GETTING TO KNOW THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Who is the Holy Spirit now? The purpose of this sermon is to bring you into the knowledge of the person of the Holy Spirit so that you may be able to come into a full and complete relationship with Him, so that you may live with the reality of the indwelling God living in you, one with you, and that you may hunger and thirst to yield all aspects of your life to Him, so that you may be able to experience His love, His care, and His guidance. The Holy Spirit loves you, and He is with you. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity: the first is God the Father, the second person is God the Son, and the third is God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is probably the least understood from the holy Trinity. We know about our Lord and Savior Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary; we know about God the Father and the Creator of heaven and earth. It is not hard to identify or have an understanding of God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity. Correct doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ is simple, and that is what we must follow. The doctrine is of love, and that He died for us in Calvary because of love, and on the third day He was resurrected, and He promised the Holy Spirit who will give us power, Acts 1 verse 8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” I believe that a lot of Christians have gone to Calvary for pardon; many of us have gone to Calvary for forgiveness of sin, but have failed to go to Pentecost for power. I need to repeat that one more time: many of us have gone to Calvary for pardon, many of us have gone to Calvary for forgiveness of sin, but have failed to go to Pentecost for power, and for us to receive power we need to go to Pentecost. My brothers and sisters, we need to go to Pentecost for power.

One of the most confusing things for the disciples must have been when Jesus told them that it was in their best interest that He was leaving them. They must have wondered how on earth is it in their best interest that Jesus was leaving them. John 16 verse 7 and 8: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” How does that make you feel that you have God living in you? You have the Comforter within you. What a tremendous experience to have the Holy Spirit in you. The first thing we must highlight is the reality that the Holy Spirit is not an “it” but a “He.” He is not a thing, He is not an essence, He is not a power, He is not a wind, He is not a nature or even a concept, but He is a real person. You see, if you think of the Holy Spirit as anything other than a person, it will be impossible for you to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit. You cannot develop a relationship with a concept or an essence, but you can develop a relationship with a person. Our Lord Jesus always referred to the Holy Spirit as a person: “He,” “Him.” And you today can have a relationship with Him each and every day of your life. He has been sent by the Father at the request of Jesus to come and live each day to help you and to be with you. He will be with you in your time of need. Now, if there was ever a group of men who were in a time of need, it was the disciples. These disciples were troubled, and in all honesty, they had every right to be troubled. Their world had just been shattered because Jesus had told them that one of them would betray Him, and that did not go down well with them. Following that, He told them that Peter was going to deny Him, and that hurt them because Peter was their leader; he was the strong one. And then finally, He told them that He was leaving. Jesus was leaving them. Circumstances were against them, their enemies were against them, their friends were against them, and the world was against them, and on top of all that, Jesus was leaving. John 14 verses 16 to 18: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”

What are the things that the Holy Spirit will do for us? Number one, He will teach us things. We believe we know all things until they overwhelm us, until we become powerless. When I was a teenager, I remember at one stage I genuinely believed that I had life figured out, but the more I grew up, the more I found out there is more to this life than what I knew. We cannot know all things because some things are spiritual. Our eyes cannot see beyond the physical except we are opened to the spiritual. This is what the Holy Spirit will do for us: He will teach us the things of the spirit. Sometimes you read the Bible and it seems you cannot understand anything; the Holy Spirit will teach us the Word of God, the Holy Spirit will teach us the ways of God. The truth is, the things of God are spiritually discerned, and the Bible is a spiritual book. You cannot truly understand the Bible without the Holy Spirit. You can be educated from Harvard and not understand the Bible; you can be as intelligent as Stephen Hawking was and not understand the Bible. However, a person who may not be highly educated can be filled with the Holy Spirit and can open the pages of this book and understand it. Understanding and reading the Bible has nothing to do with your intellect. You have a teacher who has opened your mind to spiritual things, and one of those spiritual things is the Word of God, the Bible. The Holy Spirit will not just teach us things, but He will also remind us of the things of God that we have ever learned. Secondly, He is the Comforter: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter.” This word “Comforter” has been gravely misunderstood. When the Holy Spirit is our Comforter, we think of Him as our cuddle buddy, we think of Him as a soft safety net to protect us from the challenges of life. This is incorrect. In Latin, the word “com” means “with,” and “fort” means “strength.” Did you hear that? The Holy Spirit is there to come with strength. Are you tired and weary? You need more of the Holy Spirit. Is your heart broken and alone? You need more of the Holy Spirit. In other words, what the Holy Spirit does is, instead of coming into your life to hide you away from facing the challenges of life, the Holy Spirit allows you to fellowship with Him, and He strengthens you during that time, and once you are strong enough again, He sends you out with strength to face the challenges of life. The Holy Spirit is not there to be a babysitter where the baby cries and He picks you up and says, “There, there, honey, let me take all your troubles away,” but rather He says, “You are going through some trouble, come here, here is some strength, now back to the battle.” Too often Christians perceive the Holy Spirit as someone who shields them from all the challenges of life. The Holy Spirit does shield us from some things, but more often than not He gives us the strength to overcome those challenges we face. Are you overwhelmed today? Spend time with the Holy Spirit. Are you about to give up? Spend time with the Holy Spirit. Are you brokenhearted? Spend time with the Holy Spirit. Yes, you may be weak, but the Holy Spirit will give you strength you need in whatever situation you find yourself in. You can ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you. The Holy Spirit is interested in every part of your life; you don’t have to live this life alone, you don’t have to go through this life alone. Pray and say, “Holy Spirit, I need you here, please give me the strength to overcome this situation.” Yield your life to the Holy Spirit and allow Him in.

