The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth (John 15:26), is given to all those who place their faith in Christ in genuine conversion. The Holy Spirit is the advocate like Jesus who is here in Jesus' place. Unlike Jesus who could only be in one place at a time the Holy Spirit is present and abides in every believer (John 14:17, 1 Cor 3:16). It is the Holy Spirit’s role to teach and correct the believer (John 14:26, John 16:13). He also serves as defense counsel in times of adversity (Luke 11:11-12, Acts 6:10). The Holy Spirit was very active in Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is our supreme example of a Spirit-led man (Matt 12:18) and was given the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness after He received the Spirit (Matt 3:16) and empowered Him to endure the devil’s temptations (Matt 4:1,  Mark 1:12). Jesus was full of the power of the Spirit (Luke 4:14, Acts 10:38). The Holy Spirit is available to all believers (John 7:39)  who ask the Father for Him (Luke 11:13). The disciples were the first to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ resurrection (John 20:22). Jesus continued to command the disciples to wait to be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5) and told them that power to be His witnesses would be given once the Holy Spirit had come upon them (Acts 1:8). The giving of God’s Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29). Repentance is required for reception of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, Matt 3:2,11,15, Acts 5:32). The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, praying for us according to the will of God (Rom 8:26-27), and sanctifies us (1 Pet 1:2) to be an acceptable offering (Rom 15:16). The Holy Spirit reveals even the deep unsearchable things of God to those who love Him (1 Cor 2:9-10).   Each believer is given manifestations of the Spirit through various Empowerments of the Spirit for the benefit of all (1 Cor 12:7). These empowerments include, but are not limited to, the utterance of wisdom, the utterance of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, various kinds of tongues, and the interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:8-10). These are completely under the complete control of the Holy Spirit who works each and every one of them according to His will (1 Cor 12:11, Heb 2:4). The Holy Spirit works to transform us into the image of God’s glory gradually (2 Cor 3:18). The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The identifying characteristic (mark) of a believer is the promised Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13, 4:30).