{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"The Holy Spirit","description":"Welcome to Applied Christianity. This is Episode 6 of a 52-week journey into becoming a true disciple of Christ, not in name, but in how we actually live. Last week, we talked about the New Covenant. Not a new set of rules. Not stronger motivation. But a new source of life. Christ in you \u2014 the hope of glory.  But that raises a question every honest Christian eventually asks: If Christ lives in me, why does following Him still feel so difficult? Why do I still rely on effort?  Why do I still feel lost, uncertain, or exhausted?   Jesus anticipated that question.  And His answer stunned the people closest to Him. He said:  \u201cIt is better for you that I go.\u201d Better\u2026 that Jesus leaves? Today we\u2019re going to slow down and understand why Jesus would say that \u2014 and what it reveals about how the Christian life is actually lived.   A disciple is a learner, an apprentice. Discipleship means learning to live the way Jesus lived.   That forces us to ask an honest question: If Jesus, while He was on earth, lived in complete dependence on the Holy Spirit, why do we think we won\u2019t need that same dependence?   This isn\u2019t speculation. Scripture is explicit about how Jesus lived. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit before His ministry began.   Jesus was led by the Spirit \u2014 even into the wilderness. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit and said, \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.\u201d Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God.   Jesus said repeatedly, \u201cI can do nothing on My own.\u201d \u201cI do nothing by My own authority.\u201d   Even at the cross, Scripture says He offered Himself through the eternal Spirit. If anyone could have lived independently, it was Jesus. And He chose not to.   Dependence was not weakness. It was the way life was meant to be lived.   So when Jesus says, \u201cIt is better for you that I go,\u201d He is not diminishing His presence. He is explaining its limitation.   Jesus beside them meant: one place one conversation at a time one external example   But God\u2019s plan was never imitation. It was participation.   Not Jesus beside you showing you how to live \u2014 but Jesus in you, living His life through you.   That\u2019s why He says the Helper must come.   The Holy Spirit would not simply teach them about life, he would be the life within them.   Jesus is very clear about what the Holy Spirit does. He says the Spirit will: -       testify about Him -       guide us into all truth -       convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment   Without the Spirit: -       truth becomes negotiable -       sin gets redefined -       repentance disappears -       sermons can quote Scripture and still contradict Jesus   Paul says the natural person cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned.   That means: no amount of intelligence no amount of education no amount of religious effort   can replace the Holy Spirit.   Without Him, we are sincere \u2014 but directionless, lost at sea.   Paul is brutally honest: \u201cWe do not know how to pray as we ought.\u201d   Without the Spirit, prayer becomes: performance repetition transaction   But the Spirit intercedes and leads.   Paul also says:   \u201cAll who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.\u201d   Scripture does not define sons and daughters by what they claim, but by who is leading them.   If the Spirit is not leading, something else is.   There is no neutral ground. And here is the part most of us don\u2019t like to hear. The greatest obstacle to the Holy Spirit is not lack of knowledge. It is pride. Pride does not always look loud or arrogant. Very often it looks like self-protection \u2014 I can\u2019t let go of this or I\u2019ll be hurt. It looks like self-justification \u2014 This isn\u2019t really sin. I have my reasons. It looks like self-righteousness \u2014 At least I\u2019m not like them. And it looks like self-rule \u2014 I\u2019ll decide how much access God gets. Scripture says plainly that God gives grace to the humble \u2014 but He actively opposes the proud. So when people say, \u201cI don\u2019t feel close to God,\u201d Scripture often gives a harder but more honest answer: God is not absent. He is resisting a posture that refuses to surrender.   Here\u2019s the simplest way to understand this.   No oxygen \u2014 no physical life. No Holy Spirit \u2014 no spiritual life.   You can teach someone how to breathe perfectly, but if you put them on the moon, effort won\u2019t save them.   That\u2019s what happens when we try to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus does not describe discipleship as an event. He describes it as a daily death. When Jesus says, \u201cTake up your cross daily,\u201d He is not talking about difficult circumstances or general suffering. He is talking about surrendering the right to self-rule \u2014 every single day. The cross is where pride dies. It is where self-protection loosens its grip. It is where the flesh loses its authority to decide what is good, what is justified, and what is allowed. This is not dramatic. It is quiet, internal, and costly. And this is precisely where the Holy Spirit is given room to work. Not in moments of inspiration, but in daily, repeated acts of surrender. Luke 9:23 is clear, \u201cWhoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.