The very first regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in a person is at the point when the word of God is preached and the person is convicted of the word of God, and he or she is convinced to be saved or become born again afterwards. If you read the book of Acts 2:37-39, the Bible says: “Now when they heard this [the words that apostle Peter preached to them under the influence of the Holy Spirit], they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “men and brethren, what shall we do?” What does it mean to be cut to the heart? To be cut to the heart simply means to be sincerely sorrowful about one’s wrong doings and actions that does not bring glory to God.

 

There are two kinds of sorrow: there is godly sorrow which leads unto repentance and restoration, and there is worldly sorrow that leads to condemnation and death. An example of these two types of sorrows is witnessed in the lives of apostle Peter and Judas Iscariot. Peter denied Christ three times as foretold by Jesus Christ and afterwards, the Bible says he wept bitterly and cried to God for forgiveness and his soul was restored. Godly sorrow for wrong doings leads to restoration and not condemnation. But Judas on the other hand also repented, however, not from a sincere heart, and he ended up committing suicide. Paul showed us how they both work in 2 Corinthians 7:10, the Bible says: “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

 

So, what produces this godly sorrow unto repentance in us is the Holy Spirit and it is part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the unsaved world. If you read Zechariah 12:10, the Bible says: “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” At this point, the Holy Spirit does the work of convictions, bringing people to that state where they begin to see the need for them to repent of their wicked and evil ways and cling unto Christ. There is also a New Testament account of this ministry of the Holy Spirit. In Luke 3:7-14, the Bible says:

 

“Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸ Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. ⁹ And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” ¹⁰ So the people asked him, saying, “What shall we do then?” ¹¹ He answered and said to them, “He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise.” ¹² Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” ¹³ And he said to them, “Collect no more than what is appointed for you.” ¹⁴ Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we do?” So, he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.”

 

After salvation, then the next stage is the INFILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. To be born again is one thing, and to be filled with the Holy Spirit is another thing. That is why as a Christian, when you get people saved or born again, you don’t leave them and assume they will be fine. You must get them filled with the Holy Spirit because that is what would get them established in the faith. If you go back to that Acts 2:38-39, the Bible says: “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”

 

The gift of the Holy Spirit here talks about the person of the Holy Spirit and not the giftings of the Holy Spirit. Because you must understand that to operate in the giftings of the Holy Spirit, you must first and foremost be filled with the person of the Holy Spirit, and there is a difference between the “gift” of the Holy Spirit and the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit.

 

Difference

 

THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

#1. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the person of the Holy Spirit and our body is His temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” So, when you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, your body becomes His temple.

 

#2. The Holy Spirit was first and foremost a promise of the Father in the Old Testament in the book of Joel chapter 2:28-29. But that promise of the Father has been fulfilled to us in the New Testament to every believer that has been filled by the person of the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:44-46 and John 7:37-39. The Bible says:

 

“While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. ⁴⁵ And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. ⁴⁶ For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.”

 

Another thing we can see from this passage above is that there is no discrimination in receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit. God is not a respecter of persons, He gives us the Holy Spirit equally, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, whether you are circumcised or not circumcised, whether you are a general overseer of a big church or you are brother or sister who just became born again. We have not received different kinds of Spirit; we have received the same Holy Spirit.

 

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

 

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

Now, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are unique abilities that the Holy Spirit endow us with as a result of His infilling presence in us. It is like someone coming to live you with for a very long time and because of that, the person came with a lot of gifts for you so that his stay with you can be enjoyable and interesting. That is how you can view the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit filling us, there is no way we would have been able to manifest these gifts in the first place. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 shows us example of these gifts:

 

“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

 

So, we have been able to see so far, our first contact with the Holy Spirit and what it means for the Holy Spirit to infill us. And we have also seen the difference between The Gift of The Holy Spirit and The Gifts of The Holy Spirit. One talks about the person and personality of the Holy Spirit while the other talks about the various expressions of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

 

THE LIFE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

The life of the Holy Spirit is the kind of life that that originates from the Holy Spirit and that is why it is of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:1-14 says: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus [the reason they will not be condemned, either by God the Father or the Son is clearly written in the statement that follows], who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So, condemnation cannot come to us simply because we are walking in the Spirit of the Father and in the Spirit of the Son. Condemnation cannot come to us because we are one with the Father through the Spirit of His son, Christ Jesus.

 

Don’t forget in 1 Corinthians 12:3, Paul said: “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” So, what takes condemnation far from a believer is because such a believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit.

 

Verse 2-4 reads: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. [Now notice something fundamental here: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus works through the Spirit while the law of sin and death works through the flesh. Now there is nothing wrong with the law in itself. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:8 that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. But the greatest enemy of the law is the weakness of man’s flesh. Verse 3 says: ³ For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

 

So, that means that the righteous requirement that man longs to attain by the keeping of the law which seem impossible because of the weakness of the flesh, that righteous requirement could then be obtained through the life of the Spirit, because Christ fulfilled that righteous requirement on our behalf. So, the life of the Spirit produces in us righteousness and not condemnation.

 

⁵ For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. ⁶ For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. ⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. ⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. ¹⁰ And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹ But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. ¹² Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

 

So, by constantly yielding ourselves to the Holy Spirit, that life of the Spirit continually finds expression in us and it is sustained.

 

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

We receive the power of the Holy Spirit in order for us to live a productive Christian life and enjoy a robust walk with God. Productive and effective Christian living is practically impossible outside the power of the Holy Spirit. Pleasing God would be almost if not totally impossible outside the power of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 4:33, the Bible says: “And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.” Before the power came, there was little or nothing that they could do of themselves. They were fearful and timid, but when that power rested on them all, they became bold and effective in their witnessing of Christ.

 

HOW DO WE THEN SUSTAIN THE LIFE AND POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US?

 

#1. It is by being filled with the Holy Spirit all the time [Ephesians 5:18-21]

The first way to sustain the life and power of the Holy Spirit in us is by being filled all the time with the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled all the time. And Paul gave us a number of ways through which we can be filled in Ephesians 5:18-21. The Bible says:

 

“And do not be drunk with wine, in wch is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ submitting to one another in the fear of God.”

 

Another way to be filled with the Holy Spirit that apostle Paul didn’t mention here is through Prayer. In Acts 4:31, the Bible says: “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Prayer helps us to be filled with the Holy Spirit again and again and this is why you cannot joke with your prayer life.

 

I pray that the Lord will help us in Jesus’ name!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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