Lifebyte 13. Freedom In Jesus Video Series (Part 1)
Certain Of What We Do Not See
The Unseen Indwelling Holy Spirit
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We’ve already discussed that God continues to reveal Himself through His creation, and that He most importantly has revealed Himself in the coming of Jesus to Earth. But that doesn’t encompass the total revelation through which we experience God. We’d be unable to fully relate to our Lord if we knew Him only by His work, as precious as that is.
Our Father and Jesus foresaw this relational barrier. They recognized the need to baptize with the Holy Spirit those who trusted Jesus. One of the names of Jesus is “Immanuel”, which means “God with us”. And when we become children of our Father, the Spirit dwells in us.
From God with us to God in us is quite a transition! Keep in mind that all of this is an act of our Father in trying to both reveal Himself to us and to enable us to relate to Him. (We discuss the indwelling Holy Spirit more completely in our Jesus In Your Home video series, and in our article, The Gospel of the Covenant Is The Pilgrimage To Salvation. We trust you’ll be blessed if you’ll pursue these two resources on the Holy Spirit.)
Many Christians limit the Holy Spirit’s role in God’s revelation to the Newer Testament. But this is far from the truth. The Spirit was an integral part of creation in Genesis. He was also in the midst of the Israelites during their wilderness journey (Isaiah 63:11). The Older Testament testifies that the Holy Spirit entered particular individuals to enable them to perform extraordinary acts on God’s behalf. Let’s examine three instances in the Hebrew Scriptures in which the Spirit came upon someone:
A key example is Joseph (Genesis 41:38), whom God raised up in authority over all of Egypt to prepare the country to face the coming famine.
Then we have Bezalel (Exodus 31:3), in whom our Lord placed His Spirit so he could serve Moses in building the Tabernacle.
And when God wanted to raise up a wise successor for Moses, we’re told, “Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the LORD had commanded Moses” (Deuteronomy 34:9).
When our Lord promises, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6), do you realize that He means for this to apply for all ages? The Holy Spirit in the Father’s children not only separates us out from all mankind, He enables us to obey and complete our Father’s purposes for us.
Why Be Baptized In The Holy Spirit?
No one can point to the Holy Spirit and say, “There He is!” Yet, an invisible God-person enters into every true follower of Jesus to abide. We realize that in some sectors of Christianity, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a controversial subject. And probably because the Spirit is so significant in the way our Father uses people to fulfill His purposes, Satan would like nothing more than to make the Holy Spirit a divisive topic.
So we want to affirm here a key biblical truth proclaimed by John the Baptizer: "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Matthew 3:11).
On that Pentecost morning that’s described in Acts chapter 2, the promised Holy Spirit unmistakably arrived! The Holy Spirit is first and foremost the evidence of our union in Jesus. He’s the means through which God’s power is released in the follower of Jesus: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). (See God’s Instruments for War, Chapter 1. “The Anointing of the Holy Spirit: God’s Power Given To Man”, a free download.)
A follower of Jesus NEEDS an empowered life to fulfill our Father’s purposes in and through him! And that loving obedience is made possible by the invisible Spirit of Jesus dwelling within. Our God doesn’t depend on our strength or intelligence to fulfill His plans. He values instead our dependence on His Spirit. The purpose of these Lifebytes is NOT to add to your head knowledge. Our Lord is looking for a transformed life that’s continually being conformed to the character of Jesus.
Settle this question for yourself:
• Do those who know you intimately in the faith see you living a Spirit-empowered life?
Mike’s Testimony
Shortly after I became a follower of Jesus, my ship went on a 10-month deployment to the western Pacific. I asked our Lord to raise up others on the ship who followed Jesus no matter what the cost. One of these men was Dave. He had something none of the rest of us had — insights and revelations from God that only our Lord could have provided. One day at sea Dave came to me and said, “I’m up for reenlistment and I don’t know whether God wants me to stay in or get out. Would you pray about it for me?” That was the first time anyone had ever asked me to seek God for a decision.
Over the next few days I kept hearing an inner voice say, “Tell Dave to toss a coin.” I ran into Dave on the third day and asked him if God had shown him anything. He answered, “I keep hearing this voice saying to me, ‘Dave, toss a coin.’” Dave tossed a coin and left the Navy. We later realized that God had been testing Dave’s trust. One verse in particular jumped out at us as Dave’s application of a biblical truth: “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33).
