When a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in their life. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence in our lives.
When Jesus was physically here on earth in human form, He was confined by time and space just like we are. For this reason, Jesus told His disciples, “Very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)
The Holy Spirit living within us transforms us to become more like Jesus. When we’re yielded to Him, listening to His promptings and obeying Him, we become more and more Christlike.
Many associate the filling of the Holy Spirit with healing, tongues, miracles, prophecies and their like. To be sure, the Holy Spirit can and does perform such works in and through us when we’re yielded to Him.
But you might be surprised at one of the primary works of the Holy Spirit in a life surrendered to Him.
In John 15:26-27, Jesus put it like this, “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”
And just before His ascension into heaven, Jesus told His disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)
Did you catch that? Jesus said that a primary work of the Holy Spirit is to testify about Him and when we are yielded to the Holy Spirit, we will testify about Jesus as well.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came upon 120 or so followers of Jesus in Jerusalem. We tend to focus on the “tongues of fire” and the foreign languages that the Spirit enabled them to speak. But if you read on in Acts 2, verse 11 explains that the foreigners present were amazed that they were hearing these people “declare the wonderful works of God” in their languages.
The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost and the people on whom He came began testifying about Jesus!
In fact, when we continue reading Acts, we keep seeing this pattern:
- Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke boldly to the religious leaders about Jesus (Acts 4:8)
- After being threatened, the followers of Christ prayed, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)
- As soon as Paul received the Holy Spirit after his conversion, he “immediately began preaching about Jesus.” (Acts 9:20)
Writing to the Corinthians, Paul reminded them, “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:4)
And when Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he recalls how they “received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought” them. “And now the word of the Lord is ringing out from you to people everywhere.” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8)
When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, we tell others about Jesus.
Paul urges us, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” (Galatians 5:16 & 25)
Let’s allow the Holy Spirit to guide our lives, to follow His leading in everything and represent Christ well to others through our life and words. For this is one of His primary works.