In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: As you look at your life and as you face the situations and circumstances that you face, and sometimes they're very difficult, sometimes they're critical, sometimes they're emergencies, you're never alone. And oftentimes believers will say, "I'm just alone these days." No, you're not. If you're saved, you're not alone. You may feel lonely, but you're not alone.

In fact, how far can you go from the Spirit of God who lives inside of you? You can't get away from Him. He has a work to do. He has a ministry to fulfill in your life and mine.

Guest (Male): Jesus made a promise to His followers in the 14th chapter of John. He said, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper that He may be with you forever." So today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll see that with salvation, we gain much more than eternal life. Learn more about these benefits in part one of Help is on the Way. Let's join Dr. Stanley for his message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Have you ever wished you had a 9-1-1 line to heaven? Probably many times you've wished that when you could just get connected immediately with Almighty God to help you through some situation or circumstance in life. We've all been there. Times when we needed someone, and you looked around and family can't help you, friends can't help you, nobody can help you, but you need some help. When you find yourself in one of those situations, where do you turn?

So I want you to turn if you will to the 14th chapter of John and remind you that Jesus is encouraging His disciples. He's going to be crucified the next day. They are very discouraged, and Judas has betrayed Him, and He's begun to talk about some things they don't quite figure out how they all match up. He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. I and the Father are one." And now He's talking about suffering and all the rest.

But listen to these words of encouragement because this 14th, 15th, and 16th chapters of John really are words of encouragement. He's getting ready to leave them, and beginning in verse 16 of the 14th chapter, here's what He says. He says, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper, that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."

Very important for them to know that the whole fact of His leaving was already frustrating and confusing and fearful. Now He says, "I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I'll come to you." It's very interesting what He says in these next verses because He offers them, promises them help. Help that will always be there. So the question is, who is this helper? What is this helper? And He says the helper is the Holy Spirit.

Now listen carefully because many people will sit in church pews for years and years and never understand who the Holy Spirit is. So let me explain to you who He is. The Holy Spirit is a person. He's not an "it", and oftentimes people refer to Him as an "it". He's a person. He feels. He wills. He knows. Just like we do. All the characteristics of a person, the Holy Spirit has them.

Every time Jesus referred to Him, He referred to Him as a person. Notice what He says. "I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper that He may be with you forever." He may be with you, not "it". 26th verse of the same chapter: "But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name." And something very significant in this passage of scripture is this, back to this 16th verse.

When He says, "I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper," listen carefully. The word "another" is a little Greek word, "allos," which means "another just like." And what He was saying is, "I'm going to send you somebody just like Me." Very significant, all these words. "I'm going to send you someone just like Me, and He's going to be with you and look at this. He says, another helper that He may be with you for how long? Forever."

Not until, not if, and, and but, but I'm going to send you another helper who's going to be with you absolutely forever. That is the Spirit of Truth whom the world can't receive because it doesn't see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. Now here's the issue. People who are unsaved know nothing about the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the truth is the Holy Spirit is not in them. He's separated from them because until you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit does not live in a person's life.

And so we're talking about, first of all, the person of the Holy Spirit. And second, I want you to know that He's not only the person of the Holy Spirit, but He's a person of the Trinity. That is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And when He says He will abide with you forever, He couldn't say that unless the Holy Spirit was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. And so think about this. The Holy Spirit indwells every single believer.

When you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, the Holy Spirit at that moment sealed you as a child of God. He comes to abide in you, to live in you, and He comes primarily as your helper. So think about this. One of the gifts of God to every single one of His children is the person of the Holy Spirit. He's the one who convicted you of your sin to begin with. He's the one who gives you the faith to believe.

He's the one who makes you aware of the reality of who Jesus Christ is. He's the one who makes you aware of the fact that you need Him. He's the one who brings you to confession and repentance of sin. He's the one who brings about this new birth in your life, and He's the one who comes in to seal you as a child of God. And the scripture says very clearly, if the Spirit of God is not within you, you're none of His. He's the one who bears witness to us that we are the children of God.

