Welcome once again to the Quality Christian Living
Podcast. I am your host, David Friend. Today's
topic is the Holy Spirit, our Advocate. Now what
does it mean that the Holy Spirit is the Advocate
and what is the difference between the words
Advocate and Comforter, which is the topic of
our last podcast. We'll look at several powerful
scriptures about the Advocate and learn how our
Advocate, the Holy Spirit, recommends and supports
our needs. I'm excited. I hope that you are.
Let's get into this after we pray. Heavenly Father.
Once again, I thank you for who you are. I pray
that you would bless this podcast, that you would
anoint it, that the Holy Spirit would do what
only he can do. I pray that you would bless this
now, Father, and that the Holy Spirit would lead
and guide and direct everything that we cover
today. Now, I pray that you would touch those
who are listening in, that they would receive
from you, Lord, because they're obviously interested
in hearing about the works of the Holy Spirit.
So, I pray you would bless it. Now, take control,
take complete charge of this, and I'll be careful
to give you praise now for what's about to take
place. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. We all know
that the Bible talks significantly about the
Holy Spirit, and Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit
and the Apostles spoke. So, if you look in the
Old Testament, you'll see the moving of the Holy
Spirit throughout the Old Testament days. So,
we really have a great topic here that is so
important to our walk with God, and we want to
learn a lot about the Holy Spirit, and we can
only learn that when we get into the Word of
God. When we get into God's Word, when we seek
His Word, when we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal
what it's telling us, us, then we will receive
something very special. I pray right now that
the Holy Spirit would come in and take charge
of the scriptures that I'm reading. You inspired
these Holy Spirits to be written by John and
I pray that you would bless them now, that they
would touch us, that these were written 2 ,000
years ago but they're still so powerful and so
alive. So I submit to you and I ask that you
would help us as we read the scriptures to focus
on those things that will help us understand
the relationship between the Holy Spirit, our
Advocate, and all of us who are followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I pray that you
would anoint it now. I'll thank you for it and
I'll give you the praise. In Jesus' name I pray,
amen. Well, I'm gonna start off just a little
differently today because I don't want to assume
that everyone here is a born -again believer.
You all know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.
I'm sure the majority of you do. But if there's
even just one person who's not certain of where
they're gonna spend eternity, I wanna take a
moment right now and have you pray with me this
prayer so that you'll commit your life to the
Lord Jesus Christ if you don't know know for
sure whether you're going to heaven. You don't
have to finish this podcast wondering about that.
You can receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and
Savior and you'll be changed from now through
eternity. So I just pray that you'd listen to
these words and then you'd repeat them in your
own heart. Say, Heavenly Father, I need you.
The word of God tells me that if I... give my
life to Jesus, that he'll forgive me of my sins.
And so I come to you now and ask that you would
forgive me for the sins that I've committed.
I'm sorry of these sins. I repent of my sins.
And he asked you to come in and change my heart,
make me a new creation. I believe that Jesus
is the Son of God. He was born of the Virgin
Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate. He was
crucified, dead and buried, but he arose from
the grave, and he arose so that he'd go to heaven
and prepare the way for each and every one of
us to be with him. This day, at the opening of
this podcast, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord
and Savior and I promised to serve Him all the
days of my life. Now if you prayed that prayer
and you meant it with a sincere heart, Jesus
came into your life. The next step you need to
do is find a good church, a good Bible preaching
church, a church that believes in the Word of
God and you need to get a Bible and get that
Bible into your hand. I recommend getting a translation,
the New Living Translation or maybe the Message
Bible. These are languages that are more common
to today and they're easier for new Christians
especially to understand. So get the Word of
God out. I would encourage you to read in the
book of John the four gospels Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. Read those and see what Jesus
did as he walked this earth. So I just want to
congratulate you and welcome you into the family
of God. Get into a new church and I know God's
gonna bless you. All right for those of you who
already knew Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
I hope that you understand that from time to
time we need to do as the Holy Spirit leads and
if there's a time when I feel that there could
be people listening in who are not sure if they're
going to spend eternity in heaven or not. They're
not sure of their relationship with Christ that
we need to give them that opportunity. Quite
frankly, I wouldn't be doing this podcast if
there wasn't an opportunity to help people receive
Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. All right,
in getting into today's topic about the Holy
Spirit, our advocate, I'm going to read several
scriptures and talk about them as the Spirit
leads, and I hope this will help each one of
us get a better understanding of what it means
for the Holy Spirit to be our advocate and what
does it really what an advocate does and what
it means in our daily walk with the Lord. In
John chapter 14 and verse 16 in the New Living
Testament, Jesus said these words, and I will
ask the Father and he will give you another advocate.
