As Christians, we are aware that God is made of three distinct persons in one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s easy to relate to a father and or to a son but not it’s not as easy to relate to God’s Spirit. We all have had or known fathers. We have had or known sons.
A spirit is something else completely. Adam and Eve knew the Holy Spirit. He was the breath of life that God breathed into their beings. When they sinned, their connection to God, through the Holy Spirit, was severed. On that day, their spiritual life died, just as God had warned them would happen if they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The Holy Spirit left them and they could no longer talk with God as they previously had done.
The Holy Spirit did not completely leave mankind. He surfaced to fill individuals throughout the Old Testament. However, he didn’t dwell in their beings as he had in the Garden of Eden. He filled individuals from time to time so that they could take on and complete tasks that God had for them to do that they could not have done with the the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
When Jesus died for our sins, he provided a way for mankind to be forgiven and to have eternal life. He also sent a Comforter to us once he (Jesus) went to be with the Father. That Comforter is the Holy Spirit.
When an individual accepts Jesus as their savior, the Holy Spirit sets the seal of salvation upon them and comes to live in their heart. He is the one that is the still, quiet voice that tells us what we should do and, more importantly, what we should not do when we are tempted or even as we are doing wrong in the eyes of God.
The Holy Spirit is powerful. In the Bible, he is described as a powerful, rushing wind, a dove coming down from heaven and even as a flame above the heads of those who received him on the day of Pentecost.
Having the Holy Spirit live in us is not the same as being filled with his power. Christians can ask and should ask to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
This is not something that God does for no reason. It’s not just a happy, happy feeling for Christians. The Holy Spirit fills us to do the work that God is asking us to do, just like in the Old Testament.
The difference is, that all Christians can ask for this filling rather than a few select individuals that God has ordained to do a particular work. Just be aware that in doing so, you are to open yourself up to what God wants you to do.
It is God’s power that will fill you. It is his thoughts and tasks that you will be asked to do. It may be that he will use your past, your skills and/or your future to get the work done that he wants you to do.
Give yourself over to him and be willing to make the sacrifices that he asks of you. In asking for the filling of the Holy Spirit, also ask for God to open the path that he wants you to follow and to give you the tasks you are to do.
He will not ask you to do something you are not capable of doing with his assistance. You may need to educate yourself in certain areas and he will open the way for that to happen.
We are all here for a purpose. We are all unique and have been placed in this time and place for a reason. The Body of Christ (the church of Christ-followers) has need of every single one of us. There is something for you to do that no one else can do the same way.
The Holy Spirit will guide you to that task. He will provide you with the spiritual guidance (from revelation from God or from another Christian) to complete that which you were made for and the reason why you exist.
When you start living for God and doing the work that he wants you to do, you will start to live a life of joy and fulfillment. No matter what the outer circumstances in your life are whether good or bad, you will have the joy of the Lord in your heart. I can’t think of anything more we can ask of God during our brief existence on this planet.
John 14:16-17
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”