A person of the Trinity. So think about this. You and I have within us a helper who is omniscient, knows all things; omnipotent, has all power; omnipresent, that is all things are in His presence. But primarily He lives on the inside of us so that you can never be without Him. You say, "Well, wait a minute, I could be without Him." Listen to what Jesus said. He says He'll be with you forever.

So if you happen to be one of those persons who believes that you can be saved and then you can be lost, then think about this. Jesus lied. And He didn't lie. He says He's coming to be with you and He's going to be with you forever. He didn't say He's going to be with you forever unless you deny Me, Peter. No. Unless you betray Me. In other words, unless you sin. He doesn't say that.

Once the Holy Spirit comes into your life and seals you as a child of God, you are forever a child of God and forever sealed. No one can break the seal of God in your life. You are sealed, He said, unto the day of redemption, which means He's sealed you to the moment He takes you home to heaven. Think about this. And you see, the fact that we don't understand who the Holy Spirit is helps me understand and realize that one of the reasons that people are not happy, they are not joyful as Christians.

They're full of anxiety, full of fear, governed and oftentimes plagued with fear and uncertainty and lack of security and all the rest in their life. Why? They don't realize who's living on the inside of them. The Spirit of the living God. The Holy Spirit. And He came to help. What did He say? He said, "I will ask the Father, He will give you another helper that He may be with you forever."

And then in that 26th verse, "But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, bring all things to your remembrance." And then, for example, in the 15th chapter and the 26th verse, "When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me. And you will testify also because you have been with Me from the beginning."

What is He saying? The Holy Spirit is a person. He's a person of the Trinity. All of the aspects of the Trinity. All of His wisdom, all of His knowledge, all of His understanding. And think about this. He knows all about your life. Present, past, and future. He has all power to do anything and everything that you need for Him to do in your life. You have this awesome gift within you, and I wonder how many times you turn to Him to help you in your Christian life.

To see you through difficulty, hardship, and trial. What does He say? He says, "I'm going to send you a helper, just like Me," Jesus said. "The Father's going to send Him. The Father and I are going to send you this helper who will live in you and be with you forever." How many believers ever even think about turning to Him? How many believers ever think about depending upon Him? Asking Him. And He was so important that Jesus said to those disciples, "I'm going away."

And He said, "But here's what I want you to do." He said, "You must sit down, tarry ye," He says, "in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high." He's with you now, He's going to be in you and with you forever. At Pentecost, what happened? You remember they were praying together? The scripture says the Spirit of God fell upon them. This mighty rushing wind and the Spirit of God baptized them into Christ. That is, He identified them with Him.

The Spirit of God came upon them and indwelt them and from that moment on, every single believer, every person who trusts Jesus Christ as their personal Savior is indwelt by the Spirit of the living God. And He's there to help us in every single circumstance of life. And so as you look at your life and as you face the situations and circumstances that you face, and sometimes they're very difficult, sometimes they're critical, sometimes they're emergencies, you're never alone.

And oftentimes believers will say, "I'm just alone these days." No, you're not. If you're saved, you're not alone. You may feel lonely, but you're not alone. In fact, how far can you go from the Spirit of God who lives inside of you? You can't get away from Him. He has a work to do. He has a ministry to fulfill in your life and mine. He is God's omniscient, He's God's omnipresent helper, omnipotent helper, sent into your life and mine to enable us to live a godly life until He calls us home to be with Him.

So, if you happen to be one of those believers and you're sort of down in the dumps and you're saying, "Well, I don't believe God's anywhere close by. I don't sense God, I don't feel God." And you just talking about how bad things are, you need to stop and ask yourself the question: what is the truth about me? What is the truth about you? You trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior maybe last week, last month, 20, 40 years ago.

And because of your ignorance of Him, you have not taken advantage of this awesome person and power and love living on the inside of you that makes it possible for you to live this fantastic life. You say, "Now wait a minute. Look at all my troubles and trials and heartaches and burdens." Let me ask you two questions. Number one, how many of those did you bring upon yourself? Probably a lot of them.

Secondly, what about those that you didn't bring upon yourself? You say, "Well, God let it happen." Well, He did. Well, why did He let it happen? God always has a purpose for every single thing. We claim Romans chapter 8, that He's causing all things to work together for good to those who called according to His purpose. Now watch this. Suppose you didn't have any problems and heartaches and burdens. What would you know about the love of God?

