In the same way, Jesus made it clear that He is no longer on the earth and that the Father sent the Holy Spirit (One who is just like our Savior) to be our Helper (John 16:7). The Spirit has been sent to reveal Jesus, just as the Son was sent to reveal the Father. We must remember that the Holy Spirit loves to glorify Jesus. So if you really want to know more about Jesus, you must spend time with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will clearly reveal Jesus to you. But the Holy Spirit will only manifest where He is honored. As we honor the Spirit, He will reveal Himself to us, and we will enjoy both His amazing presence and a greater awareness of the One He reveals.

Over the last thirty years of ministry, I have never seen an exception to this truth: the people who know Jesus the best are those who are most intimate with the Holy Spirit. This makes complete sense because the Spirit is the One who reveals Jesus to us.

Understanding the Spirit’s Personality

In order to be intimate with someone, we must seek to know the personality of the one we desire intimacy with. This understanding will naturally enhance our communion and bring our intimacy to deeper levels.

For the longest time I treated all four of my boys the same way. This naturally caused some issues. Why was this form of parenting ineffective? Because each of my sons has a unique personality. My wife was sensitive to this and trained me in how to learn the differences between them. Seeking to understand the uniqueness of each of my sons has greatly enhanced my relationships with them.

Because I am very intimate with my wife, I am able to understand how she expresses herself. We have developed this intimacy because we’ve been married for over thirty years, and intimacy is a product of quality time. Lisa could give me one look, and I could write pages about what she is thinking. There are other times when I can tell you what Lisa wants without her saying a word to me. If you were to tell me, “John, I’m serving bacon, eggs, and grits this morning,” I could confidently respond, “You know what, Lisa will not want grits or bacon.” I would not need to ask her; I already know that she doesn’t like grits and bacon. This is a very superficial example, but the same is true about more personal matters. This type of intimacy didn’t happen overnight. It had to be cultivated over years of quality time and communication. No one knows my wife’s likes and dislikes better than I do, and no one knows my likes and dislikes better than my wife does. In the same way, we grow in our understanding of the Holy Spirit as we make a commitment to communicate with Him and spend time in His presence.

Day 4

Knowing His Nature

In John chapters 14 through 16, Jesus uses the pronouns He, Him, and Himself nineteen times in reference to the Holy Spirit. It is very evident that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Again, by calling Him a Person I am not calling Him human. Remember, human beings were created in God’s likeness. This means that aspects of what we consider “personality” reflect what first exists in God, but God is not an exact likeness of us. Therefore, there are facets of His Person that will never fit into our proverbial human “boxes.”