The effects of the Holy Spirit on a believer: after waiting and receiving the promise of the Father on the day of Pentecost, the effect of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and the believers was so evident. The effects of the Holy Spirit as narrated in the book of Acts was the cause of the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ. Now, the emphasis on the Holy Spirit came from the Lord Jesus Himself when He told the disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, not to embark or engage themselves in any work of the ministry before they receive power to minister according to Acts 1 verse 4. Jesus knew the effects that the Holy Spirit was going to have upon their life, their ministry, and the church at large. The Holy Spirit still has the same effects today that were seen on the day of Pentecost. What are the effects of being indwelled by the Holy Spirit? Number one: the power to overcome sin. A christian has two natures: a sinful nature received at their physical birth, and a new nature received at their spiritual birth. The flesh desires to sin against God, but the new nature, which is empowered and led by the Holy Spirit, desires to be faithful and please God. When you are born again, it is your spirit that is born again, not your body; your body will still crave and desire fleshly things. That is the old man. Too often people believe there is something wrong with them or they are not saved when they are tempted, but that is incorrect. Being tempted is not a sin; giving into temptation, however, is the sin. But with the Holy Spirit we have the power to overcome sin. Romans 8 verse 14 says: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The Holy Spirit helps the believer to fight the sinful desires. This is why Galatians 5 verse 16 says: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” The Holy Spirit equips a Christian to live a life of faithfulness to God. It is the Holy Spirit who urges a believer to repent when he has fallen so that he makes things right again with God. The Holy Spirit helps the believer to repentance. Give yourself over to the Holy Spirit and live life above sin. Now, it is important to note that the Holy Spirit will not force you to do anything; God is not in the business of forcing people to do anything. It is your choice whether or not to allow the Holy Spirit to empower you and to overcome sin.

Another thing the Holy Spirit does in your life is to give you the power to live a Christ-like life. Being Christ-like is a transformation that takes place from the inside to outside through the working of the Holy Spirit. After one has received Jesus Christ into their life and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, it is the duty, the assignment of the Holy Spirit to produce a Christ-like character in a believer. A believer therefore gradually becomes more and more like Jesus as he works out his salvation with fear and trembling, Philippians 2 verse 12 through sanctification. The character of a believer comes from within by the power of the Holy Spirit; it is the Spirit who has come to indwell us that seeks to transform us by making us more and more like Jesus. For He foreknew us and predestined us so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 8 verse 29. Being like Christ means that you trust and depend on your heavenly Father for all things, and the Holy Spirit will enable the believer to have the traits of Jesus like humility, forgiveness, compassion, and the like. One cannot reproduce the character of Jesus on their own or by their own strength; it does not matter how many New Year’s resolutions that you make about living like Christ. Philippians 2 verse 13 says: “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit causes the believer to produce fruit. The power of the Holy Spirit upon the believer enables him to have the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23 says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” The fruits of the spirit, kindness. Now, when the Holy Spirit comes into your life, a change takes place. There is a transformation that takes place, an unusual transformation. As a result of that transformation, a person begins to yield fruits. Galatians 5 verses 22 to 23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: against such there is no law.” In the King James Version of the Bible, kindness is referred to as gentleness. The Greek word for kindness is “chrestotes.” When the Holy Spirit enters your life, God’s nature moves into you, and this makes you different to the people of the world. This makes you unique. Kindness is one of the characteristics of God. The wonderful reality of salvation testifies to the kindness of God. One of the reasons salvation exists is because God is a kind God. Titus 3 verses 4 and 5: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.

