Allowing The Holy Spirit To Be Operative In Your Life

“You can experience victory consistently in this life through the person and work of the Holy Spirit.” ~ Spencer A. Sawyer

Understanding the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, and how He operates in our lives is one of the keys to living a victorious life as a Christian. We don’t recognize how He speaks.

Many Christians do not understand how the Holy Spirit supports, englightens and instructs.

Shortly after I received Jesus Christ into my heart as my Lord and Savior, I was given a manual on the Holy Spirit by a Bible teacher, Spencer A. Sawyer. The manual was called “The Holy Spirit, His Work and Our Work.” As a brand new Christian, this teaching changed the course of my Christian walk. I learned about the power, wisdom, strength and comfort the Holy Spirit gives.

Many Christians don’t understand how the Holy Spirit operates in their lives.

I often hear things like “I’m confused” or “I don’t know what God wants me to do.” These are concerns that God desires to answer for you. As a born again Christian, God lives within you, so it’s important to hear Him when He speaks to you. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 we are told, “Haven’t you yet learned that your body is the home of the Holy Spirit God gave you, and that he lives within you? Your own body does not belong to you.”

There is so much to say about the Holy Spirit and many books have been written about Him. One I recommend is called “Forgotten God” by Francis Chan. I encourage you to do a study on the Holy Spirit so you can learn how to allow Him to be operative in your life.

Before you can hear from God clearly, you will first have to make sure a few things are in order in your life.

1. You must be connected to Jesus

If you want to hear from God you must be abiding in Him. John 15:1-8 makes this clear and verse 4 sums it up: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” How do we abide in Christ? By choosing to nurture your relationship with Him. Discipline yourself to spend time daily with Him, reading your Bible, praying and journaling.

It is vital to the spiritual health of a Christian to be familiar with God’s word.

2. Be aware of unconfessed sin

Unconfessed sin will put a barrier between you and God, blocking your ability to hear from Him. It’s so important to spend time regularly with the Lord, confessing sin (1 John 1:9). Since the enemy is so deceptive I think it’s important to get in the habit of asking God to shine His light on your sins.

3. Live as an ambassador of the Lord

Although God does not expect us to be perfect, He does want us to strive towards holiness. He says in 1 Peter 1:16 “For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” As Christ followers, we represent Him. This is why it’s important that we live our lives in a Christ like way and be His ambassadors here on earth.

If you are living a life surrendered to Jesus, abiding in Him, respecting Him and striving to be pure before Him, then you will be able to hear the Holy Spirit.

If you know you are living a righteous life before the Lord, the next step is having the faith to believe that you are in fact hearing Him. Having confidence is very important if you are to be led by the Holy Spirit. What helps me is thinking about how as believers, we do everything by faith. We believe in Jesus to be the son of God, by faith. We pray, believing God hears us, by faith. Therefore, we must believe we hear God’s voice, by faith. In fact our entire walk with Christ is by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Now I’d like to share how I hear from the Holy Spirit…

1. Grab every thought captive

This may sound funny, but our thoughts are not always our thoughts. Often they are from the Holy Spirit. Learning to discern whether a thought is your own or from the Lord is important. We have to practice to capture every thought like 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to: “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” This is something that took me a long time to have confidence in. Oftentimes, a second thought would come in and talk me out of the first thought. I now understand that the second thought is from the enemy.

We must learn to pay attention to our thoughts, and recognize when it’s a word from the Holy Spirit.

2. Take a risk and release (be obedient)

Once you sense that the thought you have is from the Holy Spirit, then you must take a risk and be obedient to what you sense God is saying to you. At first believing that it’s God speaking to you will feel uncomfortable, but eventually when you see results you will gain confidence. For example, you may be going about your day and all of a sudden you have a thought about someone you know. You may begin to wonder how this individual is doing. This is the moment to capture this thought and ask yourself is the Holy Spirit asking me to do something with this person. Most likely it is. The “risk and release” part would be to call or text them. You may find that they are totally fine and you may feel silly that you were wrong to think you were hearing from God, but remind yourself it’s okay to be wrong.

It takes practice to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to you.

Don’t give up. Keep acting on any thought that comes to you that may possibly be the Holy Spirit speaking to you. Eventually you will begin to discern how the Holy Spirit operates in your life. In other words you will recognize His voice from your own.

3. A sense of peace within

Another way God speaks to us is through the peace He gives us when we are in align with His will. One of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is peace. Peace therefore is an indication of the Holy Spirit’s presence (John 14:27). This means that when we are seeking Him on a matter, we can trust that He leads with His peace. Confusion is never from God (1 Corinthians 14:33). If you are feeling confusion I encourage you to do nothing, but be still with the Lord. When I hear an individual wrestling with an issue, for example, whether or not they should take a certain job, I gently remind them that God is a God of peace, not turmoil.

Keep in mind, the enemy knows how to open doors too. Just because something seems good doesn’t mean it’s God’s will for you.

4. Seeing images in your mind

Another way that the Holy Spirit operates in our lives is through pictures or images in our mind. I often get a “photograph” in my mind, or a vision when I am praying. These images are always from the Holy Spirit. For example, one time when I was praying over a complete stranger (after a church service) I saw a huge ginormous smiling emoji up in the sky (😀). I took a risk and shared with her what I was seeing and she immediately started crying. She then told me that only her closest friends know how much she loves the smiling emoji. For me to share that I saw a smiling emoji up in the sky felt like a kiss from God to her. The smiling emoji was a confirmation for her on a decision she was struggling with.

We must stay open to how the Holy Spirit may speak to us.

These are the ways that I have found the Holy Spirit to operate in my life. Our relationship with God is unique. Hence, so will our communication with Him be personal. The most important thing is to keep taking steps of faith and open to how He may be speaking to you. Understanding the Holy Spirit and how He operates in our lives is one of the keys to living a victorious life as a Christian. By allowing Him to guide us, we can live enriched and empowered lives, as well as be His hands and feet here on earth.

How about you? How does the Holy Spirit operate in your life?

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” ~ John 10:27