Let’s be honest: Do I believe I have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? If so, how would I know it?

Our life in the Spirit is one in which we are to “keep in step” or “keep pace” with the Spirit at all times says Paul (Galatians 5:25). We don’t step in and out of it like we do our home. We don’t phase in and out of it like we do jobs or careers. What God has done for us is called us to live a life—all of life—in the Spirit.

What God does, He gives. If He creates a new life and commands us to live in a new kind way, then He will also give us both a new heart and desire to want what we should do and the ability and power to do what we should want. To be “born again” means that we receive new life from God; we are born a new life by the power of the Spirit. And it also means that we are born into a new life with the Spirit; He is now alongside us and within us.

We should expect, then, that the Spirit will transform us into the image of Jesus Christ, lead us in obedience to His ways and commands, and teach and instill within us the truth about Jesus, His person and His work, His kingdom and His will, as revealed to us in the Word of God. In fact, John states that “the Spirit is truth” (1 John 5:6).

The Spirit is the authorized agent to speak the truth, to show the truth, to act in truth. The Spirit is constrained to do so, because the Spirit is the Spirit of truth and IS truth. The Spirit of truth is not merely something about or someone related to God. Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life. All that is trustworthy about God, all that is dependable about God, flowing from the eternal fulness of His wisdom, power, righteousness, mercy, grace, joy, and love, is revealed and embodied in Jesus Christ. 

And so all that is true, all that is trustworthy and dependable, about and in God and Jesus Christ is found and given in the Spirit. The Spirit is all that is true about God. The truth of God is made known and knowable through the Spirit of God.

All that God is and does is IN the Spirit and IS the Spirit. And this Spirit comes to breathe new life into us and to be the breathe of new life within us. So we are related to the Holy Spirit as life is to breath. But we are also in relationship with the Holy Spirit as the Father and the Son are in relationship. This relationship of the Spirit, by the Spirit, and with the Spirit is daily, living, ongoing, and sustaining. 

As a result, the Spirit will do many things in us and for us. But one of the major and more significant things He does is convict and convince us of sin. Our sin. This is because we are ever transformed from one image into another, from one kind of glory into another. Sin is able to be rooted out, dealt with, crucified, BECAUSE there is a new principle of life at work within us. An evidence, then, that we are in a life-giving and life-sustaining relationship with the Spirit is conviction and repentance of sin.

This conviction may not be daily, but the transformation is daily. Still, as we are transformed day by day, there will be and there must be conviction of sin. All that is not in conformity or in alignment with the character and truth of God and the character and truth of our new life in Him must change.

Now it is true that the Spirit comes to assure us of the Father’s love, to encourage us, and to remind us that all the promises of God to us are “yes and amen”. Yes, the Spirit empowers us to do the works of Jesus and to speak the words of Jesus. Yes, the Spirit is the Spirit of joy and strength, of power and glory, of wisdom and discernment.

But here’s what is also true: If the Spirit ever only speaks well to me or well of me — to bless me, to anoint me, to reveal great things God has in store for me, to remind me I am called, loved, chosen — but never to convict me, then I may not have a relationship with Him.

The Spirit of Truth will speak well of me and to me, but being the Spirit of Truth He will also speak to me of my sin. He will say hard things to me by His voice, His Word, and others in my life in order to correct me, discipline me, and train me. Too many times too many of us turn a bind eye to the hard things we need to see and hear about ourselves. As a result, the words of blessing and affirmation we want to hear become words of stumbling because of the words we don’t want to hear. Blessings can confirm us in our waywardness and sin when we choose to ignore the voice of the Spirit and/or isolate ourselves from others because we fear the truth we need to hear and see about ourselves. 

So, we need the Spirit to assure us of the Father’s love, but at the same time, because the Father loves us, we need the Spirit to search and convict us of our sin wherever He may find it.

Let’s be honest: do I have a relationship with the Spirit? If I only ever hear what I want to hear from Him—blessing, affirmation, promise—but never or rarely what I don’t want to hear from Him—correction, conviction, discipline—then chances are I either don’t have a daily relationship with Him or I need to grow and mature in my relationship with Him.

Dear Elim Grace, let’s pursue a full relationship with the Spirit. Let’s keep step and keep pace with Him as HE sees best to lead us. Let’s sow and live at the bidding of the Spirit in ALL the areas of our life.