The gift of the Holy Spirit - John 14:15-31

John 14 is one of the most beautiful Chapters I believe of all the testaments. In verse 15, the Lord gives his disciples a promise of the holy spirit. It says here “.... if you love me, Lion of Judah Congregation, if you love me keep my commandments and I will pray to the Father and he will give you another comforter to be with you forever. The spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it does not see or know him, but you know him because he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. Still a little and the world will not see me anymore but you will see me because I live, you will also live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. The one who has my commandments and keeps them, that is the one who loves me and the one who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and I will manifest myself to him. Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, 'Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him: 'He who loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and we will make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word that you have heard is not mine but the Father's who sent me." Amen.

Here we see the Lord... these Chapters of the Gospel according to Saint John record some of the last words and conversations that the Lord Jesus Christ had with his disciples before being crucified, before being subjected to all the trial process and all the other things that he suffered in his passion. And the Lord was, as John suggests, giving some last instructions to his followers and he was talking about very important things, and he was.....

They were sad because they knew something was going to happen. They knew that their teacher was going to go through something, and sometimes they weren't sure exactly what it was going to be, but they knew that it was something very serious: that their teacher was going to be arrested at the very least, was going to be prosecuted in some way. , and he had clearly told them, but they kind of couldn't understand the idea that the Messiah, if he was the Messiah, that he was going to be crucified, because that didn't fit with what they had heard from their Pharisee and Jewish teachers. .

But the Lord was preparing them for what was coming and He was telling them: 'don't worry, many serious things are going to happen and you are going to see terrible things that are going to happen to me, but don't worry there are a plan that God has. He will make sure that you are not left alone. Don't hurry. God has a purpose.... I am going to be crucified, they are going to bury me, I am going to resurrect and then I am going to ascend and I am going to disappear from this world, but don't worry, God has a plan. God is going to be doing certain things to make sure that what I have started here on earth, in these 3 years that I have been with you, is not just finished as it is now, but that the work that I have started continues.'

So he tells them about..... one of the most important elements is the holy spirit that is going to be with them, the comforter. In Spanish, as you know, the New Testament was originally written in what language, in what language? Well, in Greek. Yes, Aramaic was the vernacular, the language that Jesus spoke, but it was written in a slightly more formal language that was the original Greek and from there it has been translated into every language on earth.

But in the original Greek that the Lord spoke, he used the word 'paracletos', for the holy spirit. And 'paracletos' is translated ..... they have translated it into consoling Spanish, but it is a very complex and very broad word and 'paracletos' refers to the encourager, the strengthener, counselor, supporter, the one who strengthens, the one who defends , the one who instructs; All these ideas were united within the word 'paracletos', the one who stands next to us and helps us and accompanies us. All these ideas the Lord wanted to incorporate under that word that has a very large historical root: 'paracletos'.

And the Lord was saying to them, 'God is going to send someone to stay with you and encourage you and carry you forward. You are not going to be alone, don't worry. You are going to see me go but God is going to leave a substitute to continue the work in you that I began. Just as I have walked with you these three years and I have instructed you, I have strengthened you, I have given you my authority to heal the sick, I have taught you in different areas of my father's character and his plan for humanity. Do not worry, the one that God is going to send to replace me, he is going to continue with that work that I have been doing. He is going to be with you, he is going to help you, he is going to strengthen you, he is going to advise you, he is going to instruct you and he is going to be with you. So wait for it and look for it.

So here the Lord is giving you those kinds of specific instructions. In light of what I just said, look at some of the things this passage teaches us. The Lord says in verse 15: “.....if you love me, keep my commandments”.

How can we truly enjoy communion with God through the holy spirit? How can we make sure that the holy spirit is going to be in us and advise us and strengthen us and endow us with his power? Well, obeying the word of the Lord.

Guess what? It is not a question of coming to church, brothers, that is good to come to church. Amen. It is not even a matter of tithing or offering, although it is good to tithe and offer. It's not a matter of speaking in tongues, that's good. Amen. But, if there is no obedience to the word of God, everything else, brothers, is on a very brittle foundation, very fragile. There is nothing like obeying the word of the Lord.

