Last week we talked about the demonstration of the Spirit, and what that looks like.  As promised, today we are going to look at the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  

The Holy Spirit’s been thought of as unpredictable.  The wild card so to speak.  The Father and the Son they have some decorum but the Holy Spirits a bit of a wild man, like the crazy uncle.  The Spirit is akin to the breathe of God, so its been said the Spirit is like the wind.  It blows where it wills, and we hear the sound, but we dont really know what the Spirit will say, or why it will say it.  We say the Spirit moves as the Spirit wills, and we say it like we dont really know what the Spirit is doing.  And thats done a great disservice to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Its left people with a very elementary understanding of the Spirits work in their lives.  Its relegated the ministry of the Spirit to random things you can feel or hear.  As if you dont really know what the Spirit will say or what the spirit will do, you just need to make sure you are sensitive to what the Spirit is saying in every situation.  I have to say that makes it very difficult for people to hear what the spirit is saying.  It makes it very difficult for people to walk in the spirit, and be led by the Spirit.  Its left a lot of people making unrighteous judgments about people and situations, and saying the Holy Spirit said.  Its left a lot of people prophesying according to the flesh.  Because after all the Spirit told me, and who can contest what was said, because who knows what the Spirit is saying.  Theres a lot of destruction that comes from people establishing their own vain imaginations in the name of Holy Spirit told me.  

Please don’t misunderstand me.  The Holy Spirit can absolutely lead you in a number of different ways.  The Holy Spirit led Beckie and I to get up out of Colorado and come to Slidell to start this fellowship.  The Holy Spirit had us praying Luke 4:18-19.  The Spirit can speak to us about all sorts of things.  Jesus told the woman at the well about her past and her present.  With that being said the Holy Spirit is not some hocus pocus kind of thing where we don’t really know what the Spirit is saying and we have to be sure we are looking within so we don’t miss it.  

It’s no mystery what the Spirit is saying.  We know exactly what the Spirit looks like.  We know exactly where the Spirit is leading us.  It’s Jesus.  The Spirit looks like Jesus.  The Spirit sounds like Jesus Christ & him crucified.  The ministry of the Spirit is Jesus. The Spirit isn’t invisible.  The Spirit isn’t unknown.  We see the Spirit clearly in Jesus Christ.  Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, so we can say the Spirit was made flesh in Jesus.  Just as Jesus says if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.  If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Spirit.  

Jhn 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
Jhn 16:14  He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
Jhn 16:15  All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Jesus says the ministry of the Spirit is to guide you into all truth.  Jesus isnt talking randomly here.  It’s not just any truth the Spirit comes to minister to you.  The Spirit isn’t come to guide you into physics, or calculus.  The Spirit isnt come to minister the law of gravity to you, or to guide you into proper addition and subtraction.  The Spirit is come to minister a very specific truth to you.  Remember Jesus said a couple chapters earlier “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me”.  The ministry of the Spirit is to take the things that were revealed about the Father, through the Son, and show them to you.  

1Jn 2:27  says … But the anointing which you have received of him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teaches you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it has taught you, you shall abide in him.

The anointing is the Holy Spirit.  We received the Holy Spirit from the Father on account of Jesus being raised a life giving Spirit.  John says the anointing teaches us all things, and then describes the all things as Jesus.  Jesus is the anointed one, so the anointing abides in you, to show you what was revealed in Jesus, so the bosom of Jesus becomes your dwelling place, just like it was for John.

The Father ministers the Son and the Spirit to us, the Son ministers the Father, and the Spirit to us.  Well the Holy Spirit also has a ministry in our lives, and the ministry of the Spirit is to minister the Son and the Father to us.  The anointing we have from Christ is for the purpose of communing with the word of life that manifested in the Son, so we can have intimacy with the Father.  

There’s a word that was made flesh in Jesus.  The eternal life that was with the Father, was manifested to us in Jesus.  The eternal life that manifested in Jesus testifies of God.  Jesus testifies that God has life in Himself, and the life He has in Himself superabounds over sin and death in the flesh.  Jesus bears witness that your life is precious to the Father, that He will not allow your life to be overcome by the corruption in the world.  Jesus is God’s testimony, telling us that God is love, and not just any kind of love, but the kind of love that is self sacrificing.  The kind of love that prefers others over themselves.  

