THE HOLY SPIRIT: Partