GET IN THE GAME

Chapter 5:

You’ve Got Game
(The athlete and God’s Spirit)

Supernatural competition required supernatural power.

1. What the Spirit provides

As a fullback, one of my (Jonathan’s) primary tasks is to run interference for the halfback, opening up holes for him to get through.  It is my job to enable the running back to make forward progress down the field. Likewise, the Holy Spirit’s job is to run interference so the believer can move forward in his or her spiritual life.

As believers living after Christ’s resurrection and the birth of the church, we are accustomed to Jesus’ physical absence and the Holy Spirit’s invisible presence. It is what we have always known. This was not the case with His disciples. When Jesus announced His imminent departure and the Holy Spirit’s coming in the Upper Room, it created a significant crisis.

During the team meeting that night, Jesus announces, “Where I am going, you cannot come” (John 13:33). His disciples were in a panic. They had been with Jesus for three years and looked to him for everything. How were they going to function without their Leader?

Jesus knew His disciples were upset, so He answered their questions with this promise: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever” (John 14:16).

This verse contains two key words. The word “another” in the Greek language means another of the same kind. God was not sending His people a cheap stunt double or a future round draft pick, but Someone just like Himself—a Person with the same essence and character as Christ. The Holy Spirit is God, the third person of the Trinity, sharing the same essence and power as Jesus.

The other key word in John 14:16 is “helper,” a word that means one who is called alongside to assist. A few verses later Jesus said, “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 that I said to you” (verse 26).

Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit’s coming was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), when the Spirit came to indwell the followers of Christ and empower them to accomplish Christ’s work. This promise is now made real to each believer at the moment of our salvation, when the Bible says we are baptized by the Spirit into Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 12:13).

It’s important to distinguish here that this baptism is not some special emotional experience we have to seek after conversion, but something that happens at conversion. In basketball you don’t get an assist after the play, but right when the shot is made. Paul made this especially clear by saying, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him” (Romans 8:9).

If you know Christ personally, the Holy Spirit lives within you at this very moment. According to Jesus, the Spirit wants to flow through you and out from you to others as a rushing river of blessing and refreshment. In John 7:37-38, Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' ”

What are some ways you have experienced the Holy Spirit working in your life? How can you tell the difference between God’s Spirit working in you and your own human efforts?