The Work of the Spirit

The Work of the Spirit
By Rev. Robert P. Elkins
All Scripture verse taken from the NIV Bible unless otherwise noted

John 14:15-17
“15"If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you”.


Notice my friend that our Lord Jesus is forever faithful. What a wonderful Lord we serve! In this reading of John, Jesus said: “But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you”.

Jesus has given us his promise, that although he was returning to the Father in heaven from whence he came, he would not leave us alone to fend for ourselves while the great adversary of God, Satan, is still loose on earth. And I’m here to assure you that the promise of Jesus is as good today as the day he first mouthed these words in John’s presence. Jesus knew he was leaving us behind and that if left to our own design we would fall prey to the evils of the world, it’s built in the very nature of man to do so. And so in his great love and concern for us he promised to send the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to be our helper. To be our guide, to be our road map to the place where the Father would have us to go and remain there until his Son returns to gather us up unto him in his kingdom of heaven. We humans were thinking ourselves so smart when we came up with the GPS [global positioning system] that can tell where we are at any place on the earth I think, but God had this concept in use long before we ever came up with the idea. God’s Holy Spirit has been keeping track of us and giving us directions ever since Jesus made his promise to us.

Verse 17 holds some wonderful spiritual truths about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost if you will dependent upon your background and how you were raised or given religious instruction. I myself use both terms interchangeably and think nothing of it. John 14:17 first tells us that the people of the world cannot accept him, God’s Holy Spirit, that God’s Spirit is as foreign to the world as the Greek or Hindu language is to those of us that do not speak the language. In the vernacular of the Bible we know the world and worldly people not a separate planet or a separate civilization on another planet floating around “out there” someplace in space, but people right here. In the vernacular of the Bible we know the world and worldly people as the people all around us in everyday life who have not yet bend the knee to Jesus and have not accepted Him as their Lord and Savior. We know the world to be those who have not yet to choose Jesus although in all actuality it is God who chooses us first and then it is up to us too acknowledge this selection and free gift of grace that comes from the repentance of sin although we have done nothing to merit it.

The people of the world and the people of worldly ways cannot accept the Holy Spirit, Jesus just told us this when he said, “The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him, nor knows him.” The ways of the Spirit and the ways of the world are mutually opposed to one another. It’s like trying to blend light and darkness in the same space, it’s impossible, it can’t happen. You can’t take light and then cover it with darkness and not see the light. I don’t care how dark the darkness is, if there’s a ray of light it’s going to shine through somewhere.

If you look at the words found in the book of Revelation it says; “I know thy works, that thou art neither hot nor cold: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth”. (KJV) One follows a pathway filled with sin and self-gratification. The other follows a pathway of humility and obedience to the will of the Father of Lights. And for many of us it’s sad to say but we often find our walk with one foot on the pathway of light and the other on the pathway of darkness and walking in that lukewarm area of life. And it’s the Spirit who is there to remind us of the words of Jesus and it’s those words that lay the proper pathway for us to walk, which happens to be solely one path and one path only. To try to walk on both at the same time only leads us to confusion and possible death in our sins.

The next thing we see in verse 17 is that this Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God, lives with-in the believer. It is the Holy Spirit that gives us our conscience, this is where we get our conscience from. As we travel through this world we will meet people with just a little conscience, the middle of the road walkers who try to have a foot on both paths. But we will also meet those with no conscience at all. They are the totally unsaved persons of the world who are definitely walking on the wrong path. They can steal and it doesn’t bother them at all, they can pump their gas tank full and just drive off with out paying. It’s okay, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and there is lots of gas out there. They can have a little affair on the side, it’s okay my spouse doesn’t get hurt if they don’t know about it. Their conscience isn’t bothered with or by any sinful act and the farther they wander from the truth the more their conscience becomes callused. With each act of rebellion the conscience grows weaker and the person of the world grows bolder, the more un-godly they become, until they are either brought to the truth and light of God or they are consumed in the raging fires of hell. This is what Jesus meant when he said that the world couldn’t accept the Spirit. A life of total rebellion, the things of the world are in opposition to the things of the Spirit. Scripture tells us that light and darkness cannot abide in the same place and we have already looked at this. This pericope is saying that very same thing. The spirit of the world and the Holy Spirit of God cannot abide in the same place, Jesus has told us that we cannot serve two masters and if we attempt to do this we are only living a lie that will haunt us and make our life miserable.