Now that means there must have been an advocate
before that and of course that was the Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. It says, who will never
leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into
all truths. Now here we're seeing John write
as he's being led by the Holy Spirit to write
these words. We're seeing John bring forth the
power of the Word of God to help people and to
touch them and to get them to understand that
there's another advocate. That is the one who
stands behind us and stands beside us and stands
with us and supports us and encourages us and
also Jesus is telling the disciples that the
Holy Spirit will never leave them, that he'll
always be with them and that he is truth, he
is nothing but truth and he will lead them always
into truth. All right, now let's take a look
at another scripture here and see what it has
to say in John chapter 14 again, this time in
verse 26 in the New Living Translation. Jesus
is speaking again, so we want to listen up to
this very carefully. Jesus said, but when the
father sends the advocate as my representative,
that is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you everything
and will remind you of everything I have told
you. Once again we hear the word advocate which
is obviously our support and also the advocate
is one who wants to teach us and help us and
even remind us from day to day what the Word
of God says but first we need to get the Word
of God into our heart and into our mind so it's
there then the Holy Spirit will bring forth that
word to remind us of where we can receive strength
where we can receive help and that he is our
helper he is our advocate he's on our side and
he wants to be with us and support us John knew
that and so he knew he had to write about it
Let's move on now to John chapter 15 and verse
26 in the New Living Translation. Once again,
these are the words of Jesus, but I will send
you the Advocate, the Spirit of Truth. He will
come to you from the Father and will testify
all that is about me. Verse 27, and you must
also testify about me because you have been with
me from the beginning of time, or since the beginning
of His ministry. Now, this is really important
because what we're hearing here is that John
is telling us that the Holy Spirit, our advocate,
is here and Jesus is basically speaking these
words. John's recording them and he's speaking
the words to say that we must then testify about
Jesus. We must talk to other people about the
Holy Spirit. We must talk to other people about
the advocate and explain to other people what
we're learning in our daily walk and that's something
that's kind of hard for Christians to do from
time to time because we get busy, we get distracted,
we get a little nervous and sometimes people
are afraid to speak about what's happening in
our life but it's important that we do that because
when we do that then the Holy Spirit will bring
to mind what we've already learned and then he
will also teach us new things and he'll help
us interpret the scriptures as long as we then
testify about Jesus and talk of our relationship
with Christ. Now that means we must testify about
what Jesus has done in our life. Probably the
best way to give a testimony is to tell people
of who you were before you became a Christian
and then tell them who you are today and how
you think today and how things have changed and
how different things are. are taking place in
your life and how you rely upon the Holy Spirit
to help you and how the Holy Spirit is always
there and he has our back. He's blessing us,
he's protecting us, he's recommending prayers
to the Father who the Father receives and those
prayers are the divine will of God and so all
this needs to come forth so that we'll understand
the power and the working of the Holy Spirit.
In the first podcast in this series, I should
say that one previous to this, we talked about
the Comforter, how the Holy Spirit's always there
to help us and comfort us and be with us. And
that particular podcast, I think, was received
in a very special way because I've had people
already respond to me and tell me about how that
touched them and helped them to receive the power
of comfort and the peace that they lacked in
their life and they needed to have. So the way
that happened in the last podcast can happen
in this one, and that is that we must understand
that the Holy Spirit is our advocate. He is the
one that supports us. He's the one that is always
there, never leaving us, never forsaking us for
the rest of our life. And here's one final scripture
in this particular area of this podcast and it's
written in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 1 in the
New Living Translation and listen to these words,
if anyone does sin, well that's all of us, we're
all sinners and we're saved by grace, we have
an advocate who pleads our case before the Father.