\u201d The Spirit is not an accessory. Not an upgrade. Not an advanced doctrine.   He is the environment in which spiritual life exists.   That\u2019s why God says in the New Covenant:   \u201cI will put My Spirit within them and cause them to walk in My ways.\u201d   The Spirit doesn\u2019t reward obedience. He makes obedience possible. But this is where many people quietly give up. Because they hear all of this, they try for a day\u2026 maybe a week\u2026 and when nothing feels different, they assume the Holy Spirit doesn\u2019t work for them. Scripture never presents the Spirit as something you try. Paul says the flesh and the Spirit are in direct conflict with one another \u2014 not agreement, not cooperation, conflict. The Spirit does not enter a life and immediately make things easy. He enters and begins a war. And if you\u2019ve lived for years driven by self-protection, self-rule, and self-justification, you should expect resistance \u2014 not instant relief. The struggle itself is not proof that the Spirit is absent. Very often, it is the first evidence that He is present. Galatians 5:17 tells us\u201cFor the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.\u201d Scripture gives strong warnings about the Holy Spirit.   Not because God is harsh \u2014 but because the Spirit is how life comes to us at all.   When we resist the Spirit over time, we don\u2019t just disobey.   We lose sensitivity.   That\u2019s why Scripture warns us not to grieve, quench, or resist Him.   Not as threats \u2014 but as protection.   Life only flows where the Spirit is welcomed.   One more clarification matters here. Many people are waiting to feel something before they trust the Holy Spirit is at work. Scripture never tells us to look for feelings. It tells us to look for fruit \u2014 and fruit takes time. Paul does not say the Spirit produces excitement, intensity, or constant certainty. He says the Spirit produces love, patience, self-control, and peace. Those qualities do not appear overnight. They grow slowly, quietly, and often invisibly at first. No farmer plants a seed and gives up the next morning because nothing looks different. In the same way, people abandon the work of the Spirit not because nothing is happening \u2014 but because they are measuring the wrong thing. The Holy Spirit does not change us instantly. He changes us faithfully \u2014 over time.   When you step back and look at Scripture as a whole, this isn\u2019t confusing.   The New Covenant tells us why this is good \u2014 because God would put His Spirit within us.   Acts tells us how the Spirit is received.   Paul tells us what the Spirit does \u2014 and how helpless we are without Him.   And Scripture tells us how we know we belong \u2014 those who are led by the Spirit are sons and daughters of God.   This isn\u2019t mysterious.   It\u2019s life \u2014 given, sustained, and directed by God Himself. ________________________________________ Recommended Reading & Reflection   Scripture Read slowly. Do not rush.   \u2022 John 14\u201316 Listen for how Jesus describes the Spirit\u2019s role \u2014 teaching, guiding, reminding, testifying about Christ.   \u2022 Romans 8 Notice how often life, identity, assurance, and leadership are tied directly to the Spirit.   \u2022 Acts 2:1\u201341 Pay attention to how repentance, forgiveness, the Spirit, and new life are presented together.   \u2022 Ezekiel 36:24\u201327 Watch how God connects obedience not to effort, but to His Spirit within His people.   ________________________________________ Christian Thinkers   C. S. Lewis Mere Christianity   \u2022 Book IV, Chapter 4 \u2014 Counting the Cost \u2022 Book IV, Chapter 11 \u2014 The New Men   Why these chapters: Lewis shows that Christianity is not about external imitation but about a new kind of life taking root within a person.   ________________________________________ George MacDonald Unspoken Sermons   \u2022 The Way \u2022 Obedience   Why MacDonald: MacDonald reminds us that God does not provide light so that we feel safe, certain, or in control, but so that we may follow in obedience. God gives enough light for the next faithful step \u2014 not the entire path. Understanding follows surrender, not the other way around. ________________________________________ Weekly Reflection Questions   1. Paul says there is a real conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. Do I actually recognize that battle in my own life? And if I don\u2019t \u2014 is it because the flesh is surrendered\u2026 or because it is still ruling without resistance? 2.  Scripture tells us how we know we are sons and daughters of God \u2014 not by what we claim, but by who is leading us. Where in my life can I clearly see the Holy Spirit directing, correcting, or restraining me? And if I can\u2019t point to that \u2014 who, or what, is actually leading my decisions?   Next week, we\u2019ll talk about grace \u2014 and why grace that transforms is very different from grace that quietly excuses. ","author_name":"Applied Christianity","author_url":"https:\/\/sites.libsyn.com\/541162","html":"