God’s Gift to You- the Holy Spirit (Part 1)

Hello dear friend,

I would like to share with you about the Holy Spirit, particularly His role in your life as a child of God. Many Christians today are confused about who the Holy Spirit is. This is not new as I was very confused myself years ago. Perhaps you are asking: Is the Holy Spirit a powerful force, a clove of fire, a strong wind or a person? Is He only for a special set of believers? Can I walk in the reality of the gifts of the Spirit? And how can I cultivate an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit? All of these questions and lots more filled my young confused mind. But thank God for a better understanding today. In line with our commitment to help you grow in your relationship with God, we pray that God would use the words of this article as a seed to enlighten your mind regarding the work of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Something Happened

Something really great happened on the day we now refer to as the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. About 120 believers, many of whom had physically seen the resurrected Jesus, were all together fellowshipping in one room. Suddenly, there was a rushing wind that engulfed the entire room. This was followed by the appearance of what looked like flames of fire on each of them. Wow! And, ‘…they began speaking in other languages…’ (Acts 2:4). These were languages that they had not previously learnt how to speak but supernaturally they received the ability to speak these languages. Crowds who heard the loud noise came to this room and surprisingly they could understand and identify the languages spoken. What a display of the supernatural!

As wonderful as this sounds, it also sounds very scary. Imagine being one in the crowd of people who came around to see these people, how would it all seem to you? Many of them actually thought that these were drunk men! (Acts 2:13). I can understand why they felt so because I had a similar reaction when I first heard people speaking in tongues. But thank God, Peter explained what had happened. ‘‘In the last days, God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people…’” (Acts 2:17a).

God’s Gift to Us

After a powerful sermon by Peter, he concluded his message saying,

“Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away — all who have been called by the Lord our God” (Acts 2:38-39, NLT).

Praise God! The promise about receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is for us too because the Bible says, “…..and to those far away- all who have been called by the Lord our God”. Some translations rightly put in brackets the words Gentiles, which refer to you and me. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God to us, and particularly to you.

Jesus while on earth told us about the Holy Spirit. Let us look at John Chapter 16:7, 12-15. Carefully read the passage and mark all that is used to represent His character and person: “But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. “There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.  He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.” (John 16:7, 12-15, NLT)

A Person NOT a Thing

Did you notice the use of the pronoun, ‘He’, NOT ‘it’. This shows that the Holy Spirit is not a thing. We also know that the Holy Spirit is not a thing because HE speaks (Acts 13:2) and HE can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30). While He has chosen to manifest Himself as a dove, a clove of fire or in any other form in the pages of Scripture, we must always remember that He is a person.

He is the Spirit of God. And God’s promise is to give Him as a gift to you. He lives in you because you are a child of God. He sets you apart as “holy” (separate, distinct) unto the Lord and His presence in your life shows that you belong to God. Having the Holy Spirit living in you means you have God dwelling on the inside of you. This really makes you unique and special.

For Your Advantage

The passage in John chapter 16:7-15 tells us what He, the Holy Spirit, would do in the world but particularly in the life of a believer. Jesus said that it was more advantageous to have the Holy Spirit than to have Jesus physically present. Wow! Think on that for a moment. Here are the words of Jesus: ‘the Helper (Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him (the Holy Spirit) to you [to be in close fellowship with you]’ (John 16:7, AMP). The Word helper is a translation of the Greek word ‘Parakletos’, which is often translated advocate or helper, even though it has a much broader meaning. It actually means all that is written in the bracket following the word, Helper: Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor—Counselor, Strengthener, Standby. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to you, the one who is to be in close fellowship with you, comforting you, advocating for you, interceding for you, counselling you, strengthening you and your standby person. I believe that many Christians are not living to the fullest and enjoying all of God’s best because we have not tapped the mighty help of the Holy Spirit but the good news is you can begin to experience that from today.

Imagine a student who struggles with Mathematics. To help him, the school assigns a student who is a math genius to his room to be able to help him become better. But instead of recognizing and utilizing the ‘helper’ sent to him, he totally ignores him and continues to struggle on his own…….

The Holy Spirit is God’s GOOD and ADVANTAGEOUS gift to you (Luke 11:13, Matthew 7:9-11). He is to guide you into ALL truth and tell you about the future (John 16:13). How we all desperately need this in our world today!

‘So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?’ (Luke 11:13 NLT)

‘When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future’ (John 16:13 NLT)

As we look through Scriptures, we see both in the Old and New Testament how the Holy Spirit transformed peoples’ simple ordinary lives to supernatural impactful lives. For an example, let’s pick Joseph in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God in Joseph took him from being a prisoner to being the most powerful man in a foreign land! While he stood there as a prisoner, the most powerful man on earth at the time, Pharaoh, said this about him, ‘…"Can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the spirit of God?" [39] Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. [40] You will be in charge of my court, and all my people will take orders from you. Only I, sitting on my throne, will have a rank higher than yours." Genesis 41:38-40 (NLT).

Wow! Think of this being said of you at school, at your workplace or in your family. Well, why not if you are a child of God. It wasn’t about any special natural thing about Joseph. It was by the Spirit of God - the Holy Spirit. It wasn’t because Joseph had favourable circumstances; no, no, far from it, it was by the Spirit of God. Joseph faced many challenging situations – victim of sibling hatred, slavery, prison, injustice - yet he triumphed, because God was with him. He had the Spirit of God with him.

The story continues in the New Testament. We see the disciples (Peter and John), uneducated men, marveling the professors of their time (Acts 3:8-13). The Holy spirit led these first Christians supernaturally through revelation of things happening, things to come, protecting them and performing miracles through them (Acts 10:19-20, Acts 11:28, Acts 16:6-10, Acts 9:36-42).

Open Up Your Present!

You know the gifts under a Christmas tree are basically useless if they remain unopened. In the same way, although God has given all believers this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, not many of us use His help. This is indeed sad but I believe that as you learn more about the Holy Spirit, you will begin to live a life led by the Holy Spirit.

To be continued...

Izeiru Weli-Awolaran