How the Power of the Holy Spirit Empowers Us.

Power of the Holy Spirit

All scripture provided is in the NKJV.

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem,

and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

 

I love to read the gospel of John again and again.  It is detailed; it is vast and yet so very intimate.  It’s like sitting at the feet of Jesus, leaning in, learning, and being loved at the same time.  So when I was asked to write about the Holy Spirit I just knew I needed to go to the gospel of John, sit at the feet of Jesus and listen once again to what Jesus spoke concerning the Holy Spirit. 

 

Here we are to talk about the Holy Spirit.

Who will guide us into all truth, give us remembrance of all things that Jesus said, Jesus is the Word so that would include all of the bible (2 Tim 3:16.) 

 

Jesus said of Himself

 For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, 

what I should say and what I should speak. 

John 12:49

 

And by this we know the Holy Spirit will always align with the Word. 

Jesus said of the Holy Spirit

 

However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth;

for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak;

and He will tell you things to come. 

John 16:13 

 

One of my favorite readings in the gospel of John is the private ministry (chapters 13-16) which began in the upper room. This is where Jesus is preparing the disciples for His earthly departure and the coming indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

There are two important subjects in this discourse for us to talk about.

 

 Love and Abide.

 

Let’s take a look at what Jesus is imparting, regarding love.

So, after He supped with them, He washed their feet, each of them including Judas who would betray Him. Peter who would question Jesus’ method of foot washing and then later deny Jesus not once, not twice but three times. Phillip and Thomas who would expose, through questions, their lack of knowing the sovereignty and divinity of Jesus whom they had walked with these past 3 years. And let us not forget that they would all scatter and leave Jesus at the coming hour. Sound familiar?  If were honest, yes. They were just as fallible as we are today.

 

And yet Jesus loved them to the end (John 13:1.) This is why I love the gospel of John. “He loved them to the end” and He loves us to the end. With all our frailties, failures and undoneness. I know it’s not a word, that’s the point I am undone, and He accepts me. 

 

Then, He humbled Himself, washed their feet and said

 

“For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.”

John 13:15

 

An example (G5262 – hypodeigma) for imitation. 

Yes, we are to… 

 

1Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us,

an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Ephesians 5:1-2

 

Jesus is asking us to use those washed feet and walk in His love. 

 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:34

 

He has given us an example that we are to imitate, it’s His new commandment of love.  This is not a brand-new love. This is the love that God had for us that He would send His only begotten Son that we may have life everlasting. This was a new kind of love different from the Mosaic Law (Lev. 19:18) which said, “as you love yourself.” Jesus is giving us a new standard “as I have loved you.” An agape love.

Agape love will cause us to humble ourselves even when others are about to betray us, deny us, question our abilities, and leave us in our time of need. Agape love will create a fresh heart’s desire in us to wash each other with the word through the working of the Holy Spirit.

 

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

 

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God’s indwelling love is shown by a life of love toward Him and men. We will be recognized by the agape love, given from God because it is of God.

 

By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” 

John 13:35

…the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5: 5

 

Remember, Jesus knows that the time has come that He will give His life that we may have life everlasting. He will not leave us orphans. He will give us the Helper that His ministry may continue.  That others may know the love of God, through us who have believed in His name and become children of God.  

 

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 

21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

1 John 4:19-21

 

That’s a witness! 

Because a witness is to serve one as a testimony.  

That’s what we are! The testimony that God is love!

 

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.12If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us

 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

1 John 4:7 & 13

If we love one another, God abides in us. What a beautiful transition from love to abide. This is not a stop, it is not a change but a continuation, a flowing that adds, combines, attaches abide to love If we love one another, God abides in us.

 

Jesus opens this conversation with an “I Am”

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. John 15:1

 

We are the branches.

 

 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

 

Don’t miss this.  Without Jesus we can do nothing! Jesus knows that He is going away. The disciples knew that He goes away. And yet, He is teaching that He is the Vine and the Father is the Vinedresser and we are to abide in Him as He abides in the Father.  He will be sending the Holy Spirit not to take His place, not to start a new ministry but to be another Helper. 

 

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever.

John 14:16

 

The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth.

He will not speak on His own authority but that which He hears from the Father, that which the Jesus the Word has spoken, He will testify of.

 

Now, when we abide in Him and He abides in us we will bear much fruit.  This fruit is to spread the gospel that others may come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

 

Fruit (G2590 karposto) accomplish much (for the propagation of Christianity and its furtherance in the souls of men)

 

By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.

John 15:8

 

Wow! Look at that.

We will be recognized as His disciples when we love one another, now we will be His disciples when we go out and bear much fruit.

 

Jesus has called us into a new intimacy.  We are to love one another, abide in Him and bear much fruit. 

He calls us friends and as His friends we are to obey His commandment to love one another. Jesus has made known His impending departure and the coming of the indwelling Holy Spirit. He has appointed them, and us, to go out to all the world and be witnesses that we may bear much fruit. 

 

 “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,

He will testify of Me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

John 15:26-27

 

The Holy Spirit is being sent to be our Helper

Helper (G3875 paraklētos) of the Holy Spirit destined to take the place of Christ with the apostles (after his ascension to the Father), to lead them to a deeper knowledge of the gospel truth, and give them divine strength needed to enable them to undergo trials and persecutions on behalf of the divine kingdom.

 

The Holy Spirit will bring glory to the Son by giving the disciples and us a deeper knowledge of Him, by bringing to our remembrance all things that Jesus taught during His ministry here on earth. That they and us may be able to go out and teach others of Christ and salvation and endure the persecutions that will come thereof. The great commission is just as much for us today as it was for the disciples back then.

 

And just as the Son had glorified the Father by talking about Him and giving illustrations of the Father and the kingdom, the Spirit will take what the Father had given to the Son to teach and do, and will explain the importance and meaning to the disciples.

 

Let’s go into the book Acts look at what happened after the Spirit filled them

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea,

and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

Acts 2:14

 

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ

for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

Acts 2:38-39

 

Not only did the Holy Spirit cause them to speak in diverse tongues, but immediately they were able to speak, to preach the word, to give a comprehensive description and explanation of the risen Christ with boldness in demonstration of the Holy Spirit. About three thousand souls were added to them. They were able to bear much fruit. Because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit they are able with boldness to continue the ministry of Jesus.

 

For we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard.

Acts 4:20

 

The Greek word dynamai is used here it means to be able, have power. 

They had been empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out (Acts 1:8).

 

This is what Paul states so well to the Corinthians

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

1 Corinthians 2:4

 

Demonstration (G585 apodeixis) a demonstration, proof: a proof by the Spirit and power of God, operating in me, and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them.

 

One last thing I would like to leave with you, the last time Jesus appeared to the disciples He asked Peter three times

 

“Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?”

And each time after Peter’s response Jesus said to him

“Feed my sheep.”

 

Do you love Jesus?

 

I pray that each of you will sit and read the gospel of John and just let the Holy Spirit speak to you, afresh, giving you new insight and intimacy with Jesus like never before. You will come out with a new song in your heart. A new love, an agape love for the Body of Christ. And a passion to preach the gospel to the unsaved that they too will have the opportunity to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

May the power of the Holy Spirit empower you to go out and be witnesses for the Lord!

Veronica B. is a wife of 35 years. Mother of four children, which of whom she serves in ministry with. She is a lover of His word and an aspired teacher and writer. She desires to touch women of God with the greatest weapon they have. The Bible. You will not find her online or with a blog. Most of her teachings are done alone with the Lord, early in the morning with a pen and notepad. This request of her guest post was given to her by her eldest daughter, Carmen Brown.