Have you ever wondered if you have had an encounter with the Holy Spirit? If you are a Christian, that means you have.
It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our need for a Savior, draws us to Christ, and reveals the truth of the gospel to us. Even knowing this, so many believers feel considerable confusion about the third person of the Godhead. As a matter of fact, He can often end up being the unseen, underappreciated, and underutilized person of the Godhead. That’s why we’re unpacking some of the Holy Spirit’s roles in our lives according to Scripture today.
When we say that God lives in us, or that we are indwelt by the presence of God, we are referencing the Holy Spirit. This indwelling is also what children mean when they speak of asking Jesus into their hearts. Before diving in too deep, though, it is important to note two things about the Holy Spirit.
First, we must guard against viewing the Holy Spirit as a mystical or magical force. Many people picture Him as a cloudlike God who comes and goes like the wind. Of course, the Spirit of God has some similarities to the wind: we cannot see the wind, but we see its effects (leaves blowing off trees and branches moving back and forth). We cannot see the Holy Spirit, but there is evidence of His activity in us and around us. The Bible even uses the metaphor of wind to reference the workings of the Holy Spirit: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
Second, I do not believe we can receive some of the Spirit but not all of the Spirit. Remember, He is not simply a mystical force. This does not mean we ignore Scriptures that speak about being filled with the Spirit. Often, what these passages are truly referencing is the amount of control we give over to the person of the Holy Spirit, not the amount of the Holy Spirit God gives to us.
With this knowledge in place, let’s answer the question, “What does the Holy Spirit do?” (Notice we do not call the Holy Spirit “it.” The Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as a person. This is why we use “He” and “Him” when discussing the Holy Spirit.)
Here are five of His roles in our lives:
1 - He gives us spiritual life.
God the Spirit is the one who works in us to regenerate our hearts. Regeneration, simply put, is spiritual rebirth. In John 3:1-21, we find the story of Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and asked how he might inherit the kingdom of God. John 3:3 reads, “Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” And then Jesus also tells Him that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). The phrase Jesus uses about being “born again” is one Christians still use today to represent regeneration.
This concept is of vast importance. Being saved by God is not about Him merely buffing off our rough edges. We are spiritually dead in our sin, and the only way to bring a dead man or woman back to life is for them to be given new life. We need a new heart. We see this work being prophesied in Ezekiel 36:26-27: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
The most exhausted person in a church is the one who is trying to follow Christ without the Holy Spirit living inside them. We do not possess the power in and of ourselves to live the Christian life alone. We need the Spirit of God to work in us as we work alongside Him.
2 - He guides us into spiritual truth.
The Holy Spirit illuminates truth and teaches believers. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a teacher in John 14:26, saying, “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.” Jesus also declares in John 16:13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
Notice how He reveals truth and also reminds us of truth, relaying to us the wisdom and will of God. A great prayer we can pray is, “Holy Spirit, teach me Your will.” We can also ask Him to illuminate Scripture for us as the psalmist does in Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” Because we know He inspired the writing of God’s Word, could there be anyone better to help us understand it? As we seek to know God’s will, we are also wise to remember that the Spirit of God will never lead a child of God to disobey the Word of God.
3 - He guards us from sin.
In his New Testament writings, we find Paul exhorting believers with reminders such as, "Do not quench the Holy Spirit” and “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit." We are continually wrestling with the enemy and our own flesh when it comes to temptation, and we need the Spirit of the living God to work in us and convict us when we feel the pull towards sin. And when we do fall and fail, when we do sin, the Holy Spirit is the one saying, “Confess your sin, move away from it, and walk in the newness of life that I have delivered you to. That's not who you are anymore. I redeemed you from that."
Satan loves to use guilt and shame, while the Holy Spirit uses conviction. Satan wants you to stay mired in your sin, but the purpose of conviction is to move you out of your sin and guard you from it.
4 - He guarantees our salvation.
There may be days we don't feel close to God. Thankfully, our faith is not meant to be based on feelings. The guarantee of salvation is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The conviction of the Holy Spirit when you sin? That's great assurance of your salvation.
Ephesians 4:30 tells us that the Holy Spirit seals us “for the day of redemption.” This act declares to the enemy, the world, and our own hearts that we belong to the Lord. It is God’s way of saying, “This one is Mine.” I have often compared the presence of the Holy Spirit to an engagement ring. When I put an engagement ring on my wife, I was asking her to wear a symbol that said she had been spoken for by me. I had sealed her with my love for her and her commitment to me, believing that one day I would follow through and marry her.
This example illustrates how the presence of the Holy Spirit is like an engagement ring. He seals us for that glorious morning when the Lord will call us home as His Bride to be with Him forever.
5 - He glorifies the Savior.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit results in Him making much of Christ in us and through us. Jesus says in John 15:26, "But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning." The Holy Spirit brings glory to the Savior, and when we live empowered by and surrendered to the Holy Spirit, we live lives that glorify the Savior, too.
So let me ask you…
How in tune are you with the Holy Spirit? You may remember those old car radios where you had to turn the knob to get tuned in just right to hear your favorite station. While radio frequencies are all around us, a radio lets you select and listen to a single frequency. Perhaps you need to tune back in to the Holy Spirit. He has always been there. He moved into your heart on the day you were saved, but life often turns the dial, and the static and channels of this world can drown out our ability to hear His voice. Ask the Lord to tune your heart to His Spirit. Don’t settle for letting Him be an underappreciated and underutilized part of your life. Live by the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, seek spiritual things, know spiritual truth, and see His breakthrough in and through your life.