” Romans 11 verse 22: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” Our God is a kind God; if He wasn’t, the whole world would have a one-way ticket to hell right now, for all have sinned. Oh, how we need to thank God for His kindness! When was the last time you thanked God for His kindness? Kindness is in God’s nature, and if you are born again, the Holy Spirit will bear fruit of kindness in your life. We see in Galatians that kindness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. You cannot have the Holy Spirit and be as mean as a rattlesnake. I have in my time met people who were just mean; everything about them was mean. They would say they are Christians, but they were just heartless. The world needs kind people, but we have a limited number of kind people. When the Holy Spirit comes into the life of a Christian, He produces these fruits in the individual. All these characteristics are seen and experienced in the heart of a believer. I am amazed at Christians who say they did not change when they are born again. My friend, if you did not change when the Holy Spirit entered your life, then you are not dealing with the Holy Spirit. My friend, you are dealing with something else. When the Holy Spirit enters your life, a transformation takes place, a transformation that goes beyond this natural world. You begin to change; this change in turn becomes evidence that the Holy Spirit is living in us, leading us, and that we are walking in Him, just as the Bible says: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being,” Acts 17 verse 28.

When the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer, he gives him the ability to witness the goodness of the Lord to others, and one becomes fruitful by bringing people to the kingdom of God, thereby fulfilling the Great Commission as well as what the Lord Jesus said in Acts 1 verse 8, that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. This therefore means it is impossible to evangelize without the power, anointing, and equipping of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in Luke 4 verse 18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4 verses 19. One cannot act to be anointed; a believer has to be anointed. The Spirit of God has to be upon a child of God in order for them to do the work of God in the name of Jesus and to preach the gospel of truth. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1 verse 8: “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” The Christian life is an empowered life; there is no Christian life without the Holy Spirit.

You cannot have one without the other. Without the Holy Spirit, all an individual is involved in is religious practices. We need the Holy Spirit in more ways than we know or can even understand. He is the one who introduces us into the kingdom of God, He is the one who works in us to transform us and change us, He is the one that gives us the victory over sin, He is the one that guides us into all truth. He is the Spirit that leads us, He is the Spirit that sanctifies us, He is the Spirit that empowers us, He is the Spirit that fills us, He is the Spirit that seals us unto the day of redemption, He is the Spirit that quickens our mortal bodies, He is the Spirit that cries in our hearts, “Abba, Father.” He is the Spirit that strengthens our spirits, He is the Spirit that teaches us to pray, He is the Spirit that bears witness in us that we are children of God, He is the Spirit that produces in us the fruit or evidence of His work and presence, He is the Spirit that washes and renews us, He is the Spirit that regenerates us. He is the Spirit that leads us, He is the Spirit that reveals Christ to us and in us, He is the Spirit that glorifies and testifies of Christ. You can’t come to know the Lord Jesus Christ without Him; He reveals the deep things of God to us. As a child of God, you cannot live outside the Holy Spirit. You need to breathe and live the Holy Spirit, you need to walk according to the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to only see according to the power of the Holy Spirit, you need to do only what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. Life for a child of God only exists in the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

