Week 7: The Features of the Holy Spirit

Scripture: John 14: 15-26

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

The Features of the Holy Spirit

Message:

As a child, my parent’s would often solicit my assistance with setting up new devices for them. Whenever they purchased a new TV, VCR, DVD player, Cellphone or Computer; I knew that my responsibility was to prepare it for their use. This meant that I had to become familiar enough with the device that I could adequately explain it to them so they could use it properly. They normally purchased these devices, as a replacement to the devices that they had already had. They found there was a need to depart from the current device with the hopes of attaining new features and possibilities with a new device. After a certain amount of devices, I began to think I had it all figured out. I would treat the new device as if it was the old device. I set them up the same way, and I used them for the same functions. After conditioning myself this way, I couldn’t understand why they kept getting new devices if they were all doing the same things; and that’s when I realized that I had been limiting the devices to my understanding of them. I had been misusing them because I had failed to read the User’s Manual.

The User’s Manual is a packet of information given by the manufacturer to provide a complete understanding of a thing. The information is provided with the hopes that the consumer uses the product to its fullest potential. Myself, like many other people, have never read the user’s manuals to many devices and find out about the features of a product based upon a process of trial and error. This process over time, will teach us many things about the product but will never truly give us the fullness of the product’s potential. The truth of the matter is that we often take this same principle towards other things as well. In my short years of living, I have found that we as people don’t get the fullest out of some things, and one of those things I would argue is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit, which is also known as the Holy Ghost is the third person of the trinity. The Holy Spirit, I would argue, is one of the most misinterpreted and misunderstood topic found in the Christian Church. Some limit the functions of the Holy Spirit to the Charismatic experiences that take place during Worship Services in the Charismatic Churches. These Charismatic experiences consist of speaking in tongues, leaping, jumping, shouting, dancing, and other forms of praising God. I, like some of you, may have heard people or participated in conversation about people catching the holy spirit while in church as if it is a football being thrown in the church building. There is no scriptural reference to the Holy Spirit being caught by anyone, but there are scriptural references about people being filled with and receiving the Holy Spirit. The idea of catching the Holy Spirit dilutes the value of the Spirit, by bringing our understanding of the Spirit to the level of something that God throws to God’s people.

When describing the features or attributes or characteristics of the Holy Spirit, Jesus lifts up three ideas for our consideration and understanding. These features provide information on ways we can interact with the Holy Spirit and the ways the Holy Spirit will interact with us. The truth of the matter is that the Holy Spirit is supposed to be in relationship with us similar to the way the disciples were in relationship with Jesus. When you love someone and are in right relationship with them, there is a certain amount of things you wouldn’t do to offend them. Jesus makes a similar claim in this text that those who love him, will keep his commandments and his word. As a result of this, the father will love them and will send to them the advocate. But I like what Jesus does, he doesn’t just promise something, he gets specific about the features of the Spirit. He lists the details of the Spirit, so they know what they are truly going to receive when it comes. I want to discuss these three features of the Holy Spirit with you.

The first thing that Jesus lifts as a Feature of the Holy Spirit is that it is an advocate. Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit as Another Advocate, reinforcing the idea that Jesus himself is the primary advocate and that the Holy Spirit will come as a replacement for him on the earth. It is important, for the understanding of the working of the Holy Spirit, that we are able to define what an advocate is. Thus being the case, I have defined the term for you. An Advocate in the English language is a person who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy. I found that definition didn’t grasp the fullness of the word so I looked further. In the French language, an advocate or avocat is a lawyer or someone who pleads on the behalf of someone. But to take it a step further, the origin of the word comes from Latin, advocatus, which means an intercessor. Suggesting that the Holy Spirit will speak on the behalf of you to God and to God’s people; even when we can’t speak for ourselves. Though that gave me some relief, I thought to look at how we got to the word advocate. It was a translation from the word Paraklétos or Paraclete. Paraclete is translated as an advocate, comforter, or helper, but it is a Greek compound term; Para meaning close or beside and Kaleo meaning to make a call. This word refers to something called to be close or beside of something. The holy spirit is called to be and walk alongside us, which reminds us of Jesus’ statement in verse 18, that he will not leave us orphaned or alone.  An advocate will always be with you. An Advocate is a close friend who you can share all your trouble with. It’s a partner-in Christ, not in crime; but truly someone you can depend on in your time of need. It’ll never leave you high and dry, it will help defend you and protect you from the wiles of the adversary. It will always be there to help you.

The second feature of the Holy Spirit is that it is the Spirit of Truth. In order to be a recipient of the Spirit of Truth, you must first have a true connection with the Original truth. Jesus explains earlier in this chapter that He is the way, The Truth and The Life. Jesus notifies us that He is the truth, suggesting there is no lie in him. I like the truth because the Truth has a boldness that comes along with it. You can’t shift the truth, in order for it to be the truth, it has to be 100% pure. We have all heard of the truth, some would argue that everyone has their own individual truth. But Jesus is the truth, no matter what we base his truth upon, because the truth sums up what he was. Jesus taught and preached the truth. He talked about the truth. He told us of the truths of heaven. When He was faced with powerful people, He spoke the truth to power. He prophesied about the truth. He proved every prophecy stated about Him was the truth. Jesus says in a world full of lies and deceit, follow me, for I am the truth. Some will not be able to See the Truth or know the truth because they just can’t handle the Truth. Jesus states that the Spirit of truth shall live in you and be with you. But the beauty of the Spirit of Truth is that it is something you can only have, see and use when you are already connected to the source of Truth, which is Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit; the spirit of truth is a device that Jesus is giving us as a means of us not being alone in the world.

But lastly, the third feature Jesus discusses in our text is that the Holy Spirit will be a Teacher to us. A teacher is someone we entrust to prepare us for things that are to come. Teachers are responsible for being a helping hand in the growth and development of a person’s understanding of a subject or topic. A teacher’s goal is to elevate your level of thinking on a subject. You can’t do anything well without first having a teacher. Someone who will educate, implement, mentor, and motivate you to be the you, you can be Piaget, an educational guru and philosopher, was known for his expertise in explaining teaching methods. Among a few others, he brought to our attention a model called the Constructivism. Constructivism is a teaching model that reviews the inventory of information the student already has and uses it as a foundation to build further on their education. His argument suggests that a good teacher will always remind you of the information you’ve already learned and will teach you some new information to help you develop further. So in short, The Holy Spirit is not only a teacher, but a Good Teacher, because it will do that for us. It will bring back to our memory what we were taught by Christ, and will teach us things to prepare us for the journey.

            Now that we know what the features are of the Holy Spirit, we have an understanding on how the spirit operates in us, through us and for us. This allows us to see the work of the Holy Spirit in the church throughout the Scriptures. We can see and understand how Peter knew what to say when He preached his sermon in Acts 2. We can see and understand how the Apostle could create a Doctrine for the people to follow starting in Acts 2. We can see and understand how Peter and John could properly deal with the Sanhedrin after healing a lame man in Acts 4. We can see and understand how the Holy Spirit taught Peter that all foods have been made clean in Act 10; just to name a few. The Holy Spirit is not sold in a store near you, but it does have features that will be a great benefit to your life and the advancement of your quality of life. It is accessible to all who are in a covenantal relationship with Christ. The features will aid you in being a better person, and ambassador of Christ. Jesus introduced us to the spirit, as a manner of a parting gift. He told us about it during the time he discussed his departure from the world. He wanted us to remember that though he may be physically leaving this earth, he will not be leaving us alone. The Holy Spirit will always be with us, working through us and for us.  And these are the features of the Holy Spirit!