Jesus says for judgment he came into the earth.  The judgment is he revealed its the serpent, and his way that steals, kills, and destroys.  But the gift the Father has to give is His Son, and the eternal life they have in themselves.  The Father gave you His life in Jesus.  He emptied Himself.  He poured Himself out for you through Jesus.  Jesus said the Father has given that I have life in myself.  The Father has given you Jesus.  He poured out His life through Jesus to serve you.    

Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  The Father prepared a body for the word of eternal life, that was with him from everlasting, to reveal His life and His heart to the world, so we can be caught up into His bosom.  The Holy Spirit anoints us with the Son.  The Spirit ministers the Son to us, to keep us in the bosom of the Father. The Spirit testifies to your spirit, that you are the Sons/Daughters of God.   The Spirit ministers the Father to you, through the Son, so you know you aren’t an orphan left to care for your own life.  The Spirit lifts the presence of the Father up in your sight … as it is written we have been given the spirit that adopts whereby we cry abba father …. And the way the Spirit does that is by guiding us into the things that were revealed in Jesus.  We commune with the faith that was revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit … and through that communion, we have intimacy with the love of the Father, and the glory the father, son, and spirit shared from the beginning 

We are one with Jesus,  but the intimacy we have with the Son, isnt only a mystical union.  Yes we are intimate with Jesus because we are one, and we are braided together, but we also have intimacy with Jesus by beholding the word that was made flesh in him. 

The ministry of the Spirit is a creative ministry.  It’s an act of creation.  The scriptures say Jesus created all things, but we know the Holy Spirit also plays a role in that because we see the Spirit hovering over the face of the deep in Genesis, bringing forth life.  

When you think about creation God said let there be light … he called forth light in the midst of the darkness to shape creation with His life, and bring forth order out of the midst of chaos.  Paul says God called forth light out of the midst of darkness through the Spirit of Faith, the same spirit of faith that was revealed in Jesus.  Paul calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Son in Galatians 4.  The Spirit creates us in the image of Christ Jesus by ministering the faith of the Son of God to us, and that brings forth the life of the Son in us.  

What caused Jesus to be raised in glorified immortal flesh?  He gave up the ghost.  He was a living sacrifice; he wasn’t conformed to the wisdom of the world …he layed down the life he had from the world.  Why?  What brought that forth in him?  Jesus saw his life was hidden in the Fathers bosom and not in the world.  Jesus knew he wasn’t alone on the cross.  He saw the Fathers face shining on him, with the glory they shared from the beginning.  He knew that since he came forth from the Fathers love, nothing could separate him from the Father loving him unto life.  

The apostle Paul says all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are contained in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is like unto Jesus.  The same treasures of wisdom and knowledge contained in Jesus, are also contained in the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit contains all the wisdom and knowledge that caused Jesus to give up the ghost, and present his members to the Father instead of the world.  The Spirit gives you fellowship with the sufferings of Jesus, so that in partaking with Jesus in his suffering, you also partake with Jesus in his life.  How do you partake with Jesus in his sufferings?  You partake with Him in his faith; the faith that was in his heart, as he was being crucified on the cross.  The Spirit conforms you to the death Jesus died on the cross by ministering to you, the faith that was in his heart, that caused him to be a living sacrifice, giving himself over into the arms of the Father, resting in the Fathers care for his life, so through that you also partake with Jesus in resurrection life. 

We co labor with the Spirit in the Spirit’s ministry, through the preaching of the faith revealed in Jesus Christ and Him crucified … faith comes by hearing.  The Spirit also comes by hearing.  Just as Faith comes by hearing, the Spirit comes by hearing.  The Spirit of Grace.  The Spirit that has the strength to create you in the image of Christ Jesus, comes by hearing the faith that was revealed in Jesus.  

Jesus says unless you drink my blood and eat my flesh you have no part in my life.  He says his words are spirit and life.  Jesus was talking about his death and resurrection.  We preach the body and blood of Jesus, so through that, people have fellowship with the faith of the Son of God, and the eternal life that was manifested in him.  We preach the Spirit that was revealed in the Lord, and poured out on all flesh, so people are able to discern the voice, and the words the Spirit speaks.

1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.  Will show you things to come … glory ..
1Co 2:11  For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1Co 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Co 2:15  But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
1Co 2:16  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Prayer