He Has You

Do you know that you’re a temple for the Holy Spirit and that He lives inside you? The Spirit of God Himself dwells in you. You will never be as close to anyone else on this planet as you are to the God who created this planet.

Until you die to yourself, you cannot live for God. “Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves” (1 Corinthians 6:19 GW).

We can know about the Holy Spirit, but that does not mean you personally know the Holy Spirit. We all should know that with the Lord it is all about our relationship to Him, but are we working to develop that deeper intimate relationship?

You cannot have an intimate relationship unless there is intimacy. Stop trying to impress God with your pretend level of faith. Just talk to Him and be real. The Lord is not seeking men who appear righteous, but those who seek Him with a humble heart. King David said to Solomon, “…know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you…” (1 Chronicles 28:9 NKJV).

Relationships are not just a switch where you have one or not, but a measurement starting from none and incrementally becoming deeper and more intimate as the relationship grows. Relationships will grow forever if you continue to feed them.

Many people know the Holy Spirit by name but have never spoken with Him. “The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship (the communion and sharing together, and participation) in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen (so be it)” (2 Corinthians 13:14 AMPC).

Intimacy is where we step into that which is deeper and more vulnerable. It is where we share our deepest fears and our most painful experiences. The more intimate you are with someone, the more you have to trust them.

God loves you so much. He desires to know you in the most precious intimate way. Not a wrecked, tainted, temporal intimacy as the world knows. But a holy intimacy, pure and perfect, unconditional and eternal. “’For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,’ says the Lord, who has mercy on you” (Isaiah 54:10 NLT).

Getting to know the Holy Spirit requires effort. The place to begin from is wherever you’re at in that relationship right now. Even if it is at the very first step, it will be in that first step that your relationship with Him can begin.

If you don’t know the Holy Spirit, then you don’t know Jesus Christ, for it’s the Holy Spirit that can reveal Him to you. Jesus taught, “But I will send you the Comforter—the Holy Spirit, the source of all truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me” (John 15:26 TLB).

Too many seek something from the Holy Spirit and don’t make the effort to get to know Him. It’s one thing to get a gift from the Holy Spirit and something quite different to know His heart and how He feels about the life you’re living.

Stop grieving the Holy Spirit by the way you live your life. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin]” (Ephesians 4:30 AMP).

To know your spouse at a deeper level, you must know their heart more. It’s not what we say that matters as much as how we make people feel. The same is true with the Holy Spirit; do you know how you make Him feel?

The closer someone is to us, the greater the pain when they hurt us. The same is true between you and the Lord. The greater filling you have of the Holy Spirit, the greater you grieve the Spirit in your failures. “They rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit” (Isaiah 63:10 NKJV).

Religion is developed in your mind, but relationships are formed in the heart. Study to know the truth, but it is in your heart where you will begin to know the Spirit of truth. You have to open your heart to Him for the Holy Spirit to live there.

Some of the worst interpretations of God’s Word occur by the intellect of man, void of the Spirit of God. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you” (John 16:13-14 NIV).

Learn to pray in the Spirit, allowing yourself the freedom to sit in a quiet place and then let the Lord counsel you. The Holy Spirit can reveal Himself to you in a hundred ways, but will you be looking such that you might see even one of them?

When you pray in the Spirit, you yield to the Holy Spirit so that He can pray through you. “Pray in the Spirit at all times. Pray with all kinds of prayers, and ask for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready. Never give up. Always pray for all God’s people” (Ephesians 6:18 ICB). “And the Holy Spirit helps us…we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (Romans 8:26 NLT).

It’s child’s play to give a prophetic word as you’re merely the instrument that God might pick up and speak through. But are you willing to mature into that believer who is so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that you’re led by Him consistently?

It’s not a question of whether God would help you, but whether you will let Him. “For all who are allowing themselves to be led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14 AMP).

Sometimes I tell my wife that I know her so well that I know what she is going to say before she knows. I say this to her playfully, but in truth, we do know each other so much that we can predict how each other will act. Do you know the Holy Spirit like that?

Get counsel from man, but only be led by the Holy Spirit. “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me…” (Psalm 143:10 NLT).

We are not taught in most churches how to get to know the Holy Spirit. We hear about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but we have yet to take hold of that fruit and eat it for ourselves. Commit yourself to knowing the Holy Spirit more deeply each day.

Seek to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that you won’t have any room left to fill up with the things of this world. “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18 NLT).

Child of God, the Spirit of God knows you perfectly. Make it your heart’s desire to know Him back. Pray to the Holy Spirit to guide you nearer to His heart, and you will never regret going there. Learn to feel His heartbeat that’s inside you.

Some are book smart, others are street smart. One knows things in theory; the other knows things in practice. The same is true with your knowledge of God. If you don’t live what you know, then your knowing is dead. If you have only facts and no faith, your knowledge is powerless. Don’t just be Bible smart, be Spirit smart. Don’t just know about Him, but know Him. Don’t just say you believe, but believe. “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hosea 6:6). Don’t play faith, live faith.

Blessings to you always,

Paul Balius

It would be my honor to pray for you to know the Holy Spirit so deeply that you can feel His heart and understand all the things that He desires to teach you. My email is paul.balius@gmail.com, and it would be my blessing to hear from you and to know how I can pray for you.