What is the Holy Spirit business then ?

Hello LE Family,  we couldn’t let Pentecost Sunday go by without a word! This has to be one of my favorite events in the Christian calender. Absolutely LOVE GODS HOLY SPIRIT.

If you have ever come across a Christian or have been to church you will have heard talks about the Holy Spirit. The big question I get asked is just who or what is the Holy Spirit, and how do we know this spirit exists.

So let me try to explain as best I can Christians believe in the Trinity – that is, in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

You may have seen the pictures above and not turely understood what they mean or how they relate to our Christian belief systems. They give you a visiual of what the God head looks like!

Okay, so it is really important to understand that although there is the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit, this does not mean that we believe in three gods – we do not. As Christian’s believe in one God that has three parts.

We believe that God took human form as Jesus Christ and that God is present today through the work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a real person who came to reside within Jesus Christ’s true followers on the day of Pentecost, after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Okay now, don’t think of the Holy Spirit as this scary vague, ethereal shadow, or some kind of an impersonal force. Rather think of the Spirit of God as a person who is equal in every way with God the Father and God the Son. He is the third member of the Godhead-holy trinity.

¹ Jesus told His apostles before he left for heaven…

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”²

As you can imagaine the desiples must have been quite emotional, having frist witness Jesus’s death and resurrection. To then be told that he would be leaving them again, only this time they would be given a helper that will come in the form of the Holy Spirit.  Fast forward to today, when we become born again Christians we too receive the Holy Spirit and God resides within us as He did with the disciples all those years ago.

(How Exciting!)

Jesus said to His apostles…

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”³

So what does the Holy Spirit do?  well, one of the primary roles of the Holy Spirit is that He bears “witness” of Jesus Christ. Which means He tells people’s hearts about the truth of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit also acts as a teacher, as He reveals God’s will and God’s truth to a Christian.

Jesus told His disciples…

“When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”¹⁰

The Holy Spirit was given to live inside those who believe in Jesus, in order to produce God’s character in the life of a believer. In a way that we cannot do on our own.

The Holy Spirit will build into our lives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Rather than trying to be loving, patient, kind, God asks us to rely on Him to produce these qualities in our lives.  As Christians we try our best to walk in the Spirit and be filled with the Spirit, we all know how hard it is to display Gods principles with our own strength, I for one definitely need the power of the Holy Spirit…..daily!

The Holy Spirit as empowers Christians to perform ministerial duties that promote spiritual growth among Christians.

The Holy Spirit also performs a function for non-Christians as well!

HOW DOES HE DO THIS?

Well, He convicts  people’s hearts of God’s truth concerning how sinful we are and in need of God’s forgiveness; how righteous Jesus is — He died in our place, for our sins; and God’s eventual judgment of the world and those who do not know Him.

The Holy Spirit will tug on our hearts and minds, asking us to repent and turn to God for forgiveness and a new life. Which is truly amazing, this means it does not matter what you have done, doing or believe. you can have a new life with God, if you truley repent (be sorry) and turn to Jesus. I do not know bout you but that makes me jump, hop and skip! 

I literally could talk about God all day, but I will stop there fore today! I hope that this blog has given you  better understanding of the holy spirit, please do share with someone who my need to get a better prospective on God. 🙂 

In this presentation, you can learn more about God, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. (click)