The Acts of the Holy Spirit
ONCE WE WERE of the world
and in the world and it’s because of the Holy Spirit we were warned and turned
towards God to receive His forgiveness through Christ. The New Testament
contains elaborate teachings about how the Lord Holy Spirit goes about helping
the believers whom He indwells. Let us look into some of His activities:
1. The Holy Spirit indwells us and helps us
The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples “I will ask the
Father to give you another Helper, to be with you always. He is the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor
recognizes him. But you recognize him because He lives with you and will be in
you. I am not going to forsake you like orphans. I will come back to you” (John 14:16-18) Jesus Christ asked the
Father and that’s how the Father gave us the Holy Spirit to be with us
continually. He dwells in us, over us and around us. And this makes us unique
and different from the people of the world who do not know Christ. We are able
to recognize Him and that makes us bold and confident even in difficult
situations. It encourages us to know that the Holy Spirit will never leave us
nor forsake us.
He also told them what He would do about an unbelieving
world:
‘’When He comes, He will convict the world of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. Of sin, because they do not believe in me; of
righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me;
and of judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged’’ (John 16:8-11). All that the Father had
was Jesus’, and He had the authority to share them with us; He will also guide
us into all truth through the Holy Spirit (John
16:13-15). When we know the truth, the truth will set us (John 8:32) and we will not fall for
Satan’s tricks.
Simon Peter is a good
example. As the Holy Spirit had equipped him with courage and wisdom he got up instantly
and addressed a huge multinational gathering, fearlessly and eloquently,
rebuking, accusing and exhorting them—quoting many prophecies and Psalms that
had predicted the Day of Pentecost and thousands were led to repentance. With
3000 added to their minuscule group they were continuing steadfastly in the
apostles' doctrine, and in fellowship and in the breaking of the loaves, and in
prayers, and fear came on every soul. And many wonders and miracles took place
through the apostles.
2. The Holy Spirit helps us understand the revelation of
word of God.
According to what Jesus said in John 14:25-26 "I have told you this while I am still with you. But
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach
you all things and remind you of everything that I have told you”.
This has been evident in the past 2000 years in all the
preaching and teaching of all God’s ministers all over the world. When we read
Paul’s epistles we understand that the Holy Spirit taught him so many mysteries
about the word of God which nobody before him or after him had uttered. Man is
naturally forgetful and Jesus’ disciples and apostles could have been forgotten
or committed mistakes. It was the prompting of the Holy Spirit that helped them
co-relate to it so accurately. Even today, the Holy Spirit is the best teacher
of the word of God for us.
2Peter 1:20, 21 says that ‘’no prophecy of the Scripture came into being
of its own private interpretation. For prophecy was not borne at any time by
the will of man, but holy men of God spoke being borne along by the Holy
Spirit’’. The whole
Bible is a book of prophesy because it is the infallible word of God. In 2Timothy 3:16, 17
St. Paul says ‘’All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good action’’.
Though the disciples walked with Jesus for 3½ years they couldn’t understand or
remember what He spoke. But, once the Holy Spirit came upon them, then He revealed
to them the mysteries of the word of God that was hidden to them all these
days.
It becomes clear we can not
perceive the Biblical Truth and understand the purpose of God in our lives
without the help of the Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus had to blow on them to
give the Holy Spirit so that they would wait for the actual promise of the
Father to be fulfilled in them. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus always and
helps us to preserve the treasures that are in God the Father and Jesus Christ,
the Son of God so that we lack nothing in our lives.
3. The holy spirit raises us to a supernatural level
The believers in Jesus who are
filled by the power of the Holy Spirit are raised to a supernatural realm in
their knowledge and power of God. We are blessed in five ways:
We are enlightened: The eyes of
the inner man are opened so that they are able to perceive God and His plans
better. “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that
you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of
His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the
working of the strength of His might” (Ephesians
1:18, 19).
We receive the eternal life: The
moment we receive Jesus as our personal Saviour, we receive the eternal life which
is continued through eternity. Jesus
promised in John 10:28 “And I give to them eternal life, and they
shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand”.
Praying about His followers Jesus asks God “even as You have given Him authority
over all flesh so that He should give eternal life to all You have given Him” (John 17:2).
We are partners with the Holy
Spirit: He teaches how to live a
righteous life in this fallen world. he guards against the pitfalls of making
wrong decisions and to repent and receive forgiveness when we sin, he protects
our words, thoughts, and deeds from imitating the
world.
We taste the goodness of God’s
word: David said, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man
who trusts in Him”. People who have the Holy Spirit in them can join with David
and make the same blessed statement.
The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee
that we belong to Him and He will do what He promised. The Holy Spirit is like
a down payment, a deposit, a validating signature on the contract. The presence
of the Holy Spirit demonstrates the genuineness of our faith, proves that we
are God’s children and secures eternal life for us. His power works in us to
transform us now, and what we experience is a total change in eternity.
When we read the life story of men
and women of God in the Bible, it becomes obvious they all lived and a
supernatural life and accomplished things for God which normal men or women can
ever attempt to do.
Setting aside age-old prejudices, Philips
went to Samaria Africa . Philip was carried
away by the Spirit to Azotus to continue his work.
4. The Holy Spirit helps us in our prayer
For all
who are led by God's Spirit are God's children. We have not received a
spirit of slavery that leads you into fear again. Instead, we have received the
Spirit of adoption which enables to utter the filial cry "Abba, Father!" (Romans 8:14, 15). The Holy
Spirit of God who indwells us leads us in whatever we do, including our prayer
life. Hebrews 4:16 says “let us keep on coming boldly to
the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in
our time of need”. After the indwelling of the Holy Spirit became a feature in
the believers’ life, accessing the Throne of Grace became possible, a marked
departure from the way people approached God in the old (Moses’) priestly
system.
The Spirit also helps us in our
weaknesses. Judaism had not taught us how to pray, that was left to the
“experts”. We never knew how to pray properly, even whom to pray to. But the
Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words and shows how
to pray according to God’s will (Rom
8:26, 27). As a believer, you are not left with your own resources to cope with
problems. Even when we don’t know the right words to pray the Holy Spirit prays
with and for you, and God answers. With God assisting you to pray, you need not
be afraid to come before him. Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede for you, “in
harmony with God’s will’’. Then when you bring your requests to God, trust He
will always do what is best.
As for speaking in tongues during
prayer and worship, the Bible has to say this: 1 Cor. 14:2, “For the person who speaks in another language is not
actually speaking to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands him, because
he is talking about secrets by the Spirit”. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us
a new tongue to pray to God. The one who prays in tongues builds himself up and
gains personal edification. With
your mind subdued your spirit takes over and communicates with Spirit of God. Satan
who listens in to every prayer offered is confused and frustrated. (14:4), but the audience is not
benefitted unless the message is translated.
In Galatians 4:19 Paul tells the church “My children, for whom I am
again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you”. Jesus agonized
in prayer at Gethsemane until His sweat turned
into blood. These are the kind of victorious prayers that touch the world. When
the Holy Spirit is your prayer partner, you touch the throne of God!
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