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We will be concluding this article by talking about the communion of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 13:14 NIV 14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” In the KJV, it reads,
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen." In this article, our eyes shall be opened to three interconnected themes that brings us to this communion with the intent that we may receive the fullness of help that the Holy Spirit supplies. These themes are:
Inexhaustible Fountain
John 7:37-39 NIV says 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Did you notice that interesting promise from our Lord Jesus Christ? He said that for all who believe, out of their belly will flow, not a river, but rivers of living water. Picture the abundance, the satisfaction that brings. In other words, Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the embodiment of the believers’ sufficiency for all that we need in our Christian journey. This includes being saved, living a holy and pleasing to God, having victory over sin and the powers of darkness, being empowered to serve God and do extraordinary things for Him and much more are all possible through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. His presence marks abundance (Eph. 1:3-14) and satisfaction.
This promise of Jesus was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2 when 120 disciples were in the upper room and the Holy Spirit descended upon them in a spectacular way. The Holy Spirit has been resident with believers ever since and people still experience Him in supernatural ways today. However, as believers, whether there is a spectacular experience or not, we come to believe we have received the Holy Spirit by faith. Jesus’ promise that whoever believes in Him receives the Holy Spirit is true.
‘And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.’ (Ephesians 1:13-14, NIV)
Therefore, if you have actually believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and put your faith in Him entirely for salvation, you have received the Holy Spirit. What you need is to walk in the reality of being filled by the Spirit.
‘Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Ephesians 5:18-20, NLT)
How can we be filled by the Spirit? To walk consistently in the power of the Holy Spirit, we need to cultivate intimacy with the Spirit and live in step with Him which is also called, “walking in the Spirit.”
Intimacy with the Spirit
Perhaps you are acquainted with the song, “Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord, come and quench the thirsty of my soul…” This is a great song that reminds us to be thirsty for more. However, our thirst is not in the absence of what we need but in getting to know all that we already have. Hence, we are not literally with a cup begging because we already have the fullness of the Spirit on the inside of us. The Bible tells us that out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water. Isn’t that awesome? What we need for a deeper experience of God is to grow in intimacy with the Holy Spirit. To grow in intimacy with the Holy Spirit, we must first come to know Him. You cannot be intimate with someone you do not know. The Holy Spirit is God and He is given to us as a gift to bring us into fellowship with God.
One of the greatest things you can get to know about the Holy Spirit as has been highlighted in part one of this article is to know that He is a person. As a person, you can interact and converse with Him. You can share your burdens, struggles and feelings with Him as though you are talking to a friend face to face. Some in their practice of intimacy with the Holy Spirit will put a chair in the opposite direction while having their quiet time and converse with the Holy Spirit as one talking to a friend who is present with them. Pastor Paul Yonggi Cho in His book, “The Holy Spirit: My Senior Partner” spoke of the Holy Spirit as his senior partner in the ministry. You also can cultivate an intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
These tips will help you to cultivate that intimacy with the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit is given to us is to make us more and more like Jesus. Jesus is the fullness of the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15-17; 2:9-10; Hebrews 1:3-5). Whoever has seen the Son, has seen the Father (John 1:18; 14:9). The only way to know God is to know the Son, Jesus Christ. This is why the Holy Spirit is given to us to help us understand and know the words of Christ so that we would grow into being like Him. Jesus says of the Holy Spirit; ‘But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.’ (John 14:26 NIV). He further adds: “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.’ (John 16:13-14, NIV). (Note the use of the word HE in reference to the Holy Spirit and not IT)
This is to say that anyone who grows in intimacy with the Holy Spirit is growing in knowing Jesus Christ. Paul says, that I might know Him (Christ)… Philippians 3:10. The Holy Spirit points us to Christ. He helps us to understand the words of Christ, the gospel of peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may freely know those things that have been given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:10-12) and be changed thereby (2 Corinthians 3:16-18).
In a practical sense, to be intimate with the Holy Spirit, you need to be very close to your Bible. You cannot understand the Bible unless the Holy Spirit makes it known to you because He inspired those who wrote the Bible and knows the meaning. Do not have a familiar attitude to the Bible, come to it with reverence and humility. Bow your heart to the Holy Spirit and trust Him to reveal Christ to you from the Word of God. This is the place of prayers. However, you do not need to be perfect in your phraseology, just approach Him with a sincere heart and talk to Him as you would a friend. You do not need to rehearse your words to be perfect because He loves you and wants to relate to you in a way that you can understand. Then, you will see your life growing in intimacy with the Holy Spirit. To help your study of the Bible, we have some resources, you may wish to explore:
In Step with the Spirit
In order to grow in intimacy with the Holy Spirit, we need to walk in step with Him daily. It means that we obey those instructions that He gives to us in the place of prayer and meditation of the Word. When we obey Him, He is pleased to tell us more. Jesus said that those who love Him are those who obey His commands (John 14:15, 21; 15:14) and they would have more because the Father would be pleased to manifest Himself to such. This is how the fruit of the Spirit is produced in us when we yield to the leading and promptings of the Holy Spirit.The Bible says in Romans 8:14 KJV
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". You cannot be a child of God, without the Spirit of God (Romans 8:9). Every believer has been sealed by the Spirit of God (Ephesians 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22) as a mark of identification that we belong to God. If we therefore belong to God, we must live our lives in agreement with one who belongs to God in holiness and righteousness. On our own, we cannot live that kind of life but because we have been given the Holy Spirit, we are able to live above our passions and lusts that once enslaved us.
We need to be intentional with our walk with the Spirit so we can experience the victory and triumph that has been won on our behalf through Jesus Christ. This is why Paul says to us: “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[a] you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law… Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:16-18, 24-25 NIV)
Paul tells us that the love of God is poured or shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) and we are constrained by His love (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). These two passages help us to know that we are empowered to love God and live for Him by the Holy Spirit and not our own effort and struggles. We only need to be intentional about it by yielding to Him in obedience to His voice. We cannot love God if we don’t love the Bible, the revealed will of God. So, no one can grow in intimacy with God or walk in step with the Holy Spirit with a closed Bible, because it is the inspired and timeless words of God penned down through the Holy Spirit who now lives in us.
Warnings
We must be aware that apart from the Holy Spirit, there are also other kinds of unclean spirits called demons. Many times, these spirits also try to mimic the things the Holy Spirit does. There can be manifestations that are not the Spirit of God and so we need to be discerning.
The Bible tells us to judge or test the spirits (1 John 4:1-3) to ascertain that they are from God. We know a false spirit by what it says about Christ. The false spirits can also do miraculous things like in the case of Simon the sorcerer, Bar Jesus etc. The gifts are very good and important but they must be judged in view of their fruit. It is by their fruit not by the gifts that Jesus says we shall know them (Matthew 7:15-16). A simple test is that the Holy Spirit focuses on Christ and helps us to grow in intimate knowledge of Him and His grace (2 Peter 3:18), the unclean spirits is on self.
Sola Oladele
Do you think you or anybody else may need our help in their walk with God? Leave your (or their) name and contact details below and we will be in touch