Experience the Presence of The Holy Spirit

Scripture:

1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

Romans 8:15, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Thought:

Some quasi-Christian groups describe the Holy Spirit as a force, like in a Star Wars movie: impersonal, external, and able to be harnessed. However, the Holy Spirit is not an external force to be called up by some experience; He is a person that resides within us, confirming our relationship with Jesus and the Father. If we only think of Him as a force, we will be tempted to try and use him for our purposes, when the opposite should be true: he wants to use us for His purposes, as we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. 

Daniel Henderson writes in his book, Transforming Presence:

If we think of the Holy Spirit, as so many do, as merely a power or influence, our constant thought will be, ‘How can I get more of the Holy Spirit,’ but if we think of him in a biblical way as a Divine Person, our thought will rather be, “How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?’ The conception of the Holy Spirit as a divine influence or power that we are somehow to get a hold of and use leads to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. One who so thinks of the Holy Spirit and who at the same time imagines that he has received the Holy Spirit will almost inevitably be full of spiritual pride and strut about as if he belonged to some superior order of Christians. —R.A. TORREY  (pg 85)

The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, where he has permanent residence and is the constant reminder that we belong to God.

A helpful illustration for me, when thinking about the Holy Spirit, is one of water and a glass. Before we come to Christ, the Spirit is around us, drawing us to Jesus and convicting us of sin. When we accept Jesus as Savior, He fills us the Holy Spirit, and no one gets less of the Holy Spirit than another person. He dwells within us and works in many ways, including the supernatural.

What does it mean to you to know the Holy Spirit is not an outside force, but one that resides within you?

Take a moment to celebrate and thank God for the Holy Spirit that resides in our hearts.

How do you maintain an awareness of the Holy Spirit within you?