The Holy Spirit - The Holy Spirit: He's More than "The Force", Part 1

The Holy Spirit, who is He? What does He do?

And is He still at work today? Stay with me as we begin this crucial study of the third person of the Trinity and better understand how He empowers our life each and every day. And today, as he just teased, he'll begin his series, The Holy Spirit, Experiencing His Power and Presence 24-7. If Christians are honest, they don't know a lot about the Holy Spirit or have faulty ideas of His purpose and responsibilities. So for the next handful of programs, Chip will challenge what we think we know and open our eyes to the magnificence of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So if you're ready, settle in as Chip kicks off this series with his talk, The Holy Spirit, He's More Than the Force. What did Jesus teach about the Holy Spirit? Who did He say He was?

How does it really work? There's a context, Jesus makes a promise, there's a rationale, and there's a command. If you will, turn to John 14, and as you go there, let me give you the context.

The context is this, there's a handful of people, 11 in particular and probably another 109 at least, that are scared to death. It's the night before His crucifixion, and He's been telling them all kind of weird stuff. He just washed their feet, He took a symbol and an event that they've known since they were little boys called the Passover, and He began to tell them things that He's been telling them over and over and over about, I'm the Passover Lamb, and I'm going to die, and then I'm going to rise from the dead, and they really didn't have a clue of what that whole thing was about.

And they're starting to get the idea that this Messiah, this champion, was not going to take over Rome, and they weren't going to sit on thrones, and they weren't going to sort of take over the whole political system, and all of a sudden, they're seeing that where He's going and what's happening is not at all what their expectations are, and they're afraid. And so after He washes their feet, in John chapter 14, He wants to reassure them. He says, do not let your heart be troubled, trust in God. Trust also in Me.

And He starts to give them some hope. In My Father's house, there's many rooms. If it weren't so, I would have told you, I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come back, and I'll take you to be with Me, that you may be there with Me also.

You know the way to the place where I'm going. And then I love people like Thomas. You know, it's kind of like he interrupts this little, excuse me, Lord.

These other guys may get it, but I really don't. Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? And then a passage we often quote, and I believe He looked them dead in the eye. And you'll notice there's a definite article before each one, and He says to them, I am the way.

I am the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you skip down to verse 18, He makes this promise because they're very afraid, and He says, I will not leave you as orphans.

I will come to you. And then if you back up just a little bit, He's going to give them a promise. Now, think about this. Sometimes we so get this into Bible stories and another day and another time. Imagine yourself following and sacrificing and believing He's real, and you've seen the miracles, and you've actually been an eyewitness of people coming back from the dead.

And you were one of the people that He gave you parts of the bread and parts of the fish, and you are aware that He is God incarnate. But you can't quite get your arms around the story, and He's telling you that He's going to leave, and you're afraid, and you just wonder, how does it all fit together? They didn't have what we have. They couldn't look back.

They were looking forward. And then He says, look, I won't leave you as orphans. I'm not going to abandon you. And then notice His promise. Look at verse 16 of chapter 14, and He says, and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another counselor to be with you forever. And then He describes this counselor or comforter, this paraclete. It's the spirit of truth.

The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, for He lives with you, and notice this promise, and will be in you. He says He'll give you another, and in Greek there's a couple key words for another. One is heteros. We get the word like heterosexual. It means someone of a different kind.

This word is one of the same kind. There's someone who will be called to do life alongside you. He'll not just be with you as He has in the past. Here's the promise. He will be in you. He's going to dwell in you. He's promising them that the Spirit of God, He's describing the new covenant, and some of their minds are going, Ezekiel, where's this happening? This was the promise.

Could this be? And He's telling them that a new day is arriving, and He's going to leave, and the Spirit of the living God is actually going to indwell inside of them. Jesus goes on, verse 23. If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him.

Notice the plural now. The Father and the Son. We will come to Him and make our home, or literally our abode, our dwelling place. We, the Father and the Son, will come to those who are followers, who demonstrate their love through obedience.

