NEW HOPE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE
POSITION PAPER:
The Activity of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Christians
NT244 Luke - Acts
PROFESSOR DR. MARK KELLEY
DECEMBER 1, 2015
By
Teri Lowen Burns
The Holy Spirit has many roles in the life of Christians including as Comforter and Counselor, to provide hope and encouragement, for exhortation, as well as providing correction and instilling faith and trust.
For the Christian, the Holy Spirit acts as Comforter and Counselor. “But the Counselor, 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” (John 14:26 NIV). “The Holy Spirit is a gift from God. As Jesus had promised, he is the Comforter and the one who guides his people” (Barton 37).
At the end of October 2015, I left school a little early to go visit my dad, Ken, at the hospital. He was admitted over a day earlier for an intestinal blockage and had surgery that morning to remove it. I spoke to my mom the night before and inquired about the room number he was in. “316,” she said. I immediately thought of John 3:16 and knew I wouldn’t need to write the number down, I would remember John 3:16.
Now, I wasn’t sure exactly what verse John 3:16 was, but I knew it was a famous love verse. And I didn’t know about John 3:16 from school, I knew it because of a homeless man who used to hold a sign with that verse on it almost everyday more than a decade earlier. He sat on the corner of Garfield Street and West 11th Avenue on an upside down five-gallon bucket. I used to think to myself how great it was that he believed in God but I was perplexed wondering why he was homeless if he believed in God, thinking God’s people wouldn’t experience suffering such as homelessness.
After visiting my dad, who looked horrible right after surgery, I joked, “I’m glad surgery went well. You look horrible but I’m glad you’re still alive.” That’s when my aunt nudged me to the hallway and my mom followed. They proceeded to tell me the blockage was cancer and the doctor said my dad only had a couple of months to live. I felt like a deer in head lights—that was the last thing I expected to hear. Then the tears came. As I was standing in the hallway crying and hugging my mom with nurses looking at me from behind their station, I realized I was in front of room 316 and something told me to look up the verse.
From my smart phone I read, “For God so love the world that he gave his one and only Son…” Ahh yes, I thought, it was that love verse. But it was what followed that was revelatory to my situation. “…that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (NIV). Instantly, I knew that was the Holy Spirit comforting me at a time when he knew I would desperately need it. Jesus orchestrated my comfort before my dad was admitted to the hospital by reserving room 316 for him…for me.
The Holy Spirit also provides the Christian with hope and encouragement. “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom. 5:2-5). “The death and resurrection of Jesus has given us a new standing before God. We have life. We have peace. We have hope. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit. There is point and meaning now to the rough and tumble of life” (Handbook to the Bible, 686).
I went to see my dad in the hospital everyday—usually more than once a day. The hardest part was that he didn’t even know he was handed a death sentence because he couldn't remember the doctor's report after surgery due to all the medication. My heart would break when my dad talked about all the things he was going to do after he was released.
I found myself slipping into a depression. I no longer cared about school, grades or much else—nothing seemed that important anymore. On the following Monday, I met my mom at the hospital as the doctor was going to deliver the diagnoses to my dad again. What I remember most about that visit was my dad commenting about a desire to get into better shape after he was released, but that now, “I have no hope.” Not only did my heart fall to my feet but an unwillingness to surrender also rose up in me simultaneously. “No,” I said. “You can’t give up hope. You’ll live longer if you keep fighting.”
That evening after leaving the hospital, Jesus declared His sovereignty to me. “Who do you think I am?” He demanded. “I am the sovereign God; I am the God who saves!” At that moment I heard one of my favorite Christian songs come on the radio, “Mighty to save.” Jesus continued, “If it’s two months, it’s because I say it’s two months; if it’s two years, it’s because I say it’s two years!” Suddenly, the Holy Spirit placed Romans 15:13 in my mind. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Not only did this verse start playing out in my life nearly a year earlier, but it was this verse that I planned on painting on my dining room wall to replace Philippians 4:4-9, which had already played out in my life—I bought the paint before the school semester even started.
Immediately, I remembered who God is. He is mighty to save. He is in control, not the doctors. Whatever happens will happen be because God says so. I was overwhelmed with hope and amazement at the same time, while my eyes swelled with tears from the awe and adoration of how great my God is.
Another activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christians is exhortation. “…Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak” (Acts 13:15). “The word ‘encouragement’ derives from a Greek verb that literally means ‘to call alongside.’ Thus, encouragement is that process whereby we enter the lives of others and give them what they most need—a kind word of challenge or a compassionate word of hope” (Barton 221).
The Holy Spirit began urging me to encourage my dad while he was in the hospital through prayer and testimony of the things he was doing in my life regarding the current events. I prayed for my dad everyday as instructed including the command to “pray for a host of heavenly bodies” to come around my dad, lay hands of healing upon him and speak blessings over him.
Also as instructed, I stood up and prayed Psalm 91 over my dad and then anointed him with oil “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
One night, shortly before my dad was released from the hospital, Jesus told me what He wanted me to do the following morning at the hospital. He gave me specific instructions. I was to address forgiveness with my dad. Jesus told me how it would go. I would let my dad know that Jesus was going to put people in his mind through images or memories, some people he may not have thought about for twenty or thirty years, people that he needed to forgive before God. Specifically, Jesus conveyed, if He puts people in my dad’s head who he forgives but those people keep coming back into his mind, then my dad hasn’t really forgiven them and in that case, to ask Jesus for help in forgiving those people.
Jesus also wanted me to pray with my dad, not just for him but I needed to ask my dad to participate by repeating the words I spoke first. I wasn’t sure what words I was going to speak but I knew the Holy Spirit would guide the process. I agreed to do whatever Jesus wanted me to, but only if Jesus did it through me. Only if my words were His words; only if He guided me so I knew it was His will and not my own.
