‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.’Joel 2:28 NLT
Have you invited the Holy Spirit into your life? Some people can be afraid of the Spirit, but the Spirit provides us with comfort, guidance, and power. The Spirit helps us to grow and become more like Jesus (take a look at Galatians 5:22-23). Paul describes the Holy Spirit as a gift for Christians (you can find this in Acts 2:38). It’s not something to fear, but an amazing gift from God to help us every moment of every day. Jesus told His disciples: ‘the Holy Spirit…will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you’ (John 14:26 NLT). Not only does the Spirit teach us, but the Spirit also helps us when we feel weak. The Bible says: ‘the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words’ (Romans 8:26 NLT). In many different ways, the Spirit empowers us to live our lives for God. We can see God’s promise of His Spirit to His people in the Old Testament. He said: ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.’ This links with the spiritual gifts that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12. The Spirit empowers us to play our part in God’s kingdom. When we have the Spirit inside of us, we have some of God’s power within us. In 1 Thessalonians 5, we’re told to ‘not stifle the Holy Spirit’ (v.19 NLT), so let’s allow the Spirit to be at work in us today.
