May the Force NOT Be With You!

The Holy Spirit in the third part of the Trinity, and is not an it and is not some kind of force in the universe. The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit speaks, not may the force be with you. We need to understand that and whenever we come across that in the Bible, when it refers to the Spirit, with a capital S, it is referring to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

Most people's views in the world are pretty narrow when it comes to death. They simply want to avoid the subject all together, but from a believer in Christ's point of view, the Bible is clear, "to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord. The world's view of their god is limited to this world because they don't want to believe that there is life after death. We are simply a breath away from the arms of God.

If you consider the entire birth process and how comfortable the environment is for a baby awaiting to be born. All of its needs are met and the temperature for the most part is a consistent 98.6 degrees. There is an adjustment that comes through the birthing process as they baby is physically expelled from the womb and the environment now changed drastically for that baby. Bright lights, cold, and the way the baby is handled from birth to being cleaned off is pretty harsh compared to what it has been used to. The baby simply doesn't understand that this harsh awakening offers a better life soon. As believers in Jesus, we are just passing through the doorway at that moment into the eternal presence of God.

Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in the Holy Spirit as an actual person so Revelation 14:13 should keep them up at night.

Revelation 14:13b ~ "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!"

The Spirit referred to here is with a capital S, meaning the Holy Spirit. He is speaking. An it or a force can't speak. This is not Jesus, or God the Father speaking either, but the Holy Spirit. There are countless times in the Bible where the Holy Spirit spoke to people. It is here that the Holy Spirit comments! Notice that is in reference to labor (sufferings) and works (deeds).

Most parents with children who work with no time to spare, are the ones who serve the most in church and in ministry opportunities. It is the people with the most time who hardly serve at all. There is a rest coming to the people of God. Single people should be pouring their lives into serving in the church. The Bible commands it. A Spirit-filled life will produce biblical fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is the production of biblical works.

John 15:15-16 ~ "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you."

Jesus wants to call us friends. Tell all your friends from other religions that!

John 15:8 ~ "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples."

John 15:1-2 ~ "I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear much more fruit."

John 15:4-5 ~ "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing."

Galatians 5:22-23,25 ~ "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

Matthew 7:16 ~ "You will recognize them by their fruits."

Colossians 1:4-6 ~ "since we hard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing - as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth"

Ephesians 5:8-10 ~ "for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light  in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true). and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord."

Romans 6:22-23 ~ "But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There is an expert witness regarding our lives that will testify and that is the Holy Spirit! He knows us!

Acts 1:4-8 ~ "And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, "you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they asked him,"Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Zechariah 4:6 ~ "Then he said to me, This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."

It is the Holy Spirit that guides us to the work that God has called us to do.

Acts 13:1-4 ~ "Now thee were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out, by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus."

Hebrews 6:10 ~ "For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do."

Romans 8:16 ~ "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."

Ephesians 2:10 ~ "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

Galatians 6:9 ~ "And let us not grow weary for doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up."

You'll be blessed by well doing in your life, even if no one else notices. God does!