John 14:15-18 “If you love Me, you will keep commands and I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive Him because it doesn’t see Him or know Him. But you do know Him, because He remains with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you”
Many erroneous things are taught today about the Holy Spirit and because of this He is very misunderstood and often misrepresented, even among believers. In fact many believers make the mistake of keeping Him at bay rather than getting to know Him and embracing Him and His ministry in their life.
Who is the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the trinity. He is the Spirit of grace that comes to indwell every believer once they accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. He is sent to every believer as a seal and as an enabler to help a believer live a life pleasing to God. God does not want any believer to try to walk by his own power or by his own might but He says that every believer must walk only by the Spirit of God.
For better understanding of the Holy Spirit, we shall deal with the purpose or the ministry of the Holy Spirit in two parts. The first part will deal with the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. He is the Spirit of truth and He opens the eyes of every believer to the Truth. He speaks what He has received from God because the Word of God is Truth. The second part will deal with the Holy Spirit as counselor. He offers counsel and comfort to believers so that even though Jesus is not physically present with us here on earth, we are not left without help or comfort or like abandoned orphans
Spirit of Truth: The Holy Spirit leads to all truth in the sense that he starts by convicting us of sin. He does this by showing a person the truth about their sinful state and convincing them of their need for a savior. He doesn’t condemn, His ministry gives life. It is the letter that kills or condemns but the Holy Spirit only gives life, His ministry leads to abundant life and liberty. Once an unbeliever receives Jesus and becomes a believer, the Holy Spirit continues to testify of Jesus to the believer, constantly teaching such believer and even helping Him to remember all that he is taught in the Word of God.
As a believer receives the truth of the Spirit and begins to allow the Spirit to lead, the Holy Spirit will start to produce fruits in him. This is part of the workings of the Spirit in a believer. It is a product of the Truth a believer has received and is applying and allowing to bear fruits. This is a deliberate working of the Holy Spirit and cannot be produced by good intentions but only as a believer lets Him lead. The purpose of these fruits in the life of a believer is to make them more and more like Christ, so that they are able to submit to one another and serve others as Christ did and also commands us to do.
Counselor: The Holy Spirit works much like a typical counselor does. He works in a believer to give comfort by guiding, directing and empowering. However, unlike the typical counselor the Holy Spirit gives counsel only from the truth of the Word of God. His counsel is to help a believer in every area of his Christian walk so that the believer is not overwhelmed or misguided. The Holy Spirit empowers a believer by giving him strength or power in his inner man. The believer is emboldened to witness as the Spirit Himself brings about spiritual demonstrations to persuade those we witness to.
Another way the Holy Spirit empowers is by helping us with, and in our weaknesses. He intercedes for believers when they do not know how or what to pray for, so that even when He utters groans on behalf of the believer He is saying much more than can ever be expressed with the human mind.
Finally, the Holy Spirit empowers us through spiritual gifts that bring edification. These gifts are given as He wills but they help to edify and empower the church collectively and to build and strengthen the church in the Lord.
John 16:8, 9 “When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: About sin, because they do not believe in Me;”
John 15:26, 27 “When the Counselor comes, the One I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—He will testify about Me. You also will testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
John 14:26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit—the Father will send Him in My name—will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.
Galatians 5:22-26 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit”
Colossians 2:6 “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him,” Ephesians 3:16 I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit,
Romans 8: 26 “In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groaning.”
1 Corinthian 12: 4-11 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines”
Temitope Talabi is a founding member of The Trent Voices currently reside in Austin, TX. She graduated with a PharmD from Texas Southern University in Houston, TX. She works as a community pharmacist and spends her spare time writing to build and encourage others through the word of God. Temitope is also currently working on a series of self-help books created to empower people to take charge of their health and wellness, the first of which is scheduled to be released early next year.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
