Southside's Blog
The Holy Spirit Comforts, Convicts, and Helps the Christian
For Paul, “life in prayer, life in the Word of God and life in the community of the Spirit, are each and together a creation of the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).1 Jesus promised his disciples that the Spirit would provide comfort and help after he was gone, and that it would also convict the world of sin (John 16:7-9). The Holy Spirit provided comfort for the early church so the church might continue to grow (Acts 9:31). The Spirit convicted the Thessalonians of the truth of the gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:5).
The Spirit inspires (2 Timothy 3:16) and illumines the Word of God (2 Corinthians 3:1-18).2 Thus, by meditating on the Word of God, we are comforted and convicted by the Holy Spirit.3 As we meditate on the Scriptures, the Spirit works in us to form us into what God wants us to be by teaching us, correcting us, and equipping us (2 Timothy 3:16-17):
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
In Romans 8:26-27, Paul tells of how the Spirit helps the believer in prayer. The apostle pens these thoughts,
In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Through this prayer help, the Spirit comforts us in our weaknesses. The Spirit, who knows the heart of the believer, intercedes on behalf of the believer. When we pray, we are never alone; God’s Spirit is with us. Paul implores the believer to “pray at all times in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). It follows that God’s Spirit cannot form us if we do not pray. No one can be spiritually formed without being a person of prayer (1 Timothy 2:1-8). No one can pray properly without the Spirit’s help.
As Paul states in Romans 8:5-10, living a life pleasing to God apart from the Spirit’s help is impossible:
For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Praise God that the Holy Spirit testifies that we are children of God so we can be heirs with Christ of the glory yet to come! “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:16-17)
May the Spirit strengthen you as you live for God so that you might be glorified with Christ!
1R. P. Meye, “Spirituality,” The Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid, (Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1993), 911.
2Meye, 911.
3Gary Holloway and Earl Lavender, Living God’s Love: An Invitation to Christian Spirituality (Abilene, Texas: Leafwood Publishers, 2004), 60.
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