By John A. Huffman Jr.
Looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you will not grow weary or lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children —
'My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,And chastises every child whom he accepts.'Advertisement
Wow! Did my attitude change for the rest of that day!
Another word is "advocate." This is your lawyer who knows what you don't know and understands what you don't understand. The Holy Spirit is the One who whispers in your ear what you need to know at the right time.
The Holy Spirit, in a way, is all of these. He is your comforter. He is your counselor. He is your advocate. Our text says that he will guide you into all the truth. I have found the best way to get to know a new city when I travel is to have a guide book and a personal guide. You've got both the Bible and the Holy Spirit to show you the way.
Two quick footnotes. Remember, the Holy Spirit is the gifter who gives you specific spiritual gifts, and also promises you the fruit of the spirit if you are willing for it to grow in your life.
Remember also that you can grieve the Holy Spirit. We read about that in Ephesians 4:30. You can lie to the Holy Spirit. You can see what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they did that in Acts 5. You can quench the Holy Spirit. Look that up in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. How sad to minimize the operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives when He is willing to give us God's truth, faith, power, guidance, and to enable the free flow of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as we use the spiritual gifts He gives.
I promised a story, the story of Lonnie.
Lonnie was a beautiful young woman, but she didn't know that about herself. She was raised in a Houston family, abused sexually by both her father and her brother. Lonnie was attractive to men, but ugly to herself. Lonnie married a man much more like than her father and brother than she ever dreamed. She loved him but was used by him. He, instead, fell in love with cocaine and himself. One day, he up and left her, taking all their money, cleaning out their bank accounts. She was left alone to raise two little children.