The Lord Jesus Christ said to the Jews 'why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?'. The Lord said 'he who loves me, keeps my commandments'. In other words, how do you know that you love the Lord? Well, if you are obedient to the word of God.

We have to change our mentality, brothers, and we have to understand that the Christian life is above all a life of obeying the word of God. It is knowing the word and then obeying it, incorporating it into our life. Why do so many people have problems in life and so many troubles and failures and difficulties? If we search deep down, it is because we are not sticking to the word of the Lord.

Let us ask the Lord to make us obedient to his word and that if we fail and stray from it, that it will not be long before we confess our sins, acknowledge that we have failed the Lord and get back into it in the fold of God. Amen. Because we are going to fail the Lord, but the important thing is that we don't go around making excuses or saying 'well, I was born that way, that's how I'm going to stay. It's just that I'm weak... or this or the other. No, if we stray from the Lord, if we stray in any way, immediately seek to get back inside and align yourself with the word of God. May it not be long before you are under the shadow and coverage of the word of the Lord because that is the only thing that protects us. And that is the only thing that guarantees that the Lord will be able to move within us freely, that we will be able to feel the holy spirit.

It is not a matter of emotionalism. Not much emotionalism. Sometimes we see that in charismatic Pentecostal churches. Everything is emotion, a lot of jumping, a lot of doing this. But to be obeying the Lord, to be keeping the word of God, that is the most important thing. Let us ask the Lord that we be obedient people to the word of God. okay?

Let us not disobey the Lord on purpose or disobey Him out of custom and habit, but let custom and habit be obedience and the exception be disobedience and sin. Amen.

Then he says: “if you love me, keep my commandments”, and as a consequence of you keeping my commandments, I am going to pray to the Father, and he will give you another dildo. Which was the first dildo, because it says 'another', which was the first? Jesus. While he was with his disciples he was the comforter, the strengthener, the teacher, the helper. Then the Lord Jesus Christ says 'I am going to beg the Father to send you another comforter to be with you forever'. The Lord sent the holy spirit, God sent the holy spirit to be with us.

Now look at how the Lord characterizes the comforter in this case. You can talk about many different characteristics of the holy spirit, but look at one of the characteristics that he points out, typical of the holy spirit. Says the spirit of what? the spirit of.....truth which the world cannot receive.

One of the characteristics of the holy spirit is that it speaks the truth into our lives, it confronts us with the truth. Brothers, let us never resist the truth. Let's not disguise the truth. There are many people who live a life of self-deception and deceive themselves and use different words to define things and see themselves as better than they are and don't recognize their character flaws and are always projecting those flaws onto others. from them. They are not the problem, my wife is the problem; is that people are bad; it is that they are treacherous; it is that they do not love me; it is that no one can be trusted; is that everyone has it against me; and they are always blaming others. But they're not seeing the areas where they need to change, are they? So we blame the parents, we blame the society, we blame the pastor, we blame the church. But we're not looking, well, what's my part? How do I need to change so that my life can truly move forward and grow?

And the holy spirit is a spirit of truth. The holy spirit wants to bring medicine into our lives. The holy spirit reproves us and tells us about how we should change and how we should be and what the word of the Lord says. Let us ask the Lord to open our understanding and our ears so that we can hear the truth of God through his word, and through the holy spirit.

One of the things that God wants to do in your life is to bring truth. The Lord said in John, Chapter 8, verse 32 “....you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.

Psychiatrists know the importance of the truth and that is why they treat their patients... the whole process of psychoanalysis, counseling, psychiatry is to bring the truth into the life of the person who is repressing the truth, and that he needs to hear the truth in order to change and to understand himself and his relationships with others, and his past. And psychiatrists and psychologists say that when you know the truth and understand the reason for your actions, the reason for your motivations, then you can begin to change.

Now, the good thing about the holy spirit is that it gives you the truth and it also gives you the power to live the truth. That is the blessing of having the holy spirit within one. Then he says "....the spirit of truth which the world cannot receive because it does not see or know him, but you know him because he dwells with you and will be in you."

