But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
There has been some confusion over the centuries concerning the Holy Spirit and His role in the life of the believer and the ministry of the local church. I believe that our misunderstanding lands on two extremes. First, there is an overemphasis on the Spirit which becomes very demonstrative. Church members running around in circles, flipping down the church aisle – maybe even weirder stuff like handling snakes. The second extreme is the exact opposite where people are too afraid to even talk about the Holy Spirit for fear of the first extreme breaking out.
So where do we land? Well, the Holy Spirit is a person. He is the third person of the Triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit.) Jesus sent Him to convict us, counsel us, and comfort us. He lives in us and is in the active process of making us holy (sanctification.) He is our helper and empowers us to live out our Christian lives as powerful witnesses for God. We are able to be filled with the Holy Spirit and we can live our lives under His influence and control.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
As we become more “Christ-like” under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we see the fruit that He manifests in our lives come out.