What Is Your Focus?

A lesson from earlier in the term keeps popping into my mind. I guess if this class had a test instead of just papers, this is one question I might get right.

Jesus' purpose was to focus attention on His Father, not to focus attention on Himself:

• We will never know more of the Father than we know of the Son
• We will never know more of the Son than we know of the Word
• Study the Word to know the Son to know the Father

So what is your focus. If Jesus did not focus on Himself, how can you make yourself the center of your life? We cannot be perfect as He was, but can we model this behavior on a daily basis?

Imagine how much better off the world would be if we could, all of us, even if just for one instance every day.

Revel In the Holy Spirit

J I Packer, in Knowing God, makes reference to the fact that the Holy Spirit is often the ignored member of the triune Godhead. His point is that we spend a lot of time writing, reading and speaking about Christ, but relatively little about the Holy Spirit. I have to confess, I am guilty of that as well. Just look at my tag cloud on the right side of my blog.

Packer makes many great points about this line of thinking. (He makes a lot of great points in all his writings) How the Son is subject to the will of the Father; how the Spirit is subject to the will of the Father and the Son. The Godhead works in perfect harmony and concert. Packer also mentions that it is not possible to truly know the Son without the work of the Spirit and quotes Scripture that clearly lays that out for us:

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 that I said to you.
John 14:26 (NASB)

"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

"He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.

John 16:12-14 (NASB)

We cannot bear to hear what we need without the Spirit. We cannot fully understand what we need to know about Chrust without the Spirit. The Spirit is the Helper (NASB) sent to be with us, the Comforter (KJV), the Advocate (NLT), the Counselor (NIV). You can see the scope and breadth of the Holy Spirit's role and love for us in the various translations of the Bible.

I do not think you need to be particularly charismatic in belief, nature or disposition to focus on the Holy Spirit. It is not about that. You just need to acknowledge the third member of the Trinity and be as comfortable reflecting on the work of the Spirit as you are on the work of the Father or the Son.

Revel in the Holy Spirit, be joyful of the presence of the Helper in your life.