God's Spirit and You

Recently I have been looking at God's Spirit and its influence on our lives.  If you run a simple study on the words "spirit" or "ghost" in the New Testament you will be amazed at the impact God wants the Holy Spirit to have on you.  There is simply no overstating the importance of our relationship with God's Spirit.

I'm reminded of a sermon I once heard about tithing.  The preacher quoted 1 Corinthians 14:8, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to battle."  His point was that if many people preach many different things about tithing, then the Body of Christ on the whole won't tithe, and the body of Christ on the whole will then lack.  I believe the same is true of the Holy Spirit.  We have all heard different preaching on the Holy Spirit.  I hope you heard that the Holy Spirit is God's gift to you so that you can successfully live this Christian life.  I hope you heard that developing your relationship with the Holy Spirit must be one of your life's primary endeavors.  What have you heard about the Holy Spirit?  Go through the Bible and look at all the references to God's Spirit.  If you use e-sword it will be very easy to do.  Spend some time and let God's Word teach you about God's Spirit.  This topic is so important you need to study it in the Word for yourself.

I'm going to briefly summarize some of the benefits of having God's Spirit in your life.  Simply put, the Holy Spirit is God Himself inhabiting you (Ezekiel 36:24-30).  God's Spirit brings God's power and love and puts them into you (Acts 1:8, Romans 5:5).  God's Spirit knows everything (1 Corinthians 2 and John 16:13) and will give you God's knowledge and wisdom.  God's Spirit will guide you into God's perfect will and show you things to come (Romans 8:14, John 16:13).  God's Spirit will show you everything God has for your life (1 Corinthians 2).  God's Spirit will teach you to pray (Romans 8:26).  God's Spirit will illuminate the Bible to you (John 16:13, John 17:17).  God's Spirit will give you the power and desire to do God's will (Philippians 2:13).  God's Spirit will make you like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

If you haven't heard those statements clearly, they should be enough for you to realize the importance of the Holy Spirit to Christians.  Don't let anyone lie to you and diminish the importance of the Holy Spirit in your life.  God promised that He would send His Spirit to His people thousands of years before it happened, and second only to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is the greatest gift God will ever give you.  I'm convinced now more than ever that union with the Holy Spirit is the master key to walking in the fullness of God's plan for our lives.

Today I want to focus on just a few verses that illuminate the importance of the Holy Spirit to Christians, as designed by God Himself.  I'm not talking about specific benefits of His presence, I'm talking about God showing us the kind of relationship we should have with the Holy Spirit. 

Before Jesus came John the Baptist told how Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Ghost.  Jesus said that after He returned to Heaven He would send the Holy Spirit and that we would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (John 16:7, Acts 1:5).  Baptism is an act of complete immersion.  Jesus was saying that He would immerse us completely in the Holy Spirit.  If you are immersed in water you will eventually dry, but your immersion in the Holy Spirit will mark you for the rest of eternity.  God isn't going to simply sprinkle some Holy Spirit on your head.  Nor will he let even your heel stay dry.  He's going to immerse you completely, so that the Holy Spirit touches every aspect of your life.  The Holy Spirit should impact every part of you and every part of your life.

But we aren't just immersed into God's Spirit, God's Spirit also fills us.  On the day of Pentecost, when the first Christians were immersed into the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit also filled them and even caused them to speak (Acts 2:4).  The apostles repeatedly spoke of being filled with the Spirit.  Ananias, the man God used to witness to the Apostle Paul, said that God wanted Paul to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17).  Later, Paul told the Ephesians that they shouldn't be drunk with wine, but should be constantly filled with God's Spirit (Ephesians 5:8).  It's not enough to have God's Spirit on you.  God's Spirit must be in you.  God's Spirit must impact you inside and out, so that you can be changed and then change the world for Jesus.  Glory to God. 

My friends, we probably all go through similar struggles.  We see where we are today but don't know how long this will last.  We long to know God's plans for our life.  We long to be in God's perfect will.  We wonder about the future.  We try to have faith and not fear.  I know beyond any doubt that if I can live in harmony with the Holy Spirit, which is God's will for my life, that I won't miss anything God has for me.  The Holy Spirit will always lead me.  The Holy Spirit will always comfort me.  The Holy Spirit is the answer to humanity's need for constant contact with God.  He is the answer to your needs.  Learn to hear His voice, then trust Him and obey.  I don't know what God has for me next year or even next month, but I now see that the Holy Spirit is the map to Godly success and fulfillment.  I must follow study Him and follow Him closely.  I am so thankful that I see this clearly. 

God loves us so much, more than we can imagine.  God sent His perfect son to die on the cross for us.  But it wasn't just so that we could receive forgiveness of sins.  Along with the removal of our sins, God Himself gave birth to our spirits, and we have God's seed in us.  Our bodies still have a sin nature and the impact of sin on them, but our hearts are pure before God.  We can come boldly into His presence and fellowship with our Heavenly Father, knowing He will always smile on us now that He sees us as perfect in Jesus Christ.  But God doesn't want to just be your friend or even your father, God wants to be united with you.

"He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit (with Him)."  (1 Corinthians 6:17)  We all know how man and woman become one flesh in marriage, but God wants to marry our spirits.  God wants to become one with us.  That says so much.  It says that God has truly perfected us so that we can be one with Him now.  It also shows how much God loves us, and how God doesn't ever want us to run from Him again.

Run to Him.  Embrace His Holy Spirit that is within you now.  Speak to a trusted friend or Christian elder about the baptism of the Holy Spirit if you need more information.  If they belittle the Holy Spirit or tell you this baptism is over or doesn't exist, they are wrong and have shun the relationship God wants to have with them. Follow the Holy Spirit, and He will always lead you to God and Godly success.  Yield to God and His desire for union with you.  "In God's presence is fullness of joy, at His right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11)