THE WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

Last Sunday, we concluded our discussions on “THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!” Today we want to look at “THE WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.”

What is work? Work is a term referring either to God’s activity or to people’s regular occupation or employment.

The Scripture describes God as a worker. The Psalmist said, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained” (Ps. 8:3).

Therefore, the Holy Spirit is a worker. But He did not come to promote His own agenda. Jesus declared the mission of the Holy Ghost when He said, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you” (Jn. 16:14-15).

What then are the various works of the Holy Spirit?

1. The Holy Ghost brings and introduces the unbeliever to Christ! As you hear the Word of God as an unbeliever, it is the Holy Spirit that convinces and convicts (prove or declare you guilty of an offence) you. He then brings you to Jesus Christ and introduces you to Him.

2. The Holy Spirit baptizes the unbelievers into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).

3. The Holy Ghost transforms the believers from the inside out (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23). The reason why He can transform you in this manner is because He is residing right on the inside of you, in your spirit-man. The Holy Spirit begins to dwell in your spirit-man the very moment you accepted Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour” (Gal. 4:6).

4. The Holy Spirit imparts the character of God to you. As you get to know God more and more through prayer and a diligent study of His Word, you’ll begin to take on His very character (2 Cor. 3:18).

5. The Holy Spirit quickens the Word of God the Father (Jn. 6:63). What the Holy Spirit really does is to change the words of the Scripture into picture. And when you capture that picture, it will restructure your future.

6. The Holy Spirit reveals the things of god to the believer. Only the Holy Spirit can fully reveal the mysteries of God to the believer. The Bible says, “God has revealed the things of God to us through His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:10).

The Holy Spirit makes the things of God that transcend our own thinking known to you! This is because “No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11).

7. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to human hearts! For instance, The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Lk. 2:25-26).

8. The Holy Spirit brings life! “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has MADE me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:2).

 

9. He is our seal and guarantee. It is the presence of the Holy Ghost in your spirit-man that identifies you as a child of God.

“And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, He IDENTIFIED YOU as His own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom He promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s GUARANTEE that He will give us everything He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people…” (Eph. 1:13-14).

10. It is only through the Holy Spirit that you can put to death the deeds of the body! “For if ye live after (according to the suggestions of) the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (kill) the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13).

11. The Holy Spirit impacts the life of the Believer (Jn. 6:63). To impact means to have an immediate and strong effect on somebody or something.

12. The Holy Ghost changes lives to conform to the image of Christ. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

The Holy Ghost is like a transformer. All of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like Him and reflect His glory even more.

13. The Holy Ghost supplied the power that raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:11). God the Father raised Jesus Christ from the dead. But the Holy Ghost was the source of the power that made it to happen.

14. The Holy Ghost writes on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor. 3:1-3; Jer. 31:33-34).

15. The Holy Spirit sanctifies you (2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:2; Heb. 10:10; Jude 3).

It is when you trust Christ by accepting Him as your Lord and personal Saviour that God the Father selects you, takes you into His family, “sets you apart,” sanctifying you for His own use. And how are you “set apart?” You are set apart by the Holy Spirit.

16. The Holy Spirit strengthens your spirit-man (Eph. 3:16, 19; Ps. 27:1). “That He (God the Father) would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the (your) inner man” (Eph. 3:16).

17. The Holy Spirit brings you into liberty. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty to do as we ought not as we want. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:17).

18. The Holy Spirit brings renewal to your soul (1 Tim. 4:7-8). The Holy` Spirit not only regenerates your spirit-man, He also renews it. He does this by giving you a whole new self.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit. 3:5).

19. The Holy Spirit brings you hope [looking forward to something with expectation] (Rom. 5:3-45; 15:13; Gal. 5:5; Tit. 2:13). Galatians 5:5 says, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

20. The Holy Spirit gives you assurance (Gal 4:1-6). “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Gal. 4:1-6).

21. The Holy Spirit gives you comfort (Jn. 14:16, 26). “The believers were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31).

22. The Holy Spirit brings the works of Christ to your remembrance. Jesus said, “But the COMFORTER, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (Jn. 14:26).

23. The Holy Spirit teaches you the Truth (1 Jn. 5:6). “We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 Jn. 4:6). 

24. The Holy Spirit teaches you all things (Jn. 14:26; 1 Jn. 2:27). Jesus said, “But the COMFORTER, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (Jn. 14:26).

25. The Holy Spirit leads and guides you (Rom. 8:14). As man Jesus relied on the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit who was working in the life of Jesus Christ is the same Holy Spirit that wants to work in your life today even right now if you would let Him. It was the Holy Spirit that guided the steps of Simeon to the temple courts where the Lord Jesus was to be concentrated.

In Luke 2:27 the Scriptures say, “And he [Simeon] came by the [Holy] Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for Him after the custom of the law.”

Jesus Himself was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness after His baptism in river Jordan.

