Holy Spirit Our Helper (318)

0:01 Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today we're continuing our series on the Holy Spirit. And today's title is, Holy Spirit, Our Helper. Now, when I think about the Holy Spirit, I think about how every moment of our life can be led by Him. Even though we will make mistakes, even though we'll say things or do things that we probably shouldn't do, bottom line, He is with us every single moment of every single day. And so we're going to talk about a number of things about how the Holy Spirit wants to work with us. us and how we can submit to him and yield to him and that he wants to be our helper. He's just waiting inside of us. Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in each and every one of us. He's just there waiting to do whatever he can do to help us and to bless us. So today we're going to talk about what did Jesus mean when he told his disciples that he would send a helper and how does the Holy Spirit really help Christians. We're going to talk about how we are able to ask for help and we'll discover the types of help that we can receive. So with that, let's pray and ask for the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, I thank you once again for this opportunity.

1:07 I pray that you would bless it and anoint it and I invite the Holy Spirit to come in now and take control, take charge of everything that takes place today. I pray your blessing would be upon this podcast today and ask the Holy Spirit to guide my thoughts and guide those and help those who are listening in today that they would receive something very special today from you. So Lord, bless this podcast, anoint it I ask and I'll be careful to give you the praise and glory for what's about to take place. For I ask these things in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Well it's always a joy to speak on this podcast. It's hard for me to imagine that this is podcast number 318. We started this about three and a half years ago and it's just such a blessing to be involved with this and to see how it's touching people.

1:51 quite frankly around the world. I am just amazed and I look at the number of countries who downloaded and are listening in and it reminds me when the Holy Spirit directed me to teach on a subject on faith for miracles. I started this subject that later on became a book that I wrote but I started this subject and in my podcast and right after I started a week or so into it all of a sudden Russia attacked the Ukraine and I thought Lord just bless those people and help them and I went to look at see what's happening in my download you know, around the world, where they go, because this is on the internet, and all of a sudden I noticed a large increase in people tuning in and listening in from the Ukraine, and what an amazing blessing that was, and I just thank the Lord for that. See, that's how the Holy Spirit works. He gets us prepared, He sets us up, He plans things for us, then He just wants us to submit ourselves to Him and be led by the Holy Spirit to do what He wants us to do. So let's continue now into today's podcast entitled, Holy Spirit, Our Helper. There's a number of scriptures can use to describe how he's the helper, but I want to start with a scripture that addresses my topic today very specifically, and it's found in the New King James Version.

2:59 I don't use that very often, but I really like this translation for this particular scripture. It's found in John chapter 14 and verse 16. Jesus is speaking now to his disciples and telling them that he's going to be with his father. So let's start in verse number 16. Jesus said these words, and I will pray the Father. He's seeking God. He's seeking his Father. He's here, God on earth, but he's seeking his Father and praying. Boy, if that doesn't tell us the importance of prayer, I don't know what else would. And then he says, and he will give. You, another helper, he's telling these people that, that there'll be another helper when he leaves, that he may abide with you forever. Verse 17, the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him. for he dwells within you and will be in you. And then verse 18 says, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. Now that scripture tells me so much about what Jesus wanted the Holy Spirit to do. He says that He is the Spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. Now, if we're looking for truth and getting the truth to answers, well, we have that option. If you're really seeking for truth, you need to find Jesus. And then when you find Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes to live and dwell in us.

4:15 So we have the Spirit of Truth dwelling in us. Now, some people might say, well, I have a rough time maybe being truthful all the time. Does that mean I don't have the Holy Spirit? No. If you've given your heart to Jesus Christ, you've surrendered your life to Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit of Truth living in you, that doesn't mean you're going to become a perfect person, that you're going to do everything right all the time. You're going to make mistakes. But what's wonderful about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is that when we make a mistake, He helps us. He points it out. He encourages us to ask for forgiveness and to move on and to not dwell and beat ourselves up just because we made a mistake. So the Spirit of Truth is inside of us to help us live a life of truth. And it says, whom the world cannot receive because they don't know Him. They've not given our life to Jesus Christ. They don't understand the Holy That's why when I do podcasts on the Holy Spirit, I get an increase in so many people who want to listen to what I have to say and what the Holy Spirit has to say about the teaching of the Holy Spirit and that we're drawn to the Holy Spirit because He dwells inside each and every one of us. Jesus says, He says, they don't know Him and that's sad and we don't say, oh, they don't know Him and that's just too bad. No, not at all. We should never, ever, ever feel. upset with people who don't know Jesus, we should encourage them to know Christ, encourage them to seek the things of God and to get into the Word of God and bless them and reach out to them and never give up on them. You know, I've known of young men and women in our church who were on fire for the Lord and excited about the things of God. And then they got sidetracked in college or through other individuals and dread them into

5:47 a life or kind of entice them to go into a life that was really not the type of life a Christian should live. And we can't give up on those folks. We can't give up on our loved ones who are struggling with challenges in their life. We need to pray for them and believe that the Holy Spirit who is still around them and influencing them and touching them can help them to draw them out of the life that they know is incorrect and get them back to a right relationship with God and only the Holy Spirit can do that because only the Holy Spirit draws people from sin from out of the darkness and into the light and that's kind of what Jesus was talking about when he was talking to his followers and telling them that the people who don't know him don't have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of them but that the Holy Spirit still wants to draw them and pull them to a right relationship and he said that the Holy Spirit would there be there to help those who are followers of Jesus Christ that he would be their comforter and he would be the one that would be there and that Jesus said when I'm gone I'm not gonna leave you as orphans I'm not gonna leave you alone I will come to you again he says but while I'm gone the Holy Spirit he's saying is going to be here to help us and walk with us and we we need to know that as Christians you know we all go through trials in our life we all go through challenges where we're wondering why did this happen how come that happened whatever it might be but as a follower of Jesus Christ we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us we need to stop and just ask for him to help, ask for him to come into our lives and help us to get through a challenge and that he would encourage us and bless us.

7:13 And as we go through these podcasts, we're going to talk about different situations where the Holy Spirit has helped me and helped other individuals and drawn them into a proper relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus was confirming to all of his followers that he would not leave them or forsake them and he was comforting them and letting them know about the promise of the Holy Spirit. So if you're going through something right now and you're maybe challenged going through a difficult time, it might be a sickness, it might be a marital issue, it might be a work issue, it might be financial, I don't know what it is, but whatever you're going through right now, let me encourage you about the promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is there to help and guide and direct and I just pray that you'd reach out to him now and yield to him and ask for his presence and his power in your life.

7:58 You see, the Holy Spirit came to Jesus when he was baptized in water. Jesus was moving into his full -time ministry and the Holy Spirit came upon him and filled him. We read about it in the book of Matthew chapter 3 verse 16 in the New International Version. Listen to what these words say. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and the lighting on him which means descending upon him and coming upon him and that was the beginning of his full ministry. Oh, we know prior to that he was speaking in the synagogues and he was still God's Son, and He was Jesus, He was God in the flesh. But now when the Holy Spirit came, He brought a new level of revelation and life and understanding into Jesus' heart and mind. You see, when the Holy Spirit came to Jesus, He confirmed the identity of Jesus, and God confirmed how pleased He was with Jesus Christ. And that's what the Holy Spirit does for us when He comes into our life. When we become followers of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit descends upon us. and we are blessed with our spiritual helper for life. So no matter what you're going through right now, he's there to help you. So let me just pray for you. I just feel right now I should... take a moment and pray father for those out there who need a touch from the holy spirit i pray now that they would press into this podcast and listen to your voice and that the holy spirit would reveal to them that he's

9:29 there to comfort them and to help them and to be with them and to direct their lives strengthen them lord and encourage each and every person who need help is seeking and wanting help from the holy spirit i pray a blessing will come upon them and they would be filled with the power of the holy spirit and filled with the peace of their heart and mind for i ask that now in Jesus name I pray. Amen. You know it's so important that we understand that the Holy Spirit is available. to us and for us 24 -7. That's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. That's every hour of every day. Now, what does it mean to us? What really does that mean to us when we think about the Holy Spirit being available to us to help us and be our helper? Well, we are able to ask the Holy Spirit for help, for guidance, for comfort, for wisdom, but we must yield our body. That's so important. The key word there is yield. We must yield our body, soul, and spirit to Him. We must dismiss all the thoughts around us and just seek Him. And I know sometimes that's hard, that's difficult when you're going through something. But let me just tell you, when you're going through something, please don't let that interfere with what you're going to. See, the Apostle Paul said he calls forth those things that are not as though that they are, which means that in the middle of a trial, in the middle of difficult times, circumstances, we're in.

