Going Deeper- Holy Spirit Part 1

The sermon for this topic can be found here.

Recently, we started a new series on the Holy Spirit, called Fill Me Up.



We looked at how in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was only given to a few people, and often only for a temporary period of time. However, we have the tremendous gift now that the Holy Spirit comes to us at the moment of salvation, and stays with us forever.

There is a great promise of this found in Ezekiel 36:25-27:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

God knows that we can’t follow Him and obey Him on our own strength. The solution to this problem isn’t more effort. It isn’t the power of positive thinking. We need a new heart and a new spirit. Our heart of stone will not break on its own; we need radical heart surgery.

God’s promise in Ezekiel has been fulfilled. When we come to Christ in faith, and accept His sacrifice for our sins, God exchanges our hard heart for one that is soft towards Him. He puts His Spirit within us and “causes” us to obey Him. What a phenomenal truth: God makes it possible for us to keep the commandments God has required of us.

Without the Holy Spirit at work in our lives, we are hopeless and lost, hard-hearted and unclean. But with the Holy Spirit, and only by His power, we can be everything God wants us to be. Spend time praying for the Holy Spirit to be at work in your life today.