Week 5

It is amazing to me how perfect this analogy is.  God (the gardener) plants, develops, cares for, uses and enjoys the entire plant.  He is active in the whole process.  He doesn’t just plant the seed and then leave and let happen what will happen.  And not only is He there during the process, but He IN the process – God is active in growing and changing me and you.  The pruning seems harsh at first but then you see the reason for the pruning – so that we can make more fruit.  God sees the things in our life that are getting in the way of us producing fruit and He removes them.  How?  I think this happens in many ways – through prayer, through reading of the bible, through other people, through trials.  Philippians 1:6 says, “that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.”  Then we have the vine – Jesus.  The vine can exist without the branches but the branches cannot live without the vine.  The sap flowing through the vine into the branches keeps them alive and bearing fruit.  Fruit is good and useful as should be the things that come from our lives. 

Remain or abide is a permanent, constant action.  A constant acknowledgment of God and His authority in our lives, a constant understanding of our position in Christ, and a constant reliance on the Holy Spirit.  Such a simple word but such a difficult reality.  Its one thing to do these things occasionally but to do them unremitting is a whole different thing.  But Jesus says that when we remain our “joy may be complete.” 

This week we are going to look at the Holy Spirit a little.  John is the gospel who talks most about the Holy Spirit.  In general the Old Testament focuses on God the Father, the gospels – Jesus and then the writings of Paul are where you really encounter the Holy Spirit.  However, John talks quite a bit about the Holy Spirit.  The word “trinity” is a contemporary word – you don’t find that word in the bible….but you do see the reality of the three in one throughout scripture.  You can see it clearly in John 14:16-17 where we see Jesus talking about God the Father sending the Holy Spirit.  I want us to look at some verses in John 14 and 16 this week plus a few verses outside of John to meditate on the Holy Spirit – who he is and what he does.  Read, dissect and contemplate John 14:16-19,26,27.  Think about what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is – notice that John calls the Holy Spirit a “he” – so, a "person."  What is the Holy Spirit?  Where is the Holy Spirit?  What does the Holy Spirit do?  Read some other verses about the Holy Spirit as you contemplate these things….examples, Romans 8:9-11, Romans 8:26&27, 1 Cor 2:6-16, 1 Cor 3:16, Galatians 5:22. 

After thinking about the Holy Spirit’s presence and work in the individual believer, we see how the Holy Spirit works on “the world” in John 16:7-11 through the believer and then how the Holy Spirit will inspire the other writings (truths) of the New Testament through the disciples in John 16:12-15.  God uses us but it is the work of the Holy Spirit that brings people to understand and accept Christ.  The Holy Spirit convicts people of the sin of unbelief, the Holy Spirit shows people what righteousness is and how they fall short and the Holy Spirit convinces people that there is such a thing as judgment – all of this points a person to Christ.