The Holy Spirit

 



Truths about The Holy Spirit:

    A friend once asked me - Where is God. If there is a God, why does He allow so much suffering. Where is He? Jesus lived 2000 years ago. What about now?

    The answer to everything lies in the fact that Jesus lives even today. He lives in our hearts. He has poured out the Holy Spirit to lead us everyday. After Adam and Eve disobeyed, sin entered this world. The wages of sin is death. Jesus helps us to overcome this world even today, even though everything is so messed up. He has also promised us a hope of another kingdom - Heaven where there is no death or tears. Also he has sealed us with the Holy Spirit who guides us during our journey through this world. 

Who is the Holy Spirit ?

Holy Spirit is the third member in the trinity – God the Father, Jesus the Son and The Holy Spirit.

Why do we need the Holy Spirit ?

          Jesus is the Son of God. Imagine, what it would be like, if He were to be living amongst us today. Everybody would want to be close to Him. Everyone would want to talk to Him and follow Him wherever He goes. But that would not be possible because of the huge crowd of millions of people who desire the same thing. It is the desire of God to be with all of His children. It would be possible only if Jesus would go to the Father and send the Holy Spirit from God. Holy Spirit would stay with us forever and help us in everyway just as how it would be if Jesus were physically present.

          So Dear Friends, do not be afraid of the Holy Spirit, as if He is some kind of unrealistic or unseen or complicated thing. He is like Jesus Christ living in us, guiding us and teaching us to live according to God’s ways, until our last breath.

How to receive the Holy Spirit:

Man is sinful by nature. There is no good in man. His thoughts are evil and his motives are wicked. But God wanted to save man. He wanted to redeem man from his sin. God always wanted to have fellowship with man. But sin was a hindrance. Therefore, God sent His Son, Jesus, so that He can die for our sins and reconcile us back to God. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God, to wash away the sins of the world.

Jesus willingly gave himself on the cross and died for our sins. Whoever believes in him and repent from their old ways, will receive the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38

Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Be rest assured that if you believe Jesus you have the Holy Spirit in you.

Daily Walk with The Holy Spirit:

Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins and leads us into repentance. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we become God’s sons and daughters, just like Jesus. Holy Spirit pours into our hearts, the love that God has for us. He helps us to walk in the ways of the Lord. He abides in us, teaches us, comforts us, counsels us, guides us, reminds us of things and never leaves us. Without the Holy Spirit, it is not possible for us to overcome sin. Because Jesus overcame sin, we can too, since now, He lives with us in the nature of The Holy Spirit. If we do not have the Holy Spirit, we have no part with God. He helps us to pray earnestly, the way God wants us to pray, for the things God wants us to pray for. He gives us a hope that God will one day visit us and make us dwell in His Kingdom where there will be no more death or tears - just His glorious presence that will make our hearts glad. He gives us the grace to wait patiently until the day of redemption (Rapture), when Jesus Christ will be revealed. He gives us spiritual gifts and strengthens our walk with the Lord.

How does the Holy Spirit operate:

Titus 3:5 says

He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

1.     REBIRTH:

When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent from our sinful life, we become ready to be baptized in the name of Jesus.

Baptism denotes that we die to the sin that is naturally found in us. It means to crucify our flesh and its lusts to the cross and to be resurrected with Christ as a new being.

This simple equation will help us to understand what it means to be born again and becoming a new creation.

Body + Soul = Normal Man

Body + Soul + Spirit = Born again Man

We become a new creation. The old way of living is gone. God has forgiven all our sins through the finished work of Jesus on the cross and gives us the Holy Spirit to dwell inside us. Now, no longer, sin can rule over us. Because the Holy Spirit in us, helps us to live a holy life. We need to mediate on God’s word daily and pray and keep safe the salvation that we received.

1.     RENEWAL OF MIND:

     The Spirit renews our mind everyday. Our mind has the ability to reason, think and will. Holy Spirit directs our reasoning ability to reason according to the Word of God. He directs our thinking ability to think according to the Word of God. He directs Our Will to do the Divine Will of God in our lives. This is called renewal of mind. Holy Spirit helps us to renew our mind.

Consider for example:

I am in a dilemma of what career to choose. A normal person would either heed to their parents wish or they would have an ambition in life to become a doctor or engineer or pilot or anything they dream about. The normal person would spend all their time and energy in pursuing this dream of theirs. But in the case of a believer, He/ She would seek the Lord in prayer and fasting and choose the career that the Spirit leads them to.

In all of life’s decisions and reasonings, a believer would seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Even when our natural person would want to gossip or speak ill of someone, The Holy Spirit in us will instruct us that it would grieve God and teach us to pray instead.

In this way, we see that entirely we are changed everyday by the power of the Holy Spirit to be more and more like Jesus.

What Happens Next?

Holy Spirit makes us more and more like Jesus in each passing day. Our character gets changed. We become like light that shines in this dark world. We become like salt that changes the flavor of the society we live in. He gives us gifts for the glory of God. He also allows us to bear fruits that never perish.

GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:

    1 Corinthians 12 talks about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He gives us gifts like word of wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, service, helping, administration, teaching, leadership, ministry, grace, mercy, encouragement and giving.

FRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT:

    Galations 5:22,23 says But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

    Dear Friends, lets strive to walk in the spirit and bear fruits for His Glory. Amen

References:

Charles Spurgeon Message: The Indwelling and Outpouring of Holy Spirit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBlZCjRzB3E

Jesus Redeems Ministry Uncle Mohan C Lazarus Message https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TY_slqpEaI&t=1341s

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FAITHFUL

Image
 FAITHFUL               Who is like you,  Lord   God Almighty?        You,  Lord , are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.                Psalms 89: 8              Love and Faithfulness are like two sides of the coin when we think of God's character. He is full of love and He is a very faithful person.             How do you imagine God when you think of Him? I imagine God like the One that Ezekiel saw in a vision. Ezekiel 1: 26, 27 Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man.   I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Ezekiel saw God in His glory. God had the appearance of man yet glowing in brilliance. Remember He made us in His image! Here is a picture to boost your imagination!                                                            
Read more

The Purpose

Image
THE PURPOSE God's creation                    God's creation is beautiful. Genesis 1 briefs how God created different things in 6 days  and he rested on day 7.                 Genesis 1: 1-3               In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light" and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and morning were the first day.             God saw there was a need. It says that the earth was formless, empty and dark. When God saw the need, He started to do something about it. He spoke and light appeared. God was pleased and called the light as "day" and the darkness as "Night".                 1. God sees a need.                2.
Read more

The Journey

Image
                                                                                            The Journey At birth, a baby travels from its mother's womb and comes into this world. As it grows, it transitions from the loving confines of its home to school then to college, workplace, setting up a household and raising up children of its own kind and then becomes old and departs from this Earth. It’s a journey every human being undertakes. It’s a journey that everyone is familiar with. But do you know there is another journey we all travel?             Just as our flesh has its own course, so also the spirit that God kept inside of us has a course to run. I like to call it "The Journey of Faith". The journey of our flesh will come to an end when we die. But the spirit has an eternal journey to undertake.           This journey appears in the Bible for the first time in Genesis 12, when God calls our father Abraham to go to the land which He shows him.    Genesis 12: 1
Read more