The Holy Spirit, Week Two: What

On Easter Sunday we are launching a third service! (9am 10:30am & 12pm) When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NLT) I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God… 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NLT) No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NLT) But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NLT) No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit.  And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NLT) And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. Joel 2:28-29 (NIV) "If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. John 14:15-20 (NIV)  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-20 (NIV) Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:15-20 (NIV) So who is He? The Holy Spirit is NOT a FORCE to experience, but a PERSONALITY to KNOW and RELATE with. 3 things that help identify who the Holy Spirit is to us: He is our ADVOCATE When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. John 15:26 (NIV) As our ADVOCATE, The Holy Spirit stands WITH US and stands up FOR US based on what Jesus has already done. When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19 (NKJV) He is our GUIDE But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment… John 16:7-8 (NIV)   "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But 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. John 16:12-13 (NIV) But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 (NIV) God loved us so much that He didn't just make a WAY… He provided a GUIDE. The Holy Spirit will only lead us to the level of our surrender.  He is our "right here" GOD And God will raise us from the dead by his power, just as he raised our Lord from the dead. Don't you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ? Should a man take his body, which is part of Christ, and join it to a prostitute? Never! 1 Corinthians 6:14-17 (NLT) And don't you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, "The two are united into one." But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:14-17 (NLT)  He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you." John 16:14-15 (NIV)