The most important connection of your life is your relationship with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, and sometimes referred to as the "forgotten" member of the Godhead. But I like to call Him one of the greatest gifts given to the Christian who has put their faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul writes:
“In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV
And this gets me so excited! The Holy Spirit is God Himself living in us as Christians! We just can't do the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. But with Him on our side, everything changes! Here are just four of the many things He does:
1. The Holy Spirit gives the Christian teaching and instruction.
Jesus says:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:26 ESV
2. The Holy Spirit enables us to live a holy life.
The Apostle Paul writes:
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Romans 8:13 ESV
3. The Holy Spirit empowers believers with various spiritual gifts for the benefit of others.
Paul writes:
“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-7 ESV
4. The Holy Spirit gives us assurance of our salvation!
We already saw from Ephesians 1 that He guarantees our inheritance. But we also read in Romans:
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:16-17 ESV
So it's clear that the Holy Spirit is a vital and essential part of the Christian life, but here's the thing:
We can limit the Spirit's power in our lives when we don't prioritize our relationship with Him.
Now, God still loves us and can work through us even when we don't seek Him, but generally speaking, God doesn't force Himself on us. He wants us to want Him.
“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8 ESV
This is why some churches see more miracles than others. Because the churches that are seeing miracles are the ones where the congregants pray for them and by faith are expecting them to happen.
“You do not have, because you do not ask.” James 4:2 ESV
Jesus Himself did not do many mighty miracles in Nazareth because of the people's unbelief. Matthew 13:58 paraphrased.
So how do we as Christians build a good relationship with the Holy Spirit? The same way we build good friendships with fellow human beings: with intentionality, authenticity, and audacity.
Building the Relationship
Intentionality
Intentionality means that we make a plan to spend time with God, and we follow through on that plan.
For example, you can plan for 20 minutes a day, a couple days a week. You can increase this over time, but when you're just starting out, make it easy on yourself. Pick a time and a place where you're going to spend time with God, and unless otherwise needed, be ready to say “no” to anything that would get in the way of that commitment.
Plan this out ahead of time so that you can build your schedule around your God-time. Now when I say “God-time,” I don't necessarily mean reading the Bible. Although you should absolutely be reading your Bible every day, I think Christians need to have a separate time to just sit and be with God.
One thing you can do is take some time to just be still, be silent, and breathe.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10 ESV
One reason we might have trouble hearing God's voice is we're always “go, go, go”! We get up, go to school/work, come back home, and then it's on to the next thing. We never take the time to calm down and just be.
Here's a challenge for you. Set a timer for 2 minutes and just try to be still for those two minutes. Don't talk. Don't pray. Just relax and breathe. And I know for some of you that's hard. But just do your best. Just try it for 2 minutes and then go back to normal. What you're trying to do is disrupt the rush of life in order to be present with God. The Holy Spirit might speak to you during this time, but don't try to force that to happen. You might find that you really enjoy the peacefulness of this quiet time, and you might decide to go longer than 2 minutes. But make it easy and rewarding for yourself.
Authenticity
Another thing you can implement in your God-time is authenticity. Take some time to pour your heart out before God. Confess sins. Confess struggles. What are you worried about? What are you ashamed of? What are you hoping for? Spill it all.
King David writes:
“With my voice I cry out to the Lord; with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him; I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way!” Psalm 142:1-3 ESV
Elsewhere, he writes:
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.” Psalm 32:3-5 ESV
There's just something so liberating when you're able to pour out your heart to a friend. And if you're a Christian, the Holy Spirit is your best and most trusted friend. Why deprive yourself of that healing grace?
Paul writes:
“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV
Audacity
And the key phrase I want to focus on is, “Let us then with “confidence” draw near to the throne of grace.” Which leads into another important part of your God-time: audacity. Now obviously, the audacity you have with God is not the same audacity you'd have with human beings, where you confront them on their wrongdoing.
Instead, the audacity you have with God is the willingness to ask God for things. God is more than happy to give good gifts to His children! (Matthew 7:10 paraphrased) As a matter of fact, the Apostle John goes so far as to say:
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” 1 John 5:13-15 ESV
Here's a key principle to remember:
The areas of your life that are not blessed are likely areas that you are not blessing.
Is your marriage a godly one and in alignment with God? How are your children? Your friendships? Your business? Your job? Finances? Health? Spiritual life? Ministry?
Are you praying and asking for God's blessings over those areas of your life? We all know what happens to the plant that doesn't get watered.
This is not a prosperity gospel, nor a get-rich, name-it-and-claim-it theology. It's simply being aware of the fact that we need God's help in every area of life. And yes, the more God is involved in a specific area of your life, the more likely that area is to “prosper.” It's okay to say that.
So be audacious! Call upon God to bless your city, ask God to bless your marriage, ask God to restore your relationships, ask God to restore your fire and passion for His Kingdom. Ask God to protect you and prosper your health. Ask God to bless your finances and enable you to manage them wisely. Pray specifically for the important areas of life that God has called you to steward.
One thing that can really help your prayers is if you write them down on a paper or in your phone. That way, you can go back to them and pray them out every day.
So with that, you have at least three tools for your God-time: silence, authentic prayers, audacious prayers. Now we could add so many more, like worship or praying in tongues. But the point is not to give you a formula, but just to get you intentionally spending time with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis. And that's the key.
And then a final point I want to make is: be careful not to try to “manufacture” the Holy Spirit. I know some Christians can have very strong emotional, spiritual experiences. And those are great, but don't try to force those to happen. There are false, counterfeit spirits out there, and you don't want to be entangled with those. All you're trying to do in your God-time is “make space” for the Holy Spirit to minister to you. And that can happen in so many different ways. Let your relationship with God be yours and not somebody else's.
“Well, Calvin, how would I distinguish the Holy Spirit from a false spirit?" Well, I think it's simple: the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 consists of: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If what you're experiencing is lacking those fruits, then it may not be from God. I like the way John Eldredge puts it.
“The Religious [or false] Spirit has turned discipleship into a soul-killing exercise of principles. Most folks don’t even know they can walk with God, hear his voice. The Religious Spirit has stigmatized counseling as a profession for sick patients, and so the wounds of our hearts never get healed. He’s taken healing away from us almost entirely so that we sit in pews as broken people, feeling guilty because we can’t live the life we’re supposed to live. [...]
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
So here’s a bottom-line test to expose the Religious Spirit: if it doesn’t bring freedom and it doesn’t bring life, it’s not Christianity. If it doesn’t restore the image of God and rejoice in the heart, it’s not Christianity.”
Waking the Dead, Pgs 162-163.
And with that, my prayer for you is that you develop a strong relationship with the True and Living Holy Spirit that gives life to mankind and spiritual vitality to the body of Christ. May the Lord bless you, and all praise, all honor, all glory be to God forever in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen and Amen!
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