Have you ever been someplace where it’s dark? I’m not talking about just a little dark like when you’re outside and there is only the light of the stars to illuminate your path. I’m talking about being someplace where it is 100% totally black, where there is absolutely no light from any source. I’m talking about being someplace where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face if it was only a fraction of an inch away from your eyes. I’m talking about a place where it is so void of light it’s scary. And then with the smallest of light sources, a tiny flashlight, a match or candle, that teensy little ray of light will pierce the darkness like a dagger and illuminate that darkness to some degree. When I was in the Navy, there were times when we were not allowed to smoke a cigarette outdoors on the weather decks ship because even the glow of a cigarette could be seen for up to a mile away when you are at sea on a moonless overcast night.
And that friend is what the Holy Spirit does. The smallest part of the Holy Spirit can cast a light through the darkest and blackest sinful place in the world no matter how dark it is. A pinhole of Holy Spirit light will be visible in a NFL stadium of darkness. Amen?

The good news is that it matters not how sinful our past is, it matters not how many sins we’ve piled up in our record, if the pile is so high that the top of our head isn’t visible there is still hope for us and that hope is found in Jesus Christ and only in Jesus Christ. I don’t care if we’ve taken a paper clip from work or a Lincoln Continental from a car lot. Jesus doesn’t care how black our background is, if we ask for forgiveness with a repentant heart. If we cry out in anguish to our Lord and throw ourselves on the altar or whether we whisper quietly from our seat in a voice so low only the Holy Spirit can hear, that’s all it takes. If our heart is humbled, our self will is broken and we ask for forgiveness for our sins, God’s grace is sufficient to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and sin and His Spirit will abide or take up residence in our heart if we will but only ask him. If we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord of Lords, that there is one Lord God Almighty, and his name is Jesus, we the confessor will be born again into the family of God, have salvation, and the Comforter, the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, will be alive with-in us. If we repent of our sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus, the one He told us he was sending will be our closest companion.

And once the Spirit is there just what is he supposed to do? Well for one thing, he will call to remembrance what Jesus told us. Verse 26 says; “But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all things I have said to you.” I once worked with a fellow in the maintenance department of Orleans County, a place in the upper western reign of New York State who knew this verse and misquoted or misinterpreted it to the most finite level. He felt that the Holy Spirit was to bring to his remembrance anything he had ever read or would instruct him in anything he wanted to do. One day we had to take the operating mechanism off one of the electric cell doors in the county jail. We got the motor out and in our shop and before I knew it he had taken the thing apart and had all of the parts and gears scattered all over the place in no particular order. And then he wondered why he couldn’t get it back together again … because the Spirit was supposed to instruct him in how to fix it. Beloved, this is not what this verse is saying! Jesus isn’t saying that his Spirit will tell us how to take apart a car motor, or how to build a house or how to assemble the three parts it takes to put together a mans dress tie, which is very interesting if you have never tried it. Jesus is talking about the spiritual things that we need to know and remember. Jesus told us of the spiritual things, and the things of God, and it’s this that we need for our spiritual walk toward perfection in Jesus. The rest of it is worldly knowledge, if you want to do surgery, study medical books and become a doctor. The Spirit isn’t going to instruct you there, he may give you guidance and we should pray to God for guidance in all situations but he’s not going to implant knowledge of a worldly nature simply at our asking.

The Bible is filled with wonderful ways and instructions for the practical application of life and living a godly lifestyle in our present physical condition. But more so over the practical applied to the physical is instruction in the spiritual and the godly applied to our daily walk through this carnal world. The Bible is filled with instruction from Jesus, and inspired by Jesus through the other writers of the books of wisdom and the Epistles of how to live and move and conduct ourselves in the ever examining, ever illuminating light of God. Even when Jesus was giving instruction in the living of our physical condition, his main emphasis was to instruct us in living a good life. His main emphasis was to instruct us in living a godly life, and producing good fruit that would show record and reward in our spiritual completion of this journey of life that we are all venturing through. If we look at just what Jesus said in the Gospels, most of it was instruction pertaining to how we need to do this or do that now so that when we are standing before the throne at judgment our reward and mansion is intact and ready for occupancy then. And this is what the Spirit will be doing in and through us, by his prompting or as previous generations liked to say, “by his unction”.

When the Holy Spirit is alive with-in us our conscience gains life. When the Holy Spirit is alive and working with-in us we will notice when we sin in ways that would have never been noticeable before. When we were dead to the Spirit we did things that brought about spiritual death. We sinned in ways that may not have been listed with the likes of say a serial killer, but we did do things that were ungodly. We may not have done things that would be classified as completely dishonest or morally unfit, but we were looking to the world for classification of what these acts were. And the standards of the world are far from the standards of God. Before the Spirit gave us conscience and conviction we felt nothing in our spirit when we wandered down the wrong path. But after receiving Christ we feel that little tug in our conscience when we wander down the wrong path even a little bit. And the closer we get to Jesus, the quicker that tug comes, even to the point that when we take just one little step in the wrong direction we know it. When that happens, then we know the Spirit is working in us.

