When I came to Christ, I struggled for years to grow stronger in my faith. I joined programs and read books. I strived as hard as anyone could strive. But always I would end up failing or flat-lining, and never reaching the heights in my faith that I longed for.
I thought I needed to be good to gain the Holy Spirit, but I found out I needed to gain the Holy Spirit to be good. It is by the Blood of Christ alone you are saved and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit alone that you can be changed. Try as you might, only the Holy Spirit is able to change you. Until you have the Holy Spirit reigning in you, your faith will be limited by the power of you.
There are many things we must learn in our faith, but being transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit is the catapult upon which your faith will reach for the heavens. I pray you would come to know the Holy Spirit as your Friend, your Teacher, and your Helper, that your life would never be the same again.
I prayed for a word to write about the Holy Spirit, and below is the first half of what poured into me and onto paper in just a few minutes. This is word for word what poured through me, and then I added verses to go along with it afterward. The Spirit of God is never contrary to the Word of God.
Try reading without the verses one time, just the black words, and that is how I first received it. Discern for yourself whatever you read, from me or anyone else. Nobody has it all right but God alone.
You don’t need another program. You need the Holy Spirit.
You don’t need another book. You need the Holy Spirit.
Try as you might to be stronger in your faith, apart from the Holy Spirit, you are the limit of you.
We have One God. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Our God is three in Person. Jesus taught, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
There is God the Father. There is God the Son. There is God the Holy Spirit. “For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word [Jesus], and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7).
No one can come to the Father but through the Son. “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6).
No one can come to the Son but by the Holy Spirit. It is the Father that draws you to the Son by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” (John 6:44).
We cannot fully comprehend the Triune God. The Trinity of three Persons as One God cannot be fully grasped by the finite mind of a simple man or woman here on earth.
God is bigger than your imagination, and He is bigger than your understanding. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).
We learn about the Father through the Son. Jesus taught, “…Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27).
We learn about the Son through the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” (John 14:26).
The Son is no less than the Father.
The Holy Spirit is no less than the Son.
Each Person of the Trinity is God, so no part of the Trinity is less than God.
The Father stands above all creation. “No one has seen God at any time…” (John 1:18).
The Son entered into creation to restore mankind to the Father. “For it pleased the Father that in Him [Jesus] all the fullness [of God] should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself [The Father], by Him [Jesus], whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).
The Son returned to the Father and the Father then sent the Holy Spirit to mankind. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name…” (John 14:26).
The Son came and saved us from our sin by His Blood. “…you were not redeemed with corruptible things…but with the precious blood of Christ…” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
The Holy Spirit came to give us power over sin. “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you…” (Acts 1:8).
The Son serves the Father.
The Holy Spirit serves the Son.
We do not dishonor the Father or the Son when we rely on the Holy Spirit; rather we honor Them because the Holy Spirit was sent that we might know Them and serve Them.
The Holy Spirit has the Spirit of Christ. “…Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Romans 8:9). “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts” (Galatians 4:6).
The Holy Spirit has the Spirit of the Father. “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you…” (Romans 8:9). God said, “I will put My Spirit within you…” (Ezekiel 36:27).
When Christ said if we abide in Him, He would abide in us, it was the Spirit of Christ, in the Holy Spirit, of whom He was talking about. Jesus taught, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
When the prophecy was given that God would dwell with men, it was His Holy Spirit coming into man that fulfilled this prophecy. “I will put My Spirit within you…” (Ezekiel 36:27).
The Temple of God represented the body of man that would one day become the living temple of the Holy Spirit. “’The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace’” (Haggai 2:9). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God…” (1 Corinthians 6:19).
The Holy Spirit can be your best Friend, Teacher, Counselor, Helper, God in you, Christ in you, a new life in you, a new life for you. Won’t you ask the Father to give you a greater presence of His Holy Spirit in you today? Jesus promised, “…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:13).
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
All Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted. Please use the version you prefer to review the verses shown here. The best version is the one you read. An even better version is the one you live.