Now there's a great example of how the advocate
is there and when you know sometimes we just
don't know how to pray, we don't what we should
pray for, how we should pray, what scriptures
we might use, or which words that we should say
in each particular situation when we're praying.
That's happened to all of us. But if we then
submit and yield to the Holy Spirit who lives
and dwells in us, and by the way, he comes to
live in us when we receive Jesus Christ as our
Lord and Savior, and I mentioned that for those
who receive Jesus in the early part of this podcast,
as soon as you accepted him, the Holy Spirit
was sent into you to dwell inside of you, and
he now lives with with you and will walk with
you the rest of your life. Therefore, we must
listen to Him. And if we listen to Him, then
He pleads our case before the Father. He's like
our attorney. He's the one who brings the case
before the court, which would be God. And He
pleads our case and helps us and prays for us
and encourages us and helps us to walk in the
Spirit and to walk in the love of God and walk
in the precepts that we've learned from the Word
of God so that our way will be pleasing unto
the Lord. and the Holy Spirit is one to help
us do that and then pleads our case to the Lord
and he always desires for the Lord to give us
God's divine will for whatever we're praying
about and praying for. Okay, we need to move
on now. The difference between the Comforter
and the Advocate. Now, there is a little bit
of a difference here, but it's one that's kind
of important for us to understand. The Comforter
provides encouragement and peace. The Advocate
pleads for us when we need it. which is most
likely every day. Both are the operations of
the Holy Spirit. That's the beauty of it. In
that case, that power is operating inside of
each and every one of us who are followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ. This tells us that the
Holy Spirit has an unlimited arsenal of ways
to help and bless and guide us. So when we have
an advocate behind us, remember, there's an unlimited
amount of things that the Holy Spirit can do
to help us. He can put people in front of us
that we need to speak to. He can help us to have
conversations with people we thought we wouldn't
ever have a chance to. to talk to them. He can
bring families back together. We can pray for
our children who don't know Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Savior or they've gotten away from the
Lord and they're now wandering around on their
own and we can pray and ask the Holy Spirit to
go to them and convict them of their need to
come back to Jesus or to receive Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior. That's the working
of the Holy Spirit. He's an advocate not just
for us but for those that we love, those that
we pray for. We can pray for people and ask the
Holy Spirit to give them comfort in the midst
of their pain and their difficulties and their
sickness and their illnesses, he can help people
who are going through all kinds of trials. No
matter what it is, the Holy Spirit can show up
and do something amazing in their life. But that
can only happen if someone is praying and believing
and trusting God to do something for that individual.
A lot of people might question what I'm talking
about now. They might say, well, how can it be
that you as an individual can pray that the Holy
Spirit will go somewhere and will try and convict
people? of their sin or help them and comfort
them in their time of need. Well, the reason
we can do that is because we're supposed to pray.
We're supposed to believe and trust that the
Holy Spirit can move upon people and convict
people. Had the Holy Spirit not convicted me
that I was a sinner, I would have never come
to know Christ. And I know that there were people
who knew me who were praying for me and believing
for me. My grandmother was a Christian. She was
praying for me. My mom and dad took us to church
all the time when I was a kid. I know they were
praying for me and I believe the Holy Spirit
hears those prayers and then he then will go
out and Convict people of their need to turn
their life to the Lord Jesus Christ I believe
that with all my heart and I think I can prove
that as we continue to go through this series
on the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit has placed
so much power in the Word of God and many scriptures
that I've read are examples of the power that's
in the scriptures, in these words, that when
we repeat them and believe them, it can change
our lives. In the prior podcast that I talked
about, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, I gave
a couple scriptures about where we can receive
strength. One was found in the book of Psalms
46, verse 1, that God is a very present help
in times of trouble. The other one was in Proverbs
3, 5. These are all Holy Spirit -inspired scriptures
where it says, trust in the Lord with all your
heart, lean not on your own understanding and
all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct
your path. Those are examples of the power placed
in the Word of God for the Holy Spirit to be
able to prove that he is there for us. He's an
advocate for us. He is our supporter. There's
another scripture that I think I need to read
because it's so important that we receive this
and understand that these words need to go deep
into our heart, into our mind, and that we must
believe them as much as we believe anything else
that we can think of. We've got to read these
scriptures, believe them, and operate them, and
There's a lot of folks that come to me for help,
and I'll ask them, well, have you been praying
about it? And they'll say, well, yeah, kinda.
