The Holy Spirit: He lives in us!

Do you sometimes feel that God is absent in your life? The Holy Spirit can change that for you. The New Testament writers insisted that Christians who lived in their day experience God's living presence. But is he here for us today? If so, how is he present? The answer is that today, as in the beginning with the early Christians, God lives in us through the Holy Spirit. Do we experience the spirit of God dwelling in us? If not, how can we change that?

In his book “God's Empowering Presence”, Gordon D. Fee relates a student's remark about the nature and activity of the Holy Spirit: “God the Father makes perfect sense to me. I can understand the Son of God, but the Holy Spirit is a gray, oblong blur for me, ”said the student. Such incomplete perspectives are due in part to the fact that the Holy Spirit is just that - Spirit. As Jesus said, it is like the wind and cannot be seen.

No footprints

One Christian scholar said: "The Holy Spirit leaves no footprints in the sand". Since it is invisible to our senses, it is easily overlooked and easily misunderstood. On the other hand, our knowledge of Jesus Christ is on firmer ground. Because our Savior was man, God lived among us in human flesh, Jesus has a face for us. God the Son also gave God the Father a "face". Jesus insisted that those who had seen him should also see the Father: “I have been with you that long, and you don't know me, Philip? Whoever sees me sees the father. Then how do you say: Show us the Father? " (John 14,9). Both Father and Son reside in Christians today who are filled with the Spirit. They are present in Christians through the Holy Spirit. For this reason, we would certainly like to learn more about the spirit and experience it in a personal way. It is through the Spirit that believers experience the closeness of God and are empowered to use his love.

Our comforter

For the apostles, the Holy Spirit is the counselor or comforter. He is someone who is called to help in times of need or weakness. «In the same way the spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what to pray, as it should be, but the Spirit itself steps in for us with unspeakable sighs ”(Romans 8,26).

Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are God's people, Paul said. In addition, they are sons and daughters of God who are allowed to call him their father. By being filled with the Spirit, God's people can live in spiritual freedom. You are no longer enslaved to sinful nature and live a new life of inspiration and oneness with God. «But you are not carnal, but spiritual, since God's spirit dwells in you. But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not his »(Romans 8,9). This is the radical change the Holy Spirit is making in people as they are converted.

Your wishes are therefore directed from this world to God. Paul spoke of this transformation: “But as soon as the kindness and human love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us - not for the sake of the works that we would have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy - through the bath of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit »(Titus 3,4-5). The presence of the Holy Spirit is the defining reality of conversion. Without mind; no conversion; no spiritual rebirth. Since God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ is simply a different way of relating to the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, if a person is truly converted, Christ will live in him through the Holy Spirit. Such people belong to God because he made them His with his spirit.

Spirit full life

How can we have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and know that the Spirit of God lives in us? The New Testament writers, especially Paul, said that qualification comes as a result of a person's response to an appeal. The appeal is to accept God's grace in Jesus Christ, abandon old ways of thinking, and begin to live of the Spirit.

Therefore, we should be encouraged to be spirit guided, walk in the spirit, and live of the spirit. How to do this is set out in principle in the New Testament books. The apostle Paul insisted that Christians must be renewed in spirit and spirit and that a new fruit must grow: “But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, chastity; against all this there is no law »(Galatians 5,22-23).

Understood in the New Testament context, these qualities are more than concepts or good thoughts. They reflect the true spiritual power within believers as given by the Holy Spirit. This strength is waiting to be used in all circumstances.

When virtues are put into practice, they become fruit or evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work within us. The way to become empowered by the Spirit is to ask God for the virtuous presence of the Spirit and then be guided by it.

When the Spirit guides God's people, the Spirit also strengthens the life of the church and its institutions through individual believers who live according to the Spirit. That is, we should be careful not to confuse aspects of church life - such as programs, ceremonies, or beliefs - with the dynamic activity of the Holy Spirit in people's lives.

The love of believers

The most important evidence or quality of the work of the Holy Spirit within believers is love. This quality defines the essence of who God is - and it identifies Spirit-led believers. It was this love that the apostle Paul and other New Testament teachers always cared for in the first place. They wanted to know if individual Christian lives are strengthened and transformed through the love of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual gifts, worship, and inspired teaching were and are important to the church. For Paul, however, the dynamic working of the love of the Holy Spirit within believers in Christ was of far greater importance.

• Paul said that if he could speak in the most diverse languages ​​of the world, yes, even in the language of angels, but he lacked love, he would be a bell ringing of itself or a booming gong (1. Corinthians 13,1).
• He comes to understand that if he had prophetic inspirations, knew all heavenly secrets, had all knowledge and even had a faith that could move mountains, but he had to live without love, then he would be worthless (v. 2). Not even a store of biblical knowledge, theological orthodoxy, or strong beliefs could replace empowerment with the love of the Spirit.
• Paul could even say: If I gave all I have to the poor and took death in the flames, but my life was without love, I would have gained nothing (verse 3). Not even doing good works for their own sake should not be confused with the working of the Holy Spirit in love.

Real Christians

It is essential for believers to have the active presence of the Holy Spirit and to respond to the Spirit. Paul insists that the true people of God - real Christians - are those who have been renewed, born again, and changed to reflect God's love in their lives. There is only one way this transformation can take place within us. It is through life that is led and lived by the love of the indwelling Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is the personal presence of God in your heart and mind.

by Paul Kroll!