10:51 We've got to get above that and get away from that. And it's not easy. I understand that. I know what it's like to be diagnosed with cancers. I know what it's like to be diagnosed that you have an incurable disease and told maybe you only have a few months to live. These are things that I've experienced in my own life. And yeah, there's a moment where you just say, wow, that's pretty powerful. But then you've got to... Allow the Holy Spirit to come and give us that comfort and help us I remember and I know I've said this in other podcasts and forgive me for saying it again But when I was diagnosed with incurable cancer and given maybe only six months to live It was the Holy Spirit not me It was the Holy Spirit who instantly told me to look at the doctor and say you mean you're trying to scare me with heaven You see that's a Holy Spirit response, please forgive me for using it again But I just think it's so important that we've got to understand that we go through trials and circumstances But it's the Holy Spirit that will remind us of the promises of God and what God wants to take us true to what he wants to lead us into the life that he wants us to have and deliver us from whatever we're going through and Receive that and walk in the power and the glory of the Holy Spirit when we yield to the Holy Spirit Totally in body soul and spirit we get the attention of God. There's no question about it. We must stop talking how we will handle the issues of life and begin to seek God's will and His purpose and His promises for us. Let's stop and yield to the Holy Spirit. Matter of fact, let's do that right now. Heavenly Father, we yield to You. We submit to You. Whatever we're going through, whatever challenges we face, we surrender to

12:22 the Holy Spirit's leading and guidance and You will help us just like You helped the Apostle Paul when he was in prison and he wrote these amazing scriptures, these powerful scriptures that give us life and hope today. Lord, He did that through the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and that same Spirit now dwells in each and every one of us, and we believe for it and claim it in Jesus' name. Amen. Wow. I sure hope that you're feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit now and experiencing that comfort and peace that can only come from God. You see, because when we become followers of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes into us, once again, and confirms that God is pleased with us. That's kind of an important thing to think of. That's what he did with Jesus when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and he was confirming that he was pleased with Jesus. And so therefore when you become a follower of Jesus Christ, God becomes pleased with you, pleased with your decision and confirming that he's happy with you and he wants to live with you and guide you and direct your life and he sent the Holy Spirit there to do that and to help us. We are God's favorite creation people. Remember that? When Jesus...

13:29 working with God and the Holy Spirit and they were basically up in heaven and working over the earth and creating the earth. He looked down and God would say, now that was good and this is good and that's good. That's how he feels about you. God looks at you and says, That's good because my spirit dwells inside of them and he's pleased with you and we are his favorite creation. Oh, he created the mountains and the oceans and all this good stuff, the sky and the sun and the seas and all these things, glorious and whatever, but his favorite creation was man and man and woman were created in the image of God. The Holy Spirit comes into us to prove God's love for us. Let me repeat that. That's just something I think that just got a little bit of a chill when I said that. The Holy Spirit comes into us to prove God's love for us. Sometimes we just need somebody to prove that they love us, right? Well, the Holy Spirit is inside of us and that proves God's love for us each and every day of our life. Those Holy Spirit has multiple job assignments. He's got a lot of assignments to do in our lives. We will study all of these as in the next weeks and the months that we go through as we're going through this new podcast series on the Holy Spirit. I have so many topics I can't wait to get into and talk to you about how the Holy Spirit reveals God's promises. The Holy Spirit brings a financial blessing into our life. If we'll let Him, the Holy Spirit gives us an abundant life, an overcoming life. The Holy Spirit will lead us into new realms of faith and trust in God. He wants to give us gifts of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit and so there's so many things

14:59 to talk about. There could be hundreds of topics talking about the Holy Spirit. We won't probably do them all, but We will do as many as we feel led to do as the Holy Spirit leads us through this series on the Holy Spirit. We will study, you know, for weeks and weeks and even months. I believe God's got a great plan for that. But let me just give you a little brief list right now. Just a few things that the Holy Spirit has in His job description. You know, when you go work for someone, they give you a list of things you're supposed to do. You need to do this, you're supposed to do that. And when we're raising our kids, we teach our kids that they're supposed to do chores around the house and make their bed and clean their room. out the trash and all those kind of things. Well, those are all things that the Holy Spirit has a humongous amount of assignments, if you will, and a job description that is without end. He will be our Helper, and that's predominantly what this particular podcast is about today, talking about the Holy Spirit, the Helper. He'll be our Comforter. That means in the midst of whatever trial we face, He's right there to comfort us, and He lives inside of us. He's the Teacher of Truth. So when you say And you wonder, is that truthful or not?