The next morning I got up to get ready to take my kids to school and go to the hospital. Afterwards, I planned on going to school myself. That particular morning was a nightmare. The stress and irritation from the whole family was very apparent. I knew it was the enemy. Then, when I went to take mail out to the mailbox, my kids followed and locked us all out of the house. Again, I knew it was the enemy. I knew what Jesus wanted me to do that morning and it was more than obvious that satan did not want it to happen.
I found a way in the house, got our belongings and took the kids to school and headed to the hospital. Oddly enough, prior to this I had a vision that I shrugged off—I was looking upon a courtroom where Satan was the prosecutor. He was stationed on the right side and my mind knew that Jesus was stationed on the left side with both facing a huge judge’s bench. Even though I didn’t see any faces, I knew the Almighty sat behind that bench.
While driving to the hospital I actually heard Satan object to me going to see my dad, going to address forgiveness, like a lawyer would do in a court setting. The first thing I thought to myself was, “How am I going to share this with anyone?”
At the hospital I quickly got to the point. I told my dad what Jesus instructed me to. Then I asked him if he wanted to participate. He said, “I don’t know.” “It will be really quick and easy,” I said. “OK,” he responded. I held his hands and prayed with him repeating, “Lord Jesus, we come before you in repentance. Please forgive us for our sins. Purify and sanctify us through your Holy Spirit. And help us to forgive others as you have forgiven us. Amen.” “That was easy,” my dad said. “Wasn’t it?” I said laughingly.
After leaving the hospital and driving to school, as soon as I pulled into a parking space I heard “Rested.” My mind thought, the case is rested? Seriously, how am I going to tell anyone about this? Then, I saw the image of a gavel coming down and I heard the loud noise it made when making contact with the bench.
I went into school and the first person I saw was my mentor, Lori Higashi. I told her of the events that just happened to me and we conversed about “The Courts of Heaven.” Excitedly she said, “You need to wait until you hear the gavel come down.” One hundred times more excited I said, “I heard the gavel and I saw the gavel! It came down!” We rejoiced together of the greatness of God and I rejoiced more knowing I wasn’t alone. In that moment, I knew my dad was saved.
The Holy Spirit also provides correction in the life of the believer. “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18). “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3). “Peter uses the typical epistolary thanksgiving to encourage his readers by reminding them that their new birth has provided for them a secure hope and inheritance—future salvation” (An Introduction to the New Testament 637).
My dad came home from the hospital and he was doing very well. He had a follow-up appointment with his cancer doctor, not the hospital’s doctor, and I knew they would find that his cancer was gone. However, his doctor didn’t retest him. He gave him a prescription for narcotics, said he would let hospice know, and told my dad that would be his last appointment. Okay I thought, Jesus must be working out trust and faith in me.
Yet, a couple days later, my dad was not doing well anymore. He was extremely pale and had been up all night with abdominal pain. He was blocked up again and visibly suffering. I stayed and prayed with and over him wondering, what could be causing this turn of events. I put on a brave face. After leaving and driving in my car, I broke down. I knew he wasn’t cured of cancer; he was still going to die. I pulled into a parking lot and cried out to Jesus. Lamenting with anger I demanded to know why He gave me that experience. “I already had hope when you spoke Romans 15:13 into me! Why did you do this to me?!”
After some time I called my mentor crying and wanting to know, why? Why did He give me this amazing spiritual experience of the Courts of Heaven for no reason? What does the Courts of Heaven mean? Why did I experience this if my dad is still going to die?
Her response to me was this: “The gavel is God’s decree or decision. The ultimate victory is Jesus conquering death on the cross for your dad’s eternal life. Our life here is temporal. Going to the court of heaven was to settle any accusations the enemy had against your dad. You brought your dad to freedom and salvation. When it is a person’s time only God knows. The goal is salvation. You can rest assured that he is going to heaven to be with our heavenly Father. Until then, you enjoy every moment with your dad and contend for complete healing whether on earth or in heaven. God promises no more pain and no tears in our eternal dwelling place. Death is God’s timing and we must trust that his timing is perfect.” “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 6-7).
After I soaked in that instruction and correction for a while I realized, I’m so happy God is in control and not me. I would have chosen my dad's earthly life to be saved, but his eternal life is far better. From then on, I decided not to wrestle with this but to rest in it. “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right? As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison” (Luke 12:57-58). “Hypocritically, although we know what the master wants, we find all sorts of reasons to continue living as if the present order were permanent. We all stand accused and are on our way to trial. We can continue insisting on our innocence, and face the judge and the ensuing penalty, or settle matters with our accuser before the time of trial” (Gonzalez 168, 169).
Throughout this process and experience I had revelation—another activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christians. “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph. 1:17). If I can stand before the courts of heaven and give testimony on behalf of my dad as a witness for Jesus Christ in the here-and-now, how much more will we be able to give testimony on behalf of others—believers and non-believers—after this age, at Judgment. “For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9 emphasis added).
We are told that Jesus continues as our High Priest and Advocate before God the Father…” (Bible Doctrine 107). “But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort” (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
Bibliography
Alexander, Pat, and David. Zondervan Handbook to the Bible. Oxford: Lion, 1999. Print.
Barton, Bruce, et. al. Life Application Bible Commentary, Acts. Wheaton: Tyndale, 1999. Print.
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 2005. Print.
Gonzalez, Justo. Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Luke. Louisville: Westminster,
2010. Print.
Grudem, Wayne. Bible Doctrine: Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith. Grand Rapids:
Zondervan, 1999. Print.
NIV Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984. Print. New Intl. Vers.
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