FROM THE PULPIT: The Holy Spirit makes it all personal

Have you ever had someone say something to you that you might not want to hear, and then tell you, “Don’t take it personal.” Ya, right.

Recently I was at a Bible study with some men and the subject of personal relationship verses religion came up. I have never been that fond of the term religion. Religious men flew planes into the Twin Towers. Religion is ALL about man’s attempt to find a small ‘g’ god. God himself came down as man to reestablish the personal relationship with us that was broken by Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden. John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He did it all.

During our discussion, I stated that I substitute myself for the world in the scripture John 3:16. “For God so loved (ME) that He gave ...” One of my friends told me that that sounded pretty selfish. I told him that he was right. You see, I take my relationship with God very “personal.”

Then he said, “You can’t be selfish, you are supposed to go out and be a witness for Jesus.” Here is where it gets real, my friends. HOW can you be a witness for someone you do not even know? The closer my personal relationship with Jesus becomes, the better witness I become for him.

What if I were to go out all over and tell everyone about Michael Jordan? I might know a lot of his stats, but I do NOT know him personally. I have never met Michael Jordan, and I know nothing personal about him. If that got back to Michael, he might say something like, “Who is this guy, he doesn’t know me, and I certainly do not know him.”

Let me tell you, Jesus spoke a lot about his Father. He had an intimate (personal) relationship with him. He was always focused on the Father’s business. Luke 2:49: He said to them, “Why did you seek Me?” “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” In John 10:30, he said, “the Father and I are one.”

We also need to have that one with Father relationship. Do you know who makes that all possible? The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. God knew that, so he sent his spirit back to live in his children. 1 Corinthians 6:19: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is IN you.”

John 14:26: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John 14:16-17: “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever — the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be IN you.”

So, we are made ONE with the Father and the Son by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He takes us to Jesus. John 15:26: “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of ME.” Then, Jesus takes us to the Father. John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Are you seeing it? In the power of the Holy Spirit, and the name of Jesus we are made ONE with the Father. Jesus spoke about that in John 17:21: “That they all may be ONE, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in Us ...”

Dear readers, it does NOT get any more “personal” than that.

Hasselstrom is an evangelist with Cross Tied Ministries.