The Holy Spirit Series 12

Today we explore the first name that the Lord Jesus used to signify the Holy Spirit in Jn 16:7. The word used here is the Helper or Advocate. This title has multiple functions in the life of a believer so I will try to cover as much as the Lord has taught me. God bless you as you read on.

I.    To Help/Advocate:

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.” Jn 16:17

This is the most prime function of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We already saw that His presence signifies the presence of the Lord making His promise to never leave us as orphans true. The word for Helper in Greek here is ‘Paraklēton’ which has a three-fold meaning:

       I. One who pleads another's cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant; an advocate

    II.  Universally, one who pleads another's cause with one, an intercessor

  III.  In the widest sense, a helper, succourer, aider, assistant

Let’s examine each of these meanings for a deeper understanding of what these words actually talk about the Holy Spirit.

             i)The first speaks of the Holy Spirit being our Advocate to plead our cause before the Judge. As a child of God we are being accused on a daily basis in front of God. The accuser being none other than satan himself Rev 12:10. This is a fact…satan cannot lie before God. He will always tell the truth. The truth here is that every one of his accusations are based on the sins we commit. Basically he is asking God to judge us without any leeway. Why does he do this? He does this because he is going to be eternally condemned without any chance of redemption; and this provokes him to take as many of us along with him as possible. The Bible clearly shows us that our Advocate during these times is Jesus 1 John 2:1-2. Now this is in Heaven; what about here on earth. How does the Holy Spirit advocate on our behalf? It is the Holy Spirit who makes know to us our sins, and it is He who bring us to repentance, it He who teaches us and preserves us in this world. So, basically the Holy Spirit executes the interests of God in us through Christ. What does this mean? From a legal point of view He is Heavens advocate (voice of authority) to champion God’s cause or plans in us to bring us to the full measure and stature of Christ. An illustration of this ministry is that of Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, who was sent to find a wife for Isaac. He had to find her then get her to follow him to Abraham’s house to be Isaac’s wife. During which time Rebecca was being prepared to be Isaac’s bride. The story of Esther, similarly undergoing various preparations to meet the King, under the guidance of Hegai the Eunuch, is also a similar example. Another scripture portion that comes to mind is how Ezra prepared the people of Israel, who had drifted away, to return to God after the exile. This grooming process of preparing us to the standard of Christ likeness is what the Holy Spirit advocates on behalf of the Lord Jesus, thus making Him our Advocate, as He preps us to meet our King. Amen.

              ii) Now we shall look at the second meaning of how He is an intercessor. We saw a bit of this portion earlier when we discussed how the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf when we do not know how or what to pray. He knows us best and so is always in a better position to petition God on our behalf. The greatest assurance that anyone can have is the assurance of being the child of God and we all know that this is only possible to them that have been born again of the Spirit.

“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” Romans 8:16

On reading this verse contextually we see that the Holy Spirit along with our spirit testifies that we are the children of God, thereby revealing our new born spiritual nature enabling us by spiritual birth to call God “Abba, Father.” Being aware of our born again spirit we seek to be led by the Holy Spirit. Thus we have the verse, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Rom 8:13. This Spirit of Advocacy I believe is mentioned as ‘The Spirit of Adoption’ in Rom 8:15. This adoption is mentioned as being grafted into the family of God in Rom 11. Once a child is adopted into a household the child is trained in the ways, beliefs and traditions of the adoptive parents. Likewise once born again we undergo the same process where we are taught the ways of God, and are led by His Spirit in the paths determined by God fulfilling His pre-determined good works thereby accomplishing the very purpose of our birth in this world Eph 2:10. If this witness or advocacy of the Holy Spirit did not exist we would be like men out at sea without a map or charts to plot the course in this life.   

          iii)The third and final meaning speaks of the Holy Spirit as our Helper. 
        
