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Turn with me to Romans 8:26. Let's read it together:
Now, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Today, I'm talking about the Holy Spirit as your inner circle—not as a distant or passive observer, but as an active divine partner in your life.
Let's be honest about what weakness looks like. It's not theoretical. Weakness is sitting in your car, dreading to go into your house. It's staring at a text message, wondering whether to respond or stay quiet. It's lying in bed replaying conversations, asking yourself where you went wrong.
In Romans 8:26, the word "helps" comes from the Greek word synantilambanomai. This is a powerful expression that means "to take hold together with someone against something." It's not passive assistance—it's divine partnership.
The Holy Spirit doesn't stand at a distance watching you fail. He doesn't observe what's happening in your life and hope you make it through. Instead, the Holy Spirit comes in and carries the weight with you. Notice I said with you, not for you, because there's a part you have to play. This is active divine partnership.
Imagine you're lifting weights in a gym. Things are coming at you as you lift. When you hit a snag, here comes your spotter to help. The spotter doesn't remove the weights. They don't take over your workout. All they do is make sure the weights don't crash down on your head.
The Holy Spirit is your spotter. As the load gets heavier, as you take on more than you're supposed to, the Holy Spirit says, "I got you. I'm going to help make sure what you're carrying doesn't drop on you."
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From the very beginning, the Holy Spirit is God's finisher of His work:
The spirit specializes in bringing life where there is none. In Romans 8:11:
The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you.
That means you have the very same spirit that animated Jesus' dead body living inside you. It should change how you react to the issues of your life.
Think about your life. Where are the areas where there is no life? Perhaps it's the passions God placed in you drifting into sleep. Perhaps you're called to pray but don't feel like it. Perhaps you used to believe God for something big.
Dream again. Those dead things slowly drifting off to sleep—the Holy Spirit says, "I am capable of animating dead things. I can bring it back to life." The resurrection isn't just something that happened 2,000 years ago. It's happening right now. That dead situation, let it live again. That difficulty, let it live again. That hope deferred, let it rise up again.
When someone flatlines in an emergency room, someone jumps on top and yells, "Clear!" The defibrillator sends shock waves into the body to reignite the heart system. I believe today the Holy Spirit is yelling, "Clear! Get out of the way so I can make sure that what is dead comes back to life."
The Spirit reveals what human wisdom cannot understand. In Exodus 31, He gave Bezalel skill on how to build and craft. All who are creative—your creativity doesn't come just from your personal imagination. It comes from the Most High God who animated this world and everything in it.
According to 1 Corinthians 2:10-12:
The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God... no one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God so that we may understand what God has really given to us.
The Spirit of God which resides inside can give you inside information. You're looking for that promotion on your job. The Spirit of God can animate your thinking to solve difficult issues in your workplace. He illuminates truth. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us, and He causes Jesus Christ to come back to life inside you.
Ever have a moment where something just clicked? You're about to make a bad decision and something inside says, "No, don't do that." You think it's your good thought, but it's the Holy Spirit spotting your decision-making.
Maybe you've seen a verse 100 times. You're going through a difficult situation, and the Holy Spirit says, "Let me show you how to look at this verse differently." He illuminates that scripture. For you, it's life. For somebody else, it's peace. For somebody else, it's joy. He takes the Word of God, makes it personal to your situation, and illuminates what He is saying to you.
The Lord is bringing certain people in this room into divine connection where you'll be a person of influence and they'll wonder how you got into the room. It's not by your education. It's not by who you know. It's by the Spirit of God. The presence of God will illuminate inside you: This is how you're supposed to talk. This is what you're supposed to say. This is where you're supposed to go. This is whom you're supposed to meet.
We need power to live out this Christian life. God empowers ordinary people to do extraordinary things:
Believers are filled with the gifts of the Spirit. He does this to equip you. In Ephesians 4:11-13:
Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith... and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
He gives gifts. He gives boldness. When you walk in the Holy Spirit, there's a bold kind of confidence. It doesn't matter about your personality. Let's take away the excuse of your personality. Yes, you're an introvert and that's how you recharge. But with the Holy Spirit, your introversion goes away.
The Holy Spirit gives strength for you to live out a holy life. You've been falling into the same patterns. You say, "Holy Spirit, help me. I can't do this on my own." You're still in this flesh, and it's the Holy Spirit that gives you the power to remain born again, to live out a Christian life.
It's the power to fulfill God's mission. You can't fulfill the great commission by yourself. God gave you the commission, so you need to ask the Holy Spirit, "How can I carry out what you've called me to carry out if not by your spirit?"
