The Spirit at Work in Believers, Part 1

I am posting the sermon/response to the Word that highlighted the June 30 youth/young adult service at church. The final stories are in Laurie Kehler's book, "This Outside Life - Finding God in the Heart of Nature." They are summarized here for legal issues or are directly quoted in excerpts. I highly recommend this resource as a must have in your faith library.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Who is The Holy Spirit?

The reading from Galatians 5 tells us that the Holy Spirit produces fruit – love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, long-suffering and patience, faithfulness, self-control. We are commanded in this passage to live by the Spirit if we are to be successful in our faith walk. So, like, Who then is this Spirit? Who is the Holy Spirit? Briefly:  He is God, part of the Trinity, co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and The Son. He has always been God, is sentient, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. In the personhood of the Holy Spirit, God relates to believers intimately, living inside us. He gifts the Church, the Body of Christ with Himself to build it up and to empower the members of the Body to live for Christ. He further endows the Body with special gifts to glorify God, serve others and to bring Christ to others. The Holy Spirit is a ‘He’, not an ‘it’. God the Holy Spirit is the living personhood of God. He is not a ghost; older translations of the Bible refer to the Spirit as a ghost because in the 16^th and 17^th centuries the original Hebrew and Greek words for spirit were often translated as ‘ghost’ reflecting the common language of the time describing an unseen person. In modern English the meaning and use of the word ghost has  differing implications. Thus, the better translation is God, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Jesus and/or Christ, which further confirms His Godhead. Holy Spirit God exalts the Son and teaches about Him and the Father as Jesus promised in John 14-16. He is life-giving – as Paul tells us in Romans 8, and Ephesians 2. His fruit described in Galatians is a picture revelation and description of the essence of God’s character. When we yield ourselves willingly to His creative power in us, the Holy Spirit endeavors to imprint that character in us as He works through us and in us to shape us into Christ’s very image. Without the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives, it is impossible for us to be faithful followers of Christ as He says in Romans 8:9-11. 

Today, we want to share a some stories with you about how God the Holy Spirit living in believers, and poured out upon the Body of Christ works out God’s purposes and proves to be the Advocate and Helper for all who believe.