Jesus promised that the Gift of the Holy Spirit would come upon His disciples once He returned to His Father in Heaven.
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17
Look at what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit in these two verses of scripture.
- The Holy Spirit is the ‘Spirit of Truth’
- He is the ‘Helper’
- He is known because ‘He dwells with you’
- He ‘shall be in you’
- He ‘shall be with you forever’
Philip was concerned that Jesus was leaving and going back to His Father. He asked Jesus to show him the Father. Jesus answered Philip by saying that the Father was in Him, and if he had known Jesus, He would have known the Father, because everything that He did was by the instructions of His Father. (verses 8-10)
In the Old Testament, the Prophets spoke to Israel by means of the Holy Spirit coming upon them. The Holy Spirit did not abide upon nor within the Holy Prophets of the O.T.
Luke records that right before Jesus left to go to His Father, ‘Then He opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” He did this so they could understand what had been written about Him by the Prophets to enable them to witness to others about who Jesus Christ really is.
He then told them to wait in Jerusalem until they had been ‘clothed’ with the ‘Power’ from on high. (Luke 24:45-49)
“Dunamis” is a Greek word and means:
“act of power” (Young’s); “miraculous power, ability” (Strong’s); “natural capability, inherent power; capability of anything, ability to perform any-thing; then, absolutely, not merely power capable of action, but, power in action” (Bullinger’s).
Jesus said His disciples would be ‘clothed’ with this power to enable them to witness about Him.
How can we be ‘clothed’ with power?
When you are clothed, you have to put on your garments for the day, or the evening. Before you are clothed, you usually bathe first, so you put clothes on a clean-washed body. To be unclothed is to be naked, and so far our society frowns upon being unclothed in public. Our nakedness was never meant to be seen by the public, yet there are those who come very close to showing all.
Jesus told His disciples:
“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.” (John 15:3)
“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (John 6:63)
If you look closely, you will see that the Holy Spirit and Jesus, are very much associated with the Holy Spirit and the Words that Jesus speaks to our hearts.
The disciples acknowledged Jesus as their Lord and Messiah, and became cleansed through the spoken Words that flowed from the lips of Jesus to their hearts and minds. “You are clean through the Word that I have ‘spoken’ to you.”
Paul later wrote,
“Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:25-27)
We are spiritually washed and cleansed by the living spirit that resides in the Word of God, especially the spoken Word of God.
God spoke the Word through prophets of old as He moved upon them.
Now He has spoken the Word through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus has spoken that Word by the Power of the Holy Spirit that resides in Him and His Father.
Those Words became Living Words to His disciples, with miraculous power capable of anything, a power in action that caused storms to calm, sickness and disease to be healed and demonic spirits to flee.
The Word washes, and it cleanses us from sin as we confess our sins to our High Priest in obedience to that Word that convicts our hearts and minds, which is being quickened by the Holy Spirit.
We are naked and without authority or power before the evil spirit world that surrounds us here on planet earth, until that same Living Word speaks again to our hearts and minds and clothes us with supernatural power and authority of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our minds!
Paul says that there is a Lawless spirit working in a mysterious way in the world. The only power or authority that is restraining that lawlessness from overtaking this world is the Power of the Holy Spirit within the Body of Christ.
When the true believers are Raptured out of this world, then that lawless demonic spirit will fill up the void left and create wars and destruction that will wipe out 50% of the population in a short period of time.
“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out-of-the-way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.” (II Thessalonians 7-8)
The Spirit of Truth restrains the spirit the lawless one. The devil is the father of all lies and the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy God’s good. Satan is the Lawless One.
The Holy Spirit is to be our helper, helping us with supernatural spiritual strength to resist the evil and overcome this world and its spiritual darkness, as we seek Him and submit to His Word.
The Holy Spirit was in Jesus Christ without measure and is given to us as believers as it was on the Day of Pentecost to abide with us for all eternity.
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)
This was the ‘Power’ that Jesus told them about in Luke 24:45-49)
The Holy Spirit is our new ‘clothing’ for day and night.
There is no need to change clothes.
We can wear the same Holy Spirit day and night and day after day for all eternity. Paul says only, that it needs renewing on a daily basis.
How do we renew the Holy Spirit in our lives?
If it took listening to the Words of Jesus for the disciples to receive the clothing of the Holy Spirit, then it takes the same to be renewed in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 12:2)
This is why the devil hates the Bible and leads unbelievers to attack it and remove it from the hearts and minds of our children and young people today and from before all the leaders of society.
If there is no reading of the Bible, and if there is no quoting of its Holy Scriptures, then:
- There is no conviction of our sins.
- There is no need to repent of anything.
- There is no standard of what is right and what is wrong before our God.
- There is no nakedness to try to clothe.
- There is certainly no need of power from the Holy Spirit.
Is it any wonder that as the church looks and acts more and more like the world, and the world grows darker spiritually, that the spirit of lawlessness is increasing its hold on the leaders of our world, leading us straight into a one world government that will appear to provide peace and safety, but will allow Satan to demand to be worshiped as God and then provide everyone with sudden destruction?
Confessing with our mouth the Words of God, especially those He has quickened to our hearts in the moments of need and in times of prayer and fasting, while believing they are endued or clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit is what keeps our hearts aflame for God and what holds the power of lawlessness back from taking over the hearts of this world sooner than is necessary!
Thank God for the ‘Gift’ of the Holy Spirit as you read, study and quote His Word in your prayers, and in your sharing with others.