In Luke 4:1 the Bible says, “And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,”

26. The Holy Spirit bears witness of the Lord Jesus. He is the One that testifies of Jesus (Jn. 15:26; Acts 5:32; 1 Cor. 12:3). He is the One that testifies of Jesus.  

27. The Holy Spirit bears witness with your own spirit-man that you are a child of God (Rom. 8:16).

28. The Holy Spirit brings you into the presence of God the Father (Ex. 33:14; Ps. 16:11).

29. The Holy Spirit helps our infirmities, like in prayer. Not only does He make His power available to you when you pray, He also personally prays for you according to the will of God (Rom. 8:26-27).

30. The Holy Spirit inspires and empowers us to worship God. He gives you the ability to worship God (Jn. 4:23-24; Phil. 3:3). That is to say that we who worship God in the Spirit are the only ones who are truly circumcised. We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.

31. The Holy Spirit helps you to defeat the enemy at all times. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isa. 59:19).

32. The Holy Spirit leads you to give thanks (Eph. 5:2, 18-20). When you are controlled by the Holy Spirit, He’ll anoint your speaking; He’ll anoint your singing, He’ll anoint your relationship [“submitting to one another”], and He’ll anoint your perspective [“giving thanks always for all things”]. When the Holy Spirit is in control, you’ll be able to give thanks all the time, and for everything that comes your way, even the things that are not pleasant.

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks ALWAYS for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:18-20).

33. The Holy Spirit gives power for service. It is the Holy Spirit that empowers you for service (1 Sam. 2:9; Zech. 4:6; Eccl. 9:11; Lk. 24:49; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:1-4; 1 Thess. 1:4-5; Eph. 3:16).

34. The Holy Spirit performs miracles through us (Jn. 14:12). The truth is, anyone who believes in Jesus will do the same works Jesus has done, and even greater works, because Jesus has gone to be with the Father. Why greater works? Because Jesus was here in His ministry for only about three and half years, but you and I are here for a much longer time.

35. God confirms His Words and bears witness “with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit.” (Heb. 2:3-4).

36. The Holy Spirit liberates us to love (AGAPE) (Gal. 5:22). “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 and patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Rom. 5:3-5).

37. The Holy Spirit produces the good harvest in us. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7-8).

We sow to the Spirit by totally relying on His power to reckon ourselves dead to the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).

38. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in us (Jn. 15:4-8).

39. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts called “The Gifts of the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 12:4-11; NLT).

40. The Holy Spirit appoints people to ministry. He calls men into the work of the ministry and gives them definite responsibilities. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them” (Acts 13:2).

41. The Holy Spirit gives direction to your life (Rom. 8:14). Sometimes He speaks to you in a whisper; at other times forcefully and with power.

42. The Holy Spirit enables you to communicate in power. He is the One that grants you utterance (Acts 2:4).

43. The Holy Spirit causes you to speak the will of God. David said, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His Word was on my tongue” (2 Sam. 23:2; Mk. 13:10-11).

44. The Holy Spirit dwelling in your spirit-man gives you the ability to say “Jesus is Lord!” “…no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:3b).

45. The Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints. When you pray in the Holy Ghost, that is God the Holy Ghost praying to God the Father (through your vocal cords) on your behalf (Rom. 8:26-27).

46. The Holy Spirit makes the believer free (Rom. 8:1-2; Rom. 8:13).

47. The Holy Spirit instructs believers (Neh. 9:20-21). The Lord Jesus relied on the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit to fulfil what the Father called Him to do. It is the Holy Spirit who instructs.

48. The Holy Spirit turns a sinner to a saint. He convicts the world of sin (Jn. 16:8-9). He convicts the world of the righteousness of Christ (Jn. 16:10). He convicts the world of judgment (Jn. 16:11; Col. 2:13-14). He testifies of Jesus (Jn. 15:26; 1 Cor. 12:3).

49. The Holy Spirit regenerates the sinner. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3:6; Tit. 3:5; 1 Cor. 2:14; Jn. 1:12; 2 Pet. 1:4). He makes the believer free (Rom. 8:1-4; 8:13; Jn. 14:17).

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Tit. 3:5).

50. The Holy Spirit reveals the things of God to the believer (1 Cor. 2:9-12). It is the Holy Spirit that reveals Jesus to human hearts. The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s Christ (Lk. 2:25-26).

51. The Holy Spirit causes you to speak the will of God (2 Sam. 23:2; Mk. 13:10-11).

52. He reminds believers of whatever God has said (Jn. 14:26).

Knowing the Person of the Holy Spirit is a must for everyone who wants to succeed in life (Zech. 4:6). I therefore, challenge you to get to know Him better and make Him your Senior Partner and your life will never remain the same again.

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

• Your friend: I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor)                                    08.07. 2018

Scripture for the week: This week, “God will perfect everything that concerneth you” (Ps. 138:8). “God will bring you to a flourishing finish” (Phil. 1:6).