The Life, Power and Ministry of the Holy Spirit
Jesus declared: “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-18.
The Holy Spirit is not merely a promise for our lives for some time in the future, and neither has He come into our lives as an occasional visitor. The Holy Spirit is present now in the regenerated spirit of the believer. He is the Spirit of the Father, given through Jesus Christ, dwelling within and making the believer a temple of His presence.
Therefore, as believers, we should never need to live as though the presence and power of Almighty God are beyond our capability to receive; this is so important that we gain the firm reality that:
The Holy Spirit is within our spirit to empower us for service.
He is continually present and ready to lead our lives.
He is within us to teach us the ways of the Lord.
The reality of the Holy Spirit within us should produce a life of yielding. As believers, we are called not merely to know that He is present, but we are to walk in fellowship with Him and allow the Holy Spirit to have His rightful place.
The Holy Spirit Heals Us.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. His presence within our lives brings the life of Jesus Christ into every area of our need. This must become a revelation that because of the indwelling of the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit being in our lives, we, if required, can be healed from within. This came as a revelation to me quite recently.
How many who are in need of healing are looking for healing to be administered from without, when we have the Healer residing from within? He ministers the life of Christ and is able to strengthen, restore, and bring healing according to the will and purpose of Almighty God.
As believers, we can look beyond human ability and place confidence in the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit. Healing is not something to be regarded merely as a doctrine; the believer looks to the Lord Himself, trusting His power and goodness.
The believer may look beyond human ability and place confidence in the life-giving work of the Lord. In matters of healing, the believer can look to the Lord Himself, trusting His power and goodness to strengthen, restore and bring healing according to His will.
The Holy Spirit Gives Us the Power to Stand Before the Lord.
The Holy Spirit enables the believer to stand in the presence of Almighty God with boldness, not because of anything of our human worthiness, but because of what our Heavenly Father has accomplished for our salvation through Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit that the believer has access to the Father.
The Holy Spirit will never exalt the believer’s own strength or righteousness. Instead, He causes the believer to recognise that everything needed to approach the Father has been provided in Christ. The believer can therefore stand before the Lord with confidence, knowing that access to the Father is not based upon anything of our self-effort, but upon Christ and the working of His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is the Power of the Father.
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”— Acts 1:8. The Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer represents the active presence and power of Almighty God at work within. Jesus promised that His disciples would receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them: This power is not given so that the believer may glorify himself. It is given so that the very life of Jesus Christ may be manifested and the purposes of the Father accomplished both in and through our lives.
This must become a revelation in our lives that, as believers, we therefore do not need to depend upon the strength of the flesh to strive to achieve the will and purposes of the Father. The power of Almighty God is so much, so very far greater than anything of our human ability. The Holy Spirit works within the surrendered believer, enabling what could never be accomplished through determination or self-effort alone. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”— Zechariah 4:6
The believer has been brought into the working of the same Holy Spirit who was upon Jesus during His earthly ministry. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” Acts 10:38
This does not mean that the believer possesses Christ’s unique identity or authority as the Son of God. Rather, it means that the Holy Spirit who anointed and empowered Jesus is also given to those who belong to Christ. The believer’s calling is therefore not to imitate Jesus through human strength, but to yield to the same Holy Spirit so that the life and character of Christ may be expressed through them. The anointing is therefore a call to dependence. It is not something to boast about; it is something to surrender to.
The Holy Spirit, the Divine Teacher Within.
Jesus declared: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” — John 14:26
This is of tremendous importance: in our natural ability we cannot gain the full understanding and revelatory knowledge of Jesus Christ, hence the necessity of having the Person of the Holy Spirit being in our lives.
The Holy Spirit opens the believer’s understanding to the things of Almighty God, giving us the wisdom to understand Scripture, and enables us to live out the truth of Christ in our daily lives and in our service within the Kingdom of God. As believers, we never need to depend entirely on our natural understanding when seeking to know the things of the Father.
The Holy Spirit is the divine Teacher within, enabling the believer to grow in spiritual understanding and to become an effective witness for the Lord. He gives wisdom to understand Scripture, discernment to recognise what is of Jesus and spiritual understanding to know how the truth of Christ is to be lived out both in and through our lives, in the administration of being in the Kingdom of God,