Tonkawa,
Last week we started looking through different ways the Spirit works in the believer And now, as sinners cured and turned saints, the Spirit is our helper.
In John 14:16, Jesus said, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper…”
In this present evil age, God has not left His people alone to work it out on their own!
No, the sent Spirit is our helper, our advocate, our strength giver, and counselor, who never leaves us as we await the day of the coming and revealing of our Lord Jesus.
And how does He help? How does He sustain us until that day? By giving gifts.
In 1 CorinthiansPaul writes, “You are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Spirit’s gifts exist to sustain us, to point us, to make us ready for the Day of the Lord. They are a deposit, a down payment from the Lord for the church to (1 Corinthians 14:12) to be edified and built up in this present age, and to bring us into the age to come. These gifts are going to pass away (1 Corinthians 13) when we enter into the age to come, but for now, the Spirit gives them to the bride to help us be made ready.
Next, in the present, the Spirit protects and guards the believer 1 Peter 1:4-5 says we have “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power (the Spirit) are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
The Spirit of God is guarding and protecting the believer right now for an inheritance that the believer will receive not now,but later, “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time”
To the end of the age, Jesus tells us in Matthew 28, He’s with us, not leaving us and
right now, the Spirit is helping, protecting, guarding, and interceding for us as we wait for future glory!
The last present action concerning the Spirit is that He is Hope Giver.
Romans 5:2,5 says, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God…. and hope does not put us to shame,
