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Monday, July 25, 2016

How the Holy Spirit acts as the Ambassador of God's Greatness


Isaiah 40:13-14 "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,Or as His counselor has informed Him? 14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?"

Introduction:
When I was growing up at home there was a period of time where we had the opportunity to become acquainted with what I would call “an ambassador of goodness”, otherwise known as “The Schwan’s ice cream man”. Whenever Friday would come, my sister and I knew that in addition to finishing up school, we would get to sometimes see that yellow and white truck back into our drive way. My dad would go out to greet this diplomat of the tastiest frozen desserts this side of eternity (I don’t think I exaggerate). 

Back then as a boy I had no trouble eating as much ice cream as I could stomach. My dad quickly developed the habit of eating ice cream for his lunch, all thanks to the goods delivered by the Schwan’s ice cream man. While we received these bi-weekly visits from the “Schwan’s” home deliver truck, I soon began to notice the commercials on T.V and then it dawned on me: “hey, that guy is delivering to us what is on the commercial”. As a young boy, all of this was an amazing experience. We thought we had it good with the ice cream from the store. However, when the Schwan’s man came into our lives with his frozen treasures of ice cream, why would anyone want to turn back?

No one back then needed to convince me to get excited about home-delivery of Schwan's ice-cream. Why? Because of the Schwan's ice cream man. When it comes to the desire to worship God, can we in our flesh see that God is worthy of worship? It that were the case, no one would need the Holy Spirit.  



Today’s post aims to show how the Holy Spirit, the Ambassador of God’s greatness, brings down to people this great truth – namely that God is great, and greatly to be praised. So as we shall see, our main point of application will be that: the Ambassador of God’s greatness brings to you and me the greatness of God. 

Who is the Holy Spirit
Just like the Schwan’s ice cream man who brought to my family and me the “goodness of ice cream”, the Person of the Holy Spirit as the Ambassador of God’s greatness brings to us the greatness of God. To give us some friendly reminders from scripture regarding the Holy Spirit: First, The Holy Spirit is not a force, nor a “it”, but a “He”, a Person Who acts as “God coming to us”. (John 14:16-17; 15:26-27; 16:12-13) 

Secondly, the Holy Spirit is a sharer in the Divine nature with the Father and Son and thus is God. (Psalm 139:7; Matt 28:19; Acts 5:4-5; 2 Corinthians 3:17) 

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit brings forth the life and energy of the Father’s purposes that are structured by the Son. (Genesis 1:2; Psalm 104; Romans 8) With those quick reminders, we can note that all of creation sees God’s greatness from afar in the sky above (Psalm 19:1-3). Humanity in particular knows about God within the conscience (Romans 2:15). However, The Holy Spirit brings God to us because He Himself is God. He gives the sinner a heart to worship God because He is gloriously God Himself.

The Holy Spirit is the Ambassador of God's Greatness
The Christian life begins with a visitation from what we could call "The Ambassador of the Trinity" - The Holy Spirit. Who is the Ambassador of God’s greatness. When I speak of this One and only “Ambassador of God’s Greatness”, I am speaking of the Holy Spirit. Romans 11:33-36 spells out more clearly than any other scripture the greatness of our God. As we already mentioned, only when the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds and transforms our hearts will we then delight to enjoy God's greatness. As Christians, we must ever be led by and filled by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). He has been given as the deposit of the fuller and richer reality of God's future for His people - since He Himself is God (Ephesians 1:13-14). Because of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, the ability and desire to worship God is made a reality for the Christian. May we delight in the greatness of God by depending on the Ambassador - The Holy Spirit.