Introduction
1. The Holy
Spirit is eternal, He has no beginning and no end.
2. He is the
promise of the Father.
3. He is the
Voice of God that instruct and guide us daily.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father and the third
person in the Trinity. He is God
Almighty Himself. The Holy Spirit is one
of the greatest assets of a Believer, and to have a revelation of the Person of
the Holy Spirit marks a turning point in our Christian walk.
The reason is that without the Holy Ghost in us, much of the
ministry will be done in the flesh, and even the worship also will be done in the
flesh. That will be a complete waste of
time because anything done in the flesh is not acceptable by God, whether it is
praying or praising Him. In fact, to do
anything before God without the Person of the Holy Spirit is nothing more than
dead works!
How wonderful our lives will be if we will daily invite the
Holy Spirit to pray with us, counsel us, lead and guide us, conforming us into
the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers
and sister that wants God to use them in any respect must realize that Holy
Ghost was sent to help them amend their way and be acceptable, as a vessel unto
the Lord.
Such brethren must acknowledge the person of the Holy Ghost
and come under His leadership, and develop a fervent dependency on the Spirit
of God to lead and direct them. And to
consciously obey the voice of God and do what God wants them to do.
As an individual or a church, we must begin to do what the
Holy Ghost wants us to do, not what we want to do. He is the third Person of the Godhead. He is present where the Word of God and faith
are present. When we love and cherish Him, and hunger to know God and experience
His glory, the Holy Spirit will become visible in our lives.
The Holy
Spirit is a real living personality, not a force or a dove etc. The Holy Spirit
speaks to us every day. He is a divine
personality, who has a definite function in the midst of men. He is assigned to guide the sons and
daughters of God. He shows us the way to
go; what to do and what not to do. When
you are led by the Spirit of God, you cannot miss your way. He tells you even whom to marry and who not
to marry, where to work and where not to work.
Everywhere on
earth, the Holy Spirit is at work and no matter where you are, you are not
alone, the comforter is with you. The Holy Spirit reveals the things to come in
your individual and family life. He also
reveals things about your friends, their true 'colours' and so on. Can I say to you, that until you know who
your friends are in the spirit, you do not know them? I remember how I used to be carried away by
people's pretences, especially people that appear holy, but the Lord will always
tell me to watch those people closely and before long, I will discover the
person is not a child of God they claim to be.
Who is the
Holy Spirit
The Holy
Spirit is the third person in the God-head.
He is the Executive Director of God's operation on earth according to
Genesis 1:12; 16:8-11. The Holy Spirit
is the Spirit of God and God (Acts 5:3-4).
He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, and the Son, so He is not
a stranger to the things of God, and neither is He inferior.
Watch
this...Our Saviour, Jesus lived 30 years on earth as a natural person, but
immediately He was baptized, the heaven opened unto Him and the Holy Spirit
descended in a bodily form and rested upon Him.
Immediately, there was a voice from heaven, saying "This is My
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" The voice came after the Holy
Ghost has rested on Him, so it is only when the Holy Spirit is in a person that
such a person can be called a child of God.
Without the Spirit of God in you, you are not a child of God.
The Holy
Spirit is a person with emotion, intelligence, feeling and will. He can be offended, grieved and even
insulted. The Holy Ghost is not an
influence or a force, He is a separate personality from the Father and the
Son. He has personal and divine
attributes, which can be seen in the scriptures.
He has the ability to think or reason according to 1 Cor 2:10-12:
" But
God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all
things, yes, the deep things of God. For
what man knows the things of a man except for the spirit of the man which is in
him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God".
The Holy
Spirit has emotions with the ability to feel things. He can love-Rom15:30, He can be grieved, and
He can even be tested according to Acts 5:9: God. Then Peter said to her, "How is it that
you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of
those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you
out."
The Holy
Spirit can be resisted, lied to as in the case of Ananias, and his wife in Acts
5:5. The Holy Ghost can be despised and
blasphemed as in Mark 3:29-30. He
speaks, testifies, teaches, guides and intercedes on our behalf.
