The Work of the Holy Spirit - Part 4

Believers are to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit. 

 

Ephesians 5:18-19  Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts.  [see Ephesians 5:15-20]

 

Believers can please God by yielding to the Spirit's guidance and power. 

 

Galatians 5:16  So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.  [see Galatians 5:16-18]

 

The Holy Spirit enables Christians to understand God's thoughts and ways. 

 

1 Corinthians 2:9-16  That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,

    "No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

        and no mind has imagined

    what God has prepared

        for those who love him."  [Isaiah 64:4, 65:17]

    But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.

    When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. For, 

    "Who can know the LORD's thoughts?

        Who knows enough to teach him?"  [Isaiah 40:13]

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 

[see all 1 Corinthians 2]

 

The Holy Spirit gives gifts to believers to help the church to grow. 

 

1 Corinthians 12:8-11  To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.  [see all 1 Corinthians 12] 

 

[brackets are mine]

 

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Limited to 15 verses per post.