Passage

John 14:16
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever."

Introduction

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Today is the Whit Sunday.
It's the Sunday to celebrate the event in which the Holy Spirit came upon the believers for the first time.
At the Last Supper, Jesus said that He was soon going to the Father's house to prepare a dwelling place for the disciples.
The disciples were then grieved.
It was difficult for them to understand where Jesus was going.
They were also worried because their master, who had stayed with them continuously and taught them, was leaving them.
Understanding these feelings of the disciples, Jesus said He would not leave them as 'orphans'.
Also, He said in John 14:16, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever."
John 16:7 also says, "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you." He wanted to explain that it would be more beneficial for them if He left.
The Helper refers to the Holy Spirit who protects and helps believers.
Jesus also taught the disciples the roles of the Holy Spirit and taught them in detail how the Holy Spirit would help them.
They couldn't understand it all at first, but they began to understand Jesus' words one by one from the time the Holy Spirit came upon them.
The Holy Spirit initially came to the fruit of gospel that Jesus bore, namely the disciples and other believers.
The Holy Spirit came down when about 120 believers were praying in the upper room in the home of Mark in Jerusalem.
After the Holy Spirit came, the believers became more vigorous and courageous in their faith and there was a great revival in the early church.
Acts 2:46-47 says, "Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, [47] praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."
The workers of the early church, including the apostles, actively spread the gospel in the strength and delicate guidance of the Holy Spirit.

God the Father sent the Holy Spirit not only for Jesus' disciples and the members of the early church, but for all children of God.
He was sent to help you and me.
If we lead a life in faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, we can lead an energetic Christian life just like the early church members.
But sometimes I see some people who are leading somewhat difficult Christian lives even though the Holy Spirit is in them.
In this message, I will talk about what we should do to receive the help of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all of you will receive the help of the Holy Spirit so that you can lead a happy life in faith.

[Main]

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to lead a life in faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, first of all, we have to believe in the Holy Spirit who is in us.
First, we have to believe that we have the Holy Spirit in us.
Acts 2:38 says, "Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'"
As written, God gives the Holy Spirit to anyone who realizes his sins, is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, and accepts Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.
He doesn't discriminate between one person and another in giving the Holy Spirit.
Of course, the Holy Spirit in you cannot be seen with the naked eye.
But God has shown us many evidences demonstrating that the Holy Spirit exists.
For example, in John 1:32, John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him (ie Jesus)."
The Holy Spirit who came upon you does not have any form.
But God opened the spiritual eyes of John the Baptist to let him realize the existence of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 2:1-4 records church members of the early church 'seeing' the Holy Spirit coming down upon them and experiencing His power.
It says, "When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. [2] And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. [3] And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. [4] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance."
At that time the apostles preached the word with authority by the fullness of the Spirit and brought thousands of people to repent and kneel before the name of the Lord Jesus.
They also performed many miracles including making a lame man walk.
All these are the evidences that the Holy Spirit has actual existence.
You don't have to have spiritual eyes to understand that the Holy Spirit is in you.
It is possible for you to call Jesus Christ your Lord and God your Father because the Holy Spirit is in you.
It is possible for you to come to the sanctuary of God, worship Him, praise and pray to Him because the Holy Spirit in you is giving faith to you.
But some people doubt whether the Holy Spirit is really in them.
Also, some people utilize their fleshly thoughts thinking, "I've committed this sin and I am not really living in the word of God. So then isn't the Holy Spirit extinguished in me?"
Of course, there might be some new believers who have not received the Holy Spirit yet.
But unless you have a heart-field that is as hard as the roadside which does not accept the Word at all, most of you have received the Holy Spirit.
Also, even if you committed some sins, God forgives you in most cases if you repent and try to live by the word again.
The Holy Spirit is not extinguished easily just because you committed some sins.
Of course, there are sins that will cause the quenching of the Holy Spirit.
You must never commit sins that lead to death such as willfully committing sins or crucifying the Lord all over again.
If you keep on committing these sins then the Holy Spirit will be extinguished in you.
But God has abundant mercy and compassion. So, even if you committed sins that are difficult to be forgiven, He gives you grace again if you try to turn back and live by the word.
But if the Holy Spirit is extinguished in a person, then in most of such cases, they leave God.
Or they might attend church, but they don't even have the pangs of conscience even though they commit grave sins.
Some of them even live as slaves of Satan since their consciences are seared as with a hot iron.
Unless your case is something like this, you don't have to doubt or worry using your fleshly thoughts.
You have to firmly believe that you have the Holy Spirit in you.
You shouldn't just believe He is in you, but you have to trust Him.
You should believe that He is the Helper and rely on Him all the time.
As we accept the Lord, we have to put aside our old ways of life and live by the will of God. This is a true Christian life.
But in our Christian life, we may encounter some things that we cannot really overcome.
There might be some things we don't understand.
At these moments, we have to believe that the Holy Spirit enables us to do the things we are not able to do and to understand what we are incapable of understanding.
But most believers are not doing this. They just rely on themselves. For example, there are times when we have to make important decisions.
Those who have faith will pray before making the decision. But some others say they believe and also pray, but eventually, they just decide the things by their own discretion.
If we prayed, we have to wait for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, but some just make decisions according to their will.
Then, their behavior is no different from that of any unbeliever. They just live in the ways they used to live.
If we keep on relying on ourselves, then we won't be able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit later.
If we decide things in our will and do what we want, we won't bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit but instead we will bear the fruit of fleshly thought.
It will be difficult to bear good fruit.
We might have to go the way that is more difficult while we could have gone an easier way.
Therefore, in whatever we do, we always have to ask the Holy Spirit in us for guidance.
Ephesians 6:18 says, "With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit." As said, not just when we come to the church to pray, but we have to ask what the will of God is in whatever we are doing.
This way, we have to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit before we act.
This is how we trust and rely on the Holy Spirit in us.
At first we have to ask in each occasion, but if we keep on doing it, we will naturally act according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