Divine
Attributes
The divine
attributes of the Holy Spirit include:
1. He has
eternal nature - This means that the Holy Spirit is not a possessed being. He existed with God the Father from the
beginning, and as the scriptures say in Genesis, the earth was without form and
void, until the Spirit moved upon it - Genesis 1:1-4
2. He is
Omniscient - He knows all things Luke 2:25-32
3. He is
Omnipresent - He is capable of being everywhere at the same time 1 John 5: 7-8
4. He is Holy
- He is the Spirit of holiness that consecrates believers in Christ, reproving
us of sin, reminding us of our sins and urging us to make amends. He works in us to see our faults and behaviours
that are against the will of God, and against the Word of God. He separates us from the world.
5. He is
Omnipotent - He is powerful - Romans 5: 13-19
His Works
in the life of Believers
With respect
to the Believer, the Holy Spirit assures you of your Sonship in Christ and
continues to help you to be like your Master, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit fills the Believer with the
Spirit of Christ and such a believer's heart and thinking will change from
carnal to spiritual. There will be a
change of heart and thinking from bad to good.
The Holy Spirit does more things to the believer:
He fills
them
One of the
greatest works of the Holy Ghost on man is the filling of a man with the Spirit
of God. That feeling is not for fun,
rather it is for transformation that the person is fit for the work of
God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the
Spirit gives birth to spirit, and the work of the flesh cannot be transformed
into the spirit. The works of the flesh
can never please God, and neither can they be made good in the spirit. We cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven
through the work of the flesh.
God is not
man, and He cannot be served or worshipped carnally. Whether you are a Pastor or church member,
God will not recognize your works, including your prayers, until it is done
through the leading of the Holy Spirit. God only recognizes works done,
preaching and teachings are done in accordance with the guidance of the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus Christ
waited for 30 years of His life to begin His ministry, though He was born of
the Holy Spirit. He did not start the
ministry, immediately He was born, He waited for the right time. He waited for the forerunner, sent to go
before Him, John the Baptist to be revealed by God from the wilderness.
He went to
John to be baptized, and to receive the Holy Ghost before He started
preaching. In Mathew 4:1, Jesus was led
by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, and thereafter for the rest of
His life on earth. He is God, and was born
of the Spirit, but He did not start preaching to people until the Holy Ghost
came upon Him. Preachers, Pastors should
learn from this.
In Luke
4:18-19, Jesus Christ declared:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because He has anointed Me To
preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To
proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are
oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord." Even Jesus
Christ, the creator of heaven and the earth waited to be filled by the Spirit,
and He depended on the Spirit of God for everything He did, this lesson should
never be ignored by all of us.
Again, to
underscore the importance of the Holy Ghost to the success of soul-winning and
every ministry work, Jesus told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem, until
they have contacted the Holy Ghost. In
Acts 1:4-8, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from
Me; for John truly baptized with water,
but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from
now."
He says
" But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the end of the earth." Jesus is our
only example of how to serve God. He was
born of the Spirit, He was also guided by the Spirit and when He was about to
depart, He told His disciples to wait for the Holy Ghost, and that it is until
then, they can witness Him in Jerusalem, Judea and the entire world.
Your
comforter and Helper
The Holy
Spirit is around you, to comfort you when you need comfort. He is around you to teach and guide you. The Holy Spirit is also an instructor of
truth, He gives you specific instructions that will give you the edge and
advantage over the enemy. The Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of the All-Knowing God. He is the revealer of the deep
secrets of the kingdom of heaven, the mysteries of God and the word of God.
The Holy
Spirit is our helper in prayer - for we know not what we should pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit directs us on the areas to pray. Not only that, the bible says the Spirit
itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. When you accept the leading of the Holy
Spirit and obey His instructions, you will succeed in anything you are doing -
Business or carrier. He will tell you
what to do for the business to succeed, and how to do the work and assignments given
to you.
When you pray
under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you may not necessarily pray too many
prayer points. This is because the
Spirit will direct your mind and open your spiritual eyes to the target areas, to where you should direct your prayers too.
The Holy Spirit can also give you some prayer points to pray. This is why I don't always include prayer
points for people to pray. If you have a
relationship with the Holy Ghost and you are depending on Him in your prayer,
He will guide your prayer and give you the necessary prayer points to pray.
As a child of
God, when you begin to pray, you should be sensitive in the spirit to discern
when the Holy Spirit is impressing an area of concern to you and what He tells
you to pray about. The moment you can
capture those moves, your prayers will be answered speedily.
The
All-knowing God
The Holy
Spirit knows everything. He is the
Spirit of wisdom and knowledge. He is the power of the Highest. The Holy Spirit is the commander of God’s
operations on earth, being the God with us.