And then I'll say, well, what does God's Word
say about that situation? And they'll say, I
don't know. I've not gone to the scripture to
find out. Well, for every single thing that we
face in our life, the Word of God has the answer
to it. If you're being challenged financially,
the Word's filled with it. If you've got marital
problems, there's advice in the Word of God that
Paul gave out in 1 and 2 Corinthians. There's
advice that... the Holy Spirit gave those in
the Old Testament in the book of Psalms and the
book of Proverbs about wisdom and direction that
a person who needs help can find that help and
find that direction, that strength from the Holy
Spirit if they'll just get that word in them.
So here's another scripture I want to share with
you, Romans 8, 31. If God is for us, who can
ever be against us? Now that, I believe, says
so much about the Holy Spirit being the advocate.
That means if he's on our side, quite frankly,
what difference does it make? Who's against us?
If God is for us, and he is, and he's on our
side, and he is, and the Holy Spirit is our advocate,
and he is, then what difference is it if someone
tries to attack us, or tries to verbally say
something against us, or someone comes up against
us? We can just take authority over them in the
name of Jesus, rebuke that thought, not accept
it, not receive it into our heart or our mind,
and move on with our life. Some of you might
say, that might sound easy to do, but it's tougher,
but it's only tougher if we try to do it on our
own. If we try to do it underneath the power
and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and be led
by Him and ask Him to help us and to lead us
and to guide us and to pray for us and take it
to the Father, then we have release that we have
when we're under attack. Read the scripture again.
If God is for us, who can ever be against us?
Which means they have no hope of achieving anything.
And so it's important we receive that, we understand
it, we believe it, and we live by it. That scripture
is telling us that no one can bring condemnation
against us. Nothing can separate us from the
love of God. So remember, that's part of the
working of the Holy Spirit. That's why he is
our advocate. Allow me to give you an example
of what an advocate does. Twice a year, I serve
as an advocate for an organization that is helping
those individuals who have experienced kidney
cancer. Now, I have experienced that in my life,
and that's one of the reasons they contacted
me. I'm a veteran, that's another reason they
contacted me, and so I thank the Lord for that
opportunity. I serve as an advocate for someone
who supports and agrees with their mission, the
mission that these people have. I think it's
a great mission for research to find a cure for
cancer. of the kidneys that is. I speak to my...
political representatives in the United States
Congress in Washington DC. I have an opportunity
to speak to their office, either their assistants
or them, and have that chance to say, I want
you to stand up and support research for kidney
cancer. It's a wonderful organization and one
that I've been a part of for several years now
and I'm honored to be one of the representatives
from Arizona to be able to speak to those in
Congress. Now I'm an advocate for those who need
help to find a cure. That's just what the Holy
Spirit does. an advocate for those who need help
to find help. They need to find a cure for what
they're going through, whether it be emotional
issues, whether it be physical issues, whether
it might be financial or marital or whatever
it might be. The Holy Spirit can help us to find
a cure. These people ask me to speak because
I lost one of my kidneys, so therefore I'm in
a position to understand what it's like to go
through that and I have compassion for that.
The Holy Spirit has compassion because he understands
what Jesus went through when he was on the cross.
Remember now that God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, the triune Godhead,
are all one God in three persons. And the Holy
Spirit knows what it was like, what Jesus went
through, what he experienced when he went on
the cross, and so he knew how to comfort Jesus.
And I think that's just amazing that we can think
that way. And if we can be an advocate for someone
else, then I would... encourage you to do that.