16:05 It's the Holy Spirit that catches us and says, yeah, that's not exactly right. You should restate that or tell people that's not what you meant or make the correct statement. Because any time that we say something that's maybe not as truthful as it should be, the Spirit of Truth who dwells inside of us is ready and willing and able to help us correct that and stay and speak the truth. The Holy Spirit provides wisdom for decision -making. Now that's something we'll get into extensively. through this podcast and that is and these series of podcasts I should say because we're always fighting decisions we're always wondering about what decisions to make and should we do that or should we do this or should we buy a car or should we buy a new one or a used one or should I if you're single should I date that person or not and you when you're married and you have kids and stuff do I should we buy a house or should we rent a house it's constantly should we what should we do the Holy Spirit provides wisdom and a lot of people say well how how does that happen how does he give me wisdom well sometimes when we pray about something. Let me give an example. You want to buy a new house. And so you're thinking about it and you're praying about it and say, Lord, direct me and guide me. And if you're married, you have a spouse, you're praying together and believing for it. And if you have children, you're asking them to be in agreement with you and teach our kids to rely on the Holy Spirit. We should teach our kids to go to the Holy Spirit for decisions. And all of a sudden, the house that you're looking at buying, the deal goes through or should say falls through. It doesn't happen. And you're not approved for your loan or the buyer doesn't want to sell you the house for that price or whatever it might be. Let me just tell you, when you've sought the Holy Spirit and that happens to you, you've

17:37 heard from the Holy Spirit and the answer is no or not now. And many times we think, well, I asked for that and I prayed for that and I wanted God to do that and how come I didn't get it? Well, it's possibly that it's no or it's not now and that's the Holy Spirit working in us. We've got to understand when that happens that we just give credit to the Lord. And if there's doubting questions in your mind about whether you ought to do a certain thing or make a decision or buy a house or buy a car or get married or whatever it might be and there's confusion and doubt, that's the Holy Spirit working in us because God is the God of. everything opposite of confusion. God is the author of hope and peace and truth and light and purpose and anytime that we're in the midst of confusion and doubt that doesn't come from the Lord. The confusion comes from really the Holy Spirit telling us stay away from that, don't do that, run from that situation and when we listen to that still quiet voice of the Holy Spirit we've got to receive that and sometimes if we don't receive it and we push through and we do something we put ourselves into all kinds of trial and trouble. Let me give you an example in my own life. My wife and I owned a real estate development company and we built a lot of very fancy custom homes and did some office buildings and things. And I remember at times we would go to do a project and we would probably say, Lord, we want to do this project.

18:53 It looks good. It meets all the requirements, all of our due diligence that we've done to check it out. And so we want to go ahead and do it. And it falls through. And so then there have been times and unfortunately a couple of times we just kind of pushed through even though there was doubt and confusion and made the thing happen and in both cases that happened we built a project that we should never have built. The Lord was warning us and trying to help us and the Holy Spirit was trying to keep us away from that but we pushed into it ourselves and we said well I know what I should do and we did and we made a huge mistake and it went on for years that this thing was a problem but then the Lord helped us to clean the whole thing up and move on and get rid of those properties. So even if you're If you're a Christian and you're in business or if you're a Christian and you have children at home or you're just working for somebody, when you're praying about something and there's confusion and doubt and questions, remember, I believe the Holy Spirit is helping us and telling us to be cautious, not to proceed, to slow down and not do it and wait until you hear that still quiet voice that brings forth peace and comfort and guidance and direction. I hope that helps.

19:53 That's an old story of something that happened to me many, many years ago when I had a real estate development company. Use that from time to time to help people in making the right decision, and don't push through on your own. You don't want to make decisions that are of our own will, because it'll come back to hurt us. Do you know, or did you know I should say, that the Holy Spirit prays for us, that He tries to direct our thoughts and actions. He warns us of sin and spiritual danger. He brings also love and joy and peace and patience and goodness and kindness and gentleness and self -control. You know, as I prayed about what to address in these podcasts, The Holy Spirit, I believe, has directed me and given me thoughts about focusing on his thoughts and that my decisions should be based upon God's will and God's plan and how we go through this podcast. So we've got a lot of topics to cover, but I don't want to do any of them unless I feel led of the Holy Spirit to speak on them. Now, as we can see, the Holy Spirit is our helper. When Jesus was...

20:49 Leaving his followers, he was focused on giving them hope and comfort. His words to his disciples apply to every person here on earth today. Those people who repent and ask for forgiveness of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If you've not done that, I pray that you would do that and bow your head and close your eyes and say, Father, I'm sorry for the sins I've committed. I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me and receive me as your child. In Jesus' name, I pray. If we repent to God sincerely, the Holy Spirit will come and dwell inside us. of each and every one of us. I'll be talking more about that also in upcoming podcasts. So as I get ready to close this podcast out, because we're kind of getting to the end of it, I want to close out with a few thoughts. Let me give you some of the list of ways that we can ask the Holy Spirit for help. First of all, when we want to ask Him for help, we should start off by thanking the Lord for who He is. The Bible says to enter into His course with thanksgiving and praise. And I believe when we pray, we need to thank the Lord for who He is, not for just for what He gives, but for who He is. in number two. Daily prayer in our life and reading verses in the Bible on the Holy Spirit will help us understand who he is and how he wants to work in our lives. Number three, read John 14 26, but when the father sends the advocate as my representative, that is the Holy Spirit, he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. Jesus was giving comfort to his followers. And number four, in Romans 10 17, so faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of God. Once again, Reminder, when you want to approach the Holy Spirit, get the Word

