Partnership with the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is a PERSON. He is God, the 3rd Person of the Trinity. 

When you make Him your best friend you'll find a dynamic power in your life that was never there before. (2Cor 13:14)  Jesus called Him 'the Comforter' ('Paracletos' = 'the One called alongside to help you).   My prayer is that you'll be so hungry for Him that you will open your heart and call out to Him and let Him help you and bring His solutions to your problems. 'The Spirit also helps our INFIRMITIES.' (Rom 8:26)  INFIRMITIES = 'asthenios' = 'lacking strength'  is a general word for all weakness and inability both spiritual and physical.  Physical sickness and weakness is a picture of our spiritual weakness, inability and need.

There are 5 main kinds of sickness:

*1. 'Nosos' usually translated 'disease'    It's an old Greek word for a terminal disease-you would die unless you received a miracle. It's original use was for cancerous boils caused by demon spirits.

*2. 'Malakian' = a crippling debilitating disease. You can live with it but can't function. It attacks your muscles and nervous system. It paralyses, you can see, hear and talk but can't walk.(polio, muscular dystrophy.)  'Jesus went about healing all kinds of sickness (nosos) and disease (malakian)' (Matt 4:23).  Jesus still heals these today.

*3. 'Kakos'- afflicted, 'grievously vexed' (Matt 15:22) includes mental confusion, torment, oppression.

*4. 'Mastigos' (scourging) describes a 'plague' like the woman with an issue of blood. (Mark 5:29,34).  It's an old Greek word for a type of torture. The victim was tied to a post and whipped with 3 pieces of leather, with pieces of bone, metal and glass at the ends. 'Mastigos' means to beat someone again and again to bring them to the point where they want to die. It's a sickness which strikes again and again (migraines; allergies, bleeding ulcer, epilepsy.) Jesus healed and still heals these kinds of disease.

*5. 'Arroustos' is the worst of all. It describes someone comatosed on the edge of death. Jesus said: 'they shall lay hands on the sick(arroustos) and they shall recover.' (Mark 16:18)

Without the help of the Spirit we are: (1)'Nosos'=without hope. (2) 'Malakian'=a helpless cripple, don't know how to pray. (3) 'Kakos' =mentally confused, don't know the will of God, which way to turn, or what to do, (4) 'Mastigos'=our problems keep striking us. (5) 'Arroustos' -we can't do anything- spiritually comatosed. We're totally dependent on the power of the Spirit. As Christians,we can't get much done without partnership with the Spirit, due to our infirmities (limitations).   On our own we can't fly, the law of gravity pulls us down to earth. But if we're in a plane, depending on it's power, the law of lift overrides it and we operate in a higher realm. The plane helps us overcome our weakness, limitatations and inability to fly.  So, when trusting in the Spirit, His power lifts us,we operate in the spiritual realm and His strength fills our weakness. But turn off the engines and we drop to earth and the level of our weaknesses.

'The Spirit also HELPS our infirmities.'(Rom 8:26)  Our weaknesses QUALIFY us for the HELP of the Spirit. Perfect ones don't need help!   We must realise our utter dependence upon Him. Our inability to pray opens our heart to Him, realising that He offers us His HELP. Acknowledging our infirmities and leaning on Him causes His glorious help, power and supernatural assistance to be manifest. (2Cor 1:8,9; 12:9,10)

'God has chosen the FOOLISH...WEAK...BASE things' (1Cor 1:27,28) 

WEAK='asthenios' 

BASE= 'outcasts,low, uneducated, ugly.' 

FOOLISH='morano' where we get the word 'Moron'. This kind of person needs help continuously. They can't tie their own shoe laces, they would eat ice-cream all day every day! They can't do anything right. 

If you belong spiritually to any of these -you QUALIFY for God's help. If you're feeling defeated in your life, it's not always bad, it just might be the beginning of help. If you have no solution to your problem, and you are coming to the end of yourself then this could just be the beginning of the solution. Now you're ready to trust in Him. This releases you into His ability. He gives the weak His strength and wisdom so He gets the glory and confounds those who are 'wise' and 'strong' in themselves. Coming to the end of ourselves is one of the best things that will happen to us for then we can receive the supernatural help of the Spirit.

