Reliance on the Spirit

High school is a huge transition for us. We move out of the hand holding stages of middle school, and into becoming young adults eventually graduating a moving out into the world. All of this happens in a period of 4 years. It's a lot to take on, and we're going to make mistakes. It's just like the old saying, "We're only human", and it's right, we are only human and being human comes with that natural ability to make mistakes. That is why we simply can't do it on our owns, and still live a Godly life that honors our Lord. The thing is, God knows. He isn't going to sit up in Heaven and watch us struggle through life, He wants to help us succeed and glorify Him. Psalms 121:1-2, "I life my eyes unto the hills, where does my help come from? My helps comes from the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and earth." It's reassuring that God is here to help us, and He does that through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8).

1. So let's take a look at the Holy Spirit, God's way of helping us. In a book by Frances Chan, called "Forgotten God" there is a chapter called Theology of the Holy Spirit 101 which takes a look at the Holy Spirit. We'll take a look at some of the points that Chan makes. The Holy Spirit is God. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? ⁴ Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” The terms God and Holy Spirit are used interchangeably, showing that the Holy Spirit is Go.
2. The Holy Spirit is our Counselor. "¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever." Jesus was talking to the disciples in John 14:16, when He was telling them that eventually He would die and go to be at the right hand of the Throne of God. But He tells us that God will send a Counselor that will be with us forever, to guide us, and to watch over us through life.
   
3. The Holy Spirit knows God. ^"10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God." 1 Corinthians 2:10-12
   
4. The Holy Spirit prays for us." ²⁷ And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." It's amazing to know that the Holy Spirit, one of the Trinity and God, prays for us because as it says an early verse, we don't know how to pray adequately.

This is just scratching the surface of the awesomeness of the Holy Spirit. The beauty of it all is that we can take part of it. Matter of fact, the bible says that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. With all the flaws and mistakes we have made, why wouldn't we want to rely on the amazing power of God?
We run into a lot of stuff, grades, stress, temptation, peer pressure, etc. But despite all of these things, Jesus says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power if made perfect in weakness. " When we are to weak, like we always are, that is when God is strong. That is really amazing to know. So when we are weak, we have to rely on the Spirit.
"Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh." Galatians 5:16. When we walk in the Spirit, relying on Him, then we honor God with our lives and lead a Godly life. Well, what does walking in the Spirit look like? Simply living life for God. Getting into the Word, praying and daily putting on the Armor of God (Armor of God can be found in Ephesians 6:10-18). When we don't, we get into all kinds of sins, like it shows in Galatians 5:19-21, just a few verses after the one about walking in the Spirit. However, when we do walk in the Spirit, put on the full armor of God and rely on the Holy Spirit, we display the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Walking in the Spirit can lead us to do awesome things, things that will change the world, just like Brooke did.
Brooke Bronkowski was a young 14 year old girl who was completely in love with Jesus. In middle school, she started a bible study on her school campus and she used her babysitting money on bibles that she could give out to all of her unsaved friends. She was truly in awe and love with God. During her freshmen year in high school, Brooke was in a car accident while going to the movies. Her life ended when she was just 14, but her legacy of Christ certainly didn't. Almost 1500 people attended Brooke's memorial service where people from her high school read poems about her love of God. Everyone talked about her joy and her example. The pastor shared the gospel and invited those who wanted to be saved to come forward. There was over 200 students on their knees praying. Ushers handed them each a bible, the same bibles that were in Brooke's garage for all her friends. In one day, Brooke lead more people to the Lord than most will in a lifetime, all because of her faith and her willingness to rely on God.

The same Spirit who lead Paul to preach to the known world of that time, who opened up the Red Sea to save Moses and the Israelites, the same Spirit who created all the earth....is the same Spirit that we have been given to us as believers. So, will we continue to go through life relying on our own strength, just going through the motions? Or will we, like Brooke, Paul and some many others, rely on the Holy Spirit to do amazing, world changing things for God?