When our Messiah ascended to heaven, He promised his disciples that the Father would send a Comforter who will teach men all things and remind men all things which Messiah said. Who is this ‘Comforter’? This comforter is none other than the Holy Spirit. (John.14: 26.)  The Holy Spirit is not something new. He existed right from the beginning. ’And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth (Gen.1: 2). In Gen.2: 7 we read that God breathed the breath of life into man. In Job.32:8 we read ‘there is a spirit in man’.
Many people refer to the Holy Spirit as ‘it’. But we can see from John.14: 26 that the Holy Spirit is a man.’He will teach you all things’. The Spirit is an intelligent being which the world cannot deceive. (John. 14: 17.)

Now, what is the work of the Holy Spirit? Briefly we will see the Holy Spirit at work in the following lines.

The Spirit gives us life. In John.6: 63, our Messiah says that the Spirit gives life and that the words that he spoke are the spirit and they are life. We are alive this day because of the Spirit. The breath of life, which God breathed into man, is the Spirit. We are born with the Spirit in us. However we are not aware of this. The Holy Spirit starts working in us when we acknowledge His presence.

The Spirit frees us from the law of sin and death. The laws and rituals of the Old Testament are regarding the flesh but the law of the spirit of life in Messiah frees us from this law of sin and death. (Rom.8: 2.) We are living in a period of grace; any earthly or fleshy laws do not bind us anymore. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by our Messiah. (John.1: 17.)

The Spirit teaches us what to speak. In times of troubles, when we are persecuted for His name’s sake, do not give any thought to what we should speak because the Spirit Himself will speak through us. (Mark.13: 11.)

The Spirit cleans us from sin. The scriptures say that thieves, drunkards, idolaters, revilers etc, cannot enter into the kingdom of God. But we have this blessed hope that the blood of Messiah cleanses us from sin, making us pure and acceptable in the kingdom of God with the presence of the Holy Spirit. (I Cor.6: 11.)

The Spirit teaches us to pray. Many of us do not know how to pray. So Messiah gave us the Lord’s Prayer. We do not know what to pray for. We are confused and many times our prayers are just reciting from memory the prayers that we learned many years back. Rom.8: 26 says that the Spirit makes intercession for us, with groaning which cannot be uttered.

The Spirit is given to man. The Holy Spirit is given to every one who believes and obeys Him. (Acts.5: 32.) God sent the spirit of His Son into our hearts. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, we do things that are pleasing to God—not caring for the worldly things or walking after the flesh, i.e., the lust of the eyes, lust of flesh or pride of life.
Man sometime in the past lived a foolish life, following after worldly things, but after the Spirit entered our lives, He saved us by the renewing of the Spirit.

Messiah gave us a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. (II Tim.1: 7.) To be spiritually minded is life and peace but to be carnally minded is enmity against God. It is also written that in the end times men shall be lovers of self, boasters, proud, etc having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. (II Tim.3: 5.) They pretend to be very righteous people and try to teach the good news to everyone but this good news is according to their own interpretation but not as led by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells in us and if we are led by the spirit, we are the sons of God.(Rom.8: 14.)  The Holy Spirit is the source of all scriptures and knowledge. We can begin to understand the scriptures only when the Spirit guides us.
 
The Holy Spirit is one person and not many as is written in Eph.4: 4.There is one body and one spirit.

So we can now see how important it is for Holy Spirit to take control of our lives and to lead us in every step of our life, because it is written  ‘for the kingdom of God is not meat and drink: but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. (Rom.14: 17)

Do not resist the Holy Spirit…
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit…
And finally all sins will be forgiven except the sin against the Holy Spirit because if you sin against the Spirit you are denying the power of the Spirit.

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Maranatha Prayer Fellowship. # 311, Agarwal Chambers, King Koti, Hyderabad-500 001, A.P.India.
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