The Ministry of the Holy Spirit Part 2
Scripture: Galatians 5 v 22 - 23:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such
there is no law."
The infilling of the Holy Spirit is different from the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is when the Holy Spirit is within you to expand
your spiritual growth through bringing His fruit to maturity in your life.
When you are born again you immediately feel peace as
your sins are cleansed away by the Blood of Jesus. You feel the love of Father
God blessing you. Love and peace are two of the nine fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to bring all nine
fruit to maturity in you. These nine fruit are the perfect nature of Jesus
Christ which you receive when you are baptised in water after you are born
again.
Verse 16 says "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit,
and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." The Spirit and the flesh
are contrary to one another and if you give in to the flesh you will not do
that which pleases the Lord.
The works of the flesh are adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, wrath, strife, heresy, envy, murder,
drunkenness, revellings etc. They which do these things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. Verse 19 - 21.
The flesh is controlled
by satan and his demons and when we allow him to manipulate us we fall
into sin and become bound by demons. Only Jesus never sinned nor was in any
bondage. Only Jesus is able to save from sin and deliver from demons.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of
fleshly sins before they bring us down. He wants to eliminate our fleshly side
to make room for the good fruit of Jesus.
We need to make sure we have good ground for Him to cultivate so that we
bring forth a hundredfold return. Stony hard ground brings forth very little.
Longsuffering means patience. It means you have to endure
hurtful problems over a long period of time so that patience grows. Impatience
comes from a proud heart that wants everything its own way. Impatience never waits for the Lord to
complete His perfect work. It wants everything now.
Pride wants to control, manipulate and demand and this is
the very opposite of the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Pride is full of
self-righteousness - I am so much better than this sinner. God hates this
attitude. The Pharisees who crucified Jesus were full of self-righteousness.
He produces meekness in us. The two meekest men who ever
lived were Jesus and Moses. They endured many hardships without complaining.
The word meekness is in no ways a weakness. It means your strength under God's
control. Its what submission to the Holy Spirit really means.
Temperance is self-control, which is knowing when to stop
before whatever wrong we are busy with becomes a problem. It means not letting
your anger become a wrecking ball. Not letting your habits become destructive.
It means letting the Holy Spirit control your emotions so that you can help
someone else.
The Holy Spirit is a person and if you grieve Him with
very negative behaviour He withdraws from you. It leaves you exposed to the
storms of life with no shelter in sight. So if you are in this unhappy position
check back to see where you grieved the Holy Spirit - ask God's forgiveness and
change your ways permanently.
There is much more to say on the ministry of the Holy
Spirit so there will be a part 3.
Prayer: Father God, its so important for us to know the
Holy Spirit, who is our most precious companion, teacher and Comforter. He is
our conscience and we should be ultra careful not to sear our conscience with
resistance to His promptings. Help us Lord to become submissive to Him. In
Jesus' name. Amen.