The Work of the Spirit in Us
The Work of the Spirit in Us
A few days ago we were celebrating the Feast of the Descent of the Holy Spirit. We would like our lecture today to be about the Holy Spirit and our relationship with Him. Scripture says that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit dwells in us. We received the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Chrismation, and the Spirit became the One who leads our life, both as a Church and as individuals. But is this truly so? Or is it our human thinking and human desires that lead us? What is the measure of the Spirit’s work in us?
The Work of the Spirit in Us
When the Spirit of God dwells in us, there are manifestations, fruits, and signs that indicate His work. What are they? They are:
1. The Fervor of the Spirit
The Apostle asks us to be “fervent in spirit” (Romans 12:11), because when the Spirit of God dwells in a person, He sets him ablaze with holy fervor.
On the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God descended in the form of “divided tongues, as of fire” (Acts 2:3). Indeed, He inflamed the apostles, and the whole Christian world became a flame of fire—in service, in preaching, in zeal and enthusiasm, in love which Scripture likens to fire, saying: “Many waters cannot quench love” (Song of Songs 8:7).
In the story of Isaiah the prophet, one of the seraphim took a live coal from the altar and touched his lips; he was purified, and his heart was inflamed with fire.
In the story of Jeremiah the prophet, the word of the Lord became in his heart like fire, so that he could not remain silent despite the afflictions he faced.
If the Spirit of God enters your heart, the saying of the Psalmist applies to you: “Zeal for Your house has eaten me up” (John 2:17). And if the work of the Spirit weakens in you, your life is afflicted with lukewarmness—that is, your fervor decreases.
Therefore Scripture says: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Keep His fervor always active within you. Be like the burnt offering upon which the fire continually burns and is not put out.
“Our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). For this reason John the Baptist said of the Lord Christ that He “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11). Thus, the person in whom the Holy Spirit works is continually aflame.
David, upon whom the Spirit of the Lord came, was inflamed when he heard Goliath reproaching the armies of the living God. While all were silent, he could not rest until he removed the reproach. Peter the Apostle, who had once been afraid, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, filled the world with preaching and said to the Jewish leaders who threatened him: “We cannot but speak” (Acts 4:20).
Is this fervor present in your heart? Have you received from the Holy Spirit this sacred fire to inflame your heart?
In the wilderness, in the Tabernacle of Meeting, they continually carried with them the holy fire that had previously descended from heaven. This fire accompanied the Church in the apostolic age and in the ages of the saints—but it was not a material fire; it was the fire of the Spirit in their hearts.
The person in whom the Spirit of God dwells—if he prays, his prayer is fervent; if he serves, his service is fervent. He is inflamed in heart in every work he does.
You are the temple of God, and the holy fire must always burn in the temple. The Virgin Lady was likened to a golden censer, “the censer of Aaron,” because the Holy Spirit descended upon her like coals of fire.
Has the Holy Spirit kindled your black coals so that they blazed and cried out in joy: “I am dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem” (Song of Songs 1:5)? The fire gave the coal its glow, so it forgot its nature and became fire.
If the Holy Spirit works in you, you become a flame of fire. This fire consumes every worldly desire and lust, and it kindles the love of God in your heart.
The first manifestation of the Spirit’s work in us, then, is fervor. What else?
2. The Spirit of Holiness
By the Spirit of God, you live as a spiritual person, walking according to the Spirit and living a holy spiritual life. What then about the sinful person?
The sinner is one who grieves the Spirit of God within him.
Therefore Scripture says: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed” (Ephesians 4:30).
Your spiritual life has two meanings:
- That your spirit leads your body, so you walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh.
- That the Spirit of God leads your spirit, and you surrender yourself to His guidance.
On the Feast of Pentecost, ask yourself: Do I live a spiritual life? Or a worldly life? Or a fleshly life? Or merely a psychological or social life? Does the Spirit of God have authority in my life, or do I resist the Spirit?
One of the most serious matters in spiritual life is that if we persist in resisting the Spirit, God may withdraw His Spirit from us. As it was said of King Saul: “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him” (1 Samuel 16:14). This is what David feared when he said: “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11).
Blasphemy against the Spirit is the complete and continual rejection of every work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. In this way, a person cannot reach repentance; and without repentance, there is no forgiveness.
Say to Him: O Lord, the works in which You do not share with me—give me strength not to do them. I want to work with You always and rejoice in entering into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
How beautiful is the prayer: “Participate in the work with us,” “Share with Your servants in every good deed.” What is the benefit of being a temple of the Holy Spirit if I do not work together with Him?
One of the main reasons we do not involve the Spirit with us is our excessive reliance on our own personality and our confidence in our own management and thinking, while Scripture says: “Do not lean on your own understanding.”
For example, many want to repent relying on their own strength and determination without involving the Spirit of God. One says: I will leave this sin… I have decided… I have resolved… I will not do this again…
But how will you repent? By your human arm? Or in partnership with the Holy Spirit? How beautiful the Psalmist’s words: “Turn me, and I shall be turned” (Jeremiah 31:18).
Look at David the prophet and how he repented. He cries out to God: “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7), “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2).
He asks God to wash him, to cleanse him, to grant him repentance. He asks God to enter his life, because every good gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17).
O Lord, I am unable to purify myself. If I had the power of purity, I would not have fallen into sin. “For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18)… “The evil I will not to do, that I practice… It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:19–20).
If I am thus a powerless person, “sold under sin,” to You I flee to deliver me from “this body of death” (Romans 7:24). “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity… wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
I do not want to work alone. I want to enter into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I want Your Holy Spirit to grant me holiness from Himself.
Your Spirit convicts me of sin; Your Spirit enlivens me in the spiritual life; Your Spirit guides and directs. I am like the sick man who had no one to put him into the pool, and like Peter who, when You took his hand, was able to walk on the water.
Not only in repentance do I seek the work of Your Spirit, but also in service.
Your Holy Spirit accomplishes the entire work. He is “the One who spoke by the prophets,” and He is the One who gives a word to the preachers.
Therefore the Lord rightly said to His disciples: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me” (Acts 1:8). “Do not depart from Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). For this reason, even regarding the deacons, the apostles required that they be “full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:3), because it is the Spirit who will work in them and with them.
Service is not a human arm, nor a human effort. It is not human wisdom; otherwise the credit would belong to people and not to God.
We recall again the Psalm: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1), and the Lord’s saying: “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Pour yourself out before God, receive from Him strength for service, and ask His Holy Spirit to work with you.
Every failed service is due to the servant not taking the Spirit of God with him in service, but serving alone. Therefore God did not choose “the wise of this world” nor “the strong,” who rely on their own wisdom and strength.
Those servants who pour themselves out daily before God for the sake of service and ask the Spirit of God to work—these succeed. But the human arm “has slain many wounded, and all her slain were strong”
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