SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/19/2016 7:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “The Presence or the Spirit
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: John 14:16-17
Message of the verses: “16 "I will ask the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit
of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know
Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
In our last
SD we talked about the two different Greek words for our English word “another,”
how the one that is used in verse 16 is another of the same kind referring to
the Holy Spirit as the same as Jesus Christ.
Now as we
see how this word “another” is used in verse 16 we can also see that those who
believe that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force or power, for the Bible
clearly teaches us that He is a person, and this shows us that He is God. Now when one does a study on the Holy Spirit
they will find out that He has the same attributes as God the Father and God
the Son, and I am not going to talk about this in this particular Spiritual
Diary, but as stated the Bible does teach us this about the Holy Spirit. Now by showing in the Word of God that the
Holy Spirit has all the attributes of God it is showing that the Holy Spirit is
God and in verse 17 we see that Jesus calls the Holy Spirit “The Spirit of
Truth,” and remember earlier in chapter 14 Jesus said that He was the way and
the truth and the life, and so this shows us that once again He was comparing
Himself to the Holy Spirit.
Jesus goes
on in verse 17 to teach that the world cannot receive the Holy Spirit, and the
reason they cannot receive Him is because they do not see Him and they do not
know Him. He then goes on to say that
the Holy Spirit is known by true believers and that he was abiding with them,
but will in the future He will abide in them referring to the Day of Pentecost
when they will receive the Holy Spirit in the way that all believers receive
Him when they put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for their salvation.
One thing
we have to remember is that the church age did not begin until the Day of Pentecost
as stated when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers in the upper room. Now with this said we can look at the time of
the gospels as an extension of the OT and in the OT times the Holy Spirit would
come upon believers and then leave them.
Remember when David sinned with Bathsheba and committed murder, and in
Psalm 51 he prayed that God would not take the Holy Spirit from him.
John
MacArthur writes “No one in any era of redemptive history could be saved,
sanctified, empowered for service and witness, or guided in understanding
Scripture and praying in the will of God apart from the Spirit’s internal soul
work. That He was already present with
the disciples, before the cross, is clear from the present tense of the verb
translated ‘abides.’ One author explains
the Holy Spirit’s ministry prior to the church age with these words: ‘Old Testament saints had to be regenerated
by the Spirit to experience their spiritual blessings. The Spirit effected this regeneration when
the person placed his or her faith in Jehovah God and became a genuine part of
the covenant community. Regeneration
essentially involved a ‘circumcised heart,’ which demonstrated itself in
heartfelt participation in the sacrificial system, plus a life of obedience to
God’s revelation…Theologically, it would seem that some ministry of the Spirit
had to be constantly applied to the old covenant believer. To distinguish it from the intimacy of new
covenant indwelling, perhaps this ministry is best designated ‘abiding.’ In the words of the prophet Haggai, ‘As for
the promise which I made you when you came out of Egypt, My Spirit is abiding
in your midst; do not fear!’ (Hat. 2:5
NASB). The Spirit dwelt ‘with’ the Old
Testament saints through the community but would not be ‘in’ them individually
and intimately (John 14:17) [since] the Old Testament saints could not have
enjoyed the benefits of the new covenant before it had been inaugurated.’” This quote MacArthur gives here is from Larry
Pettigrew.
So we can
see that the ministry of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises here and from what
we see happening in the Book of Acts is different than what it was in the Old
Testament times. In fact there are some
who call the book of Acts “The acts of the Holy Spirit.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: The ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life
will be better understood when I am in heaven with my Lord, but as for now I
certainly believe that the Spirit guides and directs me to do the things that
have been planned for my life in ages past as seen in Ephesians 2:10 “For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
My Steps of Faith for
Today: Trust that the Spirit of God
will continue to guide me in the word of preparing an extensive prayer list for
our “Greater Things Ministry” prayer and fasting day which comes up on December
2nd, and that what is done will be all to the glory of God.
Memory verse for the week:
(Romans 6:16) “16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to
someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey,
either sin resulting to death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question: “The Lord” (Job 1:8).
Today’s Bible question:
“In what city was the place referred to in the book of Ester?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/19/2016 8:14 AM
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