“The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.”

John 14:26

Last week my daughter mentioned that she and her boys are discovering the Star Wars movies beginning with the prequels. More than once I’ve heard others draw a comparison to the Holy Spirit and Lucas’ fictional force, but that is not the intent of Christ when He introduced His followers to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, He is not an “It”, but a Person who is at work in our lives as part of the Trinity.

Paul expresses the concept of the Trinity in his final words to the Corinthians when he included the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Gordon Fee reminded us yesterday that “in practice the majority of Christians tend toward believing in the “oblong blur” of my young student friend of many years ago. The result is that the implications of the renewed presence of God by his Spirit, scarcely inspire believers in one direction or the other. Surely the reality that God is personally present in and among us should encourage us through the exigencies and weaknesses of our present life, not to mention revitalize us when our shoulders droop and our hands grow weary.”

God is personally involved in our lives and so it’s encouraging to note that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8: 26-27).

A few hundred words is not enough space to give a full discussion of the Holy Spirit’s active role in our lives, but it can be a starting point for us today.

Read through the verses above from Romans 8 and give some thought to how the Spirit helps us in our weakness.