I want to be an advocate for this group because
this group is doing something wonderful. The
Holy Spirit wants to be an advocate for us because
he wants our life to be wonderful. I hope that
is a good example and I think it's one that really
is close to my heart. Now in a similar way, the
Holy Spirit deals with us in every area of our
life as being an advocate. He is always available
to us. Always. Jesus said that. He'll always
be with you. As a pastor, I've heard Christians
say that they can't find the Holy Spirit. It
seems like they can't pray, and they can't seem
to figure out exactly what the Holy Spirit has
to say to them. And is He listening to them?
And do they have His voice? Well, a lot of times
when we pray and we ask for the Holy Spirit to
help us, if we don't have any patience, then
we'll just think that, well, He's not listening
to us and we've got to get the answer that we
want. Many times we want the answer that we want
rather than what the answer that's best for us.
That's why I believe many times God says no to
one of our requests because he has something
planned that's even better and we've got to understand
that sometimes and many times people think that's
just because the Holy Spirit's not listening
to us because we're not getting what we want.
What we want is one thing, what we need can be
something. totally different. Now I read this
scripture before and I'm going to read it once
again very quickly. Psalm 46 1 that says here
that he is a very present help in our trials
in times of trouble another translation says.
That means the Holy Spirit is there with us and
he is a very present help because he is present
in us each and every day. Now there are times
when we may feel that God does not even hear
prayers that just should automatically be answered.
Well I know that God hears all of our prayers.
Don't ever think that God doesn't hear your prayer
because he does hear it. He always answers our
prayers. He may say, yes. He may say no, he may
say not now, or he may say that he has a better
way. Whatever it might be, God hears our prayers.
He is sovereign and we love him, regardless of
what we're going through. We can't get upset
with God. We can't get mad at God. We can't turn
against God. I don't understand that when people
say, I'm mad at God. Well, what good is that
gonna do to be mad at God? I've never understood
that. With all the trials I've had, the Holy
Spirit has always helped me not to utter those
words because there's no no absolute reason,
there's no justification that we can be mad at
God because he loves us greater than any love
that anyone else has for us. And he isn't upset
with us unless we're turning against him, unless
we're not serving him. It says that he turns
his presence away from people who are not following
him or seeking him or need him if they're not
following him. And so we've got to seek God.
And if we seek him, we'll find him. If we draw
near to God, the Bible says that he will draw
near to us, and he does that through the working
and the inner working of the Holy Spirit in our
life. In my own life, I've experienced times
when I had to just simply trust God, trust his
word, trust his promises. trust in miracles,
believe for them even when I didn't see them
at first, and believe that God is in charge.
When I faced medical issues, numerous cancers,
kidney failure, all of it required me running
to God for help. I've had many surgeries and
all these things, and every time these things
have happened, God shows up and He deals with
me and He helps me. Sometimes I wish it was faster
than others, but there's never been a time in
my life that God has ever deserted me. And it's
the same thing with all of us. He'll never leave
us, and He'll never forsake us. That means never.
That doesn't mean whether we're going through
trials or not, doesn't mean whether we're going
through a sickness or not. The Apostle Paul understood
that. He learned that in prison. And I've used
this example so many times, but it's such a great
example, and that is, in the midst of Paul's
trials, his greatest trials in prison, He wrote
some of the greatest scriptures that we'll ever
read. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were powerful
scriptures, wonderful. They weren't written by
Paul. Paul wrote the wonderful epistles, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians. Those are all great.
powerful scriptures that have such intense content.
Well, all of those were written, the ones that
Paul wrote, the epistles were written while he
was suffering in the midst of his greatest trials
and his greatest circumstances. And he at times
said, you know, I've tried several times to get
healed of a physical condition I've got, but
regardless of whether God heals me or not, I'm
going to serve him. Job said, though God slay
me, I'll trust him. So when we're in the midst
of trials, if I could stand in front of you,
I'd say, please, please, please never Don't get
upset with God. Don't get mad with God. Don't
say that He doesn't love you or He doesn't care
for you or that He's not hearing your prayers.