22:21 of God in you. Get as much of the Word of God in you as you possibly can and listen to it and live by it. Number five, invite the Holy Spirit into every part of our life. Our health, our physical issues, our mental issues, our family issues, our marriage, our finances, whatever it might be, invite him to be a part of all of it. Our work, if you're going to school, invite him there. And number six, use just three words any time that we need help from the Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Three words can open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that we won't even be able to contain. So let them be a part of your daily life. Come Holy Spirit. Well, I hope this has been a blessing to you. I've enjoyed doing this podcast. There's so much to cover and so little time, but that's why the beauty of podcasts is that we don't just do it one time and we're done. We'll go on and on and on. And we're gonna continue our teaching in this area. And our next podcast is entitled, Holy Spirit brings faith. So we're going to get into the understanding of how faith and the Holy Spirit work together. Without faith, we wouldn't have the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, we wouldn't have faith. So we're going to talk about that and see how the Lord directs us. But I just hope that's been a blessing to you and that you've received something special from today's podcast because I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing this to you. Before I close out though, I'd like to give you a couple thoughts about what we're going to talk about in the next podcast entitled Holy Spirit Brings Faith. Let me just give you these things to think about. before you'll listen to the next podcast. How does the Holy Spirit increase our faith? Is it possible to become a Christian without the Holy Spirit? And where

23:53 does the Bible show us that our faith comes from the Holy Spirit? And why are faith and the Holy Spirit inseparable? And is faith possible without... understanding of the Holy Spirit. So I just believe those are all things we're going to get into and cover and I believe the Lord's got something very special intended for all of that and I pray that you'd let your friends and family members know as we're continuing this series on the Holy Spirit. If you'd like to know more though about the Quality Christian Living podcast because that's what the overall title of our podcast is and that's something the Lord put upon my heart many years ago. My wife and I taught a Sunday school class called Quality Christian Living and the class grew from like 20 or 30 people up to over 600 people on our roster and we had well over 300 without fail every single week and it was amazing how God blessed that and used it and so when I started this podcast I told my wife I said you know we had that class for many years because I truly believe in Christians living a quality life not just getting by but living that quality life that abundant life that Jesus promised in John chapter 10 verse 10 and so we called this the quality Christian living podcast so if you'd like to know more about it you can go to my web page at David C friend author And if you go there and pull up that front page, you'll see a link to all the podcasts we've done.

25:09 Now this has been podcast number 318, so obviously we've done a lot of podcasts. There are a series in there on faith, on miracles, on finances, on... what it means to have spiritual prosperity. There's podcast series dealing with help for veterans. There's quite a few podcasts dealing with really miracles in faith and things that will help us live that overcoming life. So hope there'll be a blessing to you. In addition to that, if you'd like to scroll down to the next page, you'll see a list of books that I've written that are on Amazon. Two for veterans, one dealing with generosity, what's in it for us. Another one dealing with having faith to receive everything from what we call nothing. Another book dealing with how to live financially out of debt and how to experience the joy of debt -free living.

25:53 And then my most recent one, Faith for Miracles. So these are all books that have been written to help Christians live a quality life. So with that, I hope you might enjoy those. In addition to that, if you have interest in subscribing to my podcast, you can do that by going to cpnshows .com or wherever you listen to your podcast well it has been a joy for me to be with you today and to bring this podcast to you in closing I'd like to just say a little blessing over you may the Lord bless you and keep you may his face shine upon you may he be gracious to you and give you peace may you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers so until next time may God richly bless you. And for those of you who are listening in to hear more about the Holy Spirit and how you want to have more of Him in your life and have Him being active in your life, I want you to continue to listen in to us every week. I'll be bringing a new podcast every Monday. And it's something I believe that the Lord has ordained and has given me guidance and direction on and where to take this. And I'm just really excited about it because so many people don't understand how the Holy Spirit works and they want to know more. I mean, I've never found anybody that didn't want to know more.

27:02 about the working and the leading and the guidance and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. So with that, I'm just gonna close out. Thank you once again for listening to the Quality Christian Living podcast. This has been podcast number 318 entitled, Holy Spirit, Our Helper. This has been Quality Christian Living. I am your host, David Friend. Thank you for listening in. See you next time.