The Christian and the Holy Spirit
The Christian and the Holy Spirit
There is something that we Christians need to learn and relearn. That is how we live when we are Christians. Sometimes we struggle in the life of faith, sometimes we do not, but how do we live in victorious Christian living? Are you living in victorious Christian living? I hope you are. As most of us will realise through experience, life is not easy a lot of the time. But, you can also live a victorious Christian life in the midst of illness and suffering.
So, do we live this victorious Christian life on our own? No, thankfully we do not.
When we become followers of Christ, when we are forgiven our sin and Christ stands in our place in grace, then the Holy Spirit helps us in our lives. We are born again by the Spirit and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. We have the blessing of God’s presence with us all of the time. Sometimes it does not feel like He is as close as that – but He is. Though we may lose sight of him, yet if we are Christ’s we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit when we believed.
One writer said, ‘Rightly understood, salvation is the crown jewel of Christianity and the constant comfort of the Lord’s people. But it can also cause much confusion. In fact, surprisingly even in churches that preach the biblical message of salvation, a lot of people are confused about exactly what salvation is and how it works.’
Are you saved? Being saved is not just about being set free from sins condemnation and its eternal punishment. Salvation is about the Christian life, receiving it and living it! If you’re saved, here are some things the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. There are many more but I have chosen six for you to think about.
If you’re saved, you’re changing. You might have symptoms of the old problems but now you don’t give into them like you used to. When you are saved, the Spirit is developing in you “...love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, self-control” which are the fruits of His character. Christian, are you thinking about what I have just said? The Spirit develops all of Christ’s followers. Are you developing and growing?
Irrespective of my many problems and failures, the people who know me best – family, close friends, those that I work with – would hopefully say, ‘Roddy is not who he was five years ago. He has changed.’ Is the Holy Spirit growing you? Well then, you will be changing too.
When the Spirit of God comes into your life He gives a gift or many gifts so that you will desire and have the ability to serve Him. If you’re saved, He has gifted you in a specific way so that you can serve the body of Christ. You are prompted to get beyond selfish plastic/consumer Christianity and start to participate in what He is doing to build His kingdom.
Do you say, This might sound mad but before I knew Christ I could lie, and steal and never even feel bad about it. Since I became a Christian, every time I do anything wrong this siren goes off inside me. That’s the Spirit at work, convicting you of sin. If you can sin and not be grieved, ask yourself if you’re really saved? That is a serious question. If you sin and don’t feel bad about it, then there is something wrong in your Christian life.
Was there a time when you couldn’t have cared less about the Bible? If somebody said to you, ‘Are you reading the Bible?’ you would say, ‘No, but I am reading Tom Clancy’s’, ‘The Bear and the Dragon’. The bible was just another book to you then. But when you became a Christian, a desire to learn from and about the bible came alive in your heart. If that’s going on in your life, it’s a good sign.
What does that mean? One writer said, ‘God’s Spirit prompts you to make things right with others, to respond to the message that you hear at church, to want to do the thing that honours Him. When you’re being led by the Spirit, you know there’s something going on in your heart.’ The scriptures say, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God these are the children of God.”
When we are unwell or if we are facing serious problems, we can be tempted to think that God is far away from us. So the idea that the Spirit is a comfort can seem shallow, but believe me, it is the most amazing blessing for Christ’s people to realise that he is there in the tough situations. He’s not miles away! The Psalmist saw that in Psalm 23, where he went through the valley of the shadow of death. Some parts of life are very painful to take, and our fears can be very real, but the Psalmist keeps on going and says, “I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”
There are many times in our lives when we might feel that we don’t need this comfort. Life just goes on. But there are also very testing times in our lives when we are desperate for this comfort. We can depend on him in all our fears, because he is present in His comforting power when we are His people. God wants you to know that you’re His child. As Romans 8:16 said, “the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.”
Sometimes we Christians find ‘living the faith’ hard to do. But the simple message from me is this. Just as you started following Christ, by faith, so live in him by faith. My hope and prayer is that you flourish in your life with this amazing God, who is our Saviour.
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