In John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7, and 14:16-18, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the helper—the paraclete—who comes to aid, guide, comfort, and teach believers.
John 14:26 says:
The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have said to you.
The disciples needed reminding even after three years of close proximity with Jesus. Just because they had the presence of God didn't mean they were filled with God. The Holy Spirit had to come and say, "The presence you've been experiencing, I want to put on the inside of you so it walks with you, talks with you, gives you the grace to live out this Christian life."
John 15:26 says:
When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, namely, the spirit of truth... he will testify about me. You will be able to recognize that it is me because it will tell you truths about me.
John 16:7 says:
It is to your advantage that I am leaving. If I do not leave, the helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.
Why didn't Jesus remain? Each one of us needed to have an infilling of the Spirit of God. If Jesus remained, the Spirit would just be in Jesus. But Jesus said, "I have to go so that my Spirit can be spread abroad. So it's not just with God the Father and God the Son—now it's in you all, and it's with you all."
John 14:16-18 says:
I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate, strengthener, and standby, that he may remain with you forever.
God delivers to us seven different ways the Holy Spirit operates:
According to Romans 8:26-27, the Holy Spirit helps with human infirmities, limitations, and weakness by interceding. The Holy Spirit groans on your behalf.
Have you been in deep turmoil and didn't have the words to say? What comes out is more like a sound than words. The Holy Spirit groans when something is so deep that your words cannot fathom or express it.
Maybe you're super deep and always have the words to pray. I'm not that deep. There are times when I don't have the words. My prayer is more like a sound, a groan, weeping—just, "Oh God, this hurts." The Bible says the Holy Spirit himself intercedes with groanings too deep for words.
There are moments when words are going to fail you. There are times when faith feels weak. You're spending time in the presence of God, but the songs you used to sing, the encouragement somebody else is giving—none of it is working for you. My Bible says the Holy Spirit himself makes intercession, meaning he stands in the gap for me, praying for me with groanings that I'm not able to utter for myself.
There are times when the Spirit prays for you. He picks up the inner yearnings of your heart. Maybe you haven't yet articulated what God is doing inside you. He picks it up and prays it through the spiritual expression that is needed. He prays it through even when you don't know God's will. The Spirit always prays according to God's will. It aligns your prayer with His will, making it so that as the Holy Spirit is praying, it's coming to pass.
You're too hurt. You're too tired. You're too confused. But heaven is not quiet. You have the comforter, the Holy Spirit, the paraclete, who is making intercession on your behalf. So yes, in your human emotions you're too tired, but He's not. You're too weak, but He's not. You're too confused, but He's not. You're exhausted, but He's not. He's always making intercession for you.
Jesus said, "He will teach you and remind you." John 14:26 says:
The helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I said to you.
He's not a passive teacher. He is active with it. Second per second, he's actively reminding you, teaching you. Psalms 46:1 says:
God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of need.
God is present help. Not past help. Not future help. He is present, walking alongside of you, teaching you, reminding you: "I am with you. That test, that exam that is coming up—you do your part of studying, and I will remind you what you studied."
You see that test you keep failing for that certification? You do your part. You do what you need to do, and I will come in and remind you: "Do you remember chapter 14? Remember that chapter 14." He will remind you, bring it to your memory. He is actively interested in your life. Actively, not passively. He wants to see you succeed.
Romans 8:11 says:
If the spirit of him who raised Jesus up from the dead dwells in you, then he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal, short-lived, perishable bodies through his holy spirit who dwells in you.
Peter did not have boldness and confidence to preach, but then the Holy Spirit came. Paul would not have been an apostle to the Gentiles, to the Jews, and to kings if he did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Scripture would not have been written if writers did not receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
Could it be that you do not rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you, to infuse you with his wisdom, to infuse you with knowledge on the know-how to do things? He guides, he reminds, he strengthens. He's in your Monday decisions. He's in your Tuesday stress. He's in your Wednesday conversations. He's in your Thursday temptations. He's in your Friday's exhaustion.
Years ago—20 plus years—I was struggling in my first year of college. I was told I might have a learning disability because I wasn't retaining information I studied. I would spend hours studying, and when it came time to test, anxiety would arise and I would just fail it. I had a girlfriend who took the same class with me. She said, "I know we studied together and you were actually doing better than I was when we were studying. Why are you failing now?"
