The Holy Spirit is the most enthusiastic, encouraging person that I have ever encountered. He loves the role that he has in our lives. He loves prophetically to disclose to us what is to come (John 16: 13-15), and then to empower us in the process of becoming that In Word and Deed.
He is the Spirit of truth who loves to form Christ in the people of God. He adores Jesus and is determined that he would receive the full weight of glory that he deserves. He speaks to us prophetically to declare the intentions of the Godhead. He rouses us lovingly to partner with him in establishing truth as a lifestyle.
There are many, many things that we must know, understand, and experience about this life that we have received in Christ. It is the role of the Holy Spirit to fully expose the majesty of Jesus and to impart to us a sense of wonder and his sovereignty in our own lives. He is the Spirit of wisdom and revelation who empowers us into encounters and experiences in the knowledge of Jesus. He is indispensable to us.
Our relationship with the Lord Jesus is sealed in our fellowship with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13). He is the Spirit of promise. All promises of God are YES and AMEN in Christ (2 Corinthians 1: 20). The Holy Spirit is given to turn the possibility into a reality. He makes real to us all that heaven would release into our hearts.
In my relationship with him, I have found him to be unfailingly good tempered, extremely longsuffering, and wonderfully joyful.
He is present so that we may learn Christ and know who he is in himself, to know his Incarnate presence in our own lives. To know the role of Jesus in heaven towards us (Hebrews 7: 15). He teaches us how to stand in Christ. He shows us how to walk confidently in this world and our fellowship with God. He reveals the majesty and sovereignty of Jesus. He declares to us the full power of the cross and how joyful it is for us to live in the power of his resurrection.
The Holy Spirit is a joyful, enthusiastic teacher. He renews us in the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4: 20-32). He empowers us to put on the new self, which is in the likeness of Christ. All our negatives are done away in Christ on the cross. We are dead to them because we have a new nature in Jesus.
We are not battling with our old nature; It is dead. We are learning how to undermine a sin habit by developing our righteousness. A renewed mind is essential in this process. The Holy Spirit is quite brilliant in unveiling the truth of Jesus and the power of the good news in our development. He does not work against a negative in us since we are dead to it. He does not deal with sin; it has been dealt with in Christ (Romans 6: 10). The Holy Spirit deals exclusively with our righteousness in Christ. He shows us how to lay aside the negatives and become as Jesus in our life and walk. He is fully focused on who Jesus is for us. He loves disclosure. He is most passionate about establishing the image of Christ in our lives. The way he speaks to us is essential to our confidence. His voice is filled the fruit of the Spirit. He is gracious, kind, gentle, faithful, powerful, and restful. He is an incredible representative of the Godhead in his daily routine with us.
He has too much joy to be oversensitive. It is possible to grieve him, but very difficult. He’s been preached as a hypersensitive, touchy, and easily offended person by misinterpreting (Ephesians 4: 30) do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one person: Each with different functions and purpose. The very idea that he is touchy, over sensitive, and easily offended could not be further from the truth, in my experience. The Holy Spirit has the same temperament as the entire Godhead. His disposition is wonderfully loving. If I had to describe it in one word, I would use affection. He is deeply affectionate. Affection is the vehicle for the agape love of God. His Affection involves a true understanding of my own struggles to be transformed and my intense desire to become more like him. He understands the pain I must go through as I face up to my inadequacy and insecurity. He is my partner in the daily routines: teaching me Christ, helping me to put off the old and put on the new. When I get tired and irritable, his deep affection for me envelops me on days. His exuberance for me pulls me through.
His nature is to be happy. He has a wonderful sense of humor. I’ve furnished him with lots of material. His humor at times seems offensive to me because he was laughing at the situations, I would get myself into, but he has got me covered, and he would re-direct me in the way to go. His humor is audacious, infectious, and hilarious. I love his infectious joy, especially in times of warfare. He has a never-say-die-attitude that laughs at the enemy and circumstances. He smiles at adversity. His eyes sparkle with happy intent. He is the best encourager because he brings himself into our circumstances. In the darkest moment he can fill us with joy and peace in believing and bring us to a sense of wonder but how our situation will be resolved. I felt his joy completely diffuse my doubt. He is the bright ray of sunshine that breaks through on a cloudy day. He is full of joy and laughter.
He has this brilliant predisposition towards peace. In a changing, uncertain world, he has taught me to rest. He loves to establish Christ as my Prince of peace. He is not situational in his outcomes with us. His intention is to establish us in relationship with the Lord. That means he is more concerned with our lifestyle spiritually than with how we simply respond to circumstances.
I love the fact that peace is always one of the main ingredients of our relationship with God. Peace eliminates any anxiety about negative issues and creates space for us to think properly. The Holy Spirit has taught me continuous peace, which is rest personified.
The way he speaks is restful, peaceful, and encouraging. He brings comfort without pity, which produces strength.