We will come, and we will dwell with or make our home with them. He who does not love Me will not obey My teachings. These words you hear are not My own. They belong to the Father who sent Me.

All this I've spoken to you while still with you. But the counselor, the advocate, the guide, the Holy Spirit, the friend whom the Father will send in My name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything that I have said. He's saying that the Spirit of the living God, the third person of the triunity, is going to come and take up residence inside a human body, and everything that I ever taught, He'll reveal and manifest the very presence of Jesus and the resurrected power of Jesus, of the Father.

Did you notice the Trinity coming through here? The Father will send. The Father and I will dwell.

The Spirit will actually take up residence in a human body, and His abode will be with you and inside you. And then He talks about how it's relational. Those who love Me will obey Me. Those who follow My teaching, those who the conduit of your heart and life, His promise is, I'll be in you, not just with you.

His rationale is basically that what I'm about to do is better than staying. Turn in your Bibles, if you will, just a couple chapters. He gives the great illustration about the Spirit and the relationship with the Father and the Son in chapter 15, and I'm the vine and my Father's the vine dresser, and He gives this picture of abiding that they clearly understood. And what He teaches them early on, it's not about performance. What He teaches them early on, it's about relationship. What He teaches them early on is, it's the life-giving Spirit that brings transformation, and your only real job is just to stay connected to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. And when you're in relational connection, that has to do with, yes, renewing your mind and obedience and the community of God's people, but that relational connection, the Spirit of God will produce the fruit supernaturally, and the fruit will be what He's like.

And after He gives them that picture in John 15, then here's His rationale. He says, But I tell you the truth, it's for your good or for your advantage that I'm going away. Unless I go away, the counselor will not come to you.

But if I go away, I will send him to you. It's John 16, verse 7. Skipping down to verse 12, He says, I have much more to say to you, more than you can bear now.

But notice the promise. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all 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 bring glory to Me by taking what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine, and that is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.

Do you see what He's saying? Someone's going to take up residence inside of you, disciples. And He's going to take all the truth, anything you've ever heard, He's going to guide you. Right now, Peter, John, James, you got in on the Mount of Transfiguration.

That was pretty amazing, wasn't it? And you were with me when I raised Jarius' daughter from the dead. And then remember when you had a big question, Peter, and the other guys were over there, and you came over and you talked to me and I worked through some of those issues with you?

Well, while I was talking with you, James and John couldn't talk with me. I want you to know it's better because you, James, John, and every believer will have access to me 24-7 unlimited. I will be their counselor. I will be the truth. I will reveal the truth of God from His Word. I will speak to them in their heart.

I will be available. I will live not just on the earth. I will live inside of you. And I'll manifest the person, the presence, the power, and the reality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit inside of you. www.livingontheedge.org And thanks for doing whatever God leads you to do.

Well, let's rejoin Chip now for the remainder of his message. I'm not sure most Christians get that at all. I think most Christians, if you ask them, they think the Holy Spirit's a lot like the Force. Luke! Luke! Obey the Force! Take your hands off the controls!

Let the Force guide you! They're creative, wonderful, exciting movies that have been teaching Zen Buddhism for the last 30-some years. And the average Christian, I think, thinks there's some sort of neutral spiritual power or energy somehow working somehow. I don't know who he is. I don't know how it works. I don't know what it is. And some people say a lot about him and some people don't say much about him.

Some other people just down afraid of him. Or it, as they say. When I listen to Christians talk about the Holy Spirit, I often hear, Well, it, it's not a it. It's a he.

It's a person. Jesus told his early disciples in the midst of their fear and uncertainty that it is better for him to go because they would have access to God, relationship with God, and intimacy with himself like no one ever, ever before. And we are of that clan. New Testament saints. The story goes on in Acts. He gives them a command. He makes this promise, but this isn't like, well, you know, for those of you that are second-milers and really want to experience God in an amazing way, notice the command. Acts chapter 1. If you want to turn in your Bibles there, you may know the story already. I'll pick it up in verse 4. It says on one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them this command.