He is the promise of the Father that should come. He is the power behind the spread of the
gospel of Jesus Christ. The bible said “But when ye shall receive power, after
that the Holy Ghost comes upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.
The Holy
Spirit is the power behind successful evangelism and revival, the arrowhead of
every good work of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon any man, the strength and power to
witness Christ comes spontaneously on that person. It is the Holy Spirit that sends forth
Evangelists to the field, to witness and win souls and so, even though zeal is
important and very good, it is not enough to guarantee a successful outreach. You need the Holy Spirit's commission and
sending forth if the effort will yield a meaningful result.
In Acts 13:2,
the Holy Spirit spoke to the Church to
separate for Him Barnabas and Saul for the work wherewith He has called them….
It is the Holy Spirit that calls us to ministry. The Holy Spirit is the indispensable
companion for a believer, for He is the Spirit of God and God Himself. He is also our friend, who can eliminate
every giant in our life, and as such our eternity could be determined by our
response to the Holy Spirit.
Nothing is
hidden from the Holy Spirit and nothing can be hidden from Him, so wise people
do not play games around the Holy Spirit because of the dangers of such a
pastime. Acts 5:3 gave us the account
of Peter, Ananias and his wife, Peter asked Ananias “why has Satan filled thine
heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?”
This was a strange encounter when Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit and paid the
price of the costly error of lying to the Holy Spirit with death. Within a
space of three hours after the death of the man for lying, his wife came into
the house, and echoed the same lies as her husband and also died.
He
Transforms your Life
The comforter
promised is also our Boss in the faith and Helper of destiny. He is the Holy Spirit, Omnipotent,
Omnipresent and Omniscient, God, Himself.
Whenever we seek the Holy Spirit, we will find God and by learning about
the Holy Spirit, we know God Himself. If we seek the Holy Spirit, He will speak
to us as He speaks to the Church and we will hear Him clearly.
The Holy
Spirit is willing to renew you. He will
give you the power to do more than the ordinary in life and ministry. When He
dwells inside of you, light has come, joy unspeakable and peace of the Lord has
come to you. He marks you for God and
the devil and his agents cannot do anything to you again. The Holy Spirit seals you and you are clothed
with Christ according to Galatians 3:27-29.
The Holy
Spirit is ready to indwell in you after repentance, but you must be Holy for
Him to stay. He is a holy Spirit and cannot dwell in a filthy and dirty vessel.
Holiness and purity are important to have the presence of the Holy Spirit with
us as well as to operate in all the gifts of the spirit.
If you desire
to live holy, righteously and do the Will of God, you need the Holy
Spirit. He is the one that empowers us
to do exploits in the kingdom with His gifts.
When we receive the Holy Spirit, it is easy for us to manifest His gifts
that will move us from one level to another. The Holy Spirit is ready to renew
you, give you a heart of flesh, restore your prayer life and give you the
hunger or grace to do His will. But you
will have to say yes to Him.
Let us seek
the Holy Spirit and we will find Him, our Helper and Comforter and our lives
will never be the same again. Let us look briefly in the Word of God and see
what it says about the Holy Ghost. In
summary:
His Works
in the life of a Believer
The Holy
Spirit does more than fill the believer, His works in the believer include:
1. Teacher
and reminder - 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.
2. He helps
us to pray - He 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.
3. When we
allow Him to reign in every area of our life, then we will freely manifest the
fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things, there is no law.
4. When we
repent of our sins and receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of our life,
the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts.
Apostle Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
5. After
receiving Christ, and the Holy Ghost, our body becomes His temple as 1
Corinthians 6:19 puts it - Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the
Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
6. It is the
Holy Ghost that gives us the boldness to witness Christ to people around the
world. As Acts 1:8 puts it - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The Holy Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. 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. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the
Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of
God.
7. He
sanctifies the Believer and set him apart to live holy and pleasing life - 2
Thess 2:13.
8. He seals the believer for future glory Eph 1:13
9. He abides
continuously with the Believers John 14:6
10. He gives
us the power to obey the truth irrespective of the cost of such obedience, and
the power to mortify the deeds of the body according to Romans 8:13
11. He strengthens us in the inner man
and empowers us to impart truth to others.
This is why everything a believer achieves is what he received from the
Holy Ghost, and no one should boast
FIRE...
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