His character is to be loyally patient. He deeply understands process as a way of life. He sees our life as a journey. His calmness always amazes me. He is never under threat. Patience is the capacity to tolerate delay, trouble or suffering without becoming angry or upset. He models patience beautifully, that is why it is difficult to grieve him. He has a capacity for forbearance and fortitude that makes me trust him deeply with my own shortcomings.
Conviction does not mean that he is angry at something in our life that needs changing. It’s his invitation for us to partner with the next level of our transformation. It signals his intent to be active in a specific area of our lives. Patience backs up his desire for us to adjust. It can take time for us to see all that he sees in our situation. Our response can never be just an emotiontional reaction to conviction. Response is an affair of the heart supported by a change of mindset.
When our thinking is renewed, our heart response can really take us to the place of transformation. It can take a process of time before we make that adjustment. Impatience is demanding, hot tempered, intolerant, and irritable. It is hasty, snappy, impetuous, and rash. It can be abrupt, rude, and indignant. It leads to anxiety and agitation, fretfulness, and uneasiness. God is none of those things. He never gets upset and then regrets it later. He is longsuffering and it is very hard to get him angry.
Surely it is important to know what the Holy Spirit is not. In his patience he displays a calm serenity. He is composed, enduring in his fellowship with us. He is forgiving, understanding and untiring in his application of truth. Rebellion may eventually grieve him, but our stumbling towards freedom is always a delight for him.
As parents we need the same level of patience and kindness with a baby, preschooler, teenager, and young adult. Only the issues change. Life requires adaptation. Patience is crucial to development.
The inclination of the Holy Spirit is always towards kindness. Love is patient and kind (1 Corinthians 13: 4). I have found the Holy Spirit to be courteous and gentle, considerate, and generous. He has been very compassionate towards me. Even his rebukes have been beneficial and always with favor attached, you can feel his love in it. He does not withhold love or grace and mercy. Here’s our helper and our comforter. I can come to him with all my issues and be received graciously. I love his forgiveness and his willingness to partner in my circumstances. He has demonstrated the kindness of the Godhead on hundreds of occasions in my life. Because of his disposition towards kindness, I have learned kindness myself as a way of life. He is a wonderful role model. I value his goodwill and I praise his affection towards me. I wanna be like him, like all of them! The role of the Holy Spirit is to make us Christ like. Demonstrating kindness undergirds all his dealings with us. Ours is a partnership based on generosity and favor. When I have been struggling with my spirituality, kindness has often been the vehicle for me to receive the love, blessing and favor of God. Goodness is God. He adores goodness and kindness. The Holy Spirit has a beautiful tendency to overwhelm us with good. Every thought, word, deed emanates from his goodness. Even when he must discipline us; it is for our own good (Hebrews 12:10). His discipline is in the context of proving and establishing us in sonship. Goodness is the fertile ground in which our prayers bear fruit. Goodness is the seed bed for miracles to grow our trust and faith. He overcomes evil with good (Romans 12: 21).
If his goodness can overcome evil, then surely it can overcome the flesh. People who judge others have not been captivated by goodness. They demonstrate their lack of God’s Presence in their negativity towards others. Goodness is gracious goodwill, kindhearted mercy and benevolence to the undeserving especially.
When we realized the absolute significance of the goodness of God as a prerequisite for our ongoing encounter and experience of him, then we will celebrate this wonderful virtue and rejoice in its place in our lives.
The Holy Spirit is incredibly faithful to us, our development, our growth as believers, and to the journey that we are on into the fullness of the Lord Jesus. He is loyal and steadfast in his relationship with us. His disposition towards us is so healthy and wholesome it inspires trust and confidence.
He is constant. He is unchanging. He is unwavering. He is devoted, dependable, unswerving, loyal, immovable, truthful and trustworthy. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is our rock. We build our very lives on his faithful, dependable nature. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. We are learning to rely on and develop confidence in what God is really like in himself and who he really is towards us.
His faithfulness has astonished me. The more I develop as a Christian, the more connected I’ve become to his faithfulness. The more I become aware of his capacity to love me in all circumstances, the more I want to change. His love never fails.
When I am wrong about something, it is his patient, kind, loving faithfulness that walks with me and works with me until I get it. Those same attributes continue with me until I become it.
His gentleness has been gracing my life for several years. Mercy comes to us through gentleness. His nature is gentle, tranquil, serene, untroubled. He is a cool breeze on a hot day. He is thoughtful. His attention to detail is awesome. His interactions with us leave us joyful, humble, and Worshipful.
There are days when I tremble at his gentleness because of the power that it releases into my life. Jesus described himself as meek and lowly of heart-gentle and humble. Meekness/gentleness is not weakness. It is strength under control.
