Text: John 16: 13
“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.”
Jesus Christ has always shown concern regarding what would be the fate of His disciples after His departure, and He did not hide His concern from them. He pictured His disciples as sheep in the midst of wolves and we all have a good idea of what will happen if wolves should have access to sheep, the wolves will feast on them. This was Jesus' concern for His disciples especially since He knew that they will be persecuted. Some of these is concern come to the fore in His high priestly prayer for them - John 17 and we will just list a few:
• He was concerned that these wolves in human skin will feast on them even before they get the chance to commence the work He has called them to do
• He was concerned for their safety against the evil one and evil devices, He did not want anyone of them to be a victim- He did not want anyone of them to be lost.
• He was concerned that they were still very much ignorant, there are vital truths necessary for their survival as Christians in the world that they are yet know
• He was concerned that He still has a lot of things that He will love to share with them but they are just not ready to receive at the moment and He cannot continue to stick around until they are ready to receive it
• He was concerned about their ability to retain even the little that He had shared with them already
• He was concerned about their ability to stay united in a world that will seek to pull them apart through every possible means.
This once again clearly demonstrates to us the love of Jesus for His church and His concern and care for them. If you belong to Jesus, then you can be rest assured that He cares for you and because He cares for you, He invites you to cast your burden on Him (Matt. 11: 28; 1Pet. 5: 7)
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is God's solution to this concern. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is about the service of the Holy Spirit to individual believers that makes up the body of Christ and by extension to the body of Christ as a whole.
Basically the service the Holy Spirit provides to the body of Christ to a large extent has to do with guidance -
1. He guides believers into deep truths – He does this by revealing to them secrets within the heart of Jesus and the Father. Secrets that are essential and necessary for believers to live successful Christian life here on earth
2. He guides believers along the path leading to the fulfilment of their purpose, which of course is the path of peace
3. He provides guidance regarding the future by giving believers a picture of the glorious future that God has prepared for them thereby giving them hope to remain in Christ regard less of the level of opposition or persecution they encounter
The Holy Spirit has spiritual gifts through which He accomplishes this responsibility of providing guidance to the body of Christ. Through these gifts –
1. He gives special capabilities to individuals within the body of Christ and also enables them
2. To occupy spiritual offices in the body of Christ. Some of those offices were listed for us in Eph. 4: 11 – Apostles, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastors and Teachers.
This implies that ultimately the Holy Spirit carries out His ministry through believers.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is primarily to believers and not unbelievers and so every believer is privileged to receive and to at least manifest one spiritual gift with which he can be of service to the body of Christ.
Through the operation of gifts the church is –
1. Equipped to carry the work that God has for her
2. The church of God is edified, that is, built up to a state of full maturity in Christ – Eph. 4: 12-13
In order to address the concern of Christ therefore for the church to survive the hostile environment of the world, the Holy S
pirit seeks for believers through whom He will carry out His ministry to the church.
These will be individuals –
• who are yielded to Him
• Who desire to be used by Him
• Who are ready not to live to themselves anymore but to live unto God
These qualities we find in the life of Elisha as he gave up everything to follow Elijah, no wonder he was able to receive a double portion of Elijah's anointing at Elijah's departure (2 Kings 2: 1-15)
In conclusion, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is God's solution to the concern of Jesus regarding what will be the fate of the church after His departure.
The Holy Spirit operates His ministry through believers who will totally surrender to Him
Are you a believer? Are you born again?
Are you ready to surrender yourself fully to the Holy Spirit, so that He can operate His ministry through you?
Let us pray.
This is nice good one