“When The Counselor Comes…!”

“When The Counselor Comes…!”(Jn. 15:26-16:4).
As we prepare to commemorate Pentecost day, we remind ourselves with the message from John about the Holy Spirit.
“When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. All this I have told you so that you will not go astray…”
We celebrate by commemorating because it is something that already happened.
On each Pentecost feast day we may pray for a renewal or fresh anointing of a de facto Holy Spirit.
According to John, the Holy Spirit comes with the primary mission of testifying about Jesus as the risen and ascended Christ.
After testifying “he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment…” He also guides us into all truths(Jn. 16:8-14).
My friend, it is all about Jesus! The Holy Spirit, the content of Scriptures and the preaching of believers is all about Jesus the Messiah.
One of my teachers of Homiletics drummed it into us that each time we read any Scripture, the first question to ask is, “Where is the Gospel in this text? I added to this in my Hermeneutics class this next question for any situation of life: “What will Jesus say or do if he is here now?”
Human as we are, we may always think of the best, but maybe doing the contrary. What is of essence is that we must be intentional in testifying for Christ, in thought, word and deed!
The Holy Spirit bears witness to the Lord Jesus Christ and so must we. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who leads us into all truths. And when we know the truth, truth sets us free. We are set free to worship the LORD in spirit and in truth.
The opposition will be there and the temptations to derail us is always there too.
Even so, we should be ready because we have been forewarned by the Lord himself. Those who have not known the Father or his Son will antagonise us; thinking that what they are doing is service to God.
But again, we should be afraid only of the one who can kill both the flesh and the spirit; we shouldn’t be frightened of those who can only kill the flesh.
Prayer: Holy Spirit descend on us anew with fresh anointing that compels us to testify to the Christ. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.