The Question To Ask Ourselves

July/August 2012 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Question To Ask Ourselves“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me.” — Acts 1:8 NKJV“When the Helper comes ... the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” — John 15:26

Some say that the Acts of the Apostles should really be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit. And I can understand why, especially if we consider the Spirit’s presence in Acts. After all, He is referred to directly over 50 times in that book as either “baptizing” or “filling” or “leading” believers. And if we count the inferred evidence of His working, He appears even more often. However, I think it would be inconsistent with the Holy Spirit’s purpose to have attention called to Himself, especially by having a book named after Him.

When the Spirit was sent, He came from the Father to testify concerning our Lord (Jn. 14:26), to teach us all things (1 Jn. 2:27), and to dwell in us (Jn. 14:16-18). In John 15:16 the Holy Spirit is referred to as “another Helper” – and from the context of this verse we know that the first Helper is Jesus Himself. Likewise, while the Holy Spirit is presented as “the Spirit of truth,” Jesus is presented as “the truth” itself (Jn. 14:6).

The Spirit’s purpose then is to testify of Jesus Christ by His presence in our lives. And today He is doing just that as He indwells each individual Christian, as well as the whole body of Christ, the Church on earth (1 Cor. 6:19; 3:16). The question we have to ask ourselves is this: When people see us do they see any evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives?

By Larry Ondrejack