I don't understand The Holy Spirit...

Oftentimes when it comes to talking about the Holy Spirit we can be on 2 sides of the aisle. We either don’t talk about the Holy Spirit or we talk about him all the time. One thing is sure, it is impossible to live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. Yet we try.

When we try to do life without the Holy Spirit, we end up with guilt and shame and are burnt out. It’s not that we forgot about the Holy Spirit, but we thought we could take on changing our lives by ourselves. We try to do behavioral modification. The Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside out.

The Holy Spirit changes our desires. He works from the inside out. We simply need to trust Him enough to surrender to His way over what we think is the way, based on how the world operates.

Here are some roles of the Holy spirit in our lives.
He is a teacher and a reminder of God’s teachings

John 14:26 NIV 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.

The Holy Spirit gives us the power to understand His word. He is the one that drew us to God and He convicts us of our sin.

John 16:7-8 NIV But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:

He is our source of revelation wisdom and power.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 NIV these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Acts 1:8 NIV But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Ephesians 1:17-20 NIV I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,

He guides us into truth and knowledge.

John 16:13-15 NIV 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. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

He seals our adoption into God's family.


Ephesians 1:13 NIV 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,

He intercedes for us Roman’s 8:26-27
He gives spiritual gift for a spiritual calling
We will have the power to do more than He ever did
Because when the church uses its spiritual gifts together we are able to reach so many more
He wants us to use our spiritual gifts collectively
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
The Holy Spirit gives us our spiritual gifts
We can find out what this gift is when we start serving
Yet so often we put the Holy Spirit in a box. Thinking we will only ever have one gift yet when we grow closer to Him more gifts come because we go where we are being called.
God does not call the quipped He equips the called. This is where the Holy Spirit moves and places more gifts. We have to lean into where we are being called
Should we desire all the gifting of the spirit. Yes
But there is a big and dangerous difference when we envy others giftings
The passage about the body and all parts are needed
Because we are called to do this together
He produces supernatural fruit in our life
Yet we look at the fruits and list them out and try to attain them but what we need to do is grow in our relationship with God and the Holy Spirit produces these in us
Galatians 5:22-23
God produces the fruit of the spirit not the fruits. so it all grows at the same time. They all work together. They are not mutually exclusive.
We are responsible to create the environment that allows the Holy Spirit to grow the fruit in our lives. This takes time.
Yet it is so easy to get distracted because we stop tending to our environment and become consumed with everyone else’s environment
God has called us to be a gardener not an inspector
So how do we stop the holy spirits work in our lives? Because we can’t stop Gods plan but we can stop the Holy Spirit working in our lives
We do the opposite of what He tells us to do
Ephesians 4:30
We do this when we are doing these things in response to others in our lives
When we decide our anger, resentment, unforgiveness is more important than our relationship with him
We don’t allow him to work through us
1 Thessalonians 5:13
We must repent of our sins. We must allow the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin
Acts 3:19
Then we must turn away from sin
Repent and turn away. Confess the sin, receive forgiveness, then turn away from those ways