After Dave left, we recognized a void in our fellowship on the ship. The unique way in which Dave had served among us was missing. So we prayed, “Lord, whatever it was that Dave had, would You give it to one of us?” About a week later, Mark, one of the brothers who’d come to Christ on the cruise, came to my stateroom. He told me, “My wife wrote me that she wants a divorce because I’ve become a follower of Jesus.” Now, that sounded pretty strange to me. I asked Mark to kneel down with me and pray. As soon as I began to pray, I heard a voice inside me say, “It isn’t because of Me that his wife wants the divorce.” The voice then described a despicable thing Mark had done the previous July 17th. I turned to Mark and asked him, “Did you ever do thus-and-such to your wife?” He turned white as a sheet and nodded yes. I asked, “Was it on July 17th?” “Yes”, he replied, “I did that to my wife on our anniversary.”
Mark wrote her asking forgiveness, and God intervened in their relationship. Later I discovered that I’d been given by the Holy Spirit a gift of prophecy. And, ever since then, God has given me insights about people that they knew could only have come from Him.
Sue’s Testimony
I became a follower of Jesus a few months after Mike did, and the Holy Spirit gave me gifts of faith and exhortation. In Part 2 of the Freedom In Jesus series I share a testimony of the Spirit’s work through me with the gift of faith.
But regarding the gift of exhortation, He seems most often to use me when situations occur in people’s lives and they’re stymied — when they sense something’s out of kilter and they need encouragement or motivation to follow through on what the Spirit is revealing to them. The words the Holy Spirit speaks through me aren’t something I’ve conjured up on my own. Most of the time I’m amazed at what comes out of my mouth when the Spirit’s using me to encourage or challenge a fellow follower of Jesus in their obedient trust! (For more on this,topic, please see God’s Instruments For War, Chapter 5. “Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts”, a free download.)
The Holy Spirit, Our Teacher
During the years the two of us have followed Jesus, the indwelling Holy Spirit has often relocated us. That’s His way to lead us to particular people and situations in which He could use us to fulfill His purposes. Not only has the Spirit of Jesus led us and empowered us, but He’s also been our indwelling guide and teacher. And that’s just what Jesus promised His Spirit would do! "But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you" (John 14:26).
Think of the invisible person of the Holy Spirit as your intimate, two-way communicator with your heavenly Father:
• The invisible Holy Spirit communicates our Father’s will and His love through your spirit into your mind so you can respond in obedient love.
• As the Spirit of wisdom He gives you God’s understanding of truth.
• When you pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes with our Father.
Can you see how the process by which you’ve learned in the past CHANGES when you learn through the Spirit?
Prior to the Spirit’s indwelling, all that you learned was acquired solely through your physical senses sending information to your mind. But as a Spirit-led follower of Jesus, truth is learned, affirmed, and applied by the Holy Spirit into your spirit.
Sadly, so many Christians never make this transition. They’re still dependent solely on their five senses to impart information to their mind. They’re minimizing their dependence on the Spirit of Jesus. Are you not trusting the Holy Spirit to guide and direct each day’s decisions and plans, and relying instead on your own mind and rationale? Then you’re grieving Him, and quenching His purpose and power in your life.
The Spirit of Conviction
The Bible reveals that the Holy Spirit is also God’s means of convicting people of their sin. Conviction means that they’re seeing their sin from God’s vantage point and recognizing there are consequences if they continue on that path. Jesus revealed this role of His Spirit to His disciples so they’d recognize His work: “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).
This convicting work of the Holy Spirit is a great kindness that our holy God has given to mankind. If the Spirit didn’t convict people of their violations of God’s commands, they’d only grow more evil. Picture, for example, if this nation had no police establishment to enforce the laws of this land. What do you think would happen? Society would only grow more chaotic and lawless. That’s why our Father so accurately described humanity, that “every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). God knew we needed help!
Consider how necessary the indwelling Holy Spirit is to followers of Jesus for them to be able
• to be convicted of their sins,
• to repent for their sins,
• to be cleansed of all unrighteousness.
