The Holy Spirit.
12 There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring Me glory by telling you whatever He receives from Me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is Mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever He receives from Me.’
– John 16:12-15
This week, we’ll finish a three-part miniseries on the Trinity. Two weeks ago, I touched on God the Father, and last week, we explored Jesus the Son. This week, we’ll conclude with the Holy Spirit (our Paraclete, or helper). As Christians, we serve one God – not three. I recently came across a quote by Billy Graham which put a new perspective on the Trinity. He said, “It is not one plus one plus one equals three. It is one times one times one equals one.”
I think many Christians fall into one of two ditches with the Holy Spirit. Either they grossly overemphasize it (to the degradation of the others), or they ignore it (and miss out on hearing God’s voice). We’ve seen a sad number of people abusing the Holy Spirit, which certainly contributes to many ignoring it. But we can’t discard the Holy Spirit because some people misuse it, just as we can’t discard the Bible because some people take it out of context.
Jesus lived His entire life by the power of the Spirit. He was conceived by the Spirit (Luke 1:35), baptized by the Spirit (Luke 3:21-22), and resurrected by the Spirit (Romans 8:11). If Jesus needed the Spirit, so do we.
Let’s take a quick look at three reasons why the Holy Spirit still matters. I’ll also say it again – please ask a pastor or Christian leader if you have more questions. Don’t ask social media or AI.
The Holy Spirit Advocates for Us.
“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 through wordless groans. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
– Romans 8:26-27
Don’t you sometimes wish you had someone on your side, fighting for you? God’s Spirit does that. When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He didn’t leave the disciples alone. They would’ve gone back to fishing within the week. He deliberately sent His Holy Spirit, which we automatically gain by accepting Christ.
I should mention how the disciples experienced their greatest spiritual growth after the Holy Spirit came. Even with Jesus as their teacher, the disciples fled and abandoned Him. But as soon as the Holy Spirit arrived, there was no stopping them.
When we have no idea what to pray for, the Holy Spirit will reveal the right words to us. Jesus said this to the disciples when He sent them out (Matthew 10:16-20). And when our circumstances are so bleak that all hope is gone, the Spirit stays with us. We can turn to Him when we’re in need.
The Holy Spirit Guides Us.
“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative – that is, the Holy Spirit – He will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
– John 14:26
We know that God speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. But God, the Holy Spirit, also speaks to us in other ways. Scripture is His logos (written) word, but the Holy Spirit can reveal God’s will to us through the rhema (spoken) word. A rhema word is when you sense that still, small voice in your spirit, or read something or hear something from someone and know deep in your heart that this was something specifically for you from God.
However, here is where many people can go wrong: they place the rhema word above the logos word. I think they work in parallel because if it’s from the Holy Spirit, the rhema word will always be aligned with the logos word.
Here’s what I’m getting at: God didn’t stop speaking after He wrote the Scriptures. He continues to speak today if we’ll listen. God still has personal instructions for us. If this weren’t so, we should expect very few answers to our modern problems. Unfortunately, Jesus wasn’t able to answer the question “Should I go to college X or Y” during His life on earth. That’s where the Spirit comes in.
We go wrong when we ignore the rhema word. We can also go very wrong when we say the rhema word usurps Scripture. God will never tell you to disobey His own Book. So if you hear from God – even if you think it isn’t Him – hold that statement loosely until you’ve fact-checked it with God’s Word.
The Holy Spirit Equips Us.
“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking Him, ‘LORD, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’ He replied, ‘The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’”
– Acts 1:6-8
“I can’t do ministry. I can’t write a blog. I can’t produce a podcast. I can’t serve at church. I can’t…” These thoughts love to race through my brain. The devil uses them because they’re true. Without the Holy Spirit, I can do nothing. It’s the Spirit that equips me to do these things. He reveals insights to me, He strengthens me, He gives me ideas.
Feel like you’re stuck? Ask the Spirit. Feel like you don’t have what it takes? Ask the Spirit. We were never meant to do this alone. The disciples had Jesus; we have the Holy Spirit. We have what we need to glorify God.
In Conclusion.
We need the Holy Spirit in our lives today. We can’t live for God without His Holy Spirit. God the Father is our Creator, Jesus the Son is our Saviour, and the Holy Spirit is our helper (Paraclete). Let’s finish with three takeaways…
1. Ask God for help.
When I’m at work, I often encounter things that I’m not familiar with. How do you mass-merge images in InDesign? How do you vectorize a JPG in Illustrator? How do you set up an agentic workflow in Claude? When I have questions, I ask. Or I research. It’s only natural that we ask God when we have questions. He wants to answer you!
2. Seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance.
God gives us instructions in the Scriptures. He also wants to offer us personal guidance as we pray and pursue Him. Again, the rhema word can be used to complement the logos word. This is not to say the Holy Spirit’s words are a replacement or an addition to Scripture. That’s heresy. Yet ignoring God can be just as disastrous. Pray about it.
3. Strengthen your faith.
Our faith grows when we seek God. We should read Scripture. We should serve. We should give. We should pray. We should especially make sure we don’t ignore the complete Trinity.
(If you’re looking for a short resource on equipping yourself for whatever God has for you this summer, check out the Devotionals page on WLF. I’m starting a series on the Armour of God next week.)
During the last three weeks, I hope you’ve been encouraged to reevaluate why each member of the Trinity matters. God is too important to forget. When people ask me, “Why do you get up so early to read Scripture?” or “How do you find time to serve as much as you do?” my response is: “How could I afford not to?”
We need God the Father. We need Jesus the Son. We need the Holy Spirit. We need our Creator, Saviour, and Helper, the 3-in-1 Godhead.
This Summer.
Next week, I’m off to camp for my third summer of full-time ministry. My main job is lifeguarding, although I’ll also cabin lead my guys from church and help with chapel production. I would love your prayers for energy, focus, and a filling of God’s Spirit as I enter this season. If you’d like my full prayer list, please reach out to me through the Contact page, and I’ll gladly send it to you.
With this in mind, I’m starting a new series for the summer. I can’t promise I’ll post every week, although I’ll do my best. On that note, I will again be putting a pause on The WLF Podcast, starting next week. For my audio listeners – don’t worry, you can still read my posts. This series will tie directly into camp, my job expectations, and modelling Christ.
Ironically, the theme verse from my summer series last year (Fruit at Camp) ties perfectly into what we discussed today. To quote Galatians 5:22-23…
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”
I'd love to hear from you!