Why God's Spirit Is Vital for Your Life

In ancient times, the Lord, by God’s Spirit, arrested people’s attention via the use of miracles. You know miracles by definition is where God intervenes, by His great power, and stretched out arm, suspends the ordinary course of nature. One writer said that, ‘Religion had its beginnings with a sense of awe and power outside the visible world. The Spirit came to Samson and he demonstrated miraculous strength. The Spirit enabled Joseph to interpret puzzling dreams and to withstand the hostility of his brothers and sensual temptations in Egypt. The prophets declared the Spirit as righteousness and felt the Spirit within them. The Spirit enabled David to conquer one crisis after another. The Spirit of God devastated Saul of Tarsus and later cleansed and commissioned him to proclaim the gospel. Sustained by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth and, standing up in the familiar synagogue, declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach” (Luke 4:18).’¹ You see, it’s the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God that’s the common denominator. That’s why in this podcast we will focus on ‘Why God’s Spirit Is Vital for Your Life’ all on this week’s Light on Life.

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Only God can know God. Man cannot figure out God without God. That’s why the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to be your Teacher and Your Guide.

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Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11). Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony.
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Question: What has the Spirit of God, who is in your spirit, taught you lately? Please share your testimony in the comments section below.

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 48 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. He and his wife Sharon of 44 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Prayer

Well again, welcome.
Let’s pray.

Father God, thank you today for sending your Holy Spirit into the earth to be our leader and our guide. Help us today to recognize you in all the things of our lives. We give you the praise for doing this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

God’s Spirit: Helps Us Know God

1 Corinthians 2:11–16 (ESV) — 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

What’s Paul saying here?
Let’s break it down.
Who knows what’s going on inside a human being?
The only person that knows is that person.
The only person that knows what my wife Sharon is thinking is Sharon.
It works the same way with God.
Man cannot know God on his own.
He needs help.

John 6:44 (ESV) — 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

We can’t even come to God without help let alone know Him.
Only God can know God.
Man cannot figure out God without God.
They’ve been trying for years.
That’s where all the religions of the world came from.
All of them are versions of trying to figure out God — how to approach Him — how to interact with Him — how to figure out His will.
It’s a big mess — man cannot figure out God without input from God.
Can’t be done.
You can’t use your human mind to understand God.
If you want to know God, let God tell you who He is.
And, He has told you in His Word.
One of my quests has been to try to learn what others have already learned about God.
If you knew something about Him, I wanted to know it.
And so, I set out on this journey of trying to accumulate books and information about God.
And, I did accumulate books — in fact, an embarrassing number of books.
But, here’s what happens with books — you can’t read them all.
And with that thought, here is the Illustration of the Day.

Currently, the Library of Congress houses eighteen million books. American publishers add another two hundred thousand titles to this stack each year. This means that at the current publishing rate, ten million new books will be added in the next fifty years. Add together the dusty Library of Congress volumes with the shiny new and forthcoming books, and you get a bookshelf-warping total of twenty-eight million books available for an English reader in the next fifty years! But you can read only 2,600—if you are a wildly ambitious book devourer. For every one book that you choose to read, you must ignore ten thousand other books simply because you don’t have the time. This is not to say that our knowledge isn’t valuable—it’s simply admitting the reality that there are limits to knowledge and learning. Even with all the knowledge that is acquired, it is still limited by time because it will pass away—it does not endure forever.²

This is why the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit is so wonderful and necessary.
He, the Holy Spirit of God, is going to teach you what you need to know.
He’s not going to fill your heart with what you don’t need to know.
The Lord said this to a minister that I read after.
He said to her, ‘Ninety-eight percent of all knowledge, you don’t need to know.’
Human wisdom is not the route that we need to go.
Teach what what you’ve been taught by the Spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

God’s Spirit: Part of the Godhead

Now, we know this about God — that God is one — that’s what the scripture said.

Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV) — 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.

We understand what that means — that God is three distinct individuals: the Father God, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit of God.
But, God is one — that means in mind and purpose.
Out of this group of three, God the Father, who is the head of the Godhead, has sent the Holy Spirit to assist you in knowing all things God.
That’s what verse twelve is communicating to us.

1 Corinthians 2:12 (ESV) — 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

We had the opportunity to receive Him because the Father sent Him into the earth on the Day of Pentecost.
That reception of the Spirit of God took place when you said yes to Jesus.
On that day, the Teacher came into your life.
The Master Teacher, the revealer of God came into your heart.
Do you want to know Him?, He is in you to show you — to open up to you all that He is and all that you are in Him.

John 16:13 (ESV) — 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Saying this another way — if you want to know God on a personal one to one level — if you want to know the things of God, His things, you are going to need help.
The Holy Spirit of God is your Helper.

