The Holy Spirit as . . . Personal Trainer

Longtime Bible readers know that in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13–17) Jesus promises to both go away from and return to his disciples. He thus points forward to his death on the cross and then to his ascension and second coming. But he also indicates the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The coming of the Spirit will itself be a mode of his returning to be with his own, long before the Parousia.

The Spirit is named “Paraclete” by Jesus. This word is variously translated as “Comforter,” “Advocate,” “Helper,” and otherwise. The Greek means “one who comes alongside,” presumably to be of assistance—as does, indeed, a counselor of the spiritual, psychological, or legal variety.

Jesus describes the One who is to come to them, in fact, as “another paraclete” (John 14:16), presumably counting himself as such as well. The Spirit will be another version of what the disciples were enjoying already in the presence of the Lord Jesus.

When Jesus describes what this new paraclete will do, however, he puts it mostly in pedagogical terms:

“This is the Spirit of truth” (14:17).

“The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you” (14:26).

“When the Paraclete comes, whom I will sent to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf” (15:26).

“And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (16:9).

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (16:13–15).

(And perhaps Jesus makes at least one more reference to the Spirit, albeit elliptically, here: “Sanctify them in the truth” [17:17]—as the Spirit is the means of our sanctification and is described by Jesus several times in this discourse as “the Spirit of truth.”)

The Holy Spirit of God doubtless comforts us and advocates for us. In one of Paul’s best-known chapters, Romans 8, he speaks several times of the Spirit, and particularly in his role as Comforter and Advocate:

“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Romans 8:26–27).

The Spirit is also, and antecedently, the agent of our new birth. The Spirit convicts us of sin, convinces us of our need for salvation, commends to us the gospel, and begins the long work of conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ.

It is this last work, sanctification (= our “holification”), that is the long-term service God provides us in the Holy Spirit. And that ministry is one of daily discipline: teaching us concepts and commands, yes, but also training us in attitudes and actions.

Here is where we pause today. This role of the Paraclete is such a marvelous part of the Good News: the Holy Spirit graciously submits to serving us as our personal trainer. If we will heed him, God himself will help us with diet, exercise, and sleep—both spiritual and physical, since God cares about our health and growth in every respect. God himself will inform us, inspire us, evaluate us, correct us, congratulate us, and move us on to the next stage of development.

This “personal trainer” analogy can be pressed hard on the “personal”: the Holy Spirit tailors the challenges and blessings of our lives to produce optimal results in the shortest possible time. God knows what we are facing now, God knows what we will face in the future, and God guides us on the life-path that will produce the fruit God wants as effectively as we can learn to produce it. “He leads me along paths of rightness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3).

This training isn’t for the faint-hearted, for the shallow, for the casual Christian. Like any good coach, God will give us pain to gain: “All discipline for the moment seems painful rather than pleasant, but it later yields the peaceful/shalom-ful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). And, like any good coach, God will measure out our tests and trials and temptations (usually the same word in Biblical Greek) to optimize our growth: not so much that we break, and not so little that we coast and plateau.

Indeed, I have only belatedly come to appreciate that our divine trainer sometimes does let us fail, for all the reasons that failure can be beneficial: to teach us our limits; to teach us humility; to teach us to stay connected to God; to teach us resilience in recovery; to teach us what to avoid; and to teach us what to embrace. Surely we all recognize by now the sober truth that some of our most important life lessons have been learned only through a failure—and God’s helping us respond properly to that failure.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is indeed an amazing, manifold gift. (To explore it further, consider TBM’s Salvation 101 and 102.) Today, let’s delight in the idea that as we suit up—putting on the whole armour of God for the truly serious battles ahead (Ephesians 6:14–17)—we should do what Paul tells Christian soldiers to do after we have indeed armoured up: “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18).

It’s concerning to me that most sermons I have heard on “the armour of God” failed to mention that crucial advice Paul puts emphatically at the end: Stay in touch with your divine Sergeant! Keep those comms open! Do exactly what he says, when he says, and you’ll stay alive—and get steadily better. Our training is for war—and then the amazing peace/shalom on the other side, in the era to come.

God only knows what perils and promises lie ahead. God only knows how to get us ready for them and how to help us handle them when they arrive. And that God is at our side, in our hearts, filling us with his goodness if we will only pray, trust, and obey.

Let’s get to it.

O Almighty God, who on the day of Pentecost didst send the Holy Ghost the Comforter to abide in thy Church unto the end: Bestow upon us and upon all thy faithful people his manifold gifts of grace, that with minds enlightened by his truth and hearts purified by his presence, we may day by day be strengthened with power in the inward man; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God world without end.   

—Scottish Prayer Book