Many people in our society today have learnt how not to get anything right. Some desire to get it right but just like Apostle Paul said, often find themselves indulging in bad attitudes. Pastor Samuel Daniel, General Overseer of Global Grace Church says you need to get the Holy Ghost to empower you. Excerpt:
In continuation of our study on the Holy Spirit, I want to read from the book of Galatians 5:16-21, it says: "If I say then work in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lost of the flesh; for the flesh losteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh; but these are contrary one to another. So that you can't do the things that you would; but if you be lead by the Spirit you are not under the law.
Now the work of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrought, strive, sedition, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, reviling and such like of which I told you before as I have told you in time past that them which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God."
Now, the importance of the spirit is that it will keep you from the lust of the flesh and from all those things that make the worldly things and give you the Spirit that will suit for heavenly being. Roman 6:12-14 says, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof neither yield ye your member as instrument of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourself unto God as those that arise from the dead as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law but under the grace."
That grace there is the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost is a grace because it is a gift, not what you worked for and for sin not to rule over your body, you need the Holy Ghost. The Holy will make sin to diminish from your body, from you character. Psalm 19:13 declares, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin; let them not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright and I shall innocent from the great transgression."
It is only the Spirit of God that can keep you from presumptuous sin, those sins that easily beset you before you will be able to overcome it. For instance, some people still masturbate; you cannot overcome such life except the Spirit of God comes to help you. This is the first benefit you stand to derive if you have the Holy Spirit working in you. Psalm 119:133 says, "Order my steps in thy word and let not my iniquity have dominion over me." The word of God will help you to order your steps so that sin will not have dominion over you.
When you receive the word, you have received the Spirit of God because the word itself is spirit and it is life. The spirit will help you to dominate over worldly desires. That is what the scripture says in that portion. If you also read through Roman 6:23 you will learn that the wage of sin is death but the gift of God is internal life through Jesus our Lord."
Have you seen it now? Sin is death but if you receive the Holy Ghost you have received Christ so that you cannot die any more. If death has already taken hold of you, the moment you have received the Holy Ghost, death will vanish and you begin to live the life of Christ.
The life you live from that moment is no more your life but the life of Christ; that is what is called Zoe, God's kind of life. God's kind of life comes from the baptism of the Holy Ghost. When you receive the Holy Ghost, God will transfer His Spirit into you and you begin to live like Him.
Just like God cannot be destroyed, you can no more be destroyed because you are no longer living by your own power, but you are living by the Holy Ghost. Let's read again from the book of Roman 28:1; "There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who work not after the flesh but after the Spirit; for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death; for that the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemned sin and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who work not after the flesh but after the Spirit for they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the Spirit.
But the canal minded is death but to be spiritual minded is right and true because the canal minded is enmity against God for it is not subject to the law of God..." If you read down you will see the benefits of the Spirit. Number one as we read here is that to be canal minded is death, but any one that is filled with the Holy Ghost is filled with life and peace. That is why I told you that the Holy Ghost will keep you from sin.
When you receive the Holy Ghost, you will live a Holy Ghost filled life, God's kind of life. And Psalm 119:9 sums it up, "Where shall a young man clean his way; by taking heed thereto, according to thy word." The only way you can be able to overcome the flesh is by taking heed according to the word of God. By hearing His word and obey, you have taken heed of the word.
In verse one it says, "Your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against thee." When you hide the word of God in your heart that is when you have received the Holy Ghost and from that moment you cannot sin anymore. Sin cannot have dominion over you.
The second benefit of having the Holy Ghost is that he will teach you to do things right. May be you don't know how to do things right; the Holy Spirit of God will help you to do things right. The same Psalm 119:98 says, "Thy commandments has made wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me."
Verse 99 says, "I have more understanding than all my adversaries for thy testimony are my meditation." Verse 100 says, "I will understand more than the ancient because I keep thy precepts." You keep the precept of God when you receive the word and it is living in you. That is when you begin to know more than the ancient.
Ancient there refers to an old man that thinks that he knows everything. It is no longer by age; but God begins to teach you, irrespective of your age or qualification, the knowledge of God and how God wants you to live your life. That is why you need to receive the Holy Ghost.
The book of Job 32:8 says, "But there is a Spirit in a man and the inspiration of the almighty giving them understanding." Have you seen it now? When you receive the Holy Ghost you will begin to receive divine understanding.
National Mirror