“The Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.” Billy Graham.

As mentioned in the previous post, the Holy Spirit is part of the triune Godhead and He happens to be the acting force of God. That is, He is the channel through which God manifests His power in men. He sensitizes us to our new nature in Christ, teaches and helps us to live a life that glorifies God. John 14, 15&16

The Holy Spirit prunes us to become more like Jesus. From the moment He enters the heart of a believer, He begins to prune that believer, removing things that are not of God in the person’s life. He teaches the person how to also live the divine life of God and helps him suppress his fleshy nature. The Holy Spirit unites such a person’s spirit with His, causing the person to look more like Jesus in character. This is why you would notice that a person becomes a somewhat-different version of himself/herself before salvation. The Holy Spirit is responsible for that transformation. Just as He transformed our Lord Jesus Christ at the point of resurrection, He does the same to us because we were also dead in Christ and resurrected to life in Him. He justifies and sanctifies us, giving us life eternal because of righteousness. (Titus 3:4-7 AMP)

Sometimes, words fail us, even in prayer. Sometimes, we’re so overwhelmed by the situation at hand that we do not know how to structure our words and put our problems before God. Other times, we ask for things based on the physical alone because we can only see as far as our eyes let us (except things are revealed to us by God Himself). Many times, we receive miracles and breakthroughs we didn’t pray for or even know that we needed. Permit me to tell you that that was most likely the Holy Spirit at work. Romans 8:26 tells us that we don’t know what to pray about or how to pray as we should but the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words. He prays for us. When we cannot pray or don’t know what to pray about, He stands in the presence of the Father for us, interceding on our behalf. A greater friend than this? I don’t think so.

God acts through His Spirit. Healings, bringing of the dead back to life and basically every other form of supernatural manifestation of God’s power, are done through the Holy Spirit. Do you remember when Jesus performed some spectacular miracles and the Pharisees were trying to attribute those miracles to satanic powers? Take note that summarily, Jesus tells them that they should be careful of speaking such vile things against the Holy Spirit. We can infer that the power by which Jesus was doing all those things was the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12: 22-32). Jesus even said it by Himself in Luke 4:18 that “the Spirit of the Lord upon me has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free”. All that Jesus manifested were based on empowerment by the Holy Spirit. Now think of this, He lives in you, the power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, do you really think sickness could or should take your life?

Preaching the gospel and telling people about Jesus and the salvation we have in Him as a result of God’s love isn’t as difficult anymore. In fact, it becomes easier with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Telling someone about the love Jesus has for them, just got easier! The bible tells us that when Jesus was leaving the earth, He said that the Holy Spirit will empower us to be His witnesses “in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth (far and wide)” Acts 1:8. If we even study the bible well, we’d realize that on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, timid Peter was no longer timid and he preached the gospel eloquently and so Spirit-filled that about 3000 were saved on that same day. Again, Jesus admonished us not to bother preparing defences should in case we are called someday to defend our faith at gun-point (I paraphrased). He said that at that moment, the Holy Spirit will give us what to say to silence our enemies (Mark 13:11). Telling someone about Jesus is much easier when you depend on the Holy Spirit… He gives you confidence and utterance. That is why the best of ministers are always those who are led by the Holy Spirit.

The effect of the Holy Spirit in the growth and transformation of a believer is very important. Matter of fact, He runs it. God knows you, very much, undoubted but how well do you know Him? You can never begin to know God and grow in that knowledge if you do not know who the Holy Spirit is, let alone manifest His power. However, it is very easy to be intimate with the Holy Ghost (as regards your relationship with Him) if you can spend more time by being conscious of His presence and by acknowledging Him in all you do. Proverbs 3:5-6

 I pray you’d live your lives well equipped with the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, walking in His power and basking in His grace as you rightly apply all that has been said, in Jesus’ name. Amen.