John 16:1

John 16:1–15

6/14/2012

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

The Holy Spirit
The word used of the Holy Spirit in today's passage is "παράκλητος" (para-klay-tos), meaning "Helper". There are a number of names used for the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament, including:

Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost - KJV)
Spirit
Spirit of the Lord
Spirit of Jesus
Spirit of God
Spirit of truth
Comforter (Counselor, Advocate)

These are just the "names" used - if you starting searching for "functions" of the Holy Spirit, you get a lot more! John is definitely the richest book we've read so far in terms of "Pneumatology" (doctrine of the Holy Spirit). There has been a lot to think about and understand.

Over all though, mostly what I was thinking as I was reading the passage for today was: "We don't really think about the Holy Spirit a lot. Most people don't even know what the Holy Spirit does or what the Bible says about Him." Hopefully we'll get to deal with some of that later, but for now, just a question:

Do you agree or disagree? Are we clueless about the Spirit, or are we doing okay? Why or why not?

Andrei

6/14/2012 05:43:21 pm

I know I personally don't know much about the Holy Spirit. I'm not too sure about others in our church, but the walking joke is that, whenever there is a difficult question that is asked, we answer: 'Follow the Holy Spirit.' So maybe the general understanding of the Holy Spirit is hazy? One thought that comes up for me is that I often wonder what thoughts in my mind come from the Holy Spirit. Like, is this the Spirit of Jesus that is convicting me to do something, or is it just my fallen consciousness that is either daring me to do something or rationalizing my inaction on something? Definitely would like to be more Biblically grounded on this...

Greg

6/15/2012 03:01:17 pm

I think your thoughts are about the same as others. I think maybe we need to do a series on the Holy Spirit....

6/14/2012 05:45:25 pm

Found verses 8-11 to be confusing... I couldn't really follow the logical progression of things...

6/15/2012 03:00:40 pm

I think it basically says that the Spirit reveals convicts believers of these things and their Truth - that they are sinful, that Jesus IS God's Son but ascended to heaven, and that the world will be judged. The Spirit convicts people to believe the truth of these facts.

Josiah

6/15/2012 12:26:55 pm

What I think is that the holy spirit something that allows us to speak the word of god to others, to give us knowledge and understanding of his commandments. It also helps us talk to non-believers in a way that would make sense to them. If I'm wrong, let me know.

6/15/2012 03:02:03 pm

Great comment Josiah! Thanks not everything that the Holy Spirit does, but the ones you listed are totally right!

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John 16:1–15

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