It has often been the gentleness of the Holy Spirit towards me in a situation that has given me strength to resist and overcome what has been contending against me. His gentleness has mostly prevented me from reacting angrily or rashly towards people.
If I am persecuted by people because I’ve moved in the prophetic gift, I rejoice because I want to speak a message of nonjudgmental spirituality that I sincerely believe is the essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit continually checks me, his gentleness puts a stop to irritability, it prevents justifiable anger. I can be angry but not sin. Gentleness prevents my heart from becoming a vindictive wasteland. Gentleness is the only answer for the super spiritual pharisaical people who are overly religious and love to criticize people. It’s fascinating to study how Jesus conducted himself with these people. He was forthright without being dictatorial, truthful without withholding grace, occasionally humorous at their expense, and honest in his appraisal of their spirituality. He was very conscious of the spirit that was operating behind their words and actions.
At best, that spirit is unloving, ungracious, and unkind. At worst, it is hateful, deceiving, and manipulative. Gentleness keeps our hearts open to God under extreme provocation. It preserves our spirituality, ensuring that we do not have to repent or apologize later for our own words and actions.
Gentleness means we do not have to let our insides become an angry knot of anxiety, apprehension, and wrathful thoughts. It allows me to bless, not curse. It gives me the power to count it as joy and to move in the opposite spirit. Gentleness has saved my sanity on more than one occasion. Crucially, it empowers me to become better rather than bitter.
The fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness acting together in our lives produces self-control. The Holy Spirit in all his mentoring of us seeks to establish us in the image of Jesus. When the Christ lifestyle is established, the self-life is destroyed. We do not crucify the flesh to become like Christ. The sin nature is dead already in Christ. When we abide in Christ, the flesh habit has no possibility of returning. The nature of the Christ life and the fruit of the Spirit produces an overall self-control that reduces the sin habit to nothing. The Holy Spirit works within us to establish righteousness into holiness.
His objective is that we thoroughly enjoy Christ and learn how to live in him. He establishes our walk and our relationship into a powerful, peaceful reality. So, the very idea that he is easily offended is preposterous!
It must be remembered that he bears the burden of man’s in narrow-mindedness he is the one with whom we are most engaged in the process of transformation. We can use the journey of Israel to the promised land as a metaphor for everyone’s spiritual journey. It is symbolic of our journey out of darkness into the promise of relationship and interaction with heaven. It depicts the journey out of bondage, personal oppression and enslavement into freedom, health and wholeness.
It shows the process required to shake off a slave mentality, overcome a victim mindset, and remove shame and blame as a way of life. It is the formation of a renewed mind; a willingness to trust and the capacity to walk by faith, not by logic or reason. We are learning God’s nature , learning how to talk a new language, walk in a different way and practice new disciplines.
The journey of our transformation can be rough. We are challenged, lovingly confronted, tested, exhorted, encouraged, edified, and comforted. Everything is about movement and momentum. We must learn to lay aside every weight and encumbrance. We must say no to what would entangle us and learn to run with endurance the race that has been chosen for us (Hebrews 12:1).
In all of his dealings with us, the Holy Spirit has to overcome the flesh and established Christ within us. We are babies, children, and rebellious teenagers before we become fully mature in Christ. There are memories, hurts, wounds and betrayals that require new health and wholeness. There are sin habits, personality problems, fears, doubts, and unbelief to overcome. A spiritual mindset that is not rooted in logic, rationale or reason must be established. The supernatural over the natural lifestyle must be developed or high levels of trust, faith and power are simply not possible.
He sees the worst of us and must establish the best in us. Rebellion can be simply opposition to his purpose. It is found in non-cooperation with our own development, crying out for rescue rather than being changed in a situation. It can be in our resistance to change and growth. We do not learn our current lessons and so we are destined to repeat them again later. We have a defiance of authority, not just in our relationship with God, but also within the church.
Intransigence is about being unwilling to change. Most Christians want to change but they do not put any real effort into the process. That is the nature of intransigence. People resist changing their mindset completely. They can be persuaded that something is true but not pursue it to the point where their behavior is altered.
We can agree about the need for something but not develop our words into actions. Faith without works is a dead thing. The role of the Holy Spirit is to disclose firstly what is to come. He points out where we are going and how we must get there. Secondly, he discloses the process to us in which we need to partner with him. Thirdly, he discloses the obedience required to attain the outcome. Finally, he establishes that outcome by testing our internal change and our external obedience.
He is the Spirit of disclosure. He loves his role in our lives. Though he has ample opportunity, he is not easily grieved. He takes the image of Christ and makes him real in our lives. We should honor his role and his commitment to us. He makes us complete, lacking in nothing.
When we speak to people prophetically, we must allow our own hearts to be filled by that same spirit of disclosure. We must love his presence in our hearts. We need to enjoy the word that we are giving. It is important that we are fully aligned so that the heart that is speaking the word is the same as the one that is behind it.