Jesus said in the Gospel of John,

"And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you; and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)

The Holy Spirit came to literally live inside us and be one with our spirit and be our helper forever.⁴⁵

Jesus said in John, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you" (Jn 14:26). As was discussed earlier in this section under subtitle, "Why the Law?," one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to bring to our minds relevant Scriptures according to Jesus' personal dictates to our lives, confirmed within the total context of Scripture and authority.

Jesus said in the Gospel of John,

"But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you." (John 16:13-15).

How does the Holy Spirit glorify Jesus? He does it the same way Jesus glorifies the Father. Jesus said in the Gospel of John,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." (John 5:19).

And in another passage, the high priestly prayer, Jesus said,

"Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You. . . . I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do." (Jn 17:1, 4).

Jesus glorified the Father by doing the works that the Father created Him as a man to do and He did this by not acting or speaking out of His own initiative, but only out of the initiative of the Father.

The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in the same way. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus by representing only Jesus. The Holy Spirit does not speak nor act without the explicit instructions of Jesus first. Therefore, for us to reject the full work of the Holy Spirit in our lives personally is not to reject the Holy Spirit's working but Jesus' personal working in our lives. This is because the Holy Spirit came to glorify Jesus and He does this by representing Jesus only. The Holy Spirit will never tell us to do anything out of His own thoughts or initiative but only out of the instructions of Jesus. For this reason we need not fear any of the Holy Spirit's workings in our lives, for to fear the Holy Spirit's working in our lives is to directly fear Jesus' workings in our lives. No believer would ever admit to being afraid of Jesus. If this is true, whether we understand all of the Holy Spirit's actions or not, we should have no fear of Jesus' ambassador the Holy Spirit, since His actions are only out of the initiative of Jesus Himself.

The Apostle Paul states in Ephesians,

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Eph 1:13-14; Acts 15:7-8).

The Apostle Paul states in this passage that when we repent of our sins and believe on the Gospel and accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, as a result of our salvation God instantly gives us His indwelling Holy Spirit who becomes one spirit with our spirit, as Paul puts it, ". . . as a pledge of our inheritance" in Christ.⁴⁶

We cannot earn or buy the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes into our lives as part of the free gift of eternal life at the moment of our receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Paul states in Galatians,

"This is the only thing I want to find out from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does He then who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?" (Gal 3:2-5).

There is a certain aspect of the working of the Holy Spirit which does come only through obedience, but that is in a different category other than what is being discussed here.⁴⁷ That has nothing to do with receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s free gift to us without asking when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord. Let the reader understand, though, we are not talking about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This can happen at Salvation also, but usually follows later.

For more information on this topic, read my book titled Salvation Is Received Through Faith Alone."¹⁰¹

What we want to deal with in the rest of this section is how Jesus Sanctifies us through the Ministry of the Holy Spirit.