He is there. He wants to help you. Allow the
Holy Spirit to comfort you. The Holy Spirit is
your advocate. He wants to give you comfort and
love, and He'll do that if we just rely upon
Him. Even after saying all that I've said, and
I'm not upset in any way, shape or form, I just
want people to know that... God is always a very
present help in times of trouble and he's that
way through the Holy Spirit and he's that way
as your advocate and as the one to give you comfort.
Now after my comments, I know that there'll be
those, I'm sure a few, that may say, why doesn't
God heal everyone all the time? Well, only thing
I can say is God is sovereign. God is looking
at his eternal promises for us. We will live
here for only a few decades on earth, but thousands
of centuries in heaven for eternity. With that,
let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you once
again for this podcast, for this opportunity.
And I thank you for the Holy Spirit living and
dwelling in us. And I thank you for the so many
times that he's helped us, carried us through.
The Holy Spirit is our comforter. He's our advocate.
He's the one that stands in there for us. He
helps us pray when we don't know what to pray,
how to pray, and when to pray. But Father, I
pray now, Lord, for those who are listening in,
that they would receive this teaching today in
a very encouraging way, a way that gets them
to realize that the Holy Spirit is there to be
our help and to be our guide and to help us to
deal with whatever we face here on earth. And
I pray that you would bless them. And for anyone
suffering with an illness or sickness or whatever
or has a loved one that's going through it, I
speak healing. And I ask for the divine healing
touch of the Lord Jesus Christ would reach out
and heal their body physically. Those with emotional
problems, I pray that the Holy Spirit would bring
the comfort to heal those emotional situations,
God, and bless them and keep them, Father. I
believe, Father, that this has been a message
that will change people's lives and touch their
hearts, and I'll be careful to give you praise
for it now. In Jesus' name I pray. Well, I hope
that you've enjoyed this podcast. I have thoroughly
enjoyed being a part of it because the Holy Spirit
is our comforter and he is our advocate. So I
pray that this is a blessing to you. If you'd
like to know more about quality Christian living,
you can go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor
.com and when you get there, there'll be a list
of all the podcasts I've done over the last four
years. This was the 327th and I know that you'll
find many different topics and subject matters
as you go through that. In addition to that,
there's a list of the books that I've written.
It might be of help to you. So I'm going to close
this up now. But one last thing is, if you'd
like to subscribe to my podcast, you can do that
by going to cpnshows .com or wherever you listen
to your podcast. Well, I'm looking forward to
our next podcast, which has to do, obviously,
with the Holy Spirit. And we're going to be talking
about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And we're
going to talk about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And we'll see how the Holy Spirit leads us and
guides us there. So you might want to let your
friend and family members know. If you know a
lot about it, that would be great. can listen
in. If you're not familiar with what the gifts
and the fruit of the Spirit are, then I hope
this will be a blessing to you as we'll do that
over the next couple of podcasts. So thank you
once again for listening to the Quality Christian
Living Podcast, and I want to just give a blessing
to you before we wrap it up today. I just pray
that the Lord will bless you and keep you, that
his face will shine upon you and be gracious
to you and give you peace. And I pray that you'll
prosper and be in good health even as your soul
prospers. So I just want to say, may God richly
bless you. May you realize the power. May all
of us understand the love that God has for us
and that he placed the Holy Spirit inside of
us to give us hope, to give us comfort, to give
us a source of strength when we need it. And
Father, I just thank you once again for this
opportunity and Lord I need you to help me through
all these podcasts on the Holy Spirit. I know
of all the series I've done this far exceeds
all of them in my interest and my desire and
how the Holy Spirit has helped me put these together.
So in upcoming weeks I pray Lord that you would
guide and direct the very steps that we take
the thoughts we have and bless those who are
listening in. May they gain knowledge in the
Word of God. May they draw closer to you. May
all of us learn how to walk and to live. in the
power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. We'll
be careful to give you praise and glory for it.
Well, thank you again for listening in. I am
your host, David Friend. This is Quality Christian
Living. This has been podcast entitled, The Holy
Spirit, Our Advocate. Thank you once again for
listening in. See you next time.