Is it fair to say that there is no more confusing aspect of the Trinity than when you start talking about the Holy Spirit? I have always been a bit apprehensive when it comes to the Holy Spirit because of my lack of understanding who he is. I mean first of all what is Spirit? What makes the Spirit holy? Then you throw in the King James version which refers to the Holy Spirit as the Holy Ghost, so now we’re talking about ghosts? What is all of this?
I think, in general, that the Holy Spirit is this sort of ethereal, kind of out there sort of thing that most people just don’t understand very much. People get and understand God the Father, we all have Father’s. And people can grasp God the Son, right? Jesus was an actual historical figure. But the Holy Spirit can just flat out be hard to understand. Anyone else with me on this?
To help me better understand the Holy Spirit is this word Paraklētos, which has a couple of different meanings.
The first is Advocate…such as when we go to court, we hire a lawyer to act on our behalf, to be our Advocate, to argue our case. The Holy Spirit is our Advocate who intercedes on our behalf.
The other meaning of the word Paraklētos is as a helper. And Paraklētos literally means, “One called alongside.” The Holy Spirit is meant to come alongside us as we navigate life; as we face all of the challenges and pitfalls of our world. To kind of get a visual on this I have a friend, Christian Isakson in the picture on the right , who is one of the top long-distance athletes in the world. A few months ago he participated, and took 3rd place in the Ultraman Florida race. To give you an idea of what this race entailed, this is what he did for three days:
Day 1 – 6.2 mile Swim, followed by a 92 mile Bike ride.
Day 2 – 171 mile Bike.
Day 3 – 52.4 mile Run.
As you might imagine Christian needed some Helpers to help him get through the most trying times of this race. The picture here is of Christian’s friend and coach walking alongside of him, coaching him, offering words of encouragement. Along the way they would talk about eating, drinking, pacing, and about his heart rate.
This is a great illustration of what the Holy Spirit does for us. He walks alongside us.
But here’s the thing Christian had the choice to listen to his coach or not! He could have just as easily ignored what his coach had to say. But he would have done so at his own peril, and it’s the same with us and the Holy Spirit
Pastor John Avery says that,
“The Holy Spirit comes alongside us in various ways. Sometimes He meets us as a helper, at other times as a friend. We often need His comfort and His advocacy.”
Something for all of us as Christ followers to remember is that the Holy Spirit is the most personal aspect of the Trinity. Jesus is residing at the right hand of God in Heaven. But the Holy Spirit resides inside of you and me. And because of that we can live with confidence in knowing that we are not alone in this world. My point is to pay attention to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And to remind us that as we deal with the ups and downs of our lives, we have someone who is walking alongside of us.