Today, we will talk about the transformation of a believer's life and the power the Holyspirit gives over sin and this broken world.
Within your family or friends, you can notice the bond you have, the certain “spirit” of that gathering. It’s very identifiable because when those groups of people get-together they all act, talk and connect a certain way. Their gathering has developed a particular kind of behavior. This “spirit” of their gathering is sort of like a communal personality that comes into existence, though not a real person it feels like an existing personality.
Now when it comes to God, the fellowship and union God the Father has with His son Jesus is such a solid and concrete thing that this union itself is a Person, a real Person. It is in fact the third of the three Persons who are God… This is the Holyspirit.
In the beginning of the Bible and of creation, we can see God creating the heavens and the Earth. Now the Earth was formless and empty and darkness was over it’s surface. Then the Holyspirit of God was hovering over the waters and then it was at this moment that God said “Let there be Light!” and there was light. I want you to notice something here, the world was shapeless and lifeless, it was dark and dead… it was chaotic. And it was on this chaos and darkness that God’s spirit moved and swayed over. And it’s during The Spirit’s presence that this chaotic and dark world received light and life and order… This is exactly what the Holyspirit does.
Though God made a perfect world, sin has entered the world through us and the same world that God moved His Spirit over and brought to order, we have moved over it bringing about chaos and bloodshed. But through God’s goodness and mercy, He promised to do onto us what He did to the world long ago; to move His Spirit over us and bring order and life to our chaotic and sinful nature.
So in this world, we are powerless and chaotic. We are trapped in a dying flesh that wants to sin every hour of the day, we are in constant influence of evil spirits wanting to tempt and possess us, we are also in this broken system of the world that causes injustice and hate, we lust and kill, we lie and steal, we cheat and envy… and we do it all even if we don’t want to! We are trapped and powerless to overcome any of this. But then walks the Holyspirit in to our lives. Giving us power to overcome the world and sin, to do the good we wanted to do, to fight off temptation and to cast demons out. The Holyspirit enters our life and we receive power. Power that also turns the chaos of our soul to order.
So as we saw how the Holyspirit is the personified union within God, this same Spirit lives within believers so that we would also have that deep and inseparable union with God. We live within this broken world as broken people but receive the Holyspirit and be set free and set apart from this broken world and join the family and gathering of God. It is through this Spirit that we have the power to talk to God and listen to Him, to do all the miracles Jesus did and more, to preach the Gospel and to make a real change in our and other people’s lives. This spirit is God living in us!
It is this same Spirit that made us holy that will also make us obedient to God’s will, it is also this same spirit that gives us power over temptations and tests. Then, how does one receive the Holyspirit?
The Bible teaches us that we receive the Holyspirit the moment we believe and accept Jesus Christ. To elaborate more let’s look at an example. When you are texting with your friends and you send a message, your social app shows you a double tick mark to show you that the message you sent has been delivered and seen by the person you sent it to. Essentially showing you that your message have been heard. The Holyspirit is this double tick mark, when you believe in Jesus you are essentially sending a message to God to be accepted as His child and it is when that message is seen by God that you are given your double tick confirmation of deliverance, the Holyspirit.
It is quite right that you should be “all glowy” and feel that “something terrific” has happened to you… because it has! Accept these sensations with thankfulness as birthday cards from God, but remember that these sensations are only greetings, not the real gift. The sensations are not the real thing. The real thing is the gift of the Holyspirit which can’t usually be and perhaps not ever be experienced as a sensation or emotion. The sensations are merely the response of your nervous system… don’t depend on them. Otherwise when they go and you are once more emotionally flat (as you certainly will be quite soon), you might think that the real thing had gone too. But it won’t. It will be there when you can’t feel it and it may even be most operative when you can feel it least.
The day you believed and accepted Jesus as your God is the day the Holyspirit dwelt in you. And you can see it’s effect even if you led a sinful life after that. Sin doesn’t taste as sweet as it did when you’ve been marked by the Holyspirit and when you sin after receiving the Holyspirit the taste of Sin bitters.
The receiving of the Holyspirit is an instantaneous thing. The moment you believed Christ is the moment you received the Holyspirit. But being filled with the Holyspirit and living in Him is a gradual thing.
Let’s take a snap look back at history. In an ancient city of Ephesus, pagans worshiped their god in drunken orgies. They believed that to communicate with their god and to be led by him, they had to be drunk. In this drunken state, they could determine the will of their god and determine how best to serve and obey him. Addressing this the bible tell us to be filled and drunken with the Spirit. That is to mean that we yield ourselves to the Spirit’s power allowing Him to guide, influence, and govern our behavior. We carefully align our daily choices and decisions with the wisdom and truth the Scripture teaches, the same scripture the Spirit authored!
So in effect, the Spirit that dwells in us is also the one who wrote the scriptures making it easy for us to live right by the scripture because we are living by the force that authored them! Essentially, the answer to live a sinless life is the Holyspirit.
The Christian life is a journey, and we are to walk it, that is to mean we are to make consistent forward progress. The biblical norm for all believers is that they walk in the Spirit. To walk in the Spirit is to surrender to His guide and influence. Those who walk in the Spirit are united with Him and are the bearers of the fruit the Spirit produces. Thus, those who walk in the Spirit walk in love; they live in love for God and for their fellow man. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in joy; they exhibit gladness in what God has done, is doing, and will do. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in peace; **their lives are not defined by worry or anxiety. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in patience; they are known for having a “long fuse” and do not lose their temper. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in kindness; they show tender concern for the needs of others. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in goodness; their actions reflect virtue and holiness. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in faithfulness; they are steadfast in their trust of God and His Word. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in gentleness; their lives are characterized by humility, grace, and thankfulness to God. Those who walk in the Spirit walk in self-control; they display moderation, constraint, and the ability to say “no” to the flesh. Those who walk in the Spirit rely on the Holy Spirit to guide them in thought, word, and deed.
The Spirit that moved over this very Earth to bring about order into chaos wants to do the same thing within you. To bring peace into your anxious minds, to heal all mental scars and physical pain. The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead wants to dwell in you so that He may also raise you from the dead on the day of judgement. So that He may be your mark of deliverance, your ticket to heaven.
Holyspirit is the forgotten God, the God that lives within us but so unseen and unheard, avoided at all costs and never walked by. The one that’s closest to your heart, to hear your deepest pains and sorrows so that He could comfort and guide you. The Spirit so close to us so He could help us in our weaknesses, in the days we don’t know how to pray He will intercede for us with groanings too deep for words.
This Spirit is the fire within us, that burns away the sorrows of yesterday and ignites the Joy of tomorrow. The Fire too ferocious to touch but only burns away our tormentors. The Fire that lights up the dark alley and warms us in our despairs. It is the Spirit that is present in day we die, so that even in death we aren’t separated. The Holyspirit is love set ablaze!
“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.” — Acts 1:8
“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” — Romans 8:11
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” — John 14:16
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” — Romans 8:26
“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” — 2 Corinthians 3:17