You know that right now the holy spirit is within you. You don't see it, maybe you don't feel it, you can't... if they do an x-ray they won't be able to say 'ah, look, there's the holy spirit, it's between rib 22 and rib 19 or whatever. I don't know how many ribs do people have? I'm sending people more ribs than they have... how many? I do not even know.

How many..... does anybody know how many ribs do we have? I don't know.

24, ok, so it wasn't too bad, 22 somewhere, ok? No, the holy spirit is not located in one place, the holy spirit is within us dispersed within all parts of our being. It's spirit, right? It is in our mind, it is in our heart, it is in our body, but the fact is that when you walk the holy spirit is within you.

The Lord Jesus Christ says “he will be with you and in you”. The Lord says that when we receive him, he enters and dwells with us and is in us, because the holy spirit and Jesus are the same thing. They are the Father, son and holy spirit.

Then always remember that. When you walk in life, when you are at home, when you are at work, the Holy Spirit is within you. You do not have to go to a telephone to call the holy spirit to tell you something, or speak to you. No, the holy spirit is within you. All you need is to get in tune with him, a moment, a conversation, you need an answer for someone. Spirit of God, give me wisdom.

You are in trouble, in a bind: Lord, I appeal to you now. Spirit of God, get me out of this bind. Strengthen me, protect me.

When you are going to read the word: Lord, give me understanding. Spirit of God, open my understanding so that I can understand your word. Talk to the holy spirit continually because he is within you, 24 hours a day. Appeal to the holy spirit.

Brothers, let us cultivate the awareness of the presence of the holy spirit in us. Do you know one of the characteristics of a Pentecostal Christian? It is that: every Christian who believes in Jesus has the holy spirit, but Pentecostals have learned that the holy spirit wants to be used, it wants to be called, it wants to be cultivated and we have to be aware, cultivate the awareness that I have the spirit holy, and God has sent him to be my helper, to be my strengthener, to be a resource for my life.

And the more you get in tune with the holy spirit, the more you use the resources that the holy spirit has for your life, the more powerful the presence of the holy spirit becomes within you, and more access you have to his anointing and his power and his instruction. The more you use him, the more he develops within you and with more power works within your life.

That is why it is very important that we always understand that the Trinity has three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and that each of them wants to be used, wants to be glorified, wants us to have access them. Let us cultivate the awareness of the holy spirit.

Tell yourself: I have the holy spirit within me. And I can use the resources of the holy spirit for my life.

And let's practice the presence of the holy spirit every day. Let's speak in tongues and pray to the holy spirit. Let us pray for the sick and ask the Lord for revelation at night, in our dreams, and ask the Lord to help us prophesy. And if there is something in our hearts that we believe comes from the Holy Spirit, or that God wants us to share with someone, with respect, with love, with humility, with prudence, let's activate what God is putting in our hearts. Because many times God speaks to us but we remain silent and then the holy spirit says 'well, I'm not going to continue talking to you because you are not using me. Why then waste my energy?

But when you activate the holy spirit and you exercise it, the holy spirit develops within you. The world cannot receive the holy spirit, because the holy spirit is received through Christ Jesus, but you can have it, you have it, because you have Christ in your heart.

And that is why God says “the world does not know him and cannot know him, but you do know him because I have sent him to you”. Every Christian who has Jesus in his heart has the Holy Spirit with all the resources that the Holy Spirit carries with him. You have access to that. Don't underestimate it. Don't stop using the holy spirit in your life.

Tomorrow, when you are at work, when you are in a problem, in a temptation, in a difficulty, in a struggle, in a need, speak to the holy spirit. God sent it to be a resource in your life.

The Lord says that is why "I am not going to leave you orphans", he says in verse 18. That is, do not worry, I am going to the Father and they are going to crucify me and all this, but do not be hurry up you are not going to be orphans. I will come to you.