Suppose you didn't have any emergencies, any real trials, any things that you just absolutely could not handle? Suppose you had none of those? You would never know how awesome God is to reach down into your life and your heart in those critical times and to be exactly what you need Him to be to help you through those times. You would never know that if He didn't allow them. He sent the Holy Spirit to live on the inside of us in order to enable us to become the persons God wants us to be.

Achieve the things that God wants us to achieve. And you're out there working or in your school work, for example, or in your job, whatever it might be, and you're doing it on your own. You're not trusting God, you're not relying upon Him. You don't ask the Holy Spirit to help you to do anything. Now the Bible doesn't tell us to pray to the Holy Spirit. We pray to the Lord God Himself, the Lord Jesus. And He says the Spirit is always pointing us to Jesus. The Spirit's always pointing us to Jesus Christ to glorify Him.

So look what God has done. While He sits in the heavens and reigns and rules over all things, and the Son sits beside Him, interceding for all of His children, He has the Holy Spirit living on the inside of every single one of us meeting every need of our life, ready and willing in every situation and circumstance to help us. He is our divine helper, but you don't call upon Him, and then you wonder why you go through these situations.

Believers would be happier, more peaceful, less anxious, more confident, more assured, more fruitful, more impacting if we took advantage of the person who lives on the inside of us. Well, now what kind of a person is this? Well, first thing I know about Him, He's very practical. That is, this isn't religion. We don't have religion, we have a faith. And our faith is in the one true God and in His Son Jesus Christ, who went to the cross in our behalf, and in the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sent to live on the inside of us to equip us and to enable us to face any and every circumstance of life.

And so He's a very practical helper. Because you can't come up with anything He's not willing to help you with. No situation, no circumstance, He's there to help us. And so when you say, "Well, I go through these difficult times in my life and my circumstances," but I want you to notice, for example, in this word that He uses here, notice He says, "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another helper."

Watch this. The word "helper" here, the Greek word is "paraklētos." "Para" means "alongside," and "klētos" is "to be called." That is, the Holy Spirit is one whom the Father has called to walk alongside of us, so to speak, and to help us. And remember this, if He's omniscient, He knows what's coming. If He's omnipotent, He can handle it. So you and I have someone who knows all about the future, to warn us of things that are coming, to make us aware, and to enable us, to strengthen us, to equip us.

Very, very practical helper. We are not talking about some theological jargon, we are talking about somebody that Jesus called a person whom He sent because He knew you and I need help. Amen? We all need help at times in our life. And so He sent Him. He's a very practical helper. But not only that, He's a very personal helper. This isn't some thing. This is a person.

And when I think about other religions, for example, and all the things that people go through to try to please and appease their God, and the Gods, first of all, they can't speak, they can't hear, they can't do anything. It's all a waste of time. I know they don't like to hear it, but it's the truth. It's a waste of time. We have a person. And you remember what Paul said when he went through Athens? He said, "I see you've got some statues out here. One of them says to the unknown God. I'm telling you who He is. He is the Lord Jesus Christ who came to save you from your sins and to fill you with the Spirit of the living God."

He is a very personal helper. Listen, if He's living on the inside of you, what is it about you He doesn't know? He knows everything about us. Somebody says, "That's the problem. That's what I don't like about Him. He knows everything." Well, you want Him to know everything when you're hurting. You want Him to know why you're hurting. You want Him to know the needs of your life. He knows all about us. He's a personal messenger sent by the Father to us to live on the inside of us and to be with us forever for every situation, circumstance of life. Practical, very helpful, very personal.

And one of the wonderful things about Him is that He's available. Listen, He is available 24 hours of every day, 60 minutes in every hour, 60 seconds in every minute, every millisecond. He's living on the inside of you. Always available. So when you say, "Well, I pray to God and He doesn't listen." That's not true. God can hear what you say. The question is: are you coming to Him in the right way? Are you coming to Him full of sin in your life and expecting God just to ignore all that?

No, remember who's on the inside of you. An omniscient Holy Spirit who is our helper. He's very practical, always available. And listen, He's also always adequate. You can't come up with anything that God can't handle. Now, isn't it amazing how we as believers oftentimes say, "Oh, I believe the Bible from cover to cover." We read the verses and we see what they say, but when it comes to applying it to our life, we don't do it.

