In Covid-19 World’s Uncertainty, God Gave You the Holy Spirit as Your Counselor and to Walk With You

DEVOTIONAL VIDEO

MESSAGE SUMMARY:

The Upper Room Part 1: The Promise of the Spirit (Apostles Anglican Church; Knoxville, TN)

John 14 is one of the Bible’s foremost explanations of the Holy Spirit for us and our lives. The context of Jesus’ explanation is that Jesus is on His way to the cross. In John 14:23,36, Jesus is helping the Apostles and us to understand the Holy Spirit that is being sent to us by God as a gift for the followers of Jesus: “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. . . But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’". Jesus is telling the Apostles, and us, that He is leaving them on the Earth; but God is not leaving them or us alone – God is providing the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises to His followers that the Holy Spirit will be both with us and in us.

After twenty-one centuries, how should we consider the Holy Spirit as followers of Jesus? We should consider that the Holy Spirit: 1) is very important for us as we follow Jesus because, like God, we are triune beings – body, soul, and spirit -- with our worship and communication with God being conducted through our spirit enabling us to be “filled with the Holy Spirit”; 2) brings the presence of the Father and the Son to be both with us and in us; 3) helps us to live our Christian life – our “helper”; 4) is our teacher to teach us to understand the Bible, how to pray and to acquire the other knowledge that we need to follow Jesus; and 5) while we may want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and our “pilot light is lit”, our “furnace is not engaged” to bring the Holy Spirit into our lives.

In many of us, “the pilot light is lit, but the furnace is not engaged.”. That is, we have Jesus in our lives, but we are not engaged with the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is one thing to believe in Jesus, but it is another thing entirely to yield oneself to Jesus through our obedience and prioritization of Him as the cornerstone of everything in our life. Therefore, the question becomes not “Do you have the Holy Spirit?” but rather “Does the Holy Spirit have you?”. To this end. God desires us to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. With this filling of our life with the Holy Spirit, God will be Lord over all in our life.

 

TODAY’S AFFIRMATION: I affirm that because of what God has done for me in His Son, Jesus, I AM A CHILD OF GOD. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. (John 1:12f).

Scripture Reference (ESV): John 14:15-31; John 3:3-8; John 4:24; John 7:37-39; John 14:15-17, John 15:26; John 16:4-14; Acts 2:10-13; Ephesians 2:1,4; John 14:16-17; Genesis 1:2; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20; Ephesians 5:18; Psalms 28:1-9.

THIS SUNDAY’S AUDIO SERMON: You can listen to Archbishop Beach’s Current Sunday Sermon: “In Times of Uncertainty and Fear, Seeking and Hearing God’s Voice Is Critical": at our Website: www.AWFTL.org/listen/.

WEBSITE LINK TO DR. BEACH’S SERMON VIDEO – “In Covid-19 World’s Uncertainty, God Gave You the Holy Spirit as Your Counselor and to Walk With You”:  www.AWFTL.org/watch

DONATE TO AWFTL: https://mygiving.secure.force.com/GXDonateNow?id=a0Ui000000DglsqEAB