Empowered By The Holy Spirit
Overlooked No More: Discovering the Power of the Holy Spirit in Your Life
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to talk about God the Father and Jesus, but somehow the Holy Spirit gets pushed to the background? I’ve been in church since I can remember, hearing countless messages throughout my life, and I’ve observed that “for some reason, at least in the churches I’ve been in, I feel like the Holy Spirit gets overlooked often.” This is particularly interesting because in this church age, the Spirit is actually our primary connection to the Trinity.
The Trinity’s Plan for Relationship
In Genesis, we see that God created humans in His image primarily so we could have relationship with Him. Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve experienced perfect communion with God. Genesis 3:8 tells us “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden,” suggesting this was a normal, daily occurrence.
But sin broke that perfect relationship. “Sin had broken that most perfect, the reason we were created the way we were for this purpose, and had broken that relationship. It was not the same. And they were now scared of their Creator because they saw sin for what it was.”
Even from the beginning, God promised a solution through Jesus. In Genesis 3:15, we see the promise that Jesus “shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Jesus came to reconcile us to God, but before returning to heaven, He promised something remarkable.
The Promise of the Helper
In John 14:15-16, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.” Jesus knew we couldn’t follow God’s commands on our own. We needed help.
Later, in John 16:7, Jesus makes a statement that must have shocked His disciples: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
Think about that! Jesus told His followers it was better for Him to leave so the Spirit could come. As one pastor put it, “it is better to have the Spirit inside you, than Jesus beside you.” The reality is that “if you are a believer, the Spirit is in you. The Spirit, if you’re a believer, is working in you regardless if you understand it or not. But it’s so much better if we understand it.”
How the Holy Spirit Empowers Our Purpose
The Spirit Identifies Us
Just as the Holy Spirit identified Jesus at His baptism (Luke 3:22), the Spirit identifies us as God’s children. Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.”
This sealing is significant. In ancient times, a seal wasn’t like a Ziploc bag. “A seal back then was when a king or something important would be sending a message somewhere else. And he wanted them to know that it was actually from him… he’d have a certain ring or some kind of stamp that was unique to him.” The seal bore the image of the sender.
Similarly, “we are sealed with the Spirit. That means we can be confident in our salvation not because of what we’ve done, not because of what we do, but because of what God has done by sealing us with the promised Holy Spirit.”
The Spirit Gives Us an Assignment
Jesus was assigned by the Spirit to proclaim good news. In Luke 4:18, Jesus reads from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”
Similarly, we have an assignment from the Spirit. Acts 1:8 says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
“When the Spirit is working through us, you can go to a prison. You can go to your neighbor. And you don’t have to be like, ‘God, I don’t have all the right words… I’m not the most mature believer ever.’ You just share God’s word and you allow the Spirit’s power to work through you. Takes all the pressure off us. It’s not about you. You don’t save people. God saves people through the Spirit as he convicts them of their sin.”
How the Holy Spirit Empowers Our Present
Being Controlled by the Spirit
Just as Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit” and “led by the Spirit” (Luke 4:1), we too are called to be filled with the Spirit. Ephesians 5:17-18 instructs us: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”
This comparison to drunkenness is illuminating. “How do we get drunk with wine? What does that look like? It looks like we take alcohol into ourselves… Our bloodstream eventually gets to our brain and it starts to change our thinking.” Similarly, being filled with the Spirit changes how we think and act.
But “being filled with the spirit is not something you can do in the moment, like you’re like, ‘Oh no, I’m tempted to do wrong. Alright, be filled with the spirit. Be filled with the spirit.’ No, being filled with the spirit, much like being drunk with wine… takes time. We need to be proactively being filled with the Spirit so that we are ready when we are tempted.”
Three Practical Ways to Be Filled with the Spirit
- Pray for it – Ephesians 1:16-18 shows Paul praying that believers would receive “the spirit of wisdom and of Revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened.” We need to pray, “God, make my paths straight before you… Show me your will. Make it obvious not just to my head, but give me eyes of my heart.”
- Have faith in God’s plan – Galatians 3:5 reminds us that the Spirit works through “hearing with faith.” “We have faith that if we pray, God promises to fill us with the Spirit. So we believe what his word says and then we act on it. We don’t say, ‘Well, I’m gonna wait to act on the Spirit’s leading until I feel it completely.’ No, we say, ‘God, you’ve promised to give me the Spirit… and I’m gonna take a step of faith.'”
- Immerse yourself in God’s Word – Romans 10:17 tells us, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Our faith isn’t random; it’s grounded in “the word of Christ that I can read in my Bible each day, that I can spend time knowing him more and more and being filled with the Spirit as I know more about God’s plan for me.”
Worshiping by the Spirit
Finally, like Christ who “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21), we are called to worship God by the Spirit. Philippians 3:3 describes believers as “the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.”
True worship isn’t just going through motions. “If I show up to church to worship God and I just think I can… I don’t feel like worshiping him, I’m not thinking anything about Christ and what he’s done in life… and I think I’m actually worshiping him in that moment, the reality is that we’re doing it in the flesh.”
Putting It Into Practice
How can we apply these truths about the Holy Spirit in our daily lives?
- Ask yourself: “Am I filled with the Spirit? Am I being filled with the Spirit? Am I doing the things that put me in a position where the Spirit fills me?”
- Make time for God: “If you go into your daily Bible reading, if you go into daily prayer time, and you’re always like, ‘I gotta do this in like 10 minutes cause I’ve gotta go’… do your best to not put a time frame on God’s filling you with the Spirit.”
- Develop a real relationship: “If you’re in a marriage and it’s constantly go, go, go, go, go, there’s a time where eventually one of you will say to the other one, like, ‘I feel like we’re married. I feel like we just kind of live together. We don’t have a relationship.’ And that often can happen in our spiritual lives.”
The Holy Spirit is indwelling every believer, working in us whether we understand it or not. But imagine how much more effective we could be if we recognized His presence, yielded to His control, and allowed Him to empower every aspect of our lives.
“God, we’re so thankful for your Spirit. We confess that we overlook his work too often. And God, I pray that as a church we’d be Spirit-filled and that we would reach our community with the gospel.”
Biblical Leadership Matters
Prayers That Transform The Church
A Word Centered Church
Deliberate Worship
Expressions of Worship
Questions About Spiritual Gifts
We hope you enjoyed the sermon and would love to see you in person. Plan your visit to Community Baptist Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee today!