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Last week we saw how God the Holy Spirit is essential in convicting us of our sinfulness and showing us our saviour, Jesus Christ. But when someone becomes a Christian, the Holy Spirit’s work is far from over! In fact, He continues to be at work in the Christian, transforming them more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
#1 – The Holy Spirit leads us into fruitfulness (Galatians 5vv16-25)
The Holy Spirit leads the Christian believer in the way of Christ-likeness. But if our lives are like a bicycle, and the Holy Spirit steers, it is also very clear that we need to do the pedalling. Living according to the Spirit, rather than according to our old way of life, will produce the fruit of the Spirit in us, but that does not happen without a fight. Walking with the Spirit is going to be tough because the Christian believer still experiences the pull of their sinful nature. The good news is that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer and empowers them to resist that sinful nature and instead walk in step with the spirit and so live a life that bears the fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) and as a result we look more and more like our saviour Jesus Christ.
#2 – The Holy Spirit gifts us for usefulness (1 Corinthians 12)
As well as transforming our character, the Holy Spirit also gives each Christian different gifts. This is not so that we can take pride in ourselves, but serving and building one another up (v7). All gifts are given by God, and yet the problem in Corinth was that some Christians were using them as a means of boasting in themselves, which inevitably leads to disunity. To correct this Paul reminds them that gifts are given for the benefit of others, in order that the ‘body’ (ie the local church) can be built up and encouraged. Loving our church family by using the gifts we have been given, for their benefit rather than our own, is the excellent way (v31ff).
The Holy Spirit shows us our sin,and our saviour, and then he is at work in us leading us and equipping us to live and serve like our saviour… all the while guaranteeing that one day we will be with our saviour