So what did I do? I went back to the Holy Spirit. I said, "Holy Spirit, I'm going to pass. You see this test? Teach me. Show me. Remind me. Help me retain information. If I'm created in the image of God and I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and the greater one that resurrected Jesus from the dead resides inside of me, why wouldn't I use him to pass a test? A simple test like math can be a precursor to actual tests in life. If you can't trust God to help you pass a physical test, how can you trust Him for tests that are going to be greater than a physical test?"
So I sat down in my room and I read the Bible before I studied. I took in the Word of God. The Bible says that the Word of God is living, it's powerful, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. The Word of God is active, it's not passive. I said, "God, these words that I'm reading are spirit and they are life. Anything that I apply it to should become spirit and should become life."
I studied, and I remember taking that test. I sat down and said, "Lord, initially the enemy will come." My mind went blank. I said, "Not today. I got to pass. I got to do something about this."
I said, "Holy Spirit, help me. Bring it back to my mind. Reanimate my imagination. Help me to see things like you do. You created this equation. You gave people inspiration to write the equation. So there's nothing new under heaven."
The Holy Spirit said, "Remember when you looked at such and such? Yeah, that's what they're asking for. Go back. Remember when I said you looked at this and this? Go back." Where I was averaging a D, that grade became a B. The Holy Spirit.
Tell your neighbor: the Holy Spirit. Are you using him? Are you using him? He's here to animate your life.
If the Holy Spirit is not passive, why are we? If the Holy Spirit is active, why are we not actively engaging him? The Holy Spirit does not force—he leads. He's not forcing himself on you. Our responsibility is to follow, to listen, to obey, to yield. He helps, but we must conscientiously walk with him.
Be conscientious of him throughout your day—not just when you go to pray in your quiet time (though that's where you're probably most spiritual), but throughout your day, be conscientious of him. Talk to him.
1 Corinthians 6:19 says:
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? You are not your own.
You don't carry the Holy Spirit occasionally, when it feels good for you, when it's convenient for you. You carry him daily, not just in church, but in traffic. Not just in prayer, but in conversation. Not just in crisis.
Let's not wait for crisis to engage the Holy Spirit. It's not just a crisis-aversion thing. It's my day-to-day life. When things are good, when things are great, when my kids are behaving, when my workplace is peaceful. It's active in your life.
Galatians 5:16-18 says:
Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh is against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Follow, yield, stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit. What does walking look like?
Holy Spirit, thank you for this day. Thank you for allowing me to breathe. What do you want to happen today? I know I got agenda, but if my agenda is not pleasing to you, Father, scratch that agenda. Let me follow after your Spirit. God, I know that there are things and people and places that you need me to go and see. Help me, Holy Spirit, to be sensitive and aware of the kinds of conversations I need to have, to be aware of when I need to hush up and allow your presence to do what it does.
Walking means daily awareness. In fact, second per second awareness. When anxiety and depression hit your life, there has been a slip in your awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Whenever there's anxiety, depression, anytime you feel any kind of way inside, check the Holy Spirit meter inside your heart. Have I silenced your voice with my good thoughts? Have I allowed myself to be taken over by fear?
When you notice that mismatch, that imbalance, Holy Spirit arise. How do you allow Him to arise? You worship Him.
Father, I thank you that although I'm facing this, your Spirit is with me. Father, I thank you that greater is He that's in me than He that is in the world. God, I thank you. I walk into rooms with favor.
You're not saying this in the absence of just a good thought. You're saying this with recognition that the Holy Spirit gave you that confidence. That's what He does. The Holy Spirit.
Isaiah reminds us that the Holy Spirit is constantly speaking. We are just hard of hearing. We grow deaf to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It's that nudge. It's that check. It's that conviction. If we're honest, He's been speaking, but we're so distracted.
Pastor Victor mentioned going away for some days and being undistracted. Throw away your phone. Throw away your email. Silence it all. Check in with your family once a day and be in the presence of God.
When I started doing this, the first two days it felt like I couldn't silence the noise in my head. Every thought I could think, I thought. Every fear—in fact, the second day I battled with anxiety. I checked and checked. Oh, okay, this is a distraction.
The beauty of going away and being in the presence of God is realignment. He takes you into the sweetness of his presence and aligns you to the Word of God that you read and makes the worship of God that much more sweeter. When you come out, your shoulders get broadened. You're able to handle anything that comes your way. Your capacity suddenly becomes larger because the Holy Spirit doesn't take the burden away, but He's with you. When you spend time with Him, He broadens your shoulders.
The same Spirit who created the world, who raised Jesus from the dead, now lives in you. You're not powerless. You're not empty. You're not alone because the Holy Spirit is part of your inner circle.
