THE HEAVENLY APOSTLE

1 Peter1:12
“To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven”

Peter says that those who preached the gospel before he came did so through the Holy Spirit who was ‘sent from heaven’. In just those three words Peter describes an important factor about the ministry and commission of the Holy Spirit. He is ‘sent from heaven’

This word ‘sent’ is the Greek word apostello and means to commission, to set apart for a special service, or to send out with a mission to fulfill. It where we derive the other Greek word translated as ‘apostle’ which means sent one, one who is sent on a mission

The Holy Spirit was sent by God from heaven with a mission to fulfil. That mission was to be another helper, to be our parakletos, to continue where Jesus left off.
And this mission involves as we are going to discuss a) to add to the church i.e. to draw people to the Lord Jesus Christ and to regenerate them through the new birth. b) to establish the church i.e. to teach and council those He has regenerated, thus making disciples out of them. and c) to build the church i.e. to strengthen and edify His disciples so that they grow and reach their full potential.

This is the multifaceted ministry of the Holy Spirit toward us. He is our apostle sent from heaven who drew us to Jesus our Lord and Savior and keeps us progressing in Him on the path of life by teaching, encouraging, and strengthening us. Let us discuss this in detail;

HE IS IN YOU TO TEACH YOU

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John14:25-26

Jesus taught His disciples many incredible truths while He was with them but He did not teach  them everything there was to know. This was partly because it would have been impossible for Him to teach them everything there is to know and also because they were not born again. They were still fallen men that did not have the capacity to grasp and understand spiritual truth.
He spoke about this in John16:12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

They could not bear them because they were still carnal and under sin.
But now that we are born again, and can understand spiritual truth the Holy Spirit is here to teach us all that there is to know.

So Jesus said in the above verse that “the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things…”

Throughout the New Testament we see the fulfilment of this commission and we see great examples of men and women taught by the Holy Spirit and walking in incredible truth. The Apostle Paul was probably the greatest example of this. A man who never even met Jesus or walked with Him. And yet he wrote half of the New Testament and was the foremost expositor and teacher of the New Covenant truths of faith righteousness and grace.

How did he learn all this? He was taught by the Holy Spirit.
The Apostle John talked about this teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in H 1John2:27
“But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things…”

This word anointing is a specific reference to the Holy Spirit and is actually one of the many names of the Holy Spirit revealed in scripture.

This verse goes on to say that “the same anointing teaches you concerning all things…”
This means that the Holy Spirit teaches us about anything and everything. Most of us have limited Him to only doctrine or church things. However, this verse says He teaches us concerning all things.

This means He can teach you about work, your job, business, marriage, relationships, ministry, school, mathematics and so on and so forth. There is nothing the Holy Spirit can’t teach you about. He knows all things and He is in you and will teach you whatever you want to know.

This is the same promise Jesus gave us in John14:26 that He would teach us all things “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

HE IS IN YOU TO REMIND YOU

After Jesus had promised that the Holy Spirit would teach us all things, He added that He would also remind us of whatever He had spoken to us. He said the Holy Spirit would bring all things to our remembrance “and He will bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

This is an amazing promise if you consider it in the context in which it was written. Jesus had been teaching His disciples for three years. Most of the time they were clueless about what He was saying and did not understand Him. sometimes they forgot soon after the lesson was over and He had to rebuke them.

Now He was promising them that the Holy Spirit was going to continue where He had left off 
teaching them about the Kingdom of God and that He was also going to remind them about all the stuff Jesus had taught them for the past three years.

Consider that these disciples did not have any notes, there were no audio or video recordings and there were no books written about what Jesus was saying.
They were about to be introduced to the best note taking system, the best audio and video recorder, The Holy Spirit. He would remind them of every single thing that Jesus had said to them and every single thing He had done.

Indeed this ministry was so successful that these disciples were able to write entire books about their time with Jesus, remembering all the words He said, the things He did and so forth. And all this they did accurately decades after Jesus had gone back to heaven. We know these books as the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.


This same Holy Spirit is now available in us to achieve the same results. He is able to remind us of whatever things that the Lord has specifically spoken to us through prayer and communion with Him, through studying the Word, through prophecy by someone else, through a sermon by a preacher or through a dream or vision or some other means. 

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