Before we came to the saving knowledge of just whom Jesus Christ is we already knew “Thou shall not steal” meant don’t rob a bank … unless we were totally in rebellion. But how much further were we willing to allow that little commandment to direct us? Once God’s Spirit is working in us we feel a prick in our conscience if we take a pencil from work without asking the boss, the owner of that pencil, if it’s okay. Because whether we want to admit it or not, something as simple as taking a pencil or a few paper clips from your place of employment is stealing. The owner of the business bought those items for the running of his or her business and when we take them for personal use in ways that will not benefit the owner’s business we have just taken money from that business owner. There is no way to get around it, if anything is taken for any purpose other than what that item was bought for, it’s stealing. If we spend time at work on the phone for our personal comfort and convenience and we are using the company phone on company time, we’re stealing money from the boss. And we’re stealing in two ways. One way we are stealing is that we are stealing time, our time at work is not our time. We’re getting paid to do work, company business, something that benefits the owner of the establishment of where we are employed, not to talk to friends or set up personal appointments. Our time at work belongs to our boss and it is through our agreement with the boss that we exchange our time for his or her money as compensation for the use of our time. That’s why they hired us and that’s why they pay us. The second way we are stealing is in the use of the personal use of the company telephone, it’s there for the business and the profit of the owner, not for our personal use. My wife and I have a relative, not the blood relative, mind you, but a woman married into the family, she does all of her personal telephone calling on the company phone, on company time, and charging the long distance calls to her boss. She’s a thief, pure and simple. She is stealing time, use of property and money each time she makes a personal telephone call.

Where I worked within the New York prison system I’ve seen people take pens, pencils, soap, toilet paper, garbage bags, toothpaste and tooth brushes and just about anything else they can walk off with. And then they try to justify their actions by saying; “I don’t get paid enough, so I’m making up the difference” and I work in law enforcement! What they are really doing is stealing and the irony of it all is that we are there to keep an eye on the ones who were doing the very same thing and got caught at it and ended up in jail. And you know what? When they steal that bar of soap or garbage bag … they are stealing from you because your tax dollar paid for that item. If we take it, remove it, or use it, anything, regardless of how inconsequential it may seem; if we use it for any purpose other than the purpose it was bought for … it’s wrong. It’s a sin. And that includes our time as well if we are on the payroll clock. Think about this for a while later when you’re alone with just you and the Spirit to talk it over with. Enough on this subject, this could be another entire sermon at a later date.

Since the title of this sermon is; “The Work of the Spirit” you may be asking yourself by now, all this is well and good, it’s been scriptural so far but how does the Spirit work since you’ve raised the question?

(Acts 2: 1-4) “1When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”

Through this reading we can see that the Spirit works in three ways.
Spontaneously – “suddenly a sound like the blowing of violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.”
Sovereignty - the blowing of violent wind. The KJV says “as of a rushing might wind”. Remember the words of Jesus from (John 3:8) “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Significantly – “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”
Lets look at each of these units and dissect if you will for lack of a better saying what they have to tell us of the working of the Holy Spirit.
Our first point was spontaneously … the Holy Spirit is self-motivated and self-originated! The presence or the power of the Holy Spirit can never be influenced by the will of man. We cannot will the Spirit to appear, to take action or direct the Spirit to any cause, action or human desire on our own behalf. Man has no control over God; he never has, never had, and never will have. Amen? God has total control and dominion over man, God could force himself upon man should He desire, but in His infinite love and compassion for us He doesn’t. The Spirit is not restricted by the will of man. The Spirit is not restricted by our will or human ideas. We can’t will the Spirit by our human intellect or desires. Rather the Spirit wills us to do the desires He has in mind for us, not what we desire for him to do. The Holy Spirit has the same nature and attributes of Father God. Since the Spirit is the third person of the Trinity he is everything the Father is, he is everything the Son Jesus is. Amen? As the Father is totally perfect, totally powerful and totally God, not manipulated by man or circumstance or anything else in all of creation so likewise is the Spirit all of these things.

The second point was Sovereignty … the Spirit has all dominion, power and rule. As before stated from the words of Jesus, the Spirit, like the wind comes and goes as he pleases. We have no control over the wind; we have no control over the Spirit. He is supreme and totally independent of man, our whims and our wants are all below the will of the Spirit. Have you ever been in the sanctuary of a church when you can feel the power and presence of the Spirit when he arrives in all his glory? It’s wonderful isn’t it? If you have never experienced this sensation I pray that you will at some time in your Christian walk. The Holy Spirit is sovereign, the Holy Spirit is supreme.

