Let us continue to look into some significant aspects of the ministry of God’s Spirit, especially into those that refer to the new life of salvation:
d) He wants to produce a Christlike life in the followers of Jesus:
Last week we saw how the apostle John explains in his Gospel that God’s life-giving Spirit wants to ‘rebirth’ us as children of God: “To all who believed him [Jesus] and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan-- this rebirth comes from God” (John 1:12-13).
Today we want to meditate upon the fact that the new life, which is born in us through the action of the Holy Spirit, is actually the life of Jesus Christ!
The apostle Paul pleads with God on behalf of the followers of Jesus in Ephesus (modern Turkey). He asks God the Father that the Holy Spirit may increase Christ’ life in their hearts:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit.
And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.
May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love.
And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.
Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).
Paul reminds the Christians in Rome how God has filled their hearts with his love (i.e., Christ’s love): “We know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love” (Romans 5:5).
The apostle explains to the Christians in Corinth (Greece) that God’s Spirit wants to produce a Godlike (i.e., Christlike) life in our hearts: “As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.”
(2 Corinthians 3:18).
To the followers of Jesus in Galatia (modern Turkey) the apostle Paul shows what that Godlike or Christlike life looks like in practice: “When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).
e) He wants to empower the followers of Jesus to overcome their rebellious past:
Paul reminds the followers of Jesus in Rome just who it was that released them from their disposition to rebel against God: “The power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:2).
A few chapters further on, the apostle urges his Christian friends to allow God the Son (through the presence of the Holy Spirit) to reign over their lives:
“We should be decent and true in everything we do, so that everyone can approve of our behavior.
Don't participate in wild parties and getting drunk, or in adultery and immoral living, or in fighting and jealousy.
But let the Lord Jesus Christ take control of you, and don't think of ways to indulge your evil desires” (Romans 13:13-14).
To the Christians in Galatia, Paul says the same: “So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves” (Galatians 5:16).
f) He is the dispenser of God’s wisdom and counsel so that Jesus’ followers can know God’s will and serve him:
Not only is God’s Spirit the giver of a new, eternal and Christlike life. He also wants to entrust to Jesus’ followers God’s wisdom and counsel. Then they can live a life in obedience to God’s will.
The prophet Isaiah had already forseen that the Holy Spirit would reveal God’s wisdom and counsel to Jesus Christ [the Messiah]: “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD” (Isaiah 11:2).
The apostle Paul prays that the Holy Spirit will reveal God’s wisdom and counsel to the followers of Jesus in Ephesus (modern Turkey): “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Ephesians 1:17).
g) He guides Jesus’ followers:
The Bible teaches us a lot about the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Jesus and his followers. Here are four examples:
During his time on earth, Jesus himself was led by the Spirit of God: “Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit to go out into the wilderness...” (Luke 4:1).
Luke tells us in Acts 13:2-4 how the Holy Spirit guided the prophets and teachers in Antioch (modern south-east Turkey): “While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’
So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off. The two of them, sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus.”
The apostle Paul clarifies the spiritual status of those who have received a new and eternal life from God’s Spirit: “All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Romans 8:14).
To the Christians in Galatia (modern Turkey) Paul writes: “If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives” (Galatians 5:25).
Are you a follower of Jesus and do you experience the guidance of God’s Spirit in your life?
The Bible verse Ephesians 1:17 is quoted from the ‘New International Version’. All other texts are quotes of the ‘New Living Translation’.
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