Another Helper?

Can you fill in the blank to complete the name: Casper the Friendly ______?  If you filled in the blank before finishing the sentence, you probably have more gray hair than you care to admit!  And maybe you are like me—growing up you knew the name of two ghosts: Casper and Holy.  We watched Casper the Friendly Ghost on the TV in Saturday morning cartoons and then heard about the Holy Ghost on Sunday mornings at worship.

         Of course, “Holy Ghost” is an old school term for the Holy Spirit, and there is no connection between Casper and the Holy Spirit of God.  But confusion about the identity of God’s Holy Spirit isn’t just in the mind of children.  There are believers of all ages who are very unclear about the third person of the Godhead.  The confusion about the Holy Spirit is so great for some, that the instructions of Galatians 5:25, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit” are nearly useless words.

Yet, the normal Christian life is “in step with the Spirit.”  To live in the Spirit or by the Spirit—two other ways of communicating the instruction of Galatians 5—requires knowing and understanding as much as possible about the Holy Spirit.  Over the next few months, we will pursue grasping who, what, why, when and, particularly, the how of living life in step with the Spirit.

One of the best passages on the identity of the Holy Spirit comes from John’s account of Jesus life.  Read the words of John 14:16-17 below and focus on the word, “another Helper.”

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

Why do you think Jesus called the Holy Spirit “another Helper?”

More to come!