May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (II Corinthians 13:14)
How can any believer really experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father if they do not have fellowship with the Holy Spirit? God the Father is not here on planet earth, nor is God the Son.....
The Lord Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would be the "Guardian" of the truth. "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. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you." (John 16:13-15) Without fail, we can be sure that the Holy Spirit will share with us the deep things of the Son AND the Father. It is quite noteworthy that God's Spirit never ever acts independently from the other two members of the trinity! He does not promote an agenda of His own while here on earth with us. Rather, He always works in accordance with the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit will never ever contradict the written word, the Bible. "For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." (I John 5:7-8) [The water in this scripture refers to the Word of God.] Thus, reader beware, if anyone would dare promote another gospel or theology that is extraneous or even minutely different to that which is taught in the Holy Scriptures, they definitely speak by another spirit and not of God's! (Galatians 1:8-9) God the Holy Spirit will only promote the pure, unadulterated gospel of "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (I Corinthians 1:24)
And so, given all this, what will we do with God the Holy Spirit? ..........
Lamentably, many believers today needlessly struggle with the truth and reality of the Holy Spirit. (Perhaps this is because they have had a "negative" pentecostal experience i.e. witnessing "fleshly" manifestations in which others literally acted possessed, behaving as if they were out of their minds or out of control. Therefore, this caused some fear and trepidation for the observer that was so strong that any further mention of the Holy Spirit became a turnoff.) They choose either to completely ignore Him, and try to live a Christian life independently of His existence and Person, or they try to manipulate Him into manifesting in the manner, time and place they would choose. Sadly, some people even refer to Him as "it," as if He were some impersonal, cosmic force with which to reckon.
Beloved of God, our ignorance on the matter of Who God's Spirit is and what He wills to do today in these last days is reproachful, it's downright shameful! We have God's written Word, the Bible, and we have the Holy Spirit Himself living inside our hearts, as well as numerous books on the subject authored by Godly men and women who have had prosperously glorious ministries under the auspice of God's wonderful Spirit of power. (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19) We cannot say that we're uninformed regarding the Spirit and what He wills to do. Consequently, we all must choose what we will do with the Spirit of the Lord. The church has finally arrived at the crossroad of decision!
Will we hide the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord away in the closet of the heart (out of sight, out of mind) or will we acknowledge Him as we freely do with our Father and Jesus, the Son of God? Will we lovingly yield to His Lordship since He desires to bring heaven into our midst, or will we try to forge our will upon His, as by doing so we blatantly practice witchcraft? (Manipulation, intimidation and domination imposed upon any person, or persons, the Holy Spirit no less included, is the practice of witchcraft! [Making Him the object of our pitiful mind games doesn't work. We cannot fool or lull Him though we would often dare try. He is God Almighty!] God's people must begin to understand this!)
Each person is responsible before God regarding what he or she will do with Jesus. Will they accept or reject Him? For those who accept Christ, each saint must then decide what he or she will do with God's Holy Spirit. Will we accept His Personhood and Lordship, and therefore work closely with Him allowing Him to advance the Kingdom of God through us as we lovingly choose to submit to Him, as well as permitting Him to conform us to the very image of Christ? (Romans 8:29) Or will we go around covering up, even denying by our actions and avoidance, the reality of His glorious existence?
The Apostle Paul closes one of his epistles by writing, "Do not quench the Spirit." (I Thessalonians 5:19) Would any Christian decidedly attempt to extinguish the mighty power of God? Would any believer in Jesus Christ purposefully stifle or suppress the lovely Spirit of grace as He so wants to bring the presence of Christ and the Father into our lives? Surely the answer to both questions is emphatically "NO!" However, by ignoring the Person of the Holy Spirit, refusing to deal with His reality, and never speaking His Name from the lips rendering sweet devotion to Him as we would with the Father and the Son, we are quenching Him. Plain and simple. May God help us. May we never suppress the third Person of our Trinitarian Lord!
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