#021 – Holy Spirit is the least understood member of the Holy Trinity. Learn about His role in the Godhead and explore how He interacts in the lives of people. Holy Spirit is a powerful helper & counselor that has been freely given to every believer who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to guide their daily lives and transform them from the inside out.
Stay tuned for our next episode where we will explore – Listening Prayer.
#021 – Holy Spirit is the least understood member of the Holy Trinity. Learn about His role in the Godhead and explore how He interacts in the lives of people. Holy Spirit is a powerful helper & counselor that has been freely given to every believer who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior to guide their daily lives and transform them from the inside out.
Stay tuned for our next episode where we will explore – Listening Prayer.
Announcer
Welcome to transformed by the word, a podcast about discovering how to live your life with gratifying purpose. God created you for a reason and the Bible contains the keys to unlock your transformed life. Now, here's your host, Debora Barr
Debora 0:24
Thanks for joining me for Episode 21 of Transformed by the Word. Today we are exploring Holy Spirit's Power for Inner Healing and Life Transformation.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is the least understood member of the Holy Trinity. We seem to have a much better understanding about God the Father, and God the Son, Jesus than we do about the Holy Spirit. Let's learn about this powerful helper and counselor that has been freely given to every believer who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord, to guide our daily lives, and transform us from the inside out.
Before we delve into the roles of the Holy Spirit in our life, let's turn to the Bible to see a couple of places where all three members of the Godhead are mentioned at the same time. The first one is Matthew chapter three, verses 16 and 17. And this describes the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Here's what it says. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, This Is My dearly beloved Son, who brings me great joy.
Did you see it? All three members of the Godhead were there. We have Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father.
The second scripture is Matthew 28, verses 18 to 19. Jesus came and told His disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Another scripture is Titus chapter three, verses four and six. When God our Savior, revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth, and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ, our Savior.
The Holy Spirit is God.
In 2017, a movie came out that blessed me, and really helped me to think about each of the members of the Holy Trinity in a new and a fresh way. The movie is entitled, The Shack. And it's about a man named Mack, who experiences a tragedy in his family, and he spirals into a deep depression. And he receives this mysterious letter in the mail that invites him to travel to an abandoned shack in the woods. There he encounters three individuals who represent God the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
It is a fictional movie, but it sheds light in a creative way on the roles of each member of the Holy Trinity.
What is the Holy Spirit's role in your life? Well, the answer to that question depends on where you are spiritually, right now. If you know someone who has absolutely no desire for the things of God, and no understanding of spiritual things, the Bible says that they're living in their flesh.
First Corinthians chapter two, verse 14, tells us that the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for them. are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. When a person is not at all interested in spiritual things, they will have no understanding of God. Now, I know this isn't you, because you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you had no desire to know more about God in His Word.
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If you are seeking God, exploring spirituality, exploring various religions and have not yet made a decision about Christianity, perhaps you've not made a decision about whether to believe that Jesus Christ is truly God's Son, and that he has the power to forgive sins and give you eternal life. Holy Spirit's role in your life is to draw you towards God. He will convict you, expose your sin, and the need for salvation, as well as the only path to that salvation. Jesus says, Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment of sin because they do not believe in me.
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This conviction is not a negative thing. The Holy Spirit will actually enlighten you to the fact that we are all sinners in need of a Savior. It is God's Spirit that draws people into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Now, if you've already made a decision to surrender your life to Jesus, you are already a son or a daughter of the Most High God. The Word of God reveals that we know whether we are sons and daughters of God, if we live by the Spirit of God. God adopts us to be his sons and daughters when we respond to the leading and the guiding of the Holy Spirit. That's amazing! Don't you know that when you're adopted, you're actually chosen. You were chosen by God.
When someone adopts a child, they go out of their way to prepare to invite their child into their home and into their life. And adoption is also very expensive. It costs something to adopt a child. And similarly, Jesus paid an extremely high price for us to be called sons and daughters of God. Romans chapter eight, verses 14 and 16 says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear. But you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. That truth alone brings us great security.
After a person is drawn by the Holy Spirit to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the Spirit takes up residence in that person's heart to completely transform them from the inside out.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. old things have passed away. behold, all things have become new.
Accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and allowing him to guide and direct your life is the beginning of life transformation. The Holy Spirit moves into your heart as soon as you make that most important decision, that most important decision that you can ever make in life. That is the decision you make about Jesus. Holy Spirit then begins transforming our lives as we allow the spirit to fill us and we cooperate with him for life transformation.
The Bible actually says that our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit, meaning the Holy Spirit resides right inside of us. We then embark on a lifelong journey of sanctification. Ephesians 316 says That the Holy Spirit strengthens us in our inner person. And in order for that to happen, we must allow him to fill us. This is a daily thing. We must surrender to the filling of the Holy Spirit. God never forces himself upon us.
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We actually have to invite him to fill us with his power and his presence. And when the Spirit of God fills us, we are empowered to live a holy life, to live the way that God intends for us to live, holy and empowered to live a transformed life. But we need to make room for him.
