Thank God for the Holy Spirit. I’ll say it again. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. (Should I say it a third and fourth and fifth time?) This Comforter (John 14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7) is so wonderfully incredible. In fact, this very name “Comforter” (Greek – Parakletos – One who is assigned to walk alongside) explains why He is so incredible. The Father has sent the Holy Spirit to be with me 24/7. Better yet, He is with/on/in me 60/60/24/365 (seconds in a minute/minutes in an hour/hours in a day/days in a year).
I want to spend the next few blog posts to briefly elaborate on this divine relationship and share how the Holy Spirit is assigned by our heavenly Father to be “on the job” for the believer 60/60/24/365. I will limit myself to one short teaching paragraph per blog post and then provide scripture for you to meditate on concerning that particular assignment.
Note: The following abbreviations are used to designate the translation paraphrasing and amplifying the original King James Version (KJV).
AMP – The Amplified Bible
BECK – The Holy Bible in the Language of Today (William F. Beck)
CEV – Contemporary English Version
GNT – Good News Translation
GSPD – The Complete Bible: An American Translation (Edgar J. Goodspeed)
JOHN – The Heart of Paul – Biblical Truth in Today’s Language (Ben Campbell Johnson)
KNOX – The New Testament in English (Monsignor Ronald Knox)
MSG – The Message Bible
MOF – The Bible – The James Moffatt Translation
NCV – New Century Version
NLT – New Living Translation
PHI – The New Testament in Modern English (J.B. Phillips)
TPT – The Passion Translation
TRANS – The Translator’s New Testament
VOICE – The Voice Translation
WEY – The New Testament in Modern Speech (Richard Francis Weymouth)
WUE – The New Testament, an Expanded Translation (Kenneth S. Wuest)
The Holy Spirit – Prepares Your Spirit for Your Day
Every athlete knows the value of preparing for their upcoming athletic feat. For example, no weightlifter would try to press a massive amount of weight without first taking/making time to prepare for their upcoming feat. Thank God for the Holy Spirit. (There I go repeating myself again.) According to Jude 20 and 1 Corinthians 14:4, when we connect with the Holy Spirit through praying in the Spirit, there is a supernatural preparation in our spiritual muscles. Through His enablement, we can say, “Bring on the day!” as our spirit is awakened and prepared for any and every situation that we might encounter that day.
Jude 20
KJV – But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
AMP – But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit;
CEV – Dear friends, keep building on the foundation of your most holy faith, as the Holy Spirit helps you to pray.
MSG – But you, dear friends, carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit,
NCV – But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit.
TPT – But you, my delightfully loved friends, constantly and progressively build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith by praying every moment in the Spirit.
TRANS – But you, my friends, must build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the power of the Holy Spirit.
WUE – But, as for you, divinely loved ones, building yourselves us constantly in the sphere of and by the means of your most holy Faith, and as constantly praying in the sphere of and by means of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 14:4
KJV – He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself;
AMP – He who speaks in a [strange] tongue edifies and improves himself.
BECK – When you talk in another language, you encourage yourself.
GSPD – Anyone who speaks ecstatically does himself good.
MSG – The one who prays using a private “prayer language” certainly gets a lot out of it.
NLT – A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally in the Lord.
WUE – The one who utters words in a tongue builds himself up in his Christian life.
Coming next – The Holy Spirit – Prepares Those You Will Encounter in Your Day
We need the Holy Spirit so much. Thank you for the reminder that He is with me.