The Heavenly Instigator – Part 2

Message Title: The Heavenly Instigator – Part 2

Text: Galatians 4:1-7

Main Idea: The Holy Spirit is always instigating intimacy with God.

Our inheritance is a personal relationship with God and direct access to Him in Christ. Christ changed the conditions from living by the rules of the Old Covenant to living by relationship, through faith in Him. And this new orientation is facilitated by the Spirit who comes to live in every person who says “Yes” to Jesus Christ and makes us a new, spiritual creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Why was becoming a new creation necessary? Because spiritual blessings require a spiritual capacity to receive them.

The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the capacity to see and to appreciate a relationship with God as Abba, Father.

That relationship is also what the Bible defines as eternal life, which is why Jesus said when we believe in Him, we pass out of death into life (John 5:24). The Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives is the difference between our natural life and eternal life.

Three specific things He does to help us cultivate the Abba, Father relationship:

I. He helps us to pray.

Prayer as fellowship and relationship, not just for problem-solving, or for sharing our pain and dark secrets but for friendship and companionship.

2. He shows us the truth.

He gives us another perspective.

All of this is the work of the Heavenly Instigator. John 16:14 “He will glorify me because it is from Me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”

• LaVern: “When you feel something you’ve never felt before, you become someone you’ve never been before.” The Lord wants us to feel something new in our relationship with Him. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians to know Christ better (Ephesians 1:17) is a prayer that they would feel something new. “Better” is a new experience.

• Paul writes, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38) Who convinced Him? The Holy Spirit?

3. He prompts and assists our praise.

Sometimes the very best thing to do is to take a break from bemoaning the problem(s) before the Lord and spend some time focusing on the Lord Himself, to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name” (Psalm 29:2).

He helps us see the unseen. “We look not at the things that are seen but unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). How can you see the invisible as clearly as though it were right before your eyes? Not with natural eyes but spiritual ones.

Jesus to Thomas: “Because you have seen you believe, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29).