John 14:26 (ESV) — 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

So, if you listened to last week’s podcast, right at the end, I shared a testimony of something new that I learned in the area of being led by God.
I learned it because the Holy Spirit in me, taught it to me.
You know Romans 8:14 says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Well, this son of God learned something new that day.
Now, when I say ‘new truth’ — I mean ‘new to me.’
So, the Spirit of God is the teaching link, the uncovering link between God and man.
God wants you to know Him.
He wants to navigate life with you.
The Father wants to talk to you.
He talked to me this morning — it was wonderful.
If you want to know God or know anything about His ways, then learning how to listen to the Holy Spirit of God in your spirit is key.
Now, He will, at times, interrupt you and you have to be okay with that.

God’s Spirit is the Key

1 Corinthians 2:13 (ESV) — 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

So, verse twelve says ‘we understand the things of God because of the Spirit of God.’
We impart these truths we learned about God not taught by human wisdom because human wisdom is so puny.
Truths about God are imparted by the Spirit of God.
The Greek word ‘impart’ means to speak or to say.
So, this message that we teach, that we preach, that we minister — that we call the gospel — the Spirit of God is totally involved with that.
That’s the spiritual truth that Paul has been talking about right up to this point in the letter.
He’s been talking about the cross.
He’s been talking about Calvary.

1 Corinthians 1:18, 23 (ESV) — 18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

And then…

1 Corinthians 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The Spirit of God is in the center of the proclamtion of Jesus.
Just like you cannot know God on your own — you can’t proclaim Him on your own either.
We need help.
We cannot do anything of lasting effect without the Holy Spirit of God.

God’s Spirit Teachs Us All That Took Place at Calvary

Now, look at who the Apostle Paul is talking to here in this Corinthian passage that we’ve read.
It’s very telling.
First, this is a letter sent to the believers in Jesus in the church or churches of Corinth.
So, these folk are already Jesus followers.
Paul is not writing a letter to the lost here.
When Paul says, ‘Now WE have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that WE might understand the things freely given us by God.
The ‘we’ is the church not the lost.
We, the Jesus follower, is the one who understands the things freely given to them by God.
Paul goes on to say — ‘And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.’

God’s Spirit: The Great Master Teacher

What are these words taught by the Spirit?
First, they are scripture words.

2 Peter 1:19–21 (ESV) — 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So, first, these words taught by the Spirit were given to other men to write down.
It was written down for you — it was written down for me.
Second, these words are heart inspired words.
That is these are words that came up on the inside of you because this same Holy Spirit that moved on those men who recorded what He said as scripture is functioning the same way in your heart.
He’s moving on the inside of you.
The Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you imparting to your spirit words not taught by human wisdom but taught by Him, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.’
‘To those who are spiritual?’ — well Paul is not talking about the lost here because they certainly aren’t spiritual.
Paul, then goes on to compare two kinds of people, natural and spiritual.
He says in verse 14, ‘The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.’
So, yes, in context, the subject matter up to this point is the gospel of Jesus Christ which needs to be spiritually discerned.
But, Paul isn’t just referring to the simple preaching of the physical events of the gospel, that is, telling people that Jesus came, Jesus died, and Jesus rose again the third day all according to the scriptures.
Do you understand what I mean by physical events?
I mean what is all this spiritual stuff that needs to discerned?
What’s all this that if a natural unsaved person heard it, they would consider stupid or foolish?
Well, it’s all the behind the scene stuff connected to Jesus death.
People physically viewed the crucifixion.
The Romans who nailed him to the cross saw Him die.
The disciples saw Him die.

God’s Spirit and What Happened to Jesus at Calvary

But what they didn’t see is what happened with Jesus from the Cross to the Throne.

1 Corinthians 2:8 (ESV) — 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

What happened when Jesus died?
What took place behind the scenes?
Jesus death was not just a physical event.
I heard Brother Copeland say this and I agree with him and with that thought, here is the Quote of the Day.

God created a human body. Not a human being, but a human body. And He made that out of the elements of this earth. Then, from within Himself, He put life into that body. The Bible said He breathed life into that body. That was a dead thing. The spirit of man is the real man. And the light and the life of God is the life-giving source of that man.³

I like that — first, God created a human body.
Then, He breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life or his spirit and man became a human being.
Well, you know what happened with this human being.
This human being, Adam, along with his wife Eve, sinned against God in the Garden.

Genesis 2:15–17 (ESV) — 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Now, we know what happened.
Adam and Eve both ate of the tree.
And they died — both of them, spiritually.
And, we know that because Adam lived to be 930 years old.
So, Adam and Eve died spiritually first and physically afterward.
When the first couple of Planet Earth sinned, they bowed their knee to Satan and became his slaves.

Romans 6:16 (ESV) — 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Adam obeyed Satan and became a slave.
And not only was Adam enslaved but so was all mankind right along with him.

Romans 5:19 (ESV) — 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

So, all of this has to be changed.
So, what really happened at Calvary besides the physical death of Jesus?
Second Corinthians five gives us a clue.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) — 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

What happened at Calavry that no one saw — that had to be revelaed by the Holy Spirit of God so that we could know it?
God made Jesus sin.
Now, listen to these words carefully.
God made Jesus sin — that doesn’t mean Jesus committed sin.
There’s a difference.
There’s a difference between Jesus the Second Adam and the first.
The first Adam willfully committed sinned and died spiritually.
The Second Adam, Jesus, was made sin and He also died spiritually.
The spiritual death of Adam came by disobedience.
The spiritual death of Jesus came by obedience.
Jesus died spiritually by obedience unto God.
Do you understand that?
No one at Calvary saw that.
The disciples of Jesus never saw it.
Here’s something else that no one at Calvary saw.

