Our relationship with God is filled with beauty, purpose, nuance, and power. The Father has moved heaven and earth to overcome the imperfection resulting from sin and to buy us back from the kingdom of darkness. Jesus has obediently followed His Father’s will and sacrificed His perfection for our personal turbulence. The Holy Spirit is our personal internal Helper to connect us with the presence of the Father and the Son. This is the complete extension of the Trinity to bring life where there was only death.
God the Father is our Healer. Exodus 15:26 explains this identity. “And He said, If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
When Jesus returned to fulfill the promise of Isaiah 61, He healed many to reveal this reality in very concrete ways. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to prisoners; and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort and to grant those who mourn in Zion: a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. Then they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
The Father has done His work. Jesus has accomplished everything the Father asked by giving Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Holy Spirit is the breath and Voice of God in the world – and everywhere else.
Where is the Father right now? On His throne in heaven!
Where is Jesus right now? At the Father’s right hand upon His own throne!
Where is the Holy Spirit? He is everywhere, doing the will of the Father!
And this everywhere, according to Jesus, includes within the heart and soul of every one of those He ransomed from death. You and me!
How can we increase our personal dialogue with the Spirit?
√ Investigate what Jesus says about the water/what do you see? “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” – John 7:38
√ Consider what John the baptist says about hearing God’s voice/what do you see? “He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John 3:29-30
√ What the Spirit does for us when things are obtuse or hard to focus/what do you see? “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” – Romans 8:26-27
√ Remember who you are, not based upon behavior or success, but the work God has accomplished inside you/what do you see? “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. For you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” – 1 Peter 2:9-10
What a beautiful, personal, and powerful thing!
Listening with you,
Dave and Burnadette
Related links:
My Spirit Heart
The Big Picture on the Spirit
The Role of the Spirit
Living by the Spirit
Music: Spirit Song