I said all this to point to this one point, my friend: when the Holy Spirit enters your life, a transformation takes place, a transformation that is seen inwardly and outwardly. One, we experience new birth, John 3 verses 1 to 3: “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with Him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The new birth that we must experience in order to see the kingdom of God is a work of the Holy Spirit. Just as a mother does all the work in physical birth, so the Holy Spirit does all the work in the new birth. When a person is born again in spirit, he or she is born into the family of God like newborn babies, and the transformation is brought about by only the Holy Spirit. I have seen it in my own life: before I was born again, I was caught up in many of the dark things this world has to offer. I enjoyed the world and everything the world had to offer me; I knew every hellhole in my town like the back of my hand. If you wanted to find me and I wasn’t answering my phone, just drive around the hellholes in my town and you would find me in one of them. But when I was born of the spirit, when I experienced the new birth brought by the Holy Spirit, the type of person I was changed. My thoughts, feelings, and actions all changed; I believed, and my eyes were opened. The places I used to love going, I didn’t love going there anymore. I saw what those places were truly; I saw that those places were leading me to a path of destruction and hell, and that was only because of the Holy Spirit and the new birth. I was a new creature. Second Corinthians 5 verse 17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Two, the second transformation is that we are empowered and emboldened. The promise that Christ made to the disciples when His ascension was nigh was that He will send them a Comforter, John 14 verse 16: “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.” What do you think of when you hear the word “Comforter”? Most people think of a big teddy bear or a cuddle buddy or a person who comes to make you feel better in the middle of your troubles, but that is incorrect. The King James Version described the Holy Spirit as another Comforter because it comes from the Latin influence in which Comforter means to come alongside with strength. This is what Jesus meant. I will preach on this subject in more depth another time, but people have a completely incorrect view of who the Holy Spirit is in their life. The Holy Spirit is not there to pacify you, He is not there to make you a big baby and handle all life’s challenges on your behalf. He is there to strengthen you, to fortify you. Let’s say life knocks you down; yes, run to the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will commune with you, and then He will strengthen you and send you back into the fight and will fight alongside with you. Jesus never ever promised that this life will not have challenges; in actuality, He promised that it will. In this life you will get black eyes, you will take some losses, you will lose loved ones. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, at one point or another in this life, life will punch you in the face. And the thing about this life, this life is merciless and cruel and mean. But what the Holy Spirit will do is give you strength to overcome the situation. I have seen in my years countless of Christians who have faced impossible odds and even impossible situations, but they overcame those situations because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in their life. You have the Comforter, you have someone who will strengthen you when you are weak, you have one who is greater than this world living in you.

You have the Holy Spirit. Even in this moment you may be going through hell and high water; I encourage you to spend time with the Holy Spirit, open up the Word of God, and believe you find strength from a source that is greater than whatever you are facing. The Holy Spirit will change you, it will empower you. Look at this: after the disciples received the Holy Spirit in the upper room, they all became bold and fearless. The same disciples who couldn’t perform a single miracle while Jesus was with them, who panicked greatly during the storm on the boat when He was sleeping, and couldn’t even watch for a short time when He went up to pray, suddenly became fearless and unstoppable after they all received the Holy Spirit. They were ready to take down territories for the Lord, go from place to place witnessing in His name. At that point it didn’t matter what obstacles they will face or challenges they will encounter; they were ready to do it with all their heart, might, and every fiber in them. They weren’t only empowered to take the gospel to nations, they also healed the sick, cast out devils, and brought men to christ through the leading and power of the Spirit in them. The boldness we need to sail through our christian journey can only come from the Holy Spirit. If we still experience fear in any aspect of our lives, it means we haven’t given way fully to the Spirit to work in us. The presence of the Holy Spirit makes us fearless; the Holy Spirit helps us overcome our fears and makes us as bold as lions. A coward becomes courageous, a warrior becomes a warrior. Are you scared of something? Is the devil planting fear in your heart, tormenting you in some ways? Let the Holy Spirit empower you to fight the battles of your life and lead you to victory, because God hasn’t given you the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Where there is genuine love, there’s no fear. Second Timothy 1 verse 7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Three, we bear fruit of the Spirit. The presence of the Spirit is the posture of our heart and the fruit that we bear. The book of Galatians 5 verses 22 to 23 stated all the fruits that a spirit-filled believer should bear: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” The true confirmation of the presence of God in the life of a believer is through the fruit they produce. By the fruits we produce, our brokenness and disposition to the things of God, we will know whether we have the Spirit of God or just playing to the gallery. The presence of things that were not and fading away of everything that used to be priority is also a confirmation of the presence of God. When the Spirit of God is at work in us, He needs no announcement; men will see us and testify. It’s our actions and the change that has taken place in us. For instance, if you used to be a short-tempered person and the Holy Spirit begins to work in you, He helps you to be more tolerating, persevering, loving, and patient. You become less triggered by those things that make you lash out in the past; the Holy Spirit transforms you. If you used to be a chronic liar, you see that sinful nature disappearing in your life. All the pleasures of sin become unappealing to you. The disciples of Jesus didn’t have to announce; the people saw them and decided themselves that indeed these ones are Christians because they portrayed the exemplary life of Christ. The presence of the fruit of repentance in your life is the evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in you.

