You Are Not Alone! You Have the Spirit in You!
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Dimas Salaberrios, Ministry Associate with Christian Union, is a dynamic teacher, speaker, and pastor. His bestselling memoir, Street God, was released in September 2015. Dimas holds a Master of Divinity degree from Alliance Theological Seminary and resides in the Bronx with his wife Tiffany and three daughters.
Transcript
On my journey with God, I'm often reminded and I have to remind myself, that I'm not on this journey alone; the Holy Spirit is with me. And the Holy Spirit is with you and I want you to be reminded of that. That we're not just like outcasts when it comes to God or He's this distant person as some people used to say. "Yeah, you know, the man upstairs." No, He is our Father, He is our Lord, He is our Savior, He's our Master and Jesus is our King. I love the way the text reads in Galatians 4:6-7. It says, "And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of His son into our hearts crying, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, then an heir through God."
What this text is saying, what Paul is articulating through the flowing of the Holy Spirit is, he's reminding us that we don't have a distant relationship with God. We have a Father and son relationship, a Father and daughter relationship, that God is with us and He's journeying with us. No matter what's going on outside in the world, no matter what troubles come, no matter what sicknesses come or plagues come, God has a plan for us and He's with us and He loves us and He cares about us. And I want to remind you of that, that you are not alone today, but the Holy Spirit is with you.
The word for Holy Spirit, the Greek word is Parakletos. What that word means is to come alongside. What it's saying is the Spirit of God comes alongside of us, He journeys with us. He gives us comfort. He's called a Comforter. I love the way Luke 11:13 says it. It says, "If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him." So if you're going through a portion of your life where you're saying, "Yeah, you know what? I accepted Christ, but I don't feel connected with His Spirit." The Bible says ask Him. One way to ask Him is through fasting and prayer.
Seek after Him. Say, "God, help me. I don't want to be alone, but I need You." I love the way Jesus said it in His high priestly prayer in John 14:16 and 17. Listen to what our Savior said. He said, "And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you." God is reminding us that Jesus' power and His presence through the Holy Spirit is more and more in us. He dwells in us and when we surrender ourselves to Him, we give Him more room to operate.
I remember one time these young men challenged me. They were saying to me, to my face, "There is no God." And I just said, "Holy Spirit, show up." And I stretched out my hands and I said to them, "Put your hands in my hands and tell me there's no Holy Spirit." And one of them, when he dared to put his hand over, he said, "I feel something." He pulled his hand back. And I said, "That's the power of the Holy Spirit." Do you want to know why God did that? Because He is with us, especially when we go out to make His name known. God bless you. Be a bold witness for Christ. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
