The role of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Trinity, is crucial in not only bringing a non-believer to faith in Christ, but in every subsequent aspect in the life of a believer.
While we can share the gospel and pray for those individuals who don’t know Christ, it is the Holy Spirit who draws men to Christ, convicts men of sin, is the real evangelist, and the true author of conversion. We, on our own, have neither the will, the power, nor the desire to come to Christ. And since conversion is an exercise of divine sovereignty, unless the Holy Spirit draws us to Christ we will never on our own be saved.
Some of the things that the Holy Spirit does in the life of a non-believer is to convict of sin, impart repentance, illuminate the Scriptures, induce new birth, and prompts a confession of faith in Jesus.
In the life of a believer the Holy Spirit, in addition to also illuminating the Word of God, helps us live a sanctified and holy life, guides us into all truth, provides us with needed comfort, helps us walk with confidence, and produces the fruits of the Spirit in us.
The following quotes should give you a sampling of just some of the activities of the Holy Spirit.1
Sadly, many Christians don’t realize that without the Holy Spirit salvation is not possible nor is sanctification for the believer. I pray that after reading this devotion we all will get a better picture of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
“Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
“Jesus gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, yet when the Spirit comes, He is loaded with packages! He desires to release much more in us and through us than we could ever imagine. These gifts are given for delivery, not for accumulation. We receive them to pass them on to others.” ~ Jack W. Hayford
“The work of the Spirit is to impart life, to implant hope, to give liberty, to testify of Christ, to guide us into all truth, to teach us all things, to comfort the believer, and to convict the world of sin.” ~ Dwight L. Moody
“Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom
“What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit.” ~ John Stott
“The Holy Spirit’s main ministry is not to give thrills but to create in us Christlike character.” ~ J. I. Packer
“It is futile for us to try to serve God without the power of the Holy Spirit. Talent, training, and experience cannot take the place of the power of the Spirit.” ~ Warren W. Wiersbe
“Religion can reform a person’s life, but it can never transform him. Only the Holy Spirit can transform!” ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer
“If we think of the Holy Spirit only as an impersonal power or influence, then our thought will constantly be, how can I get hold of and use the Holy Spirit; but if we think of Him in the biblical way as a divine Person, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, then our thought will constantly be, ‘How can the Holy Spirit get hold of and use me?’” ~ R. A. Torrey
“The Holy Spirit illuminates the minds of people, makes us yearn for God, and takes spiritual truth and makes it understandable to us.” ~ Billy Graham
“The human spirit fails, except when the Holy Spirit fills.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom
“Let me say that it is not a question of us getting more of the Holy Spirit, but rather of the Holy Spirit getting more of us.” ~ Oswald J. Smith
“Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has been the work of the Holy Spirit…. The only way to more life is the Holy Spirit. You will not even know that you want more unless He works in you to desire it…. The Spirit of God must come and make the letter alive, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire, and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes…. Prayer is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do without prayer, and we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
“The Bible without the Holy Spirit is a sundial by moonlight.” ~ Dwight L. Moody
“[Man’s] nature is so corrupt that he has neither the will nor the power to come to Christ unless drawn by the Spirit.” ~ John MacArthur
“Successful witnessing is taking the initiative to share Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.” ~ Bill Bright
“Everybody wants confidence but you don’t find it in self-help books. You find confidence in the Holy Spirit.” ~ Rick Warren
“Don’t let obstacles along the road to eternity shake your confidence in God’s promise. The Holy Spirit is God’s seal that you will arrive.” ~ David Jeremiah
“A sinner can no more repent and believe without the Holy Spirit’s aid than he can create a world.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
“Christian holiness is not a matter of painstaking conformity to the individual precepts of an external law code; it is rather a question of the Holy Spirit’s producing His fruit in the life, reproducing those graces which were seen in perfection in the life of Christ.” ~ F. F. Bruce
“Repentance is something that is brought about in the human heart by the work of God the Holy Spirit.” ~ R. C. Sproul
“It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict, God’s job to judge and my job to love.” ~ Billy Graham
“We take what we think are the tools of spiritual transformation into our own hands and try to sculpt ourselves into robust Christlike specimens. But spiritual transformation is primarily the work of the Holy Spirit. He is the Master Sculptor.” ~ Jerry Bridges
“The work of God’s Holy Spirit begins with bruising. In order to be saved, the fallow ground must be plowed up, the hard heart must be broken, the rock must be split apart.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
“The wizard [of Oz] says look inside yourself and find self. God says look inside yourself and find [the Holy Spirit]. The first will get you to Kansas. The latter will get you to heaven. Take your pick.” ~ Max Lucado
“Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit in us whereby our inner being is progressively changed, freeing us more and more from sinful traits and developing within us over time the virtues of Christlike character.” ~ Jerry Bridges
“What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men, men of prayer.” ~ Edward McKendree Bounds
“Unless the Holy Ghost blesses the Word, we who preach the gospel are of all men most miserable, for we have attempted a task that is impossible. We have entered on a sphere where nothing but the supernatural will ever avail. If the Holy Spirit does not renew the hearts of our hearers, we cannot do it. If the Holy Ghost does not regenerate them, we cannot. If He does not send the truth home into their souls, we might as well speak into the ear of a corpse.” ~ Steven J Lawson
1 All of these quotes are from the following website:
TOP 25 HOLY SPIRIT QUOTES (of 838) | A-Z Quotes (azquotes.com)
The most often misunderstood person of the Trinity. Good post, Curt.