Not just what, but why

On baby dedication Sunday, Pastor Juliet reflects on the gift of motherhood and on the playground debates her children bring home, from whether Santa is real to who God is and what makes a boy or a girl. Research says children begin questioning what they are told between six and ten, and the challenges only intensify at college. She and Pastor Max have been talking about the importance of teaching children not just the what of faith but the why, so that when parents are not there they can explain what they believe and why with humility and conviction. The same is true for the whole house of God: could you defend your faith if someone challenged it?

If every Christian lived like you

Driving home after last week's baptisms, Pastor Juliet sensed the Holy Spirit ask her a question: if every Christian on earth had faith identical to yours, read the Bible like you, worshiped and attended church like you, what would the church look like in fifty or a hundred years? Every person is the product of the decisions of generations before them, which means we are the intentional and unintentional architects of the future. Acts 13:36 says David served God's purpose in his own generation and then fell asleep; we have one generation to serve. We have all been commissioned under Matthew 28:19–20, but none of us can do it without the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Many people are hyped on the Holy Spirit, but do we know Him or only His works? Are we after the power or the person?

Jesus introduces the Helper

The Holy Spirit is mentioned more than ninety times in the Old Testament and more than 250 in the New, from hovering over the waters in Genesis to the Spirit and the bride saying come in Revelation. Pastor Juliet focuses on Jesus' own words in John 14–16: the Father will give another Helper to be with you forever; the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father and bears witness about Jesus; when He comes He will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, guide into all truth, speak only what He hears, and glorify Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is a divine person

Jesus repeatedly says he, not it. The Holy Spirit is not a force, a cosmic entity, or a feeling but a divine person. For centuries people have denied this, which is why the church produced the Apostles' Creed to say plainly what it believes. The Spirit teaches, testifies, convicts, guides, and speaks. He has a mind, He loves, He intercedes, He counsels and advocates. Ephesians says He can be grieved, Hebrews that He can be insulted, and Acts that He can be lied to. He is extremely powerful, but "we cannot seek the power so much that we miss the person."

The Holy Spirit is God

Knowing who someone is changes how we regard them. Too often we treat the Spirit like a best friend or personal assistant rather than as God. Pastor Juliet reads the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, who sold property and gave only part of the proceeds while pretending to give all. Peter's words are stark: you have not lied to man but to God. Imagine the Holy Spirit telling you to do something and you doing only half of it.

With you, in you, upon you

The Spirit dwells with us, walking alongside, teaching, and leading to truth; He can even be at work in unbelievers who sense there must be more to life. When we confess Jesus as Lord, the Spirit comes to live in us, like someone moving into your house with full redecoration rights; Pastor Juliet notes there are songs she can no longer listen to, which is the work of sanctification. And as in Acts 1, the Spirit comes upon us with supercharged power for a task, whether healing prayer or a business idea, so that God looks good. Her children have never needed the words mother or marriage defined because they see the reality every day; the world should likewise recognize our union with the Spirit by its fruit.

The danger of half-baked faith

The most dangerous place is not atheism but one foot in and one foot out, knowing what the Spirit has said and doing it anyway. 2 Timothy 3 describes people with a form of godliness who deny its power and are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Pastor Juliet warns that this describes people in church pews, not just the world. Untethered from the Spirit of truth, interest in holy things fades, conviction feels like offense, and lies about Jesus and the Trinity start to sound reasonable. Only tethered people know what to say when their faith is challenged. She notes that the words Bible, second coming, and Trinity do not appear in Scripture, yet the realities do; know your facts and why you believe them.

Another Helper of the same kind

In John 14:16 the word another is allos, another of the same kind, as opposed to heteros, another of a different kind. What Jesus was to the disciples, the Holy Spirit is to us now. He teaches, guides, calls us out, finds us and beckons us home, and leads us to all truth. Pastor Juliet closes by inviting both those who want to know the Spirit more deeply and those who know they are living a form of godliness to come forward for prayer, reminding them that the Lord convicts those He loves, and that a better version of you is for the sake of the generations you have been entrusted with.