Think about this. You have this adequate, available Holy Spirit who is omnipotent, has all power, can handle every situation, and you go calling your mother or calling someone else or asking somebody else. Why don't you call on Him? You know when most people call on God? Tell me. When they've called on everybody else and they can't help them. Listen, He's living on the inside of you.

This is practical, this is real. And one of the reasons you don't have the joy that God wants you to have and the peace He wants you to have. He doesn't want His children full of anxiety and fretting and fuming about the future and security and all these other things. He's already taken care of every bit of that. And you say, "Well, what about these troubles He allows me to go through?" Just to demonstrate His awesome love for you, that's one of the reasons. And what does it do? It drives us to God.

And listen to this: whatever drives you and me to God is good for us. Whatever drives us to God is good for us, because He'll work it out in such a way it'll turn it for our good every single time. He's available, He's adequate, and listen, He's dependable. You don't ever have to worry about coming to Him and asking about anything, and He's not going to be late. He's not going to be in a hurry. He's not wringing His hands.

God loves you and me and wants the best for us. And He loves us so much, listen, it's not enough for Him to be in heaven. He says, "I'm going to send you someone who's going to be in you, with you, and upon you forever. And He is going to be your helper, your Paraklētos, the one who's called alongside you to walk with you through the fire, in the valley, on the mountaintop. When things are good, when things are bad, when everybody's happy, when everybody's sad, He's still there doing His work in your life."

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. If you're a believer, you can be assured that God is at work even when you can't see the evidence. Remember, since His Holy Spirit lives within you, He's always with you in every circumstance. To listen again, click Today on Radio at intouch.org. And that's where you'll find resources that can help you live your faith, not only for your own good, but also for the benefit of those around you.

If you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message from today, Help is on the Way, open the bookstore page to place your order. Again, log on to intouch.org or call or text us. The number simply is 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, post office box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Again, that number, 1-800-INTOUCH.

God has made it possible for you to never be alone. Have you accepted His offer? Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is just ahead.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this, that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org. From the Pastor's Heart is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley. To receive In Touch's From the Pastor's Heart letter, call 1-800-INTOUCH or visit intouch.org/pastorsheart.

Does your prayer life need a jump start? With the In Touch Praying with Purpose cards, the time you spend talking with God will take on a whole new level of energy and intimacy. Beautifully designed and easy to use, or to share with a friend, there are prayers to lift up each day of the month along with corresponding Bible verses and more. For your set of Praying with Purpose cards, call 1-800-INTOUCH or go to intouch.org/store.

You're listening to In Touch. If Jesus is your Savior, you're never alone. A moment with Charles Stanley reminds us of this promise.

Dr. Charles Stanley: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Three persons of the Trinity make up the Godhead, which is one. The Father, the Great Creator, ruling and reigning over all. Jesus said He put all authority in His hands. Here's Jesus Christ, the Savior, God's substitute for your sin and mine, giving His life, redeeming us. Seated at the Father's right hand, the Bible says He's ever interceding for us.

Jesus said the Father will send the Holy Spirit to live in you and with you. So who's living on the inside of you but the Holy Spirit? One of His primary reasons for living on the inside of us is to live, listen, in us and through us the very life of Jesus. That's what He's all about. He's here to help you and me to face any situation, any circumstance of life and to live out in us and through us the very life of Jesus Christ Himself.

So where's Jesus? Seated at the Father's right hand. And so why did He send the Holy Spirit? Because He knew we couldn't do without Him. But He says, "I will not leave you as orphans. I'm going to send one, the Holy Spirit, to be in you, with you, and upon you so that every single believer is sealed with the presence of the Holy Spirit. You could not be alone even if you wanted to once you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior."

Guest (Male): With His death and resurrection, Jesus satisfied God's penalty for your sin. You can ask for His forgiveness right now. Learn more about it at intouch.org. How were you encouraged by today's message? Please let us know. On the next In Touch radio broadcast, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be every believer's helper. So what kind of support can we expect from Him? The answer to that question is coming your way this week on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.