Holy Spirit

Of the three persons of the trinity the Holy Spirit seems to be the one that is most misunderstood, under-taught, and under-acknowledged in the church. But the bible tells us so much about the Spirit and seeing that the Holy Spirit is what lives inside of every believer, it’s interesting that we don’t discuss it more. Before this year at the Institute I really didn’t know much about the Holy Spirit at all, but as of now the Holy Spirit is the most intriguing person of the trinity and I’m overwhelmed by the work of the Spirit and of the power that each Christian has because we have God abiding in us!

This week the Holy Spirit was our topic, taught by Peter Deison, a pastor in Dallas, Texas. We were loaded with information about the deity and person of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit, and our battle between our flesh and the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit acts in many ways but a couple points that really stood out to me were the ways in which the Spirit empowers believers in wisdom and understand of scripture and how He guides believers to do the will of God.

If a passage from the bible is read to a believer and an unbeliever, their takeaway will be very different. 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 says, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has know the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

When we have the Spirit He will lead us to do the will of God by inspiring us and overseeing our circumstances in life. Philippians 2:12,13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  But we have to be obedient to God’s commands and we have to continually choose to “walk in the Spirit.”

It is so important for believers to understand that we have God abiding in us and working in our lives to guide us in the will of the Lord. The Spirit of God in us is able to do great things in our lives if we allow Him to. There is a battle now going on in all believers because we live in flesh but also in Spirit. It is possible to quench the Spirit and refuse to live the life He has for us, but we should choose every day to follow the Spirit of God who has a bigger and better plan for our lives. A great passage the speaks to this is Galatians 5:16-24 which says, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

The way of the Holy Spirit is the only way that we can fully experience God and be led to accomplish the will of God! The more I study the Holy Spirit the more I realize what an incredibly powerful gift we as believers have been given to the glory of God!