Four, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, Romans 8 verse 9: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” A child of God is never alone. When the Holy Spirit dwells in you, your whole life is transformed, your mind is renewed, your peace is assured, you are empowered. What troubles every other person will come seamlessly to you by the indwelling of He who is in you. You dwell in the Spirit and not in the flesh; you don’t struggle to obey God or do His will anymore. You are going through a growth process, a journey with the Holy Spirit; He becomes your teacher and your peace in the midst of turbulence and problems. In a world where panic chaos, evil, and disorderliness are the order of the day, you will have peace that surpasses all understanding, the kind of peace that is beyond human comprehension, the liberating and unconditional peace that comes from above, the one that only stems from the indwelling of the Spirit. The type of peace where you know one day I am going to heaven, that is real peace, true peace. The Holy Spirit will help you to stop sinning. On many occasions I’ve heard Christians lament on how difficult it is to stop sinning. Many people try to live a holy life, but their best efforts never seem to be enough, and this leaves them frustrated. They desire to stop sinning, but they simply cannot help it. Many people struggle with sin yet they find it difficult to seek help. We all need God’s help; nobody can live a life of holiness to God without the help of God. There are those who believe that it is impossible to live a holy life by human strength; it is impossible, but it is quite possible by God’s strength. We lack the ability to live without sinning; therefore, God has given us His Spirit to help us overcome the power of sin. If you try to please God or live a holy life in your own strength, you will fail. By your own strength no man will prevail; it is only by the Spirit of God that we can live the life intended for us in Christ Jesus. God alone is holy; He is infinitely, unchangeably, and eternally holy. His holiness is undrived and independent; therefore, nothing is holy unless it comes in contact with the source of holiness, the holy God. This explains why the ground surrounding the burning bush was called holy ground: God’s presence turned common ordinary ground into holy ground.

The same is true of people. In order for a person to be holy, he or she must connect to the source of holiness, God Himself. My friend, you need the Holy Spirit. Your inability to stop sinning by your own strength should never be a justification to sin; rather, it should make you embrace the gift of the Holy Spirit and trust Him to help you live rightly. Living in sin will pull you farther away from God. God’s standards are unchanging; He hates sin. However, He has given us the power to overcome the power of sin through the Holy Spirit. We now have the power to say no to sin. Hebrews 12 verse 14: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Holiness is not optional for us; it is a requirement we need to meet in order to spend eternity with God. Let us walk away from these teachings that attempt to water down the gospel. Holiness matters; it matters if you sin, it matters if you don’t sin. God does not turn a blind eye to sin; we are to live holy lives, and the Bible preaches this to us time and time again. First Peter 1 verses 13 to 16: “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

Living a holy life is a decision to live our lives for the glory of God; it is not merely a matter of trying to imitate Christ, it is a matter of having God’s spirit coming to dwell in you. To live a holy life, you have to embrace the life of Christ in you. Galatians 5 verses 16 to 17: “I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” The Christian is always torn between two choices: yielding to the flesh or submitting to the Holy Spirit. This is because he has two natures: the sinful nature he received at his physical birth, and the new nature he has in Christ. The reason why it is easier for young believers to give into the flesh is that they are used to yielding to the gratifications of the flesh. Having received the life of Christ, they have to start learning to yield to the Spirit. Just as God hates sin, the Holy Spirit also does not condone sin. Sin in a believer’s life will hinder the movement of God; sin hinders the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We cannot continue in sin and say grace should abound. The work of the Holy Spirit is unlimited and important in the christian life; sin can hinder our walk with Him. We must avoid sin and pray for God’s grace to uphold us. The Holy Spirit resides in us to teach us and groom us in the new life. He is there to hold our hands as we walk through the earth; we cannot rely on our strength because our strength will fail us. Our reliance must be on the Holy Spirit, our teacher, our counselor. Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, a believer’s salvation is incomplete. The Bible says God has sent the Spirit of His Son into us, thereby we can cry, “Abba, Father.” This tells us that we cannot have a relationship with God without the Holy Spirit being involved. John 14 verse 26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” The Holy Spirit also teaches us; He brings to our remembrance what Jesus said before leaving the earth. He gives revelation and an in-depth understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus told the disciples that there were some things He couldn’t tell them because they could not comprehend, but after He is gone He will send the Holy Spirit, who will take what is of God, which is also for Christ, and reveal it to us.