The Holy Spirit lives in you!
Do you sometimes feel that God is missing in your life? The Holy Spirit can change that for you. The New Testament writers insisted that Christians of the time experience the living presence of God. But is he here for us today? If so, how is he present? The answer is that God lives in us today, as in the time of the apostles, through the Holy Spirit. We perceive it like the wind and can therefore not see it: "The wind blows where it wants, and you can hear its rustling; but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. That is how everyone is who is born of the Spirit "(Johannes 3,8).
One Christian scholar said, "The Holy Spirit leaves no mark on 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 grounded on firmer ground because our Savior was human. The God who lived among us in human flesh, Jesus Christ, gave God a face for us. And God the Son also gave God the Father a face. Jesus insisted that those who saw him had "seen" the Father too. Both father and son are with Spirit-filled Christians today. They are present within 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, especially John, the Holy Spirit is the counselor or comforter. He is someone who is called to help out in trouble or need. "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 intervenes for us with unspeakable sighs" (Romans 8,26).
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit are God's people, Paul said. Moreover, they are sons and daughters of God, who address him as their father. Being filled with the Spirit, God's people can live in spiritual freedom. They are no longer bound to the sinful nature and live a new life of inspiration and oneness with God. This is the radical change that the Holy Spirit brings about in converting people.
Your wishes will be directed towards God instead of towards this world. 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. Therefore Paul could say: "But whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is not his" (from Romans 8,9). When a person is truly converted, Christ will live in him or her through the Holy Spirit. Such people belong to God because his spirit made them his family.
Spirit filled 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 authors of the New Testament, especially Paul, said that the result of a person's response to the call of God is empowerment. The call to accept the grace of God in Jesus Christ empowers us to abandon ancient ways of thinking and to live with the Spirit.
So we need to be encouraged to be led by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, to live in the Spirit. How to do this is described in a broad principle in the books of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul emphasizes that Christians should "stimulate" the Spirit that will help them live the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5,22-23).
Understood in a 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 every life situation.
When put into practice, virtues become the "fruit" or evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in us. The way to be empowered by the Spirit is to ask God for the Spirit's virtue-creating presence and then be guided by Him.
As the Spirit guides God's people, the Spirit also strengthens the life of the Church and its institutions. Only in this way can the church be strengthened as a corporate structure - by individual believers who live according to the spirit.
Love in Christians
The most important proof or quality of the work of the Holy Spirit within believers is love. This quality defines the nature of God and who God is. Love identifies spiritually guided believers. This love was the primary concern of the Apostle Paul and the other teachers of the New Testament. They wanted to know if the individual Christian life is strengthened and changed by the love of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual gifts, worship, and inspired teaching have been (and still are) important to the Church. For Paul, however, the dynamic workings of the Holy Spirit's love within believers in Christ were of far greater importance. Paul could speak “in the tongues of men and of angels” (1. Corinthians 13,1) but when he lacked love, he was nothing more than a noisemaker. Paul might also "have the gift of prophecy," be able to "search out all mysteries and all knowledge," and even "have a faith that can move mountains" (verse 2). But if he lacked love, he is nothing. Even a storehouse of Bible knowledge or firm convictions could not replace the empowerment of the Spirit's love. Paul might even say, "If I give all I have to the poor and give up my body to the flames without having love, it profits me nothing" (verse 3). Doing good works for oneself should not be confused with the work of the Holy Spirit in love.
Real Christians
Decisive for the faithful are the active presence of the Holy Spirit and the response to the Spirit. Paul emphasizes that the true people of God - true Christians - are those who have been renewed, reborn and transformed to reflect the love of God in their lives. There is only one way this transformation can take place in you. It is through a life guided and lived by the love of the indwelling Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit is the personal presence of God in your heart and your thoughts.
by Paul Kroll