It won't be difficult at all to discern the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, I hope you will not go a difficult way relying on yourself but rely on the Helper Holy Spirit and go an easier way.
I pray in the name of the Lord that, in doing so, you will prosper in all things.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to lead a life in faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, secondly, we must not ignore the words of goodness that the Holy Spirit is giving to us.
The Holy Spirit lets us realize about goodness through the messages preached or through His voice.
But even though He gives us realization, we can't really understand it if we close our heart thinking it doesn't apply to us.
With a closed heart we can't cultivate good hearts or increase our faith. So, we will just stay where we are.
For example, you heard many messages about the spiritual characters that you should possess such as spiritual love, goodness, and fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit always tells us the way to accomplish the highest level of goodness and the grown up measure of faith.
He leads us to the way to New Jerusalem, the most beautiful place in Heaven.
Then, do you accept all these words given to you personally?
Or, do you not jump to make hasty conclusions thinking, "I can't cultivate such a high level of goodness; I can't do that much with the measure of faith I have"?
But God the Father is always looking at you with the eyes of faith and eyes of goodness.
He looks at you with eyes of faith believing you can also cultivate the highest level of goodness and the great measure of faith like the patriarchs.
Then, He teaches you what you have to realize and what you have to do through the Holy Spirit.
He also guides you delicately with kindness so that you can practice what you've realized.
But even though the Holy Spirit is teaching them so much, some people just ignore it.
For example, the Holy Spirit always lets us realize the greatness of God's love.
He also tells us that we in turn have to love God the Father, too.
Romans 5:5 says, "the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."
It is goodness to believe in the love of God by following these works of the Holy Spirit.
But some people just ignore the word thinking, "I've never really felt the love of the Father, and so, I can't love Him."
In this case, we can see they use fleshly thoughts that stand against God and they ignore the words of goodness.
If they keep on ignoring the teachings of the Holy Spirit, they cannot accept any of the thoughts of goodness that the Holy Spirit is giving them.
They can neither feel God's love nor receive the grace that He is pouring down.
Then, they start to feel greatly afflicted in their hearts.
Let me give you another example. The Holy Spirit is teaching us the way to go to New Jerusalem through the Word.
But some people think those words have nothing to do with them because they committed certain sins.
The Holy Spirit is telling them that they can repent thoroughly and just march forward towards New Jerusalem, but they do not give up their negative thoughts.
This way, they don't accept the love of God either.

When they Holy Spirit gives you the words of goodness, I hope you will just accept it as yours with an 'Amen'.
I hope you will feel the goodness of God and feel His love through the help of the Holy Spirit, so that you can always be happy in your Christian life.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will cultivate that goodness in you, too, so that the Holy Spirit can always be happy because of the aroma of that goodness in you.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to lead a life in faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, thirdly, we have to try to live by the will of God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit always leads God's children to live by the will of God the Father.
When He is leading us this way, we should also have the willingness to live by God's will.
We shouldn't just load all the responsibilities on the Holy Spirit saying, "I believe the Holy Spirit is in me. He teaches me the goodness in me. He does everything for me."
We should also try to understand what He is teaching us, and to practice what we've come to understand.
If we say the Holy Spirit in us is guiding us all the way even though we don't really do anything, it is not really true faith.
This is just fleshly faith of knowing that the Holy Spirit is in us.
If we truly believe that the Holy Spirit is in us, we will long to listen to the Word and pray to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We will also beat ourselves into obedience to obey the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
Of course, sometimes it may feel difficult to obey all the teachings of the Holy Spirit.
But those who believe the Helper, the Holy Spirit will say they can do it because the Holy Spirit is in them.
They try their best relying on the Holy Spirit who is helping them.
We first have to try this way.
But as the time goes, and as such efforts are accumulated, it becomes easier and easier to hear the voice and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This way, we can always receive the help of the Holy Spirit. Then, we won't feel a Christian life is difficult.
We feel a Christian life is difficult when we rely on ourselves.
I hope you will all say that your Christian life is easy because you have the Holy Spirit.

[Conclusion]

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Bible we can find many patriarchs who did great things.
Sometimes you might admire them wondering how they did such great things.
But if we receive the help of the Holy Spirit, doing those great things are not really difficult.
For example, men of spirit and men of whole spirit rely on the Holy Spirit every moment, so they hear His voice every moment.
They understand the heart of God the Father in all things, so they can easily do the things that look difficult in the eyes of men of flesh.
They spend each day in happiness receiving the love and strength of God the Father.
You all too can do the same.
Thus, I hope none of you will say, "I lack this and that, so I can't hear the voice of the Holy Spirit."
You should say that you can do it because you have the Holy Spirit in you.
The Holy Spirit is the love of God the Father who understands the weakness of human beings.
If we do commit sins, God has sent us the Holy Spirit to make us turn from those sins. He sent the Holy Spirit to help us understand the heart of God the Father more deeply.
Therefore, let us not use our fleshly thoughts and make the Holy Spirit just keep quiet in us, but let Him help us as much as possible.
In order to lead a life in faith with the help of the Holy Spirit, first of all, we have to believe in the Holy Spirit in us, second we must not ignore the words of goodness that the Holy Spirit teaches us.
Third, we have to try to live by the will of God when the Holy Spirit leads us.
In Romans 14:17, the apostle Paul says, "for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."
I hope you will also receive the help of the Holy Spirit all the time and be filled with peace and joy.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will have no problems reaching New Jerusalem where there is the perfect peace and the ultimate joy.

[Amen]