The Holy Spirit teaches believers about spiritual things, as we seek Him, and understanding God's word and God's ways. Jesus said to His disciples before he was crucified, that the God the Father would send them the Holy Spirit as a helper, to teach them all things, and to bring back to their remembrance, all of the things that Jesus said to him when he was here on Earth.
The Holy Spirit not only draws us into a relationship with Jesus, He teaches us and the Bible says that he prays for us. Romans chapter eight, verses 26 and 27, says, likewise, the spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought. But the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings, which cannot be uttered. Now, he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints, according to the will of God.
When you don't know what to pray, call on the Holy Spirit to intercede for you in prayer.
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Whatever pain you've experienced, whatever trauma, whatever heartache, God's Holy Spirit knows all about it. And he can bring healing from the inside out from the very depths of your heart.
Holy Spirit is your ultimate prayer partner!
Several years ago, I was introduced to a form of prayer that I had never participated in before is called listening and inner healing prayer. To pray this way, what you do is you prepare to be in a quiet space. Keep your Bible with you, and take a notebook or a journal and a pen, something to write in. Then you simply quiet your mind and your spirit. And sit very still before the Lord until your mind and your spirit are at rest. Then you ask God a question. And be prepared to write down whatever impressions come into your mind or, or impressions that you feel in your spirit write these things down.
I want to share with you what I wrote in my journal during one of these sessions with God.
My question to God was, Lord, is there anything that you want to say to me?
And here's what He said in response. This is what I wrote in my journal.
I am pleased with you. You are blossoming into a beautiful woman that I created you to be. I love you. You are my vessel of honor. I will fulfill your every desire. Keep serving me. Keep sharing what I've done in your life. Do not be afraid. Do not be ashamed. I allowed all that happened in your life to take place for my glory. I will restore what has been taken from you. I will supply your every need. Be still rest and know that I am God. I will protect you. I will provide for you. I will cover you. Debora, I love you. I have always loved you. I will prosper you in the midst of famine. Keep serving me with your whole heart. I will satisfy your every need. I am God and there is no other. I will save your family members. Keep praying for them, keep witnessing to them. Delight in me. And I will grant you the desires of your heart. I will heal your deep wounds, and you will be free from the spirit of rejection. Trust me.
Well, I can tell you, that was a powerful time of prayer, a powerful response from God to a simple question that I asked him.
When we pray in this way, and God actually speaks to us, it can bring healing in the very depth of your soul. Holy Spirit also gives us spiritual gifts. Every believer has been given spiritual gifts by the Holy Spirit to be used to build up the body of Christ. There are several lists of spiritual gifts in the Bible. in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and 1 Peter. And I will be devoting an entire upcoming podcast to talking about these spiritual gifts. So now I will list just a few of them. And we'll go into greater detail in a later episode.
Some of them are prophecy, teaching, giving, helps, healing.
The Holy Spirit is actually the giver of these gifts. And their purpose is to be used to encourage, exhort and build up other people in the body of Christ.
Finally, we should strive to walk in the Spirit. What does that mean?
We see in Galatians five, verses 16 through 25. It says, I say then walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to what another so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Verse 19. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in the times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Verse 22, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
When we are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and direct our lives as believers, we will be blessed. And other people will notice this change in our lives.
I know for myself, that I want to live my life with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And it's the Holy Spirit who enables us to live this kind of transformed life.
Now let's recap the roles of the Holy Spirit. He draws us to God. He takes up residence in a person's heart to completely transform them from the inside out. He teaches believers about spiritual things. He prays for us and intercedes for us and He gives us spiritual gifts. He enables us to walk in the Spirit And he produces good spiritual fruit in our lives.
Now, if you've never responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, you can do that right now.
It is by faith, that we believe that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And if you're ready to place your trust in the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and receive forgiveness for all of your sins, once you pray this prayer with me,
God, I confess that I'm a sinner, and I need Jesus in my life.
I repent of my sins, and I turn toward you.
I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, He was buried and he rose from the dead.
And I accept this by faith. And I invite Jesus to be Lord of my life, to reign and rule in my heart.
Thank you, God, for forgiving me, and saving me. Amen.
If you just made that decision for Christ, for the first time, I would love to hear from you. Please visit my website at TBTWpodcast.com. Click the link and let me know about your decision for Christ so that I can follow up with you and support you on your next steps of faith.
My prayer for you today is that you will allow the Holy Spirit to do a magnificent work in your life, that you would surrender to his transformational work in your heart. That you would invite him to fill you daily. And that God would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in your inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all of the saints what is the width, and length and depth and height. To know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all of the fullness of God. Amen.
Stay tuned for our next episode of transformed by the word where we will learn more about listening prayer.
Announcer 22:58
Thank you for listening to transformed by the word with your host Debora Barr, be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play and connect with us at TBTWPodcast.com. Until next time, be blessed.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai