SS-The Role of The Holy Spirit in Daily

The Holy Spirit:
	  “The Holy Spirit, the third member of the godhead, fulfills an ongoing but invisible role of connection and communication between people and God.”  Throughout scripture, the Holy Spirit is mentioned. Both in the Old and New Testaments, the Holy Spirit speaks through and to people. It is also known as God’s Spirit. Genesis 1:2 states, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”  From the very beginning, the Spirit is mentioned as having always been there. Psalm 104:30 states, “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.”  The psalmist clearly understands the power of the Spirit. Paul writes in Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”  Paul also understands the power of the Holy Spirit. 
	   The Holy Spirit has many roles, which include regeneration and conversion, indwelling and empowering, guiding and teaching, sanctification, comfort and intercession, securing salvation, and spiritual gifting. 1 Peter 1:23 states, “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”  Romans 8:11 states, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”  Both of these verses support the claim of regeneration and conversion. 
	   Acts 1:8 states, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”  Luke records the words of Jesus as He tells His disciples that the Holy Spirit will come and dwell in them and guide them. This is just one verse of many stating that the Holy Spirit dwells in whoever the Lord chooses. Romans 8:11 is also a good example of empowerment through and from the Spirit. 
	   John 14:26 states, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”  Romans 8:14 states, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”  These two verses are great examples of the Holy Spirit’s guidance to those who listen and obey. Psalm 143:10 is another good example of this, which states, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!” 
	   The Holy Spirit also sanctifies believers. An everyday process that renews the mind and makes us more like Christ. 1 Peter 1:2 covers this well, stating, “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”  Sanctification is a process that occurs over a believer's lifetime. It’s not a one-and-done thing. It takes time. It’s a process that also requires us to be obedient to the Lord, deny ourselves daily, and pick up our cross to follow Him, as Jesus states in Matthew 16:24, “Then Jesus told His disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let Him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” 
	   The Holy Spirit comforts and intercedes on the believer's behalf, as seen in Romans 8:26, “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”  Paul writes to those who worry about what to say or when they are weak in the face of persecution. The Spirit is our connection to God.
	   The Spirit also brings about securing salvation. We know we are saved because we have the Spirit in us. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.”  We are saved because of what Christ did on the cross. The Holy Spirit assures us of our salvation when we are baptized by it. Not by water, but by the Spirit. 
	   The last thing the Holy Spirit does is give to each their own gifts of the Spirit. Paul covers this in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.

	

   Paul makes it very clear that all have gifts, some more, some less. Some will produce more fruit, and some will produce less. It’s not about the amount of fruit produced. It’s about whether there is any fruit being produced. This fruit can only be produced by faith. 

Daily Living:
	   As a Christian, when we give our lives to the Lord, we no longer live in the flesh. Our ways of living have now been changed, and our worldview has also changed. However, these things do not happen in an instant. Good fruit takes time to grow. This is something that happens daily in our walk with Christ. We are being sanctified daily, and we start to live more righteously. All this is done by the work of the Holy Spirit that Christ promises to those who give their life to Him. It’s much more than just declaring with your lips Christ is king. 
	   Paul states in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  Paul here is stating that it is not he who lives doing things in the flesh anymore. It is Christ who lives in him (via the Holy Spirit) and produces fruit. ﻿

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. 

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. 

   It is clear that Paul continually states that renewing the mind is crucial and a step to take daily in our walk with Christ. 

The role of the Holy Spirit in daily living:
	   As I have already shown, throughout the New Testament, we see that when one gives their life to the Lord, it doesn’t stay the same. Paul states numerous times that our mind is to be renewed by the Holy Spirit daily. We are to ask for the Holy Spirit’s help in our daily lives. We are not to quench the Spirit as Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. We are to rely on it for salvation, wisdom, and connection to the Lord. 
	   When we live our lives in obedience to God, we will naturally hear and feel the Spirit’s nudges more often. It’s all about getting into the quiet place with the Lord. However, we must first learn how to slow down and meditate on the word and seek the Lord. In the book How to Worship Jesus Christ, author Joseph S. Carroll writes 7 things prayer is. “Prayer is a sense of need, prayer is an expression of desire, prayer is a spirit of humility, prayer is an attitude of consecration, prayer is a privilege of fellowship, prayer is a spirit of enquiry, and prayer is a bond of union.”  
	   “We must come with dependence on the Holy Spirit who wants to draw out our hearts in worship, but this can only be as we learn to restfully depend on Him.”  We depend on the Holy Spirit for connection to Jesus. We can only be connected to Him by His Spirit. We can only have the Spirit through genuine repentant faith. We can only then produce fruit after receiving the Spirit, which Christ promised to all who put their faith in Him. 
	   When we enter into the quiet place with the Lord and seek Him who heartily and, let the Spirit do the work, and simply be obedient. We will naturally get closer to the Lord. However, we must first understand what may be hindering us from getting to that point. Carroll writes, “We need to carefully consider the following six hindrances, for to ignore them is to forfeit a consistent experience of satisfying worship.”  Those six hinderances are an unsurrendered heart, unconfessed sin, wrong attitude, enemy opposition, physical tiredness, and unbelief. 
Personal Application:
	   In my experience, I have learned a lot from having the Holy Spirit in my daily life. The Spirit has guided me and comforted me in times of need. I also realize that without the Spirit, my relationship with the Lord would not be where it’s at today. I am constantly getting guidance, conviction, and comfort from Him. Something I feel would be good to incorporate in this essay would be what I have been diving into more recently. We have to learn to stop trying to have a louder no to sin and have a deeper yes to Christ. We can’t prevent sin or temptation on our own. The only way to break these cycles of sin or temptation is to fill our lives with more Jesus. The more Jesus we have, the less sin has space to roam. 
	   I also personally loved the story Joseph S. Carroll put at the end of his book. Tom Walton was so filled with Christ that everyone simply called him “Christian.” That’s the type of faith I want to have and how boldly I want to proclaim it. It is only through daily obedience to the Lord through the Spirit that faith like this is possible. 

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. 

   It is only by faith that this fruit is produced. This is not to be confused with good works, however. Paul goes on to state in Galatians 2:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”  Paul clearly states that it is only by the grace of the Lord that he was given mercy and the ability to produce fruit in the Spirit. The Lord isn’t going to say well done, my good and fruitful servant. He is going to say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” In Matthew 25:14-30, we see that it’s not by the measurement of fruit that one enters the kingdom of heaven, but by the measurement of faith. Faith produces fruit if genuine. 

The Role of The Holy Spirit in Daily Spirituality

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