The Holy Spirit in the Believer's Life

In John MacArthur's recent podcast (7/31/10) sermon titled Boldness in Prayer he explained in great detail the TRUE blessing a Christian has in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I don't most of us understand the importance of that nearly enough! We flippantly say "walk in the Spirit" but do you know what that really means?

An excerpt below, because he cited SO many important passages! In italics was added by this blogger.

Do you understand that everything that has happened to you as a believer is a product of the work of the Holy Spirit? And at this point we could go into what’s called pneumatology, the study of the Spirit.

• As a sinner you were convicted by the Holy Spirit, John 16:13, that’s how you came to understand your sin
• When you confessed Jesus as Lord, you did it because of the Holy Spirit. “No man confesses Jesus as Lord but by the Holy Spirit,” 1 Corinthians 12:3
• You received the knowledge of God’s truth from the Holy Spirit because it’s only the Spirit that knows the things of God, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, “The natural man doesn’t understand them.” 
• You were given liberty from the law of sin, the law of death by the Holy Spirit. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is,” 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “there’s liberty.” 
• You were sealed to eternal life by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1:13
• You walk in righteousness by the Spirit, Romans 8
• You were baptized into the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12, literally immersed into His life and power
• You are indwelt by the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20
• You are filled with the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18
• You are gifted by the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12
• You’re given godly virtues by the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5
• You’re empowered by the Spirit for evangelism, Acts 1:8
• You are constantly prayed for by the Spirit, Romans 8, who makes groanings which cannot be uttered interceding for you
• You are sanctified by the Spirit, 2 Thessalonians 2
• You are made like Christ by the Spirit from one level of glory to the next, more and more like Christ, 2 Corinthians 3:18
• You have hope in the Spirit, Romans 8:23. The Spirit is the arrabon [in Greek the "downpayment", the "earnest-money"], the guarantee, the down payment, the engagement ring of your future eternal glory

In summary, when the Lord gave you the Holy Spirit, He gave you everything, absolutely everything. “By His presence, by His power, by His grace we are permanently the possessors of everything we need and so much more that He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can...what?...ask or think.” You have more resource in the Holy Spirit than you can even imagine. It’s all over the top, the whole passage. God gives you more in giving you the Holy Spirit, then you could ever possibly understand. That’s why the prayer also of Paul was that God would give us the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge that we would understand what we have. And it’s to those who ask. You ask and He doesn’t give you what is the Spirit’s, He gives you the Spirit.

John MacArthur (Grace To You Ministries)
CD
Online at Oneplace.com
Transcript at biblebb.com