What Does The Holy Spirit Do?
How are we filled with the Spirit? The Holy Spirit
entered you when you decided to give your life to Christ, to become a
Christian. But we need to continually ask the Holy Spirit to lead us, to
guide us, to help us do the things God wants us to do. When we're
growing as Christians, we should allow the Spirit to take control over
more and more areas of our lives.
The Holy Spirit plays many roles. You can read about
some of them in these passages: John 14:15-27, John 16:5-15, Romans
8:1-17, Galatians 5:16-26.
In John 14, for example, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will
comfort us when we're hurting. "I will not leave you as orphans," Jesus
says (14:18), promising that the Spirit will bring us peace (14:27).
Jesus also says the Spirit will help us recall the
things we've learned about God (14:26)—which also means the Spirit will
help us when we tell others about our faith.
In John 16, Jesus refers to the Spirit as a "Counselor"
who will guide us in our everyday lives. One way he'll guide us is by
convicting us of sin (16:8). And this is really a good thing: God wants
us to get rid of the things that displease him, and the only way to
identify those things is to be convicted by the Spirit. The Spirit works
through our conscience to make us aware of sin in our lives.
Romans 8 tells us the Spirit will help us stop sinning
and do the things that please God. A verse later in that chapter also
tells us that the Spirit helps us pray (8:26). We've all gone to God and
said, "Lord, I'm just not sure how to pray or what to say." The Holy
Spirit helps us in those times, and actually intercedes for us, saying
the prayers for us.
Now, the Holy Spirit can't do all the work for
us. We're still responsible to do our part—especially to consistently
read our Bibles and pray, asking the Spirit to show us the truth and
teach us how to live.
It's important to remember that the Spirit will not
prompt us to do anything that goes against Scripture. People sometimes
justify their actions by saying, "My conscience told me … " We need to
make sure we're listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, not the voice
of our own desires. And we know which is which by checking this voice
against the truth of God's Word.
How can you tell if you're being led by the Spirit? By
the "fruit" of your life—your attitudes and actions. Galatians 5:22-23
says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Are these things
evident in your life? Two verses later, it says, "Since we live by the
Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit."