When you asked Jesus to be the leader and forgiver of your life, God placed within you the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible says in Ephesians 1,
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
God’s Holy Spirit came to live inside of you and to fill the emptiness that you have had for so long. I want to talk to you about what the Holy Spirit does for you.
1. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin.
Jesus said in John 16, talking about the Holy Spirit, “When he comes, he (Holy Spirit) will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” Verse 8
When I was 15 years old, something was missing in my life like it was in your life. I was so lost and so empty. I wanted to find out what Jesus was about, so I began to read the book of John. I got to John chapter 14, and I was so overwhelmed by my sin and by the love of God that I got on my knees and begged Jesus to forgive me and fill the emptiness I had inside.
Where did that conviction of my sin come from? It came from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shows us that we are in desperate need of God, and it is this gnawing feeling inside of our gut that we have done the wrong thing rather than the God-honoring thing.
When you rip into someone with your words, the Holy Spirit will let you know inside your gut that what you did was wrong. In fact, the Holy Spirit will probably put in your mind that you need to apologize to that person and ask for their forgiveness, and if you refuse to do that, the Holy Spirit will keep bugging you about it until you make things right.
Any time we say something we shouldn’t have said, or treated someone as less than or looked at something that we should have turned away from or did something that we should not have done, the Holy Spirit will put an uneasiness inside of you that will cause you to repent or turn away from whatever it was and go and do what God would want you to do.
This is a good thing because the Holy Spirit is trying to protect us. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will give us an uneasy feeling even before we commit the sin. The Holy Spirit will warn us not to go to certain places or say certain things. The Holy Spirit wants to protect us from making a fool of ourselves.
The key is to listen when the Holy Spirit does this in your life and not ignore what He is trying to tell you.
2. The Holy Spirit also gives us the power to overcome.
2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”
Now that you are a follower of Jesus, you have the power of God living in you. The Bible says in 1 John that “Greater is he who is in us then he that is in the world.” We have the power inside of us to break every habit, every addiction, and every sin. We have the power of God inside of us to overcome any obstacle and move forward in faith rather than in fear.
How do we tap into this power on a daily basis? In Ephesian 5:18, the Bible tells us to “be filled with the Spirit.” That means we are supposed to allow the Holy Spirit to have free reign in our life. That means every day, we tell God, I want you to lead me and guide me. I surrender the leadership of my life over to you.
For this to work, a person has to want the Holy Spirit to lead their life. You have to want to follow him. You have to want to hear from him. You have to want to obey Him. Let’s be honest; a lot of people don’t want the Holy Spirit messing with their life.
I hope you do because if you listen to Him and obey Him, the Holy Spirit will save you from a world of regret, but understand the Holy Spirit will not force Himself on you. You can live in your own power and struggle, or you can tap into the power of the Holy Spirit.
We can ignore the gentle nudge in our spirit that tells us that we are off track. We can say no to God’s leading day after day after day, and if we do that, we will end up in a place that we never wanted to be.
And that is why confessing our sin daily is so important because it’s easy for us to rationalize our sin and act like what we did wasn’t that big of a deal. The more we allow ourselves to do tha, the deafer we will become to the leadings of the Holy Spirit in our life.
We should keep short sin accounts all day long. God, I should not have said that, I should not have looked at that, I should have helped out, I should have spoken up, I should have done more. The more you pray prayers like that throughout the day, the more sensitive you become to the Spirit of God, and the more in step you become with what He wants for your life.
One more thing about the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will counsel us and comfort us.
Jesus said in John 16:7, “but I tell you the truth, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go, the Counselor will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you.”
Jesus uses an interesting word to describe the Holy Spirit. He used the word “counselor.” It is the word “paraclete.” We don’t have a word in the English language to describe the word “paraclete.” It means several things. It means the Holy Spirit is our helper, our comforter, and our advocate. It literally means that the Holy Spirit is God coming alongside us to help us in our day-to-day life.
The Holy Spirit is also our advocate. Our helper in our greatest time of need. Let me try to explain what this means.
A few years ago, when my middle daughter Hannah was in elementary school, she had some learning difficulties, and she quickly fell behind the other kids in her class. It wasn’t her fault. She worked really hard to keep up, but she couldn’t. Her teachers tried to help her, but when you have 25 other kids in your class that all need your help as well, it’s hard to put the time and effort into the child who has the greatest need.
Hannah’s whole personality began to change. She went from a carefree, fun, laughter-filled little girl to a very serious and stressed out kid. In fact, she cried many nights thinking about having to go to school the next day. It was overwhelming to her.
We knew if we didn’t intervene, things were only going to get worse for her. My wife, who at the time, was getting her bachelor’s degree in teaching, decided to step out of her schooling to homeschool Hannah.
I’ll never forget the look on Hannah’s face when my wife held her in her arms and said, “I know school has been tough for you. I want you to know that I am going to help you. I’m going to start teaching you at home, and together we are going to make it. It’s not just you by yourself anymore. I will stand with you, I will help you, and I will be there for you because I love you more than you will ever know.”
Hannah doesn’t struggle anymore because she had an advocate, a helper to get over the obstacles of life.
Friends, the Holy Spirit wants to wrap his arms around you and let you know that you are not alone. He will help you, sustain you, guide you, and be with you, because He loves you more than you will ever know.
©2024 Sagebrush Church
