Before Jesus's death, He gave His disciples many instructions, also comforting them because of what was about to happen. He warned them that he would not be with them forever, but He would send them a helper that could be. Who was this? The Holy Spirit.
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you.
John 14:16-17
Matthew 10:19-20 is the first time Jesus mentions the Holy Spirit. He was about to send the Twelve out to teach and heal, warning them that some people would oppose them. However, Jesus wasn't just going to leave them on their own. He gave them His Spirit to guide and comfort them through trials. He said that they should not rely on themselves for the right words when they were defending their beliefs; they should instead do exactly as the Spirit directs. The same is true for all believers.
The Holy Spirit is always with us. One of the most important jobs we have is to tell others the Good News, and the Holy Spirit helps us, as we see in Acts 2:1-13 when He came on the believers at Pentecost, allowing them to speak in many different languages so they could talk to people from lots of different places and tell them about Jesus.
The Spirit also teaches us (John 14:26). He uses many means (the Bible, our experiences, other people, etc.) to help us grow spiritually. Take Peter, for example. He was just a fisherman, but then he met Jesus. Jesus called him and taught him, and Peter thought he was prepared to do anything for his Savior. Imagine his disgrace when he denied three times that he even knew Him! However, after the Holy Spirit had come on him, Peter became bold in his confession of faith and passionate in his love for Christ. The Spirit was continuing Jesus' teaching, helping Peter become the amazing Christian we know him to be.
Have you ever wanted to pray about something, but you didn't know how to explain it? The Holy Spirit takes care of that, too! In Romans 8:26-27, Paul explains that the Spirit intercedes through us “through wordless groans.” He talks to God about what we need according to God's will.
God's Holy Spirit does so much more than we can ever know. He helps us in ways we don't understand. Christians find comfort in knowing that He is with us; He is a constant encouragement, a reminder that God has not forgotten us. How can we be sure that He is with us at all? Well, there are some ways to know…
The Spirit indwells us as soon as we become Christians. When we pray to God, asking for forgiveness from our sins and declaring our belief that Jesus died and rose again to save us from them, He sends us His Holy Spirit. We cannot see him, but we trust that He is there. When we become Christians, we know that He is with us.
The Holy Spirit works in our lives, changing us from the inside out to be more like Jesus. I guess you could say that He is “Jesus-ifying” us. His work is a testimony that He is with us. When we read the Bible more, are more patient, or act more lovingly toward others, we can take that as evidence of the Holy Spirit in us. These things bring us closer to God, which isn't a goal we would normally have – that's the Spirit inside us unifying us with Him.
If you need to make a decision, pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Maybe a verse will pop into your head that applies to your situation, or maybe someone will say something that makes clear what you need to do. That is the Holy Spirit guiding you. This is more confirmation that He is in your life. He always shows us the right way, revealing to us what God wants us to do.
If you are a Christian, here's your homework: try to identify “Spirit sightings” in your life – it could be anything from learning something from your Bible to resisting a temptation to sharing your faith with an unbeliever. The Holy Spirit does a million different things in our lives every day. Just keep an eye out. And pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to do His work of “Jesus-ifying” you.
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