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift. Notice, speaking of the Holy Spirit, that the Father promised what you've heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. By the word, the literal meaning of the word baptism means to dip. The metaphorical meaning has to do primarily with being identified with.

It does certainly have to do with water. You know, we are baptized. It's this picture of dying with Christ and being raised with him. But the meaning of the word to baptize primarily means to be identified with, connected with, a new identity. That's why when a couple of the disciples got their mother to see if they could get, you know, in the places of position, Jesus turned to them and said, Can you be baptized with the baptism that I would baptize with, speaking of his death?

And they said yes. What he was saying is, Can you identify with me? I'm going to the cross, and if you want to follow me, you're going to have to go to the cross with me. And now he's saying, John baptized with water. It was a baptism of repentance.

It was an external thing. It was when people understood they were far from God, and they turned from their sin, and they found a Savior. But I tell you what, I'm going to baptize with the Spirit. And then he's going to describe and tell them what that means. Verse 6, so when they met together, they asked him, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel? He said to them, It's not for you to know the time or the dates.

The Father is set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea, Sumeria, and to the ends of the earth. Now, I don't know about you, but I didn't grow up reading the Bible. In fact, I didn't go to a church that even taught the Bible.

I never opened until I was 18. But even as a growing Christian, I started to grow spiritually, and it's not the first time I ever heard people talk about the Holy Spirit or Acts. But how many of you, if you were sitting in the room and Jesus said, I'm going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit, would you have said, Oh, so you're going to restore the kingdom?

See, these guys were not just a bunch of blue-collar workers. They knew the Old Testament. Open your Bible.

Why don't you see something? Open it to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel chapter 36. What I want you to get is Jesus is beginning to put the pieces together of all the promises of all God was going to do in the Old Testament economy. And when he began to talk about, I'm going to leave. The Spirit's coming.

He won't be just with you. They understood the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament in that economy. They understood that there was times of power and people were chosen and there was a David or there was a Saul, and the Spirit was given at times the Spirit was taken away. But it was for a special service, and it would be for a king or for a prophet or someone who had a special, special calling. It allowed people to have access and power and hear God's voice and get direction.

But Ezekiel, at a time when Israel was far, far from God, after talking about judgment, judgment, judgment, was giving them hope. And in verse 24 of chapter 36, he says, speaking to Israel, For I will take you out of the nations. Because he says, I promise, because of your idols, I'll spread you around the earth. I'll gather you back from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.

And then listen to this. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurity and cleanse you from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. That's why they said, when he said, I'm going to baptize you with the Spirit, the lights went on, so you're going to restore the kingdom.

It's all going to come together. And Jesus said, guys, that's a good theological question, but when I restore the kingdom in the issue, the issue is you responding to what I'm telling you. You're going to receive power. God's expectation of every believer who's a follower legitimately of Him is that you possess power. And the moment you receive Christ, you receive power. And you'll be His martyrs. That's the Greek word. You'll be His witnesses.

You can be a good one or a bad one, but you are one. The Spirit of the living God lives inside of every single believer. And so I just want to say this out loud, and you may know this theologically, but my challenge will be for you to let it sink from your head to your heart and then let it soak in.

The promise of the Holy Spirit is that all believers would receive the indwelling presence and resurrection power of the glorified Christ within us forever. Think of that. Think of that. You've got a big problem. You've got a financial need. You've got an addiction. You've got a struggle in your marriage. You've got a problem with one of your kids.

How many of us believe more than just at the intellectual level that the power that raised Christ from the dead and the indwelling Christ actually, on this moment, dwells inside of you? So you need wisdom. What's a good counselor do if he lives inside of you? He'll give you wisdom. You need power. You need strength. You need the will to do what's hard to do.

