The work of the Holy Spirit

~ Brother Thomas Paul ~

‘The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.’ ( Psalms 23:1)
This is joyful state we will be in when we live in the kingdom of God.
What are the pre-requisites for this?…The Lord should be our shepherd…we should listen to His voice…we should follow His instructions.
This is a path to attain Wisdom. It is a divine mystery.
Our minds are renewed and our hearts set on fire after attending a retreat…but we often notice that the passion fades with the passage of time. We attend another retreat and rekindle that fire…but it dies when we commit a sin. We believe that we lose our anointing and the Holy Spirit departs from us when we fall into sin. This is not Wisdom..it is our misconception. Some teachings might mislead us into thinking that way. One example often quoted to prove this is when King David in the Old Testament prayed that the Holy Spirit not be taken away from him. We think that the Holy Spirit left King David when he sinned. But that is not what King David actually prayed for….He prayed that the particular empowerment of the Spirit from God to rule the people not be taken away from him. Saul’s anointing as the King was taken away from him and conferred upon David. In those days, God anointed the Kings through His prophets. God himself chose, anointed and appointed the Kings as His representative to the people. If these Kings displeased God by their wrongdoing, they would lose their anointing and God would chose and anoint another King. King David knew this very well. He was a simple shepherd boy with no special talent to become a King.

The Anointing of the Holy Spirit that came through the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus according to God’s salvific plan is completely different from the anointing conferred upon the Kings in the Old Testament.
Jesus came to redeem us by laying down His life as a ransom for our sins. He came to make us a new creation. The Holy Spirit who came to live in us as a result of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice will never leave us. This is where we need understanding. We think that the Holy Spirit will depart from us if we sin and fail to lead a righteous life. This is a misunderstanding.

Why did God give us the Holy Spirit?…God gave us the Holy Spirit to convict us when we fall into any sin and lead us to repentance and confession of our sins so as to receive forgiveness and live in grace.
This is how the Holy Spirit works to sanctify us… each day….each moment.
In John 14:16 Jesus said,
‘And I will ask my Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.’
‘Another advocate’ indicates that one advocate already exists…and that is Jesus. Why another helper?…to be with us forever.
The work of Wisdom is an ongoing process. The work of the Holy Spirit is limitless.
The important thing to remember here is that the Holy Spirit will never leave us. The more serious our sin, the more quicker the Holy Spirit will work in us to lead us to repent..
confess our sins…receive forgiveness and thus sanctify us. The Holy Spirit is constantly working for our sanctification.