Church meetings- especially the night ones I go to are about encounters with the Holy Spirit – teaching, learning, experiencing – and most of all being messed up & changed for ever by HIM

Why do Speakers speak so? – to help reveal more of God – to bring more of Him into our lives and into our circumstance. Who teaches us about the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit does!

Let’s focus on 2 aspects

o That The Holy Spirit is the Counselor
o He is Creative His creativity is POWERFUL (you are Not paint by numbers you are a masterpiece!)

He is our counselor

We don’t have to do this life alone. He is appointed to be our teacher and guide, usually ministering and teaching through the Spirit inspired word ((Timothy : all scripture is God Breathed)

Be encouraged He is a patient Counselor. He is patient (ie slow to anger) .A classic modern example might be our modern day IT trainer?? I can say I have been on both sides of the ledger on this one ! Students can represent a spectrum of ability- is as kind as I can put it.

A humorous example is the “FIRST IT CONSULTANT” found on youtube– at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQfmYBIYfi0

Like the IT consultant – Holy Spirit Is so Patient with our fears and stupidity so do we trust Him with our precious text/ our relationships?. Do we fear losing something in our surrender to Him? Are we content to stay with the “scroll” the familiar – or do you dare to be counseled into the land of “books”?-yes maybe corny !! (need to see youtube clip to make sense of this)

See also .

 2 Cor 3:17, 18,
 . 17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

 I Timothy 1:7, God hath not given us the spirit of fear (timidity)

I have been pretty thick about the Holy Spirit over the years! What must be so obvious to Him is sometimes just not to us. However I can confidently declare we can be confident and trust the Holy Spirit. Why? Because His singular motivation is revealed by Jesus himself

Key scripture Jn 16:13- 14
…… He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Holy Spirit Reveals:
He is all about “Christ in Glory”!. We don’t have access to the Revelation of Christ in Glory without the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we only have reference to the Humanity of Jesus – but no access to the revelation of Christ Glorified – that comes by the Spirit “who testifies”. The Disciples saw Jesus but it took the Holy Spirit to reveal the Glorified Jesus – Jesus said it WAS GOOD that he went away

His character and purpose is in complete unity with the Father and the Son. There is no “team” that works better and is more trustworthy with unity than the TRINITY-the Trinity is the ultimate example of unity

The Holy Spirit is Creative!

Gen 1 2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering [brooding] over the waters

Job 26:13- By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; – and didn’t HE! (Lioui Giglio)

in Creation itself

In creation we see the beauty of His character – consistent and in unison with the Father and the Son – He absolutely Cares about this. He is described as “Hovering” which has the connotation of ‘brooding’ (chicken)

He is creative also in –

• Us -Job 33:4 4 The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life
• The Incarnation Lu 1:35…the Angel Gabriel tells Mary – “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
• The Resurrection -Rom 8:1111And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
• The Scriptures -1 Cor 2 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.[

There are n bigger ‘creative’ works than these – I challenge you to find one! The Holy Spirit is involved in all of them.

But critically his Creativity didn’t stop with creation. He is creatively at work in us!

No wonder so many of his creatures are creative – eg they sing/paint/write. God, the Holy Spirit, is just bursting to anoint you and be involved in your creativity. And isn’t creativity so attractive to hang around? – although Perhaps not creative accountant’s

In my own life He has worked so creatively. With my Study and getting me into Law, through law according to the reality of life I should not be where I am now. Yet He is “‘…able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us” Eph 3:20,
Is it just me or do Christian men really have ridiculously more beautiful wives than the men “in the world” get and are not their kids are awesome? The Holy Spirit has changed me!! (my heritage should be divorce not a 17 yr plus awesome marriage)

You should not be able to work only 3 days as a lawyer and two as a Pastor – yet that is the position I thankfully find myself in.

Yet if it is not a seemingly impossible situation – then where is the room for His Glory?

If there was no water on the sacrifice and not 500 prophets against 1 – what would be the significance of Elijah’s sacrifice. If Gideon – at Mt Gilead fought with the starting line up of 32000 – not 300 – where is the gap for the miraculous? – for God to show His glory

God He specializes in – creating something out of nothing. It is God’s Forte – its what HE does best !!Its only when we run out of ‘possible’ we create the GAP for Him to step in and Create out of nothing

To be an invention the Law says is must be “unobvious” -Maybe you are just ‘patent pending?”

We may accept the God created the world out of nothing and 6 days of creation-Yet so often we refuse to accept he can create something out of nothing for our our dysfunctional family / our heritage to , ability to relate /work or to our finances, our ministry……you get the idea . That’s not the Spirit of GOD!! it’s the Spirit of stupid (per B Johnson) he said pastorally and sensitively !!

The Word of God warns us of this folly “…The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him” Cor 2:14-16.

Conclusion

 He is a loving and patient counselor, and

 He is extremely creative – if there is no gap – there is no room for HIM to move !

“If you are a leader, exert yourself to lead.” (Romans 12: 8, NEB)

Several years ago, James Reston, a columnist for the New York Times, gave an evaluation of the small caliber of men that he thought occupied the governor’s office in various states. He said, “Maybe the states can go on handling bigger and bigger problems with smaller and smaller men, but it is a risky business… most state capitols are over their heads in problems and up to their knees in midgets.” !!

 (if you found this blog – then maybe you “googled” a word that resonates with what this blog plans to be??)

 I am just starting out on this today…..

 My plan is to post encouraging words/links about succeeding at being a guy in the modern world

 MY MISSION is to promote the belief that we are all actually supposed to live a life of victory, and that can be passionate about what matters to us.

 My world view is –

 I am not an accident;

• I was created;
• I was created for  reason;
• My purpose  here to make life better for others;
• I created me specifically, and GOD planned my life even before he created the world;
• Real joy really only comes from GIVING, SERVING and LOVING others;
• LIVING FOR MYSELF – whilst seemingly fulfilling for a while is a down hill road that only leads to depression, lack of motivation, loss of the will to go out;

 Not everything on this Blog will be original – If I see something that promotes and encourages anyone – but particularly men to live a FULL and Effective life – I will gather it – and link it – so you can benefit from it as well…