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. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, “The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.” John 16:13-15 NLT
The Holy Spirit has often gotten quite a bit of bad, inaccurate press that at first hearing can sound good. You may have experienced what I have – people get so excited over the Holy Spirit, particularly if they have experienced a supernatural gift or seen something miraculous happen, that it seems as though this experience was somehow better or more desired than their incredible, undeserved salvation.
We all want the promised power of the Holy Spirit. We all want to be involved in miraculous, amazing experiences that qualify as “God only.” But the primary responsibility of the Holy Spirit is not to give us gifts, to ramp up our emotional energy, or to enable mind-blowing experiences (though He certainly can do all of that). His primary responsibility and role is not to compete with Jesus but to direct our attention to Jesus.
The Holy Spirit does that by making Jesus real to us. Because the Holy Spirit can move among us without limitation, every believer is able to experience Jesus personally. The presence of Jesus is felt through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit declares Jesus’ truth to believers. We hear it and recognize it as reliable. He leads us away from error.
The Holy Spirit causes us to remember the truth and words of Jesus and clarifies the meaning for us.
The Spirit empowers the Church, believers, to demonstrate the power, love, and grace of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit changes and transforms believers to be more like Jesus.
There is so much the Holy Spirit does. He is our lifeline in this world. His job is not to convince us of how wonderful and amazing HE is or how wonderful and amazing WE are. The job of the Holy Spirit 100% of the time is to tell us and show us how amazing Jesus was, is, and always will be.
- Anything that detracts from or minimizes Jesus Christ is not from God. Jesus is the heart of it all.