“He saves us … through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3.5-6)
In my previous text, I wrote about being renewed by the Holy Spirit. There is not real renewal without being filled with the Holy Spirit. He is the source of life.
The Holy Spirit is the One that makes possible our lives being transformed, renewed and changed. We play our part, but the initiative and source are the Holy Spirit. Many people fell to experience the lifechanging power of the Holy Spirit. One of the reasons is people try through their own strength, and it would never be enough. We must depend on the work of the Holy Spirit.
The reason it does not work it is the fact that we must go to the core, the heart. That’s exactly why it is so hard to change our being, because it is there that we found harder to go and our strength fail away. This is where only the Holy Spirit would be able to alter and make it anew again.
To understand how the Holy Spirit works, let us take a time to the Bible. The Scriptures presents the Holy Spirit as God. He is the one that generate and keep life. He is the One that make the heart anew, causing the new birth, the desire to know God and the faith to confess Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Even the One that operates signs and wonders. The Holy Spirit is not a force, neither an energy. He is a person that is part of the Divinity of the Trinity.
Let us see how the Bible describes the Holy Spirit. These biblical terms emphasise His person (who he is) and His work (what he does). The Bible calls the Holy Spirit of:
Another Counsellor (John 14:16).The Spirit (Ezekiel 1:20; 1 Corinthians 2:10)The Spirit of glory (1 Peter 4:14)The Spirit of grace (Hebrews 10:29)The Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13-14)The Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)The Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9)The Spirit of God (Job 33.4; 1 Corinthians 3:16)The Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7)The Spirit of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:19-20)The Spirit of revelation (Ephesians 1:17-18)The Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4)The Spirit of His Son (Galatians 4:6)The Spirit of grace and pleas (Zechariah 12:10)The Spirit of truth (John 15:26)The Spirit of life (Romans 8:2)The Spirit of the living God (2 Corinthians 3:3)The Spirit of the Lord (2 Samuel 23:2; Acts 8.39)The Spirit of the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1)The eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14)The Holy Spirit (Isaiah 63:10; Acts 1:5)
Even more the Bible says that the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayers; gives strength when we are weak; opens our heart to understand God’s will and follow Christ’s teaching; empowers us to witness Christ and, last but not least, He gives spiritual gifts.
The Holy Spirit is the source of love, hope, power, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fear, holiness and joy. Without Him, it is impossible to give fruit. The fruit of the Spirit are the visible mark of a authentic follower of Jesus.
It is time to seek more God’s presence and ask the Father for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon my life, and yours. Don’t let it for another day. Seek to grow in your spiritual life and see what the Lord has ahead.
Remember, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you will have strength and power from above to overcome the flesh. As the Bible says, “be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18) and “walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
It is my prayer that you will discover and live in the supernatural lifechanging destiny that all God’s children are called to live in each generation, according to Paul’s words to the Ephesians: “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
Every Blessing,
Bishop Josep Rossello
