As we read the Bible, we can be tempted just to focus on the parts we understand well and skip over those subjects that are mysterious and confusing. The third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is surely one of those subjects! But how is the Church affected if the person and work of the Holy Spirit are not studied? More important, how is our own spiritual growth stunted if we don't understand the Spirit's transforming power within us?
Did you know that the Holy Spirit helps you understand the Bible better and assures you of your eternal salvation? After you learn more about the Holy Spirit, you'll understand why Jesus told His disciples that they would be better served by Jesus leaving them and sending them the Holy Spirit than by staying with them (John 16:7).
All believers have spiritual gifts, whether you are gifted in serving, encouraging, or teaching others. God has given you talents and abilities to use your spiritual gift, which is different from another’s, making up the Body of Christ.
Many think the Spirit’s sole responsibility is to perform miracles, like when Peter commanded the paralyzed man to walk. But these miracles do not occur in the everyday lives of most Christians.
In Ephesians 5:18 the contrast and comparison to being drunk illustrates the idea that we are to be influenced by the Holy Spirit. When we are under the influence of something, we will say and do things we normally wouldn’t.
The Spirit is interested in transforming us from the inside out. Flying closer to the flame sets that in motion. He is at work in dozens of different ways, some of them supernatural. Flying closer to the flame makes us acutely aware of that.
The Holy Spirit within us encourages us to follow God’s will over our own desires. He leads our heart according to the truth of God’s Word. Even as He’s constantly shaping and moulding our hearts through the power of His Spirit, we are to follow Him.
Joy—it makes people wonder at your secret. Yet joy is no secret to the trusting Christian. When we choose to grow closer to God, resting in His character and provision, joy spills over into our lives so that others can’t help but notice.
When we live God’s way, we experience the Fruit of the Spirit in good times and bad. Because it’s a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit, this fruit is not tied to things of the world, emotions, health, or anything else.
The quality that distinctively sets apart believers as followers of Jesus is not a pithy bumper sticker or a fish emblem dangling from a necklace or a gilded dove pinned on the lapel. These are only symbols of our faith. The true mark of a Christian is love.
Like the apostles, we live during the same in-between time and have been equipped with their apostolic testimony recorded in Scripture and clothed with the same Spirit of power to carry out the same plan of reaching the world with Jesus’ message.
Just as it is vital to remove the root in order to ensure that the weed will not just grow back, it is essential to bring light to the source of our sin and allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify our hearts, removing sin’s roots.
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