         Why do we need His help? The people of this world seem to do just fine without Him so why do we need Him? One of the differences between a child of God and a person of the world is that the former depends upon the Father to provide for them and they know that the words of Eternal Life are with Him Jn 6:68, without which they would not know how to live a godly life; that is wholly acceptable to God. They depend of Him to guide them through all that life brings them. It is here that we need a Helper to help us live according to our election and calling; to fulfil the purposes of Him. The Holy Spirit is not distant from us but rather lives within us. The following verse gives us a visual image of how He helps us:

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Mt 11:29

Another one of Jesus’ profound statements encourages us to learn from Him. How can we learn from Him is He is not here with us? We learn by seeing, hearing or reading tangible things. Since He was to ascend into Heaven this statement would only be possible if the Holy Spirit was to be present in us to fulfil all that Christ promised He would do. A technique used to break/train a new ox is to yoke it with a seasoned one. The new ox would learn from the old without much effort because the old one would guide it in all its daily functions. If this form of teaching and learning is applied to the verse then it would make more sense. We get yoked with Christ and He will teach us the way we ought to go and function. Now with the presence of the Holy Spirit this yoking would literally be possible and we can learn from Christ because the Holy Spirit presence is the presence of Christ in us. We would be co-workers with Christ and not as slaves under a hard taskmaster. This companionship enables us to fulfill His purpose of evangelism where we plant or water and God gives the growth 1 Cor 3:5-9. In this partnership we are held up when we falter. We never go through life without His counsel, provision, and protection. This is why we are called His ambassadors 2 Cor 5:20. Just as an ambassador’s needs are met by the country he represents our needs are also met by God, when we represent Him in this world. Amen.

Another point I would like to explore regarding the Holy Spirit being our Helper is by looking at it as our protector. Does the Holy Spirit protect us? Although there is not direct verse to indicate this, there are however many verses that imply it. Let’s take a look a couple of them.

A Tester of spirits: The Bible in 1 John 4:1 informs us to test every spirit. A spirit is a non tangible entity that cannot be observed or tested using regular techniques so in a worldly sense it is impossible to test a spirit since the laws of testing require the subject and result to be quantifiable at the least, and it also requires that we get the same results each time the testing procedure is followed. This is where the Holy Spirit enables us to recognize the spirit at work. The wild man of the Gadarene would have been called a mad man by the people while Jesus revealed the true nature of his madness. The Bible records how the evil spirits began to manifest as Peter walked by them. This would be the physical verification of the spirit, where, as a child of God we carry His presence and as the Bible declares we are the light of the world Mt 5:14 and our presence itself can expose the evil spirits at work Eph 5:13. It is this same light that enrages (Jn 3:20) those under the influence of satan to attack the believer.

The Holy Spirit also protects us from false doctrines and heretical teachings. This mode of protection is dependent on our ability to hear His voice. My personal experience with this inner voice is that it would alert me to verses that would counter the teaching and also provide me the reason why it is wrong. For this to function properly we need to study the bible because the error can only be revealed if the counter verse is within us.

A Revealer of the signs of the times: Jesus was very vocal about the times that were ahead of the Church and especially of that right before His coming. Many of the Old Testament prophets and the apostles also voiced their revelations of what is to come. The average believer is oblivious of these things because he/she isn’t looking and so is unprepared to deal with what happen. The 10 virgins (Mt 25: 1-13) are basically a parable of those who were prepared and those who weren’t. There are so many references to these times, some of which are direct while many are hidden. The hidden ones are the most difficult to understand, not to mention that even the direct ones are not so direct as well. The Holy Spirit is the only One who can teach us what to look for and how to interpret things as and when they happen. We have seen many so called Doomsday prophets, proclaimed men of God, predict the end of the world only to find that they were terribly mistaken; while others have demonstrated great miracles and signs through their flamboyant ministries, deceiving thousands  even the hundreds of thousands into believing lies. The end result is people falling away from the faith (Mt 24:10/1Tim 4:1) and also of others mocking the word of God because of them. It is high time that we believers woke up to realize that the eye is not to be believed nor the ear of what it hears. It’s time to study His word and keenly rely on His Spirit to guide us into all righteousness; seeking God and pursuing holiness without which we men set adrift in the vast ocean of confusion.  

For now I will only deal with these two points. We will study this is greater detail when we come to Spiritual Warfare. I hope to continue the study with a look at the Holy Spirit function within the Church as a body, till then God Bless