The Son Who Duplicates Himself part 4/5 – Week 12 / March 18th

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father,
And He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you
Forever-the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
It neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells
With you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come To you.”
John 14:15-18

holy_spiritA testimony to Jesus’ identity

This is truly a remarkable passage of scripture as it demonstrates the unique relationship between the three persons of the Godhead. (John 14:20) They are one entity or essence and the reality of the Godhead is brought to the Christ follower by the Holy Spirit. In fact Jesus tells us that He will duplicate Himself throughout the world because the Holy Spirit, who is His very essence, will bring His life and presence to them! He is the Son who duplicates Himself. Thus He was right when He said, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.”(John 16:7) Actually, the Holy Spirit will bring the life and fellowship of the Father and the Son to the life of the believer! (John 14:23) One cannot get a clearer statement of the nature of the Trinity.

This Helper must therefore be a Person! He is not an “it” or a “force.” He duplicates the very life of Jesus in millions of believers and reminds them of His ways. In short to invite Jesus into your life is to invite the Holy Spirit into your life and He will duplicate Jesus in the following ways:

1.    He will be with you forever. (John 14:16)
2.    He will teach you godly things. (John 14:26)
3.    He will remind you of the ways of Jesus. (John 14:26)
4.    He will testify to the reality of Jesus in your heart. (John 15:26)
5.    He will glorify Jesus and make Him great. (John 16:14)
6.    He will impart Jesus’ character to your life. (John 16:15)
7.    He will warn you of future events. (John 16:13)

Again it must be emphasized that only a person can do these things. This means that we all need to cultivate a relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts demonstrates that the early Church leaders did just this in that:

1.    The Holy Spirit spoke to them. ( Acts 8:29; 13:2)
2.    The Holy Spirit can be lied to. (Acts 5:3)
3.    The Holy Spirit can forbid certain activities. ( Acts 16:7)
4.    The Holy Spirit gives comfort to God’s people. ( Acts 9:31)

The twofold work of the Holy Spirit
One is saved when one repents of sins and invites Jesus into one’s life as Lord. Jesus comes into our lives by the Holy Spirit. That is, He forgives our sins and changes our hearts by His presence. We call this being born again or being regenerated. The Holy Spirit does this work! Note Titus 3:4-6:

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man
Appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
According to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of
Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out
On us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior …”

This work of the Holy Spirit is the very life of Jesus taking up residence in your life; and, if you have Him, you are eternally saved! No wonder Paul wrote the following referring to the duplicated Christ; “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.” (Romans 8:9)  This is the saving work of the Holy Spirit but, secondly, we are in need of the empowering work of the Holy Spirit so that we can do the works of Jesus in the world. We call this the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) and this anointing of Jesus’ ministry is only given to dedicated Christians. The world cannot receive this gift for ministry. (John 14:17)

Jesus told His saved disciples to stay in Jerusalem and not to go out preaching until they were empowered or baptized or clothed with the Holy Spirit.

“And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not
To depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father,
“which,” He said, “You have heard of from Me; for John truly baptized
With water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days
From now…”  (Acts 1:4-5)

See also Luke 24:46-49. This Empowering by the Holy Spirit is promised to every believer (Acts 2:38-39) but it is only given:
1.    By the laying of hands (Acts 19:6) or a definite act of reception. (Acts 2:1-4; 15:7-8)
2.    To those who really obey God. ( Acts 5:32)
3.    To those who really thirst after God and want to serve Him. ( John 7:37-39)

When Jesus comes in power by His Spirit upon the believer’s life he or she has a sense of being enveloped by Him and they have thereby the heavenly acknowledgement that they are ready for service. (Acts 15:8) Usually, this unique and holy Baptism is accompanied by the evidence of a supernatural prayer phenomenon called speaking in tongues. (Acts 2:1-4; 10:44-45; 19:6) Paul encouraged believers to use this gifted prayer language as much as possible. (1Corinthians 14:1-5)

The duplicated Jesus
Jesus comes to our lives by His Spirit to save us and those who surrender to Him are given the assurance of salvation. (Romans 8:6) Jesus also comes to our lives to empower us by His Spirit and those who receive Him in power are equipped with the spiritual tools to serve Him and live as Him, albeit imperfectly, in the world. Millions of Christians demonstrate the life of Jesus all over the world every day; are you one of them? It is noteworthy that after the Disciples were baptized or filled with the Spirit they were no longer timid and fearful, locked away behind closed doors! They had a boldness that was in every way supernatural and those who saw them took note that they “had been with Jesus”. (Acts 4:13)

Malcolm Hedding.

©Malcolm Hedding Ministries

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