Spirit – His Ways

His Ways

In this section, our subject is the Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at the ways the Holy Spirit works.

Basically, he works in two distinct ways:

a) The Holy Spirit works in people who believe in Jesus in specific ways (yet mysterious) and

b) The Holy Spirit works differently in people who do not believe in Jesus (also in mysterious ways).

a) If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, it is said that the Holy Spirit “dwells within” (Rom. 8:11), “teaches” (John 14:26), “anoints” (1 John 2:27), “guides” (John 16:13), and“sanctifies” (sets apart, separates) (1 Pet. 1:2).  Without the Holy Spirit we would be like ships without rudders, unable to live as Christians and certainly unable to speak to others of our Faith in any effective way.

b) If you do not believe in Jesus, the Spirit attempts to convince you that something is missing in you and something is wrong in the world and that you need Jesus as salvation (John 16:8).  If you allow the Holy Spirit to convince you that “something” is wrong (either in the world or in you), let’s call that “sin”, then, by faith in Jesus, you become what scripture calls “cleansed” or clean.  That amazing process starts with your frank admission that you need “something outside of yourself”, let’s call that “salvation in Jesus”.  Because of that old nature (sin), we are separated from God (Isaiah 59:2) but once convicted of this and with faith, we receive Eternal Life and we pass from paragraph b) in this section to paragraph a).  Pretty cool if you ask us.

The crowning sin of the world is unbelief in the Person of the Son. The blessing of God had been offered to the world on the incoming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (The uniqueness of true Christianity is that it is the only System in the known universe that only requires “Faith” for Salvation… nothing else… no money, no “membership”, no class distinction).  Jesus once said: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I am come not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12: 46, 47).

“When the Comforter is come . . . He shall testify of Me,” and again, “He shall glorify Me”(John 15: 26; John 16: 14).

The death of Christ is the divinely ordered way out of all our ruined state we have in our nature as humans.  In Christ we become new spiritual creatures and this work is done, not only by the sacrifice of the Son but also by the work of the Spirit.  The instant you allow the Holy Spirit to convince you of these things, you become a new spiritual being and begin a new spiritual history. Cool.  You may remain in the body where sin still resides but those sins have been judged.  Jesus felt (paid for) that judgment.  When you do accept this, you actually believe through the power of the Spirit.

Once you receive the Spirit of God, you are now intelligently on the ground of God and able to enter into and enjoy the precious and heavenly things that belongs to this new order.

Christianity is a faith system.  By the Spirit of God, things are revealed to us… to those that love Christ… things that our eyes cannot see.  It is in our heart.  By faith in the work of the Lord, we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit which is God, “that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor. 2: 9-12).

See it this way.  God Himself is the Architect of this new house; Christ is the Builder; the Holy Spirit is the Cement, for He binds all together.  Cool stuff.