If you’ll read our Hebraic article, The Gospel Of The Covenant Is The Pilgrimage To Salvation, you’ll see how powerful is the prayer of a righteous person who’s free from unconfessed sin! What glory that person brings to our Father! In essence, the indwelling Holy Spirit enables followers of Jesus to live holy lives. He enables them to be used for sacred purposes in God’s Kingdom.
Faith Versus Reason
The indwelling Holy Spirit is the key figure in the age-old distinction between faith and reason. To state it simply:
Faith is of the Spirit, reason is of the mind.
Make sure you recognize this distinctive: Faith is of the Spirit, and reason is of the mind. If you’re a follower of Jesus, the indwelling Holy Spirit makes it possible for you to live by faith, not by reliance on your reasoning ability.
A follower of Jesus is able to interact with the unseen Godhead through their spirit interacting with the indwelling Holy Spirit. And that connection is what makes your faith viable. You have a spirit-to-spirit connection. Now that’s high-speed access!
This is impossible for a person in whom there is no indwelling Holy Spirit. "This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:13,14).
If you’re NOT indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus, you can only interact with the physical world around you through your five senses. Your senses are the only connection the mind has, and it’s only with the physical world.
The Spirit-to-spirit connection in a follower of Jesus produces a noticeable difference in your life. You can’t hide that the Spirit of God has taken up His dwelling in you! Along with your obedient trust, other indicators of the Spirit’s presence show up in your life. The Bible affirms certain signs that evidence that the Holy Spirit is truly in someone who claims to be a Christian. In other words, it isn’t what someone without the Spirit claims to be, but the evidence of the Spirit’s presence that confirms your true status as our Father’s child. Romans 8:9 sums it up simply: “...if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (Romans 8:9).
Let’s examine a few indicators of the Holy Spirit’s presence in a person based on what we’ve already shared in this Lifebyte.
First, the presence of the Holy Spirit in you indicates you’ve embraced the true Gospel. The 23,000 competing denominations worldwide each proclaim their own individual versions of the Gospel. Somebody’s distorting the truth! So the Spirit’s presence in you is your assurance that you’ve embraced the true Gospel.
Second, the convicting presence of the Holy Spirit causes you to live repentantly. You have a readiness to confess your sins and turn from them, and you’re reluctant to even tolerate unconfessed sin in your life.
Third, your life is empowered by the Spirit. Paul tells us, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit...All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He gives them to each one, just as He determines” (1 Corinthians 12:4,11).
When you’re empowered by the Spirit of God in you, everyone who knows you will recognize it! Just look at the life changes in followers of Jesus in the Book of Acts. Out of your mouth will flow testimonies to our Father’s glory. The Spirit of God in you enables you to experience the Father and His Son. Do you think that someone who experiences God can keep His mouth shut about what that Spirit is doing in and through him? We don’t think so!
Please consider and answer these two questions:
• Would you and those who know you well in the faith attest that they see indicators of the Holy Spirit in you?
• On a continuum of faith versus reason, where would you place yourself in relation to your response to God?
Faith < < < < < < 0 > > > > > > Reason
We want to encourage you: The same power that came upon Jesus when He rose up out of the Jordan River is available to you and to everyone else who puts their trust in Jesus as the Bible stipulates. Paul describes it this way: "...His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 1:19,20).
Although the Spirit’s presence in us is unseen, His working in each of us is evident. Weigh these realities about the Holy Spirit:
• He’s either dwelling within you, or He’s not.
• You either live convicted and repentant so that you’re in full fellowship with our Lord, or you don’t.
• You either live empowered by Him, or you don’t.
If you have any doubts about His presence in you, please stop and read the articles and videos we’ve highlighted in these segments so far. If you don’t, everything we share will go to your head through your eyes. But, you’ll be no better off for having spent the time reading this.
As you’ll see in the segments to follow in which we discuss Satan, his hierarchy, and his strategies, a person without the Holy Spirit doesn’t have a chance in the very real spiritual warfare being waged against him. Remove all doubt so your spirit can cooperate with, and be safeguarded by, God’s Spirit. Then you can live a continually transforming life, no longer relying on your five senses but on the Holy Spirit at work within you!