The third point was Significantly … the work of the Spirit is significant. The work of the Spirit is full of meaning, the work of the Spirit is most important and noteworthy. Think of what the Scriptures said in the Book of Acts. “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them”. Can you imagine the vision of this? Have you ever given this pericope any real thought? To see a flame of God come down out of the heavens, enter a room and flash across the ceiling, darting back and forth looking for a place to rest and then it separates and comes to rest on the head of each person there. Can you imagine what this would do to the worship service of any church were God to repeat this visual image at any time? I don’t know about you but I’d be lying on the floor praising God with every ounce of my being and crying for that fire to be on my head. Amen? Tongues, tongues of fire, interesting language. The “tongues of fire” suggests a ministry of speaking, the Spirit speaking to our spirit. Through his speaking to us he’s ministering to us, he’s edifying us and he’s encouraging us. Fire can also denote a searching or consuming ministry. As the Spirit speaks to us he is also searching our spirit, he’s searching our heart, working in his all consuming power of love, illuminating the dark places of our life and bringing us into the light of God, the Father of Lights. “Father of Lights”, one of the names of God and I love it don’t you? James uses this title in his epistle. When you or I are Spirit filled, when we’ve received the baptism of the Holy Spirit he, the Spirit, will be for us exactly what Jesus said he would be. The Spirit will be our comforter and our counselor. The term counselor used here can denote two implications. 1st, as a counselor he will offer wise counsel. Think in terms of using a lawyer. We call upon a lawyer to offer us wise counsel when we have a legal problem or are looking into making a large investment, like a home or a business. We use lawyers when we have to go before a judge in a court of law, usually that lawyer speaks on our behalf when addressing the judge. He, the lawyer speaks for us as our representative. He’s usually defending us and should be looking out for our best interest. This is what the Spirit is doing, he’s looking out for our best interests. 2nd, when thinking of a counselor we think of someone we go to for wise counsel in times of problems, we seek a counselor for marital problems or family problems. When we are deeply bothered in our intellect or our spirit by past or present circumstances, things that eat at us and make our life uneasy. My wife is a certified prayer counselor, she’s been trained and certified through the Elijah House ministries, she’s a member of AACC, the American Association of Certified Counselors. She’s trained to counsel from a biblical perspective in prayer counseling. Through prayer and seeking the face of God they work with you to take you back to the deep roots of the problem and then how to give it to the Lord. She will work with you through the power of the Holy Spirit to trace back to the negative event in your life and the effects it’s had on you by keeping you in bondage. Blocking your ability to fully enjoy the blessings God has for you.

Try to envision our life without the presence of the Holy Spirit. What would be our source of motivation? Where would we draw our desires to spread the Good News? Where would we draw our desires to have a clear conscience? Where would we draw our desires to live a Christ like life? Without the presence of the Holy Spirit what would be our incentive to be a shadow of Jesus Christ? If each of us were to, in total honesty, reflect upon our lives before the Holy Spirit came to us, before we bent the knee, bowed the head and acknowledged Jesus Christ as Lord over our lives, before His Holy Spirit came to us, what would our thoughts or memories bring to remembrance? In a beautiful fashion the Apostle Paul answered this question in or about 56 AD, or about one thousand nine hundred and forty some years ago. The eloquence and honesty of his words are recorded in the book of Romans. And they ring as true today as they did when he first penned them so very long ago. He writes in (Romans 6:20-23) “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” And so as a minister of the Gospel, a servant of my Lord and Savior, a sinner saved by grace I ask you: Have you acknowledged Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Have you gone before His throne and said “Lord I know I’m a sinner and for me, were it not for your grace and mercy, I know there would be no hope in anything other than eternal damnation in the bowels of hell. But I humble myself before your throne and ask for forgiveness, believing in my heart of hearts that you will forgive because your word tells me so.

Have you sought the baptism of the Holy Spirit? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions I’d like to intercede for you on your behalf right now if you’d allow me.

Lord Jesus, we acknowledge you as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. We acknowledge that there is no salvation or path of righteousness for us to take except through you. We acknowledge that we are sinners, that we have led a sinful life and offended you. But Lord we repent of our sins, we repent of the life we have led that has brought us to this place on bended knee and we ask you Father to forgive us our sins. We acknowledge that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, that there would be no spot nor stain of sin with-in us any longer. We accept your grace; we accept your mercy. We acknowledge that now we stand washed in the blood of the Lamb, cleansed by the blood of Jesus and that he shed his blood for the remission of our sins although he was sin free himself.

And now Holy Father, we ask for the outpouring of your Spirit upon us as we are gathered together in this place today. We ask for the gift of the Spirit promised us by your Son Jesus. We ask for the Counselor, the Comforter and the promise of Jesus, that He would come full upon us right now in this little country church. We ask for an anointing to be poured out upon any here that have not received your Spirit before now. And for those of us who have received your anointing we ask for a new anointing to refresh us and revitalize us as your sweet wind blows across this place.

Holy Spirit send your fire upon us, set our hearts ablaze as never before, let your flames come to light upon each of us as it did in the upper room. Send your wind and have it blow across this room and refresh us in your present anointing.

Grace & peace