Holy Spirit

Verse
[Jesus said,] "But when you are arrested and stand trial, don't worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit."

— Mark 13:11 nlt

Thought
What an incredible promise! We are never alone, even when we are under the threat of persecution and martyrdom. We have the Holy Spirit of God within us. We are not abandoned in trial or torture. The Spirit who bore witness to Jesus through the...

 

Verse
[Jesus said,] "David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet."'"

— Mark 12:36 tniv

Thought
Jesus tells us that David's great Psalm 110 is Spirit-inspired. And that Psalm speaks to the greatness of the Messiah — the greatness of Jesus! He is Lord. Lord of the nations. Lord of all. Lord of even David. He will rule. He will triumph. And the power of this testimony is the Holy Spirit...

 

Verse
"I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences." He told them this because they were saying, "He's possessed by an evil spirit."

— Mark 3:29 nlt

Thought
What was the power behind Jesus' ministry? Some critics say it was deception. Some skeptics say it was people's imagination. Some even attributed his power to demons and the devil. It's one thing to...

 

Verse
The Spirit then compelled Jesus to go into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan for forty days. He was out among the wild animals, and angels took care of him.

— Mark 1:12-13 nlt

Thought
Jesus' trip into the wilderness was not an accident. It was not an afterthought. Jesus was compelled to go into the desert. Jesus has no place to hide in the desert. In the desert, God's Son has to depend upon God for his survival. In the desert, God's Son has no apparent companion to...

 

Verse

The moment he came out of the water, he saw the sky split open and God's Spirit, looking like a dove, come down on him.

— Mark 1:10 msg

Thought

Winning the Super Bowl, winning the World Cup, winning Wimbledon, winning the British Open, winning the Daytona 500, and winning the World Series are considered lifetime achievements for those involved in the respective sports. Yet none of these even approaches the significance of this moment. Jesus, with droplets of water from the...

 

Verse

"I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

— Mark 1:8 tniv

Thought

Jesus is directly involved in sending the Holy Spirit to his followers. This included initiating the dawn of the church with the coming of the Spirit that first Pentecost (Acts 2:33-39) and also pouring out the Spirit into the heart of the individual believer (Titus 3:4-7). Paul taught that the gift of the Spirit is the seal of our belonging to God (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13) and...

 

Verse

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

— Psalm 51:11

Thought

This desperate cry is from King David to God in his deep sorrow for his sin with Bathsheba and his cry for God's forgiveness. The king before David, Saul, had blatantly disobeyed God and sought to rationalize his sin. God took his Holy Spirit from Saul. So David's cry is understandable: in the Old Testament, God's Spirit didn't come to dwell in his people permanently. However, I believe...

 

Verse
Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood before the people and said, "This is what God says: Why do you disobey the Lord's commands and keep yourselves from prospering? You have abandoned the Lord, and now he has abandoned you!"

— 2 Chronicles 24:20 nlt

Thought
Over the last several days, we have looked at grieving the Spirit and abandoning the Lord by our actions, attitudes, and our words. The warning to not do these things was given by...

 

Verse

"Where is the one who led them through the bottom of the sea? They were like fine stallions racing through the desert, never stumbling. As with cattle going down into a peaceful valley, the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. You led your people, Lord, and gained a magnificent reputation."

— Isaiah 63:13-14 nlt

Thought

Rest — true, genuine, deep rest — comes from the Spirit of the Lord. And when that sense of rest is gone, we need to seek the Spirit of God and look carefully...

 

Verse
Then they remembered the old days, the days of Moses, God's servant: "Where is he who brought the shepherds of his flock up and out of the sea? And what happened to the One who set his Holy Spirit within them?"

— Isaiah 63:11 msg

Thought
In their rebellion against God, his people forget that it is they who have left God, not God who has abandoned them. They wonder why the Holy Spirit isn't present in the life of their community and their nation when they, in fact, have grieved...