Seeking Him: 12 Days to Spiritual RevivalSampl

Day 11: The Spirit-Filled Life

For more than thirty years, Christ has been the physical manifestation of God on earth. He is Immanuel—God with us. All along, God had planned that after the Son gave His life sacrificially for our atonement and was raised from the dead, He would return to the Father’s right hand. However, it was never in God’s plan to leave His children alone. He always intended to be present with them.

That same evening, Jesus said to His disciples, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16–17). I will never leave you nor forsake you. It was not sentimentalism; it was God’s promise—a promise He keeps to this day through the presence of the Holy Spirit, our constant Helper.

The Holy Spirit is actively involved in our salvation. Jesus said, “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). It is the Holy Spirit who draws us to faith in Christ by first convicting us of our sinfulness.

After becoming a child of God, we enter a process called sanctification, which continues until the day we arrive in heaven. This, too, is a work of the Holy Spirit:

And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. (2 Thessalonians 2:13 NKJV)

Sanctification is a process whereby we are transformed into the likeness of Jesus. That process is not always easy. If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you are aware that you are in a spiritual battle. Some of our enemies are external: Satan, God’s eternal enemy, seeks to win our allegiance. The world system in which we live fights against everything godly. But we have a third and equally fierce enemy that is not external. If you are a child of God, a war is going on within you—a battle between your natural flesh and the indwelling Spirit of God.

Ultimately, the battle between the flesh and the Spirit is a battle for control. Do you live your life more under the control of the flesh or the Spirit?

The Spirit places within every child of God a desire to be free from the control of the flesh. But is that really possible? Many Christians spend much of their lives struggling and trying harder to repress their fleshly tendencies. The problem is: flesh can’t reform flesh. Our fleshly passions and desires need to be put to death. The pull of our flesh is strong. But the Spirit is even more powerful. We must exercise faith in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to grant us victory over the flesh.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Romans 8:13)

When we are filled with the Spirit and living under His control, He will produce in us what the Scripture calls “the fruit of the Spirit”:

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22–23)

This fruit really describes the Lord Jesus Himself—the One the Spirit came to glorify! These graces or qualities will be evident in the life of a person living under the control of the Holy Spirit.

Take time to read and meditate on one or more of the Scriptures next to each quality below. Then, prayerfully consider the questions that follow. As you do, ask the Spirit to reveal the true inclination of your heart and to produce His fruit in and through your life.

• Love: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 1 John 4:7-12
• Joy: Psalm 4:7; 16:11; 32:11; John 15:11; Philippians 4:4
• Peace: John 14:27; 16:33; Philippians 4:6–7; Colossians 3:15; 2 Thessalonians 3:16
• Patience: Colossians 1:11–12; James 1:2–4; 5:8
• Kindness: Ephesians 4:32; 2 Timothy 2:24
• Goodness: Luke 6:27b; Romans 12:21; Galatians 6:10
• Faithfulness: Matthew 24:45–46; Luke 16:10–13; 1 Corinthians 4:2; 15:58
• Gentleness (Meekness): Matthew 5:5; 11:29; Ephesians 4:1–2; Titus 3:2; James 3:17; 1 Peter 3:4
• Self-control: 1 Corinthians 9:24–27; Titus 2:1–10

Consider:

What hope does the truth that God is with you and you are not alone give you today for your circumstances?