The God who Helps

Jesus taught that His followers would have ANOTHER or second Helper, which meant that Jesus was actually the first Helper. Furthermore, Jesus said that the second Helper was already with them, and would be in them (1).

Since the Holy Spirit is the second Helper, His role is similar but different from the first Helper, Jesus. Jesus himself said that we would be better off when the Holy Spirit arrives than during His own earthly ministry, but how could that be? (2)

Jesus as the first Helper was restricted during his early ministry. As a man, He couldn’t be in two places at the same time because of His body. In His human body, Jesus got sleepy (3), hungry (4), and needed a break while He was on the earth (5). He was limited by how many people He could help at once by His body. When Jesus was debating with the religious leaders for example, people with real problems had to wait in line for their turn just to speak with Him. During Jesus’ ministry, people had to fight through the masses just to meet Him. (6)

For these reasons, Jesus’ body made him relatively inaccessible. During Jesus’ time on earth, He had the Holy Spirit without measure (8), through His Baptism by the Holy Spirit just before He began His ministry (9). Therefore, the Holy Spirit was already with the disciples during Jesus’ earthly ministry because the Holy Spirit lived inside of Jesus.

After the first Helper Jesus ascended to heaven, His Holy Spirit was poured out on His followers too (10). The Holy Spirit is not recognized by the world because He can’t be seen with human eyes or heard with human ears (11). The Holy Spirit can only be seen by what He does similar to how we see the wind by what it does. Through Jesus, His disciples actually knew the Holy Spirit, too.

Jesus’ heavenly Father was directing Him during His earthly ministry through the Holy Spirit inside of Him (12). Now, the Holy Spirit directs us inside of us in accordance to what Jesus commands. As we follow Jesus’ commands through the Holy Spirit, we can progressively know the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as we would come to progressively know anyone else (13).

Believers have an uncanny ability to hear the voice of Jesus through the Holy Spirit in their hearts. (14) The Apostle Paul said that the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to speak to us is our conscience. (15)

If you can no longer hear your conscience, ask Jesus to heal it, so you can hear Him speak to you through it. (16) Reading your Bible is a great way to clean your conscience, too. (17) When you listen to and heed the Holy Spirit, He will speak to you more often. (18) Listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice speaking to you through your conscience. Watch what happens when you obey His voice, and when you don’t. You can progressively know the Holy Spirit, the second Comforter, just like any other person.  M. H. Dennis 

(1.) John 14:15 - 17 (2.) John 16:7 (3.) Mark 4:38 (4.) Matthew 4:2 (5.) Mark 6:31 (6.) Luke 8:45 (7.) John 14:17 (8.) John 3:34 (9.) John 1:32-33 (10.) John 7:38-39, John 14:17,Acts 2:17 (11.) John 14:17 (12.) John 5:19, John 5:30, John 16:13 (13.) John 14:21, 23 (14.) John 10:4 (15.) Roman 9:1 (16). Titus 1:15 (17.) John 15:3 (18.) Mark 4:25