The Bible is full of stories of people who were filled with the Holy Spirit and performed amazing works for the Lord. As believers this is our desire and our goal as well. But how do we open our hearts to the power of the Holy Spirit and allow him to move freely within and through us as we seek the Lord’s will in our lives?
When we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us (Ephesians 1:13). He promises to bring each of us spiritual gifts to be used to help each other (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). He promises to produce spiritual fruit in every believer: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Holy Spirit brings hope (Romans 15:13), joy (Acts 13:52), power (Acts 1:8), frees us from sin (Romans 8:1-2), helps us when we don’t know how to pray (Romans 8:26), gives birth to spiritual life (John 3:6). Because of Jesus Christ we can come to the Father through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 2:18).
The Holy Spirit is a vital and active part of the trinity. Yet, for me, He was the one I knew the least about. I was taught lots of things as I was growing up about the Father and the Son. I had heard of the Holy Spirit, I had felt his stirrings in my heart, but I didn’t really know how to manifest his gifts and fruits in my life.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Paul tells us, “Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.”
How do we make this a reality?
1. Make room for Him to dwell within you.
When we become believers the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us. But how much room is available for his dwelling place?
In the beginning He will squeeze into whatever space we have available, but in order to really feel His presence, that space needs to expand and grow. And that means we need to clear out the junk that is cluttering up our hearts. Each sin has left a piece of clutter that gets in the way. When we repent, that clutter is swept out and the space available for the Spirit grows. If we ask the Spirit to look around, He can point out remnants that we may have forgotten we had stored there. He will bring them to mind, we can repent, and He sweeps them out one by one. Pretty soon there is plenty of room, and what was once a closed up, cluttered junk room is now an open space full of light and peace.
However, just like cleaning the house, this process is not a once and done job. Our human sin nature keeps throwing junk on the floor of our hearts. We need to keep asking the Spirit to alert us and convict us of our sins so that we can repent and clear them out of the way. We need to take time to sit with the Lord, and talk with Him so that His Spirit can keep taking out the trash.
2. Remove obstacles for Him to move freely
Bitterness and resentment sit like boulders in a stream. Our goal is for the Holy Spirit to flow within us and through us, to allow us to fulfill the plan that God has for our lives. In order to improve that flow, we need to remove the boulders.
Forgiveness rolls those rocks away and gives the Spirit freedom to flow. Rolling boulders is not easy, and we don’t always feel like moving them. We know that it would be for the best to get rid of them, but our emotions tell us that it will be too hard, that we like those boulders sitting there. They make us feel powerful and in control, as if we have mastered them and they belong to us.
It takes trust in the Lord to take those steps toward that rock and tell it to move, we need to call on His authority and we may need to push it more than once. It will try to roll back into place, but if we keep pushing with the strength that we have through Jesus Christ, it will eventually roll out of our Spirit stream.
3 Ask to grow your gifts and fruits
Feeling the Holy Spirit moving within us and flowing through us brings true freedom. Freedom from the sin and unforgiveness that had our souls bound up in knots. It is a freedom that this world cannot offer, no matter how many self help books we read. But the gifts given by the Holy Spirit were not given just for us to feel good about ourselves. They were given so that we could help others.
Our individual spiritual gifts are not always obvious at first, and not always what we think we want them to be. We don’t get to choose which gifts we receive, they are chosen for us by the Spirit. Our task is to discover them and use them to glorify the Lord. We do this, not by figuring it out on our own, but by asking the Holy Spirit to reveal our gifts to us as we submit to the will of the Lord. And as we take steps in obedience to the Lord, He will lead us into opportunities where we will discover those gifts and learn to use and grow them.
As we live in the Spirit, the fruits that He gives should also be evident in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I don’t know about you, but consistently living out all of these fruits is difficult for me. I do pretty well with one or two on any given day, but all 9 of them all of the time? How can that even be possible?
Just ask.
It really is just that simple. Under our own strength we cannot produce all of these desired fruits. The Holy Spirit produces them in us. Is your patience lacking today? Ask Him for more. Is your faith shrinking? Ask Him to fan the flame. Has your self-control left the room? Ask Him to drag it back.
The Holy Spirit is crucial to our lives as believers. He is the one who dwells within us as our guide, and delivers the gifts from the Lord. And He is the one who enables us to share those gifts with those around us. Don’t miss out on experiencing the fullness of everything the Spirit can do in your life.
Clear the clutter, remove the rocks, and let Him fill you with fruit.
YES! This us so good. Such truth!! Jesus knew that without the Spirit of God in us we would be defeated in our desire to be who we are created to be. So he asked The Father to send him. Keep on writing.
I so appreciate that you included how our flesh keeps cluttering our inner space with sin as well as the fact that there can be things there that we didn’t think were sin and the Spirit will reveal that so we can repent and He can clear them out. He helps us so much every day.
I appreciate the idea that the Holy Spirit begins by squeezing into whatever space we have available. However to grow, we must make more space for Him to dwell.