\n<\/p>\n
Having fellowship with the Holy Spirit is being in agreement with Him and His Word. It is having said, \u2018Yes Lord, I am a sinner. You are my only hope for goodness.\u2019 It is surrendering to His Word and therefore being surrendered to the Truth that is Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n
In fellowship with the Holy Spirit, the truth begins and ends in the Bible. The world is utterly muted because it has been disqualified as a worthy source of life. The world has become a dark valley in which only the Truth, the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is the light leading us through.<\/p>\n
As we are led through the darkness of the world by the Light of the Son of God\u2014God born of God\u2014we are led to a specific place: eternal life.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFor the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.\u201d \u2013 \u202d\u202dGalatians\u202c \u202d6\u202c:\u202d8\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Holy Spirit was sent to us by our Lord Jesus to help us get to His Kingdom of Heaven, and to help us be internally transformed into citizens of His Kingdom in this life in order for it to become our eternal home.<\/p>\n
Because see, we choose our eternal resting place in this life. Fellowship with the Holy Spirit is the only assurance any believer has of being an inheritor of eternal life.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn 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 until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.\u201d \u2013 \u202d\u202dEphesians\u202c \u202d1\u202c:\u202d13\u202c-\u202d14\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Living in Fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God<\/h2>\n
Being in fellowship with the Holy Spirit is a lifelong journey that is a continuous transformational process of being made into the image of Christ, like how in the beginning God said, \u201cLet us make man in our image, after our likeness.\u201d (Genesis 1:26).<\/p>\n
When mankind died spiritually first in the Garden of Eden, we would soon die physically because our human spirit had lost its sustaining Source of Life, as it was separated from the Spirit of God, the Glory of God. And so the spirit would soon enough be depleted and leave the body and return to the God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7).<\/p>\n
Indeed, not dropping immediately dead after sinning reveals the incredible power of the Spirit of God (the Breath of Life) that our human spirits are born of.<\/p>\n
Now, because we are born again of the Spirit of God, not of spiritual death anymore, the Spirit transforms us into who He originally intended us to be, renewing our minds, till we are in our glorified eternal bodies with Him forever, till we have reached our eternal destination through our transformational journey of faith with Him.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,\u201d \u2013 \u202d\u202dRomans\u202c \u202d8\u202c:\u202d16\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The Work of the Spirit<\/h3>\n
When Jesus baptises us with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11), they will not tolerate the darkness of sin within our souls, they will live to eliminate that darkness.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAnd we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.\u201d \u2013 \u202d\u202d2 Corinthians\u202c \u202d3\u202c:\u202d18\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Like gold being purified in fire, the inner work of the Holy Spirit will begin to wring out darkness and evil in our souls. It will renew our minds by His Word living in our hearts from daily and nightly meditation. When this painful, necessary process has happened over a period of however long He finds it necessary, then we will find ourselves bearing His fruit.<\/p>\n
This painful wringing-out of darkness process should not be feared, because it happens for a time and a season, instead of the pain and darkness living in us and controlling us like its slaves our whole lives and even eternally. Because if we are slaves to the pain and darkness that is in the world, then we are not slaves of God\u2014slaves of goodness, holiness, and righteousness which are life (without death).<\/p>\n
Fellowship with the Holy Spirit feels like His fruit: goodness, gentleness, patience, peace, joy, love, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It is also the reality of living in the Spirit of wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, might, the fear of the Lord, and the very Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).<\/p>\n
The Hope of Glory<\/h2>\n
The Holy Spirit is the Witness to us being the children of God. And we are the witnesses of God Almighty because of the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Because in this body that is dead because of sin, and the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:10), we cannot fake internal healing.<\/p>\n
We cannot fake joy. We cannot fake peace. We cannot fake what can only come from God, even evident with it being so painfully impossible for the world to possess these goodnesses, hence it is the way it is. So we are witnesses of the living God because of the inner work of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
When spiritual growth bears fruit, spiritual maturity is born, and here is where intimacy with the Holy Spirit has become your most valuable, trusted relationship. Spiritual maturity, which is a blessing approved by only God (Hebrews 6:3), is where the Holy Spirit has internally manifested an internal healing of your life\u2019s pain and trauma, so much so that you feel like air internally (or at least I do), and where you bear His fruit easier and easier and easier.<\/p>\n
Where the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the Spirit govern your mind, and you have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). Where you are led by only the Spirit of God, and whatever isn\u2019t right in your life is met by the truth of Christ that demonstrates that this life is not your true life, but eternal life in perfection is.<\/p>\n
Spiritual maturity is living by the truth of the perfect life springing towards us as we spring towards it by the power of the Holy Spirit. Where even death has lost its sting because you know that no one really dies, and that the only death that exists is the eternal death of being away from the Life and the Light forever.<\/p>\n
Spiritual maturity is where you are an instrument of the Kingdom of Heaven, in which your only mission on earth is to ensure that when your work is tested in the fire it is not burnt away because it is gold, therefore receiving your reward on top of receiving eternal life.<\/p>\n
It is saying \u201cThank You\u201d because of even a burp. It is practicing the Word of God and allowing nothing to come between that. It is when the Word says \u201cAnd call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven\u201d (Matthew\u202c \u202d23\u202c:\u202d9\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c), not letting any religious practice or any fondness of a parent be greater than the fear (reverence) of the Lord.<\/p>\n
It is when the Bible says, \u201cCome now, you who say, \u201cToday or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit\u201d\u2014 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, \u201cIf the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.\u201d\u201d (James\u202c \u202d4\u202c:\u202d13\u202c-\u202d15\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c), doing it every single time you utter a plan, because it is also written: \u201cSo whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.\u201d \u2013 James\u202c \u202d4\u202c:\u202d17\u202c \u202dESV\u202c\u202c.<\/p>\n
Being in fellowship with the Holy Spirit feels like hating sin, and it feels like being determined not to sin against the Holy Spirit, quenching and grieving Him. It is loving Him more than anything and more than anyone, because in that love, even how you love anyone else has become true.<\/p>\n
May your mind be renewed, your faith be strengthened, and your peace be anchored in Christ, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n
~<\/p>\n