ATLANTA (BP)–Most of us know that we need all the help we can get. This help is needed in our personal lives. We need wisdom, courage, understanding, power and knowledge to handle what life brings to us. We often cannot dodge, escape or avoid such responsibilities in life — but we need help!
This is true also in our marriage and our family. And it certainly is true in our workplace and our ministry.
Has God provided for His children not only help, but completely adequate help? He has, and indeed His promises assure us of this throughout Scripture. One such promise is stated in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “… God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work….”
Even Psalm 23:1 promises us: “… the Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want [any good thing].”
But an oft-neglected promise is God’s provision of “another Helper” (John 14:16), just as Jesus was to them. The Holy Spirit would be sent by Jesus from the Father, and He would “… be with you and will be in you….” (John 14:16).
Everything Jesus was as Supreme Helper to the disciples, the Holy Spirit would be to them — and to any believer to the end of time.
When we personally need wisdom and understanding, even special counsel and power, it is the Spirit who provides all this (see Isaiah 11:2).
When we need truth in our marriages, the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth (John 16:16). This applies to differences and conflicts, finances and choices.
When we don’t know what to do with our children, the Holy Spirit, our Helper, “… will teach us all things” (John 14:26).
In the workplace when we need courage or even counsel for others, the Holy Spirit will give both (Isaiah 11:2). When we desperately need to remember something that will help us make a crucial decision, the Holy Spirit will “bring to our remembrance” all things Christ has already said to us (John 14:26).
What a Supreme Helper He is in all of life! We need to cultivate a strong relationship with God the Spirit so that His enabling will be sure and effective. The Apostle Paul calls this “walking in the Spirit” (or walking in harmony with, in step with Him, Galatians 5:16). Paul also calls this being led by the Spirit” (Romans 8:14) or a life in which we “live by the Spirit” (Romans 8:4,5).
In other words, in all of life God has provided for us a Supreme Helper for our good. We must learn to hear His voice, especially in Scripture and in prayer, and respond quickly and obediently so we can experience God’s fullness of life.
Also, we must avoid:
— rejecting the Spirit’s help (Mark 7:9).
— quenching the Spirit’s counsel (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
— resisting His enabling (Acts 7:51).
For, if we don’t, we will grieve Him in His efforts to help us to walk pleasing to God (Ephesians 4:30). God’s provision for you of a Helper is His Holy Spirit. He is sufficient.
He is God Himself helping you. Respond to Him carefully.
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Henry Blackaby is president of Henry Blackaby Ministries in Atlanta. For more information about Henry Blackaby and the ministry, visit www.henryblackaby.com. He will be among the speakers at the Cedars of Lebanon Conference, Aug. 29-Sept. 1 at Mount Lebanon Baptist Encampment in Cedar Hill, Texas. For more information, call (972) 291-7156.