1 Timothy 3:16 (ESV) — 16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Vindicated by the Spirit was not something visible to mankind.
The Greek word ‘vindicated’ is the one we want to look at and with that thought, here is the Definition of the Day.
The word ‘vindicated’ is the word normally translated justified.
You know ‘justified’ means ‘just as if I’d never sinned.’
Justified means to be made righteous.
So, Jesus was made righteous by the Spirit.
That’s an amazing thought that Jesus was made sin for you, who knew no sin that you might be made the righteous of God in Christ.
That’s what we just read in Second Corinthians five and verse twenty-one.

God’s Spirit and the Emmaus Disciples

Again, no one who was present at the crucifixion of Jesus saw what was happening behind the scenes.
Not even the eleven disciples, but some light began to appear.
There were only eleven at this point because Judas committed suicide.

Luke 24:13–19 (ESV) — 13 That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. 16 But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” 19 And he said to them, “What things?” And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man…

Now, they got this part right.
Jesus was a man.
He had to come to the earth as a man.
He had to die in your place as a man.
The Emmaus disciples go on to say.

Luke 24:19b–21 (ESV) — 19b who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

You see they didn’t know what happened.
What these disciples are sharing is the information their physical senses had captured.

Luke 24:22–24 (ESV) — 22 Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, 23 and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

Again, all they did was regurgitate the physical realites they saw.
You know the info that came through the eye and the ear gate.
There’s no faith in any of these disciples concerning these events.
And that’s what Jesus points out.

Luke 24:25–27 (ESV) — 25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

The Greek word ‘interpreted’ means to clarify something so as to make it understandable.
It means to explain.⁴
Louw Nida adds that the word ‘interpreted’ means to explain on a more extensive and formal level the meaning of something which is particularly obscure or difficult to comprehend.⁵
So, what happened behind the scenes with Jesus was obscure to everyone – even to His disciples.
You should be impressed with the fact that Jesus chose two unknown disciples, Cleopas, whom you never hear of again and another disciple that we even don’t know his name, to share these behind the scenes truths of what happened at Calavry.
Jesus could have chosen the more well-known disciples Peter, James, or John to share this with — you know the big guns among the original twelve.
No, Jesus didn’t choose the well known household names – He chose folk you never heard of.
I want you to know that He will do the same even today.
We may not be well known on Planet Earth — but that doesn’t mean God doesn’t know you.
He wants to pull alongside you and talk to you.
This conversation that Jesus had with these disciples was the start of uncovering what Happened from the Cross to the Throne.

Colossians 2:11–14 (ESV) — 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

This is not talking about physical death — it’s talking about spiritual death.

Romans 8:29 (ESV) — 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Now, get this truth.
From that day to this, Jesus is not only the begotten Son of God, He is also the first man born again.
The firstborn from the dead among many brethren.
Chew on that thought this week.

Now Father God, thank you for being the only wise God. Thank you for this marvelous plan of redeeming us back to you. We thank you for it. We appreciate you for it. We give you the glory and honor for it in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Why God’s Spirit is So Vital for Your Life.
You guys have a great God week and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

Why the Human Spirit of Man Is the Real You

__________
References:

G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 165. ↩
Tony Reinke, Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), pp. 93, 94., Stephen T. Um, 1 Corinthians: The Word of the Cross, ed. R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 44–45. ↩
https://blog.kcm.org/what-happened-from-the-cross-to-the-throne/ ↩
William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 244. ↩
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 404. ↩

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Why God’s Spirit Is Vital for Your Life

Podcast: Light on Life Season Twelve Episode Twenty-Nine

by Emery Horvath

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Prayer

God’s Spirit: Helps Us Know God

God’s Spirit: Part of the Godhead

God’s Spirit is the Key

God’s Spirit Teachs Us All That Took Place at Calvary

God’s Spirit: The Great Master Teacher

God’s Spirit and What Happened to Jesus at Calvary

God’s Spirit and the Emmaus Disciples

Listen to the Audio

Click to Listen | Right Click to Download |Subscribe to iTunes

Read the Notes

Accept the Challenge

Join the Conversation

Episode Resources: How Jesus Style Perserverance Can Make You a Winner

We are currently teaching in the book of First Corinthians. You can click on the links below to listen to some of these podcasts.

About Emery

Subscribe to the Podcast

Share the Love

Podcast Notes

Prayer

God’s Spirit: Helps Us Know God

God’s Spirit: Part of the Godhead

God’s Spirit is the Key

God’s Spirit Teachs Us All That Took Place at Calvary

God’s Spirit: The Great Master Teacher

God’s Spirit and What Happened to Jesus at Calvary

God’s Spirit and the Emmaus Disciples

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