Tuesday, 12/17/19 – Pressing on…

To know the Power of the Holy Spirit…

“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. He will glorify Me because it is from Me that He will receive what He will make known to you.” (John 16:13-14).

Possible the most summarizing statement Pastor Andrew made of his message this past Sunday was near the end of his sermon. He said “If you want to know the power of the Holy Spirit, glorify Christ.”

In light of the passage above this seems like it should be a no-brainer. The Holy Spirit is come to glorify Christ. Indeed He may do this by convicting the lost of the truth of the gospel and their need for Christ. He may work with us to lead such a soul to Jesus. He will convict us also of any un-Christ-like desires or fleshly sins and warn us of satanic ploys – all to bring glory to Christ Jesus by His righteousness manifest in His children.

He will help us in our prayers, even when we have no words for them. He will guide us into Truth and steer us from falsehoods. He can empower us with spiritual unction as we share the gospel and speak to glorify Christ, making us bold and targeting our words to prick the hearts and consciences of the hearers. He will also comfort us in our distress, bringing scriptures to mind or otherwise reminding us of Truth when worries sometimes cloud our thinking. He will manifest through us specific gifts (1 Cor. 12:4-11; Rom. 12:6-8) and fruits (Gal. 5:22-23) of the Spirit — all to bring glory to Jesus Christ.

Charles Spurgeon has said of this, “That spirit, which does not glorify Christ, is not the Spirit of God. Hereby shall ye discern between the spirit of error and the Spirit of truth.”

“In Him [Christ],” wrote Paul, “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead” (Col. 2:9 – NKJV), and “it is from [Christ] that He [the Holy Spirit] will receive what He will make known to you.” (John 16:13-14).

So stop praying for some great manifestation of the Spirit because inwardly you desire spectacle. Stop seeking the Spirit for personal pride in seeing Him at work through you. The Holy Spirit may be whispering to you all along and you have not noticed it…

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” (1 Kings 19:11-13).

Seek to glorify Christ, whether anyone else knows of it or not. Seek this in your secret places of prayer and the Holy Spirit will indeed manifest His power — and in ways you have not imagined.

More tomorrow…

To hear Pastor Andrew’s complete message, go to the Lincoln Baptist Church website and look under ‘Sermons Online’ for the Dec. 15 message.