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Love

Teaching Text: John 14: 25-27

“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Themes

Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:

FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT | Meditations on the Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Teacher | Reminder | Keeper

Formation

Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:

What aspects make for a good life in NYC?
If we pay attention to our city we can hear the question being asked, being lived. WHAT MAKES A GOOD LIFE?
- We see the Spirit of God at work in Creation.
  - In the opening moments of Genesis, in the poetry of the creation account in Torah, we have a picture of God as Spirit.
- We see the role of the Holy Spirit in initiating New Creation
  - When Jesus goes to begin His public ministry, we have this powerful picture again. The picture is of the Spirit as a Bird, descending on Jesus.
- The Holy Spirit gives birth to the New Creation community of Jesus
All of what we see Christ doing throughout the Gospels is done in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- And this is the very same Spirit that fills you and I. The life of God in the soul of a person.
- Jesus says in the upper room…
  “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.”
John 14
- The Spirit of God Teaches Us - instructs us, helps us with discoveries of who God is.
- The Spirit of God Reminds Us of what we have come to know - often in crucial moments the Spirit will pull into our minds and hearts who Jesus is, what God has said is true about us, how life actually works.
Jesus’ expectation for us is that the Spirit will give them a share in the peace that He experiences. The Holy Spirit will give them, give us a share of The Shalom of God.
2 Corinthians 5 says … “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
- You may be familiar with a translation that says if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation.
- THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKES US ALIVE IN A WAY THAT WE WERE NOT BEFORE
The apostle Paul puts in “I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” – Ephesians 3 v 16-17
THE SPIRIT COMES TO DWELL IN OUR INNER BEING.
Romans 5 says the Holy Spirit has been poured into our hearts.
- So now there is a new way to live, a new way to operate, a new way to change that is not simply our already formed MIND, WILL, and EMOTIONS.
- We are in the REALM OF THE SPIRIT.
- Our minds are renewed, and our decision-making is changed by God.
- ONE WAY TO UNDERSTAND THIS IS OUR SOUL BEGINS TO BE HEALED
THE GOSPEL IS NOT JUST PUNCHING YOUR TICKET FOR AN AFTERLIFE IN PARADISE. IT IS HEALING YOUR SOUL SO YOU CAN BEAR BEING IN GOD’S FULLY REVEALED PRESENCE
- SO YOU CAN BE FULLY ALIVE.
- “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. “
  – 2 Corinthians 4 v 16
How does this reality inspire you to change how you live?
THE SPIRIT IS OUR TEACHER AND REMINDER
- BUT THERE ARE SOME PLACES THE SPIRIT HAS PROMISED TO MINISTER TO US
- TO TEACH AND REMIND US.
- SCRIPTURE. WORSHIP. COMMUNITY. PRAYER
How much is your life ordered around the practices that engage specifically with the Holy spirit?
SCRIPTURE. WORSHIP. COMMUNITY. PRAYER
- The Spirit might teach and remind us in many ways in our life, but these are four places we can expect the Spirit to minister to us
- THIS IS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE HEALING OF OUR SOULS
Scripture - the stories of Jesus, God’s work in the world, in the armor of God, the sword of the spirit is the word of God
Worship - the narrative of the Scripture shows us over and over again that God inhabits the praises of his people.
- The ministry of the Spirit is to lift of the life of Christ. When we worship we are agreeing and participating in that.
- Worship helps to re-orient our affections, it begins to direct and reinforce our love to the highest aim of God rather than some other lesser thing.
- So those lesser things find their proportion and place
Community - the priesthood of all believers, we minster the Spirit to each other, where two or more are gathered in God’s name, God is there.
Prayer - as we grow in talking and listening to God we learn to discern how God speaks to us, often in a still small voice in our inner being, prompts and invitations to love, conviction or correction when we have drifted from God’s way
So the Spirit is teaching, but the Spirit is often teaching by reminding …
- Reminding
- I often experience this as conviction in my heart or mind…
  - Of identity + Of correction + Of promises
ASK THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BE YOUR INSTRUCTOR AND REMINDER TODAY, IN YOUR INNER BEING.
I want the last words of this meditation to be the words of this prayer for the ministry of the Holy Spirit…
- “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
  Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
  – Ephesians 3 v 16-21
Pray this prayer over one another in your small group, family, marriage, friendships…