With Derrick and Christie recently getting engaged all things wedding are on my mind and on my radar. I recently listened to an interview with Mike Grayson and his fiancée, Molly. Mike is the lead singer for the Christian band Mike’s Chair. Molly was telling the story of how Mike proposed last fall. After Molly finished her story she paused and said: “All I kept thinking was: I get him.” Molly was saying she was so thrilled to spend the rest of her life with Mike.

What came to my mind after hearing Molly’s story was this: We get Him. For those of us who are Christ followers we get God. We get Him here on earth and we get Him for all of eternity. While we are here He lives inside of us as the Holy Spirit. We get to spend the rest of our lives with Him.

Jesus told his Disciples it was better to have the Holy Spirit than to have Him. John 16:7 “But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

So if we have Him what are we to do with Him?

1. The primary purpose of the Holy Spirit is for us to become more and more like Christ: 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

2. Being transformed into his likeness is all about love: Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

3. There is a common misperception about how the Holy Spirit works. I know I was confused for a long time. I thought as soon as we are saved and the Holy Spirit enters us we are all set. Yes the Holy Spirit is in us and is always working in us but we have to listen – we have to do our part.

Galatians 5:16 “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:25 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

• “Walk and step” being action verbs means we have to do our part – it is not a passive act.
• We must consciously choosing by faith to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide in thought, word, and actions (Romans 6:11-14).
• We can’t act out of the spirit and the flesh at the same time. (James 3:11)

4. Lastly, we can know that we are walking in the Spirit if our lives are showing the fruit of the Spirit –love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (1 Corinthians 12)

I love Francis Chan’s quote in Forgotten God: Reversing our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit “I am tired of living in a way that is exactly like people who do not have the Holy Spirit of God living in them.”

I know I got tired of it. My life is right only when I am walking in step with the Holy Spirit.

In His Service,

Ed