How interesting! Look at that, huh? That is why it is passages like these that finally led Christian theologians centuries ago to conclude that Jesus Christ is God and that the holy spirit is Jesus Christ and that the holy spirit is the Father, and the Father is the Son; because we see so many passages where the word equates Jesus and the holy spirit or the Father.

For example he is saying that the holy spirit is going to come to them, right, that is what he is saying? But then, look at what it says in verse 18 “....I will not leave you alone, but I will come to you”. You see? He is saying, the holy spirit is the one who comes, but it is also me who comes to you. That is to say that it is necessary to conclude that the holy spirit and the Lord are the same things. right yes? Yes or no? May the Jehovah's Witnesses forgive me, but I prefer to keep what the word says rather than what men say.

Because what he is saying is that: the Lord is going to come to you, I am going to come to you in the form of the holy spirit. I will be up there with the Father, but I will also come to you in the holy spirit. That is why the Lord says "I am at the door and I knock and if anyone listens to my voice, I will come in and eat with him and he with me", because it is the holy spirit who is entering and it is Jesus who is entering, and it is the Father who is also entering your life. Everything, you have the complete package within you, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, within your life because they are the same thing.

“I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live, you will also live”. Glory to the Lord.

And look at what verse 20 says, it says "....in that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you". That there is a swarm of unity: the Father is in Christ, Christ is in us, we are in Christ, we are in the Father, and it is a tremendous joy. It is an intimate family what there is. It's a party. We give a group hug, a group hug there, we are all involved in the matter there. What a bless!

The Lord tells him 'I am in the Father, that is, it is what we were saying about Philippians, Chapter 2, where he says that being equal to the Father did not take being equal to the Father as something to cling to . He is God and he is in us through the spirit: the Father, the son and the holy spirit are the same thing. The son is in the Father, and the holy spirit is in the son, so they are the same......

That's why, as the Witnesses say, 'well, show me where the the word trinity.' Well, the word trinity is nowhere to be found, but what the trinity is is all over the pages of Scripture, we have simply given a name to a fact.

The word electricity is not in the Bible, but stick your finger into an electrical socket and see if all the hairs stand on end. right yes? Whether the word is there or not does not matter, what matters is the reality behind the word. And I continually see in Scripture the reality of the trinity.

And the reality of Christ in my life, today, in the 21st century, the Lord is in me because he promised. He was leaving, he said, 'I am there in heaven but I am also with you. The one who has my commandments and keeps them, that is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Glory to the Lord.

Oh, brothers, may the Lord be manifested in our lives. I ask the Father, 'Lord, manifest yourself more each day in my life.' Because it's not just a matter of being religious, no. You get tired of the same nonsense of..... If you were just coming to church to bow and raise your hands, how boring would that be?

I love the Gospel because it is also the manifestation of God's power in my life, to change, to be a better man, so that my family may be blessed, to be a blessing to others, so that God heal me, so that God speaks to me, so that God manifests himself through me. That is the Christian life, it is the manifestation of the spirit of God in our lives. We must be people who are not satisfied with simply a religious life, but with the manifestation of God's spirit in my life to heal, as the choir says, to save, to advise, to liberate. Do not settle for a merely religious life, but be ambitious and look for the manifestation of the power of God in your life, that you feel. Seek to feel the Lord in your heart and in your life.

When you come to church tell him: 'Father, I don't just want to have a superficial experience, I want to feel you. I want to enter the most holy place, as that chorus says. And when you develop an appetite for the holy spirit and for the manifestations of God's power, brethren, things begin to happen in your life.

There is something wonderful when a person becomes ambitious in the Lord and asks God to do things in his life, and his prayer is an aggressive and militant prayer and we begin to expect manifestations of God's power . Then God begins to manifest. He says 'ah, you see, I want to act on that person'.

We have to make room within ourselves for the holy spirit. And we have to ask the Lord and hope that he will manifest himself in our life. Don't stop longing for the manifestation of God's spirit in your life. I will come to him and I and my Father will manifest ourselves in him.

Look at that existence, I'm done with this. Verse 23 and 24. That text ends as it begins. "Whoever loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him."

