The Holy Spirit is the Presence of God

TRUTH: The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in you.

Have you ever been in class before and the teacher asked for volunteers to answer the question that was asked?

>> Illustration: 6th grade Literature

What goes on in our head is something like this:

“Man, I just want to avoid this until it’s over. If I can just sit here and not get involved everything will be okay. Our goal right now is to avoid this whole situation until it’s over.”

But what we do not understand is that what the teacher was doing was actually essential to our learning. The teacher was being intentional. When we avoid the learning opportunity, we miss out in becoming a better student.

As a Christian, there’s something that happens when we get saved by the Jesus, but most of us have no idea. We just think that we are good because we’re forgiven and supposed to go to church now. But the Bible says that something happens that’s the game changer we have no idea about. The Bible says that we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit” at the moment of conversion in , and “the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance.”

What does this mean?

Literally, the very presence of God indwells you (if you are a Christian).

Lets face it, when the two words “Holy Spirit” are vocalized, a lot of times as Christians, we tune out because we think we cannot understand the third person of the Trinity. We understand God as Father. We also understand God as Son. But when it come to God as Holy Spirit, we’re clueless and would rather not. So we avoid it all together. But the Holy Spirit is essential to our faith.

The Holy Spirit. This is a topic that we avoid a lot of the time. But what we do not know is that the Holy Spirit is essential to our relationship with God. A part from the Holy Spirit we can do nothing of any spiritual value.

Can you imagine was it was like for the disciples to walk with Jesus for three whole years?

The disciples did. Just called them all to follow Him for three years. For three whole years, Jesus led them, taught them, and invested in them. They saw Jesus heal the sick, make the mute speak, walk on water, tell the storm to be still, and rise a dead man to life.

For three whole years, Jesus led them, taught them, and invested in them. They saw Jesus heal the sick, make the mute speak, walk on water, tell the storm to be still, and rise a dead man to life.

At the end of his time on earth, the very night before Jesus was arrested and led away to be crucified for the sins of the world, Jesus spoke a lot of hard truth to hear and comforting words to His disciples. In we find a statement that made no sense to the disciples.

God’s Word

John 16:7 ESV

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

:7

Jesus was leaving his disciples. Can you imagine what was going through their heads?

“We just spent nearly three whole years away from our family and all that we know to follow You and now you’re leaving us?? Are you serious right now?? How is it to our advantage if you go? You are our leader.”

But Jesus had a greater work to do. Jesus knew the plan of God that was about to unfold in the next coming days: Jesus would die on the cross, be buried, rise from the grave, and ascend into heaven. Shortly after, in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit would indwell the believers.

!!This would not happen if Jesus did not leave them!! That is why Jesus told them the following:

John 16:7 ESV

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.

Which is better?

Jesus with them physically?

God’s Spirit in them spiritually?

Answer: God’s Spirit in them spiritually is better.

They could only do so much with Jesus by their side. Jesus knew that God was going to use them to do greater things by indwelling them spiritually.

This is huge! Until the Holy Spirit came after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, we could not be near the presence of God because of our sinfulness. Now, by faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit not dwells in us.

>> As a Christian, there’s something that happens when we get saved by the Jesus, but most of us have no idea. We just think that we are good because we’re forgiven and supposed to go to church now. But the Bible says that something happens that’s the game changer we have no idea about. The Bible says that we are “sealed with the Holy Spirit” at the moment of conversion in , and “the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance.” <<

What does this mean?

Literally, the very presence of God indwells you (if you are a Christian). The living God lives in you. God’s temple is you.

TRUTH: The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in you.

Lets face it, when the two words “Holy Spirit” are vocalized, a lot of times as Christians, we tune out because we think we cannot understand the third person of the Trinity. We understand God as Father. We also understand God as Son. But when it come to God as Holy Spirit, we’re clueless and would rather not. So we avoid it all together. But the Holy Spirit is essential to our faith.

I feel like the Holy Spirit in the Christian’s life is the missing feature.

Have you ever discover a new feature on your phone or device and it’s mind blowing?

iPhone space bar, app shortcut, etc.

The presence of God in our lives is the feature of the Christian life we miss out on. Instead of depending/relying on ourselves, we need to lean into His presence!

Students, if we are not tapping into the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are doing it wrong. We are missing it. When we do tap into the Spirit of God in our lives, we discover that His presence is better than everything (material things, temptation, sin, etc.)

TRUTH: The Holy Spirit is the presence of God in you.

The disciples did not like the words of Jesus in that moment, but they would soon realize that Jesus was right. It was much better than Jesus go so that the Spirit, the helper, could come. Without the Spirit of God, everything was pointless.

Over the next three weeks we are going to journey through the work of the Holy Spirit. What does the Holy Spirit do? What is the Holy Spirit’s job? We are going to see that we need the Spirit of God in our lives to understand God’s Word and to do anything of spiritual value.