'The Spirit HELPS our infirmities.' (Ro 8:26) Greek is a precise language with words for everything, but Paul couldn't find a word to adequately describe the HELP of the Spirit. He made a new word from 3 words: 'Sun-anti-lambanetai'.

*1. 'Sun'='with'describes the position of the Spirit.  

He joins with us. It's used of 2 working together on the same job. 'We're co-workers (sun-ergos) with God' (2Cor6:1) Marriage is 2 yoked as one. 'Sun' means that the Spirit is in partnership with us. We're no longer dealing with our weaknesses alone, He's working with us. He works with us, not for us. We can't just sit and wait for Him to do it. We'll not experience His help that way. He needs our co-operation.

*2. 'Anti' is the attitude of the Spirit. 

It's a hostile, aggressive word of hatred and destruction. It describes being against something with all that you are and have.  In 1Peter 5:8 the devil is our 'adversary' ('antidikos' ,'anti'=against, 'dikos'= righteousness)  'Anti' describes how we're to resist the devil. It is to forcibly oppose, withstand, push against with all our might. 'Stand AGAINST (anti) the wiles of the devil'(Eph 6:13).  The Spirit knows what is against us and is aggressively against and wants to destroy that thing.

*3. 'Lambano'= 'to take or receive' pictures the desire of the Spirit.   

It means to 'sieze and brings something under your control'. He wants to take hold and bring under His control the thing that's come against us. **So, in our weakness He adds His strength. He joins with us in taking hold of the problem by force to bring it under His control. He wants to release His power and destroy this thing and remove it from our life FOREVER.  He wants a dynamic partnership with us. He loves and wants to help us in our infirmities. 'Lord I need your help, I trust You, I lean on You'- opens the door for His help to come through for He's a Gentleman and doesn't impose His help. We need His help in every area of our life.

One great infirmity is ignorance: 'We do not know WHAT to pray for as we OUGHT ('dei' =an obligation, necessity)' (Rom 8:26)  'We don't know how to pray as each new circumstance demands.' Each new problem requires a new, specific prayer. 'WHAT'='Ti' describes minute detail. Paul says we don't know exactly how to pray. Only the Spirit knows exactly how to pray everytime. Do you always know how to pray? Could you do with help in your prayer life? We may know the general will of God by His Word, but not His specific will for our life. We can only pray accurately with His help. He knows the will of God, He knows men's hearts, and everything about the situation. He sees what we don't see; knows what we don't know. We need His help to know how to pray specifically and accurately for each problem.

'The Spirit Himself makes INTERCESSION for us' (Rom 8:26)  Intercession is to fall into a ditch to help someone out who has already fallen into it. We have situations in which we're weak, we need to pray but don't know how. We then QUALIFY for the Spirit's help. He intercedes for us. He meets us in a common experience, shares our emotions and frustrations, identifies with us and comes to the rescue, saying: 'I'm personally going to get you out of this mess'    When faced with problems we can either (1) complain, count up all our problems and meditate our plight.  Or (2) Cry out: 'Holy Spirit help me'. At once He falls in with us, our problem becomes His problem (marriage, finances, sickness).  He infuses His strength and wisdom into our weakness. It may be our fault-we jumped into the ditch all by ourselves and are reaping the consequences of our own actions, but He is still our Shepherd and when we call on Him, He will fall in with us and begin His rescue plan to turn it around and get us out.   From within He makes supplication to God and prays the answer through, removing the problem.

He 'makes intercession for us with groanings that can't be uttered.' (Rom 8:26) This isn't normal language. It includes praying in tongues - your spirit and the Spirit together, working together against that thing in our life. He doesn't do it all for us but with us. He takes hold together with us in prayer, releasing revelation and power and the answers we need. As we pray in tongues our spirit and the Spirit contend together against that ignorance, against that attack, releasing volumes of power to liberate us. Now when depressed down in the ditch the last thing we feel like is to pray in tongues. But if we yield to the Spirit, and allow Him to join forces with us, He will impart his His fire, strength and passion. As we pray we'll find ourselves being more and more stirred until finally we get up and begin praying with strength and authority. He's started the process of getting us up and out of the ditch. Jesus depended on the Holy Spirit. 

We must be completely dependent upon Him to be effective. He wants to be our partner but is waiting for us to ASK HIM. ASK HIM NOW.