CELEBRATING THE PRECIOUS HOLY SPIRIT III (THE WORKS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER)

• He inspires praise and worship to God. Acts 2:11, Phil. 3:3, “For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh.” (NIV). Acts 10:46, “For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter.” Eph. 5:18-19, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” The Holy Spirit is the spirit of praise. If you don’t know what you want, the world will give you what they have.
• He bestows gift to the believer. 1 Cor. 12:1-12, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant … For to one is given by the Spirit, the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” The gifts of the Holy Spirit are classified into three major groups – The power gifts (gifts of healing, faith and working of miracles), Vocal gifts (gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues and prophecy) and the Revelational gifts (gifts of word of knowledge, word of wisdom and discerning of spirits). You can manifest the nine gifts as you yield yourself a vessel of honour.
• He produces the fruits of the Spirit in the believer. Gal. 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” You don’t really know anybody until you know the spirit and how do you know the spirit? By their fruits. When you want to choose a life partner, look at the fruits of the spirit enumerated above and subject that person to a simple fruit test. Ensure that you are not sentimental when doing this; don’t get carried away by what you don’t even understand. The love we are referring to here is agape, God’s kind of love (although there are about three other types of love in marriage which you will find out over time). Physical appearance can get two people of opposite sex together (they call it all manner of things) but what makes marriage succeed is character and character is something you cannot hide. It will surely manifest.

TO BE CONTINUED.