helper and comforter; the Holy Spirit would be our Advisor, Helper and Comforter since then. John said, we have a paraklētos with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. (1 John 2:1). Jesus is our representative before the Father, and the Holy Spirit is the representative of Jesus before us.
John 14:26. He teaches and reminds. John 15:26. He testifies. John 16:8. He reproves.. John 16:14. He glorifies Jesus. Acts 10:19. He speaks. Acts 13:4. He leads people. Acts 15:28. He has His own will. Acts 16:6. He forbids. Which work does the Holy Spirit do that prove He is a Person? Romans 8:9. He lives in us. Romans 8:26-27. He makes intercession for the saints. Romans 15:30. He loves. 1 Corinthians 2:10. He searches. 1 Corinthians 12:11. He distributes as He wills. Ephesians 4:30. He may get sad. Titus 3:5. He renews us.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned several times along with the Father and the Son: Matthew 28:19 Luke 1:35 Luke 3:22 John 14:26 John 15:26 Acts 2:33 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26) 2 Corinthians 13:14 Galatians 4:6 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Hebrews 9:14 1 Peter 1:2 In addition, He is given divine qualities: He is omnipresent. Psalm 139:7. He foretells the future. John 16:13. He may not be blasphemed against. Mark 3:29.
E.G.W. (Evangelism, cp. 18, pg. 615) The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.
However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. (John 16:13-14) not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5) But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)
The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: When He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements. To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you, Christ said. He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 16:14; 14:26 E.G.W. (The Acts of the Apostles, cp. 5, pg. 52)
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8) First step: Second step: How can we receive the Holy Spirit? Asking for the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13) Being baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) To be baptized is to be totally immersed in something. It includes the whole person. Baptism with the Holy Spirit means to be totally under His influence, completely filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This is not a once and forever experience, but is something that needs to be constantly renewed.
To us today, as verily as to the first disciples, the promise of the Spirit belongs. God will today endow men and women with power from above, as He endowed those who on the Day of Pentecost heard the word of salvation. At this very hour His Spirit and His grace are for all who need them and will take Him at His word. E.G.W. (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, cp. 3, pg. 20)