When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he gave her the startling announcement that “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” When you and I place our faith in Jesus Christ and invite Him to come live within us, the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and the power of God overshadows us, and the life of Jesus is born within us. We do not conceive a physical life, but the spiritual life of Jesus in the Person of the Holy Spirit.
It is the indwelling powerful Person of the Holy Spirit Who sets me free from the habits of sin. But the power I possess to live a life pleasing to God is directly related to how much control of my life I give to the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit comes into you at your invitation, you receive as much of Him as you will ever have. You do not get a little bit of Him then and a little bit more at later experiences. Since He is a Person, you cannot get Him in pieces. You either have all of the Holy Spirit or you have none of the Holy Spirit. Why is it, then, that He seems to get us in pieces? He comes to us unconditionally, while we surrender to Him conditionally.
We give Him our Sundays but not our Mondays.
We give Him our actions but not our attitudes.
We give Him our relationships but not our reputations.
We give Him our time but not our thoughts.
We give Him our burdens but not our bodies.
We give Him our prayers but not our pleasures.
We give Him our crises but not our children.
We give Him our health but not our hearts.
Would you drop the conditions and give Him all of you?
And “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” for you and me. Freedom from sin and selfishness and spiritual defeat and Satan’s snares. Freedom to reflect Jesus as we are “transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18, NIV).
As we live moment by moment under the Lordship – the control of the Spirit – His character, which is the character of Jesus, becomes evident to those around us. The outward evidence of His inward filling of our lives is His “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Gal. 5:22, NIV). Is there enough evidence of the Spirit in your life to demand a verdict from your closest friends and family members? The Holy Spirit empowers us, not just to live for Jesus, but to be like Jesus as He forms Christ within us. (Gal. 4:19)