Look there the Father and the son and the holy spirit, the 3 of them say that text, we are going to make a home with him. What a wonderful expression of the Trinity again! The son is speaking and he says: 'my Father will love him, we will come to him, that is, the Father and the son, and he has just spoken of the holy spirit, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you have heard is not mine but the Father's who sent me." Glory to the Lord. Amen.

We can believe in that word tonight because it is the Father who gave it to the son to give it to us. That word has the stamp of the Father, of the creator of the earth. That is why it is a trustworthy word, brothers, we can believe in it.

Why don't we stand up tonight and ask the holy spirit to activate in us. If there has been any interruption due to some attitude of ours, some sin, something that has saddened the holy spirit, because the word speaks of not saddening the holy spirit.

The holy spirit is a person and it is saddened when we offend it with an improper behavior, an improper word, an improper attitude, the holy spirit is like it shrinks in us and then we have to ask the Lord to forgive us, to cleanse us, to heal us and to remove any obstruction so that he can once again freely manifest himself in us.

And that we have to do spiritual hygiene from time to time, and say to the holy spirit: 'Lord, move again within me. Get active in my life.’

Tonight I am going to ask that the presence of the Holy Spirit be with you. We are going to ask the Lord for a fresh visitation of the holy spirit, that we leave here filled with a new spirit.

Young people that's for you. Two young ladies here tonight. I see that you've been listening attentively and that's wonderful. Ask the Holy Spirit to move in your life tonight.

We are going to ask the Lord to give me a fresh dose of the holy spirit tonight, a dose that clears up fears, anguish, anxieties, sadness, doubts. On this night, Lord, take all that away. Blow, Father, blow on the darkness in the name of Jesus, we clear the air of the spirit Lord tonight.

Father, we get rid of sadness, we get rid of uncertainty, we get rid of doubt, we get rid of fear, we get rid of sin, Lord, tonight. We renew our covenant with Christ. Forgive us if we have offended you, Lord. If we have doubted the presence of your spirit in our life, forgive us Lord tonight.

And activate, holy spirit, I invite you to move again in me with renewed power, with renewed intensity. On this night, Lord, visit your town.

Father touch your people tonight with the fresh annointing of the holy spirit, with the fresh visitation of the Holy Spirit.

Touch us Lord, tonight. Every child, every youth, every man, woman, old man in this place, Lord, I declare the fresh activation of the holy spirit tonight. Receive the holy spirit. Take a deep breath and receive a new portion of the spirit tonight so that you can go home refreshed, retreaded in the spirit. Amen. Glory to God.

God give you a spiritual tune up tonight, in the name of Jesus. So I declare, so I declare. The immediacy of the holy spirit in your life. Receive it tonight. Father, we want the joy of your spirit in us, Lord. fresh energy.

Come, holy spirit. Come spirit of God. We receive new tongues, Lord. We receive the ability to prophesy in the spirit. We activate, Lord, our spiritual antennae to receive revelation tonight and tomorrow of what you want from our lives, of how you want us to act, Lord, every day.

We receive power to heal the sick, Lord. We receive power to declare deliverance over the oppressed of the devil. We receive power, Lord, to evangelize and to authoritatively declare the Lordship of Jesus and be active presences, Lord, of your kingdom, Father. Activate the holy spirit in us tonight. Not only on those who are here, Lord, but on those who are in their homes that belong to this congregation, we also activate, Lord. ..... your spirit reaches many tonight, father. May this night mark, mark a new breakthrough, Lord, a refreshing of your holy spirit, Lord. Come and fill us, Lord.

Come spirit of God. We thank you Lord. You do, Father. You do. You strengthen your people. Lord, a fresh visitation, a breath of your spirit. Come, Lord. Keep asking the Lord to activate you spiritually tonight, to fill your cup, to fill you with his anointing. Thank my Lord. He's going to do it tonight. He is doing it. He's going to do something new, something different. I receive it too. I who am speaking about this receive a fresh portion of the Holy Spirit to heal me, to fill me with strength and anointing. Thank my Lord. Thanks God.