4 Things You Need to Know About the Holy Spirit to Live a Spirit-Filled Life

4. The Holy Spirit Helps Christians

Can you access the same life-giving, destiny-altering, God-revealing power and help for your life?

After preaching through the entire Gospel of Luke over the course of two years, here’s the bottom line of what I discovered: Dr. Luke contributes more content to the New Testament than anyone else in terms of length.He writes a historical book in two parts with the Book of Luke recording the Spirit-filled life of Jesus and the Book of Acts recording the Spirit- filled life of Jesus’ people. His books are written in chronological order as he is “the Indiana Jones of the New Testament” on the hunt to track down the facts about Christ and Christianity.

In his first book, Luke records how the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at His baptism and empowered His entire life and ministry as perfectly Spirit-filled. In his second book, Luke records how the Holy Spirit then descended upon the people of Jesus at Pentecost and empowered them for Spirit-filled life and ministry as Christ lived through them. To rightly understand the Holy Spirit and the Christian life in Acts requires first learning about the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ in Luke. If we only pick up Acts, it is similar to watching the second half of a two-part movie and trying to understand the story line of the sequel without watching the prequel.

All of this is precisely as Jesus promised. He told us that He would send His Helper to Help us. On the brink of His Crucifixion, Jesus says in John 14:16-17, 26 “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….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.”

The Holy Spirit is the most underutilized power source in the world. This explains why we are weak, weary, and wounded. This explains why we are broken, burdened, and battered.

While on the earth in His humanity, Jesus needed help, so don’t feel bad when you need help. When you need help don’t settle for self-help, but strive for the Spirit’s help.

Jesus does not want you to merely admire His life, He also invites you to experience it through the powerful presence of the person of the Spirit. It’s great to ask, “What would Jesus do?” But, it’s of no help unless we also ask, “How would Jesus do it?” The answer is by the power of the Helper! The ministry of the Spirit is to make you like Jesus!

To learn more, purchase a copy of my new book Spirit-Filled Jesus: Live by His Power

Parts of this blog were adapted from my books A Call to Resurgence and Spirit-Filled Jesus

(1)Cathy Lynn Grossman, “More U.S. Christians Mix in ‘Eastern,’ New Age Beliefs,” USA Today, December 10, 2009, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com /news/religion/2009-12-10-1Amixingbeliefs10_CV_N.htm.

(2)Luke 1–2.

(3)Luke 1:41–43, 67, 76.

(4)Luke 1:35–37.

(5)Luke 2:25–27.

(6)Luke 2:27–34.

(7)John 1:14; Phil. 2:5–6; Col. 2:9; 1 John 4:2.

(8)For example, Matt. 4:1–10 and Heb. 4:14–16.

(9)Matt. 3:16.

(10)Luke 4:1–2.

(11)Luke 4:14.

(12)Luke 4:14–21.

(13)Luke 10:21.

(14)Luke 11:13.

(15)Luke 12:12.