What The Bible Teaches About The Holy Spirit


The Holy Spirit has become real to me in a very different way this last year.  He has lead me in areas of my life that have changed me completely.  He has grown me, corrected me, interceeded for me, and comforted me just as Christ promised He would.  Now I can look back over my life and see where He has worked before, but I had been very unaware of His presence.

    1.The Holy Spirit is God working in my life to stengthen and sustain my love relationship with Him.  He does it by leading me to obedience, repentance and revival.  Without Him, I would stumble and fail miserably at this relationship.  Human relationships are hard enough to keep "right" - and we all fail miserably at times.  But as humans, without the Holy Spirit, we could never maintain the love relationship with the Father on the level He desires.
  We would have at best a relationship with our Father very much like our best human relationship.  Can you imagine that?  Picture yourself arguing with God over hurt feelings or misunderstandings.  Pretty ludicrous, isn't it?
  Even sadder, imagine your relationship with the Father as a human one you've lost and never been able to restore.  How wonderful that the Holy Spirit protects our relationship with our Father from our human frailties!

    2. The Holy Spirit is the author and interpreter of the scripture for me (Acts 1:16).  Who better to help me understand it clearly and apply it to my own life!

    3. The Holy Spirit has fulfilled the expectation God had given His people through the prophet (Joel 2:28-32)

He has answered Jesus' prayers for us,

    4.  The Holy Spirit comes to us when we repent and acknowledge Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

We can all have the Holy Spirit- God's mark that we belong to Him.  "....The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children" (Rom 8:9,14,16) .

    5. The Holy Spirit equips and powers us to bring the gospel to a lost world (Acts 2:1-11; 1Cor 2:4; 1 Thess 1:5). This message is to powerful for us to handle on our own!  But God has ensured a way for us to convey it successfully to others. We are

He brings unity to the church (1 Cor 12)and gives us joy. (1 Thess 1:6)

    6.  The Holy Spirit brings a new sense of God's presence, power, and salvation. (Joel 2:27-32).  We see everything through different eyes because of Him. Without the Spirit, we would miss His perspective on most of what we experience in life.  Oh, how much we would miss out on without His help! It'd be similar to a toddler trying to live the life of an adult - struggling daily to make it.
  How awesome our Father is to have provided for us in this way. Without Him, my daily struggles and successes would be nothing more than that--but with Him, I am able to see God's hand in everything.  If I'm struggling in a human relationship, and I allow the Spirit to open my eyes, I can then see where God is able to work in my life through this struggle.
  Without the Spirit's help, I would be totally motivated by my emotions and my rational thinking. Oh, I shutter to think how many times I would have ruined a relationship by letting that happen.  (Or how many times I would have gotten too deep into a bad relationship.)  I think satan attacks us often in this area - wanting us to be blind to God's presence and power and salvation.

    3.The Holy Spirit reveals God, His purposes, and His ways to all God's people (Joel 2:28-29)

(1 Cor 2:10-12).
  The worst thing we could do is deny that the Spirit is working where He is at work and attributing that to satan (Matt 12:31-32; 1 Cor12:3). That is called blasphemy".

  We must be very careful that we allow the Spirit to reveal God to us, and not judge for ourselves.  We have worldly blinders on without Him, and satan will use that any chance he gets!  I have recently become very aware, too, of how we need to be very careful that we do not assume we know how the Spirit works in another's life. Because we are all given different gifts, we cannot deny the Spirit working in someone else a way we do not know or understand.
 

8.The Holy Spirit is the indwelling, directing power of our life

"...the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
(John 14:17; 16:7)
and leads us to obey Christ .(see also 1 Cor 3:16-17).
So, the Spirit gives us freedom to be obedient :
" You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge in the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.  The entire law is summed up in a single commane: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'  If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want........But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  Against such things there is no law.....since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit..."
(Gal 5:13-26).

He makes us righteous before God (Rom 8:4,10), leading us to obey Him rather than obeying the world (Rom 8:5-17; Gal 5:16-26).

9.The Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives that change our attitudes and ways of relating to other people (Gal 5:22-26) (see above for this  scripture)
  The biggest thing I've realized is that no matter what we are doing, if it is not out of love, it cannot be from the Spirit.  And no matter how "powerful" our gift may be, if what we do is not out of love, then we are wasting our time - and God's gift.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
 
 
10.The Holy Spirit is Jesus coming to us as the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17-20)
    "...You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you...."
  and giving us the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16). He teaches us all that Jesus taught and helps us remember (John 14:26; 1 Cor 2:13).  He speaks for Christ and gives glory to Him.  He guides us into truth, preparing us for all that we have to face in life (John 15:26; 16:13-14; Rom 9:1; 1 Cor 2:10-16).  11.The Holy Spirit provides comfort and peace for our life (John 14:27; Rom 8:6).  He removes our fears as He teaches us to pray to the Father (Rom 8:15) and as He prays to God for us (Rom 8:26-27). 12.The Holy Spirit is God's agent of conviction, proving the world is sinful, does not teach the truth, and faces God's judgment (John 16:8-11).

13.The Holy Spirit is in us, directing our life each day, guaranteeing us we will not face God's condemnation (Rom 8:1-2).  He is proof for us that God will include us in the resurrection to eternal life  (Rom 8:11,17; Gal 6:8).

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