It's available. Right now, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you've turned from your sin, received Him by faith, and the Spirit of God has come into your life, you have all the spirit you'll ever get. He doesn't come in installments. What we're going to learn is that He can get a lot more of you.

And as He gets more of you, and as you understand how sort of to open up the conduit of your heart and your life, and we'll talk about exactly how, you can access that power in ways that most Christians honestly aren't. And it's not like trying hard to get joy. A byproduct of this relationship is love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and gentleness and self-control. It just gets produced. It's a byproduct. It's not a byproduct of trying to be loving and trying to be joyful. Certainly there's a responsibility on our part.

We'll talk about that. But before we go on, I want you to get Jesus lives inside of you. The Father and the Son and the person of the Holy Spirit dwells inside every single believer. And He longs to whisper in your ear. And He longs to comfort you. And He longs to comfort you in ways that are beyond what any person or any book or any pastor or any counselor or anyone. No one understands you like Him.

No one feels your pain like Him. But a lot of times we have this idea that there's this invisible energy or force over there somewhere somehow or the Spirit did that someday some ways, and we don't live with that reality. Well, let's talk a little bit then who exactly is the Holy Spirit.

That's what Jesus taught. That was just the teaching of Jesus about the Holy Spirit to the early disciples and to us. Who is the Holy Spirit? Number one, He is a person, not an influence. He's a person. He's not the force, He's not an energy, He's not an it. He's a person first because He's intelligent. 1 Corinthians 2, 10 and 11 says, No one knows the mind of a man except the spirit of a man, and no one knows the mind of God except the Spirit of God who searches all things.

The Holy Spirit has intelligence, intellect. He has feelings. Ephesians 4.30, we're told, we're commanded, don't grieve the Spirit. What's grieving? It's making a person feel sad, and we're told not to grieve him by let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor not be a part of your life anymore.

It grieves. It makes God so sad when we're unkind and harsh and unloving to one another. See, what happens, here's what we do in the Christian life. We get this idea that it's about here's this formula and here's this success and here's this way I'm supposed to live and I try hard to live this way, and if I live this way and it really works out, good things happen. And when I don't live this way, it doesn't work out, bad things happen. And so I keep trying to live this way, and I get really tired doing all this stuff. And somehow I know there's these rules, and these rules are really important.

I know they're for my good. But when you break an invisible sort of rule, it's like, darn, I wish I could keep that rule. There's a big difference between breaking a rule and breaking someone's heart. I can break a lot of rules and go, boy, I'll try harder next time. But I've had a few occasions where I've looked at my wife after I've said something that I wish I hadn't said or I was late for the 15th or the 18th and the 19th time when I said I would be there early in our marriage, and I looked at her face and I broke her heart.

And when I saw how my behavior impacted her heart, I wanted to change. When you sin, and when I sin, you're not breaking some rules that it's going to have some impact on your self-fulfillment or cause you to lose some brownie points with God. You break God's heart because He has your best. Think of those of you that are parents, and you think about how it breaks your heart when one of your kids lies to you or when you talk to them about something and they just go around you and when they keep doing the same kind of thing. Because what it really says is your kids don't really trust you. What it really says is they don't really love you, right? And some of you had some horrendous times.

Your kids have really gone off, and you see them in terrible situations. Well, of course, there's hurt and there's disappointment, but isn't there more than anything else sadness? Doesn't it just break your heart?

When you begin to think that God lives in you and when you have that sort of check in your spirit that's a loss of peace, what if you started thinking, that's the spirit shedding a tear for me? I'm breaking his heart. I'm disappointing God. He loves me. That will change.

That will change how you live your life. He's a person. He's intelligent. He has feelings. He has a will. 1 Corinthians 12 and 11 says, Now all these things, speaking of giving spiritual gifts to the church, all these things work one and the same from one and the same spirit, and he distributes them just as he wills or just as he determines. So who is he first and foremost?

He's a person. This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and you've been listening to part one of Chip's message, The Holy Spirit, He's More Than the Force, from our series, The Holy Spirit. Chip will be back shortly to share some helpful application for us to think about. In this eight-part series, Chip takes the mystery out of this critical third part of the Trinity. Join us in key passages across Scripture that illustrate the Holy Spirit's power, presence, purpose, and relevance to our lives today. Learn why he is more than a spiritual force and how a meaningful relationship with the Holy Spirit can lead to deeper intimacy with God the Father. Let me encourage you to stick around for each message.

But if you do miss any part, catch up through the Chip Ingram app. Well, our Bible teacher, Chip Ingram, is in studio now, and Chip, as we begin this series on the Holy Spirit, explain why this topic is so important, and then tease a little of what we're going to learn over the next several broadcasts together. Well, Dave, first and foremost, I taught on this because there's a lot of ignorance in the church.

A lot of people really don't understand. The Holy Spirit is a part of the Godhead. Jesus said that when he left, that he would send the Paraclete, or the Holy Spirit, another counselor, and the word for another there is another like me. The Holy Spirit's job, you know, we talk about Jesus in our heart, or we talk about experiencing God's power, or experiencing God's presence. This entire series is the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and the doctrine, don't make that some big theological word, is what the Bible actually teaches about the Spirit of God living inside of you. And what I've discovered is a lot of people don't understand about his presence, power in the Christian life, spiritual gifts, and so that's why I taught it. And at times, it's become a point of controversy because people really don't know what the Bible says.

So we come from different traditions, so what we wanted to do is say, what do we know for sure the Bible actually says about the Holy Spirit? So it's going to be a great journey. For many people, I'm going to go a little bit fast. I'm covering a very big topic. And so there's some message notes, livingontheedge.org, download those for free, and follow along.

It would greatly increase their ability to really get the most out of this series. Good idea, Chip. And in addition to those message notes, because this topic is one we all could learn more about, let me encourage you to also invite a few friends to listen with you, either through the Chip Ingram app or at livingontheedge.org. Let's learn more about the Holy Spirit together.

Well, here again is Chip to share some application from what we heard today. As we close today's program, I want to remind you that you are not trying hard to live a good moral life with some vague supernatural power like the Force, but the fact is there is a person living inside of you. The person is the person of the Holy Spirit.

He's an actual person with thoughts and feelings, and he literally is the very person and presence and power and the reality of Jesus who has taken up personal residence inside your body. As I taught this, I'll never forget, it was very recently, and I was asking some people, so what did God say to you? I mean, you know, we were sitting around after the teaching times, and I said, you know, give me some feedback on where did you really sense God speak?

And there was a lady who just tilted her head, and I'll never forget it. She said, you know something? I've been a Christian for 20 years, and I don't know, it's not like I've never heard this before, but a light came on, and she said, I realized someone lives inside of me instead of something. She said, I've always thought of the Holy Spirit, I mean, honestly, like an it, like some sort of power, but vague, and she said, when I began to think of a counselor, someone who would guide me, someone that would really direct my steps, who would whisper in my ear and say, oh, don't go down that path, that's a bad path, or someone who would encourage me, she said, as I've been reading my Bible the rest of this week during this teaching time, she goes, it's kind of revolutionized my relationship with Jesus. And I don't know where you're at, but I think a lot of us very unconsciously begin to think that the Holy Spirit isn't it.

And I want to remind you, there is a sensitive, kind, loving, all-powerful counselor who wants to do life with you, and if you're a follower of Christ, he lives inside of you. And could I ask you just to step back today and pray a very simple prayer? Oh, Holy Spirit, the very living presence of the triune God inside of me, would you make yourself real to me, and would you help me listen to you? Think of that, will you make yourself real to me, and will you help me listen to you?

And then get ready, because he'll speak. As we wrap up, I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. If you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? You can do that by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Donate. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support. Well, join us next time as Chip continues his series, The Holy Spirit. Until then, I'm Dave Drouie, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge. .