Are you familiar with this Person? He specially enabled Bezaleel to devise artistic designs needed for the tabernacle. He supernaturally came upon Othniel to overcome Chushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia. He mysteriously took Philip the evangelist and carried him away just after Philip had baptized a new believer. He raised Christ from the dead. And, the moment you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, He came to live inside of you. I am talking about the Holy Spirit of God. You didn’t feel any physical changes within you upon His entry, nor did any of your internal organs need to be moved to make room for Him. But the moment you were saved, your body became His temple. We know that, not because you suddenly felt or looked different, but because God says He has done that.
You see, you were born into God’s family (by the work of the Spirit, John 3). Since you are now one of God’s sons (whether you are male or female), God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your heart, and you can call God, “Father.” God has given you His Spirit to enable you to experience a very close relationship with Him — you are now His child. God says, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom 8:16), and sometimes, when we want to pray, but the problem seems so big we don’t even know what to say, the Spirit speaks to the Father for us.
God has also given you His Spirit because He wants you to live a life of victory over sin and the flesh within us. Alhough you received the Spirit at conversion, you did not get rid of the flesh from within you. You are still tempted to sin. But the Spirit of God is holy … He hates sin … and He is inside of you too! So there is a war within you between the flesh and the Spirit. The good news is, God promises you that if you “walk by the Spirit…you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Gal 5:16 ESV).
He is working within you to glorify Christ, to help make you more like Christ, and to help you know God’s will for your life. You didn’t ask for Him nor did you do anything special to make Him live inside you in the first place and you don’t need to do anything extra special for Him to do what He wants to do in you. Just let Him have control of your life — obey His Word and do what you know He wants you to do. Don’t live in a way that you know will upset Him. For example, don’t act, speak, or think unkindly to your brothers and sisters (Eph 4:25-32). That is the flesh trying to get control and this will hinder His power in your life. But if you let Him take control, you will be filled with the Spirit and your spiritual life will be much more beautiful to God and more enjoyable to you.
