Sermon Central
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The Holy Spirit, Our Helper Series
Contributed by Tesh Njokanma on Jun 15, 2018 (message contributor)
Summary: God wants you and I to pray and there will be a shaking out of everything God has not planted in our lives, families, church, nation and world at large. Such a shaking can’t happen if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit.
GOD’S PROMISE TO HELP US
In Isaiah 41:10-13, God promises to help us. From this passage, we see that the help God promises to give us comes in three ways:
• When we are WEAK – there will certainly be times of weakness. But God promises to help us by strengthening us at such times.
• When we are ABOUT TO FALL – there will be times that it appears you are falling spiritually, or your marriage, business, or career is falling. At such times, you won’t be left helpless. God will uphold us with His righteous hand so we don’t fall and suffer a great crash.
• When we are SURROUNDED BY ENEMIES, people are opposing you and raging against you – We are in an ongoing battle and we are daily faced with seen and unseen enemies, physical as well as spiritual enemies. But God promises to help us by putting those enemies to shame and disgrace, and driving them away from us such that we will look for those enemies but they will be nowhere to be found, we will look for that problem that has been troubling us and realize that the problem has quietly disappeared. I pray this will be your portion. That after today’s message you will discover that all those that have been opposing you and coming against you are nowhere to be found because the Helper of the Helpless has sent help to you.
GOD IS AN EVER PRESENT HELP IN TROUBLE
Psalm 46:1 refers to God as a timely, ever present help. That verse tells us that “God is our refuge and strength an ever present help in trouble”. Verse 2-3 goes on to say that even if the whole world is falling apart, there is trouble and calamity everywhere you turn, you can count on God to send you help at such times. Indeed there’s so much trouble and calamity in the world today, nothing seems to be working, there’s so much lack and hardship, people are losing jobs, contracts, businesses etc. There are so much complaints and lamentations of a casting down, but God is assuring us through this Psalm that no matter how bad things turn or get, you can count on God to send you help or to come and help you. God will never leave you alone or stranded when you are faced with difficulties.
WHAT IS THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GOD’S PROMISE TO HELP US, GOD AS AN EVER PRESENT HELP, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
It is through the Holy Spirit that God fulfills His promise to help us, that God manifests Himself to us as an ever present help. In John 14: 16, Jesus, close to His ascension to heaven, told His disciples that He would pray to the Father to send another HELPER who would ABIDE PERMANENTLY with them. The Holy Spirit is an ever present helper. One of the main reasons why God has given us the Holy Spirit is so no child of God is ever left stranded. That in whatever situation you find yourself, whether it is a time of weakness, a time when it appears you, your ministry, marriage, or business is falling, or you are facing satanic opposition and resistance, YOU WILL HAVE SOMEONE MUCH STRONGER THAN YOU RIGHT THERE WITH YOU TO HELP YOU THROUGH SUCH SITUATIONS, TO HELP YOU COME OUT OF SUCH SITUATIONS.
THE HOLY SPIRIT’S ROLE AS A HELPER
We have established that the Holy Spirit has been given to us as a helper, an ever present helper. Let us look at specific ways the Holy Spirit helps us in our relationship with God and in our daily living. The Holy Spirit helps us to worship God in spirit and in truth (Ephesians 5:18-20, John 4:24), He helps us to understand God’s Word (1 John 2:27, 1 Corinthians 2:9-10,14), He helps us to complete personal as well as divine projects, tasks, and assignments (Zechariah 4:6-9), He helps us to be fruitful (Isaiah 22:15), He helps us to radiate the glory of God (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Today we want to look at how the Holy Spirit helps our prayer lives.
THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS US TO PRAY EFFECTIVELY TO GOD
James 5:16 makes us understand that for your prayers to avail much, for you to pray and have results, your prayers must be EFFECTIVE and FERVENT. This goes to show that not all prayers are effective. It is the Holy Spirit that helps us to pray effective prayers.
Left to ourselves, we don’t even know what to pray about, we don’t know how to pray as we ought to. This is a weakness we have (Romans 8:26). But remember God’s promise in Isaiah 41: 10 that when we are weak, He will strengthen us. God helps us to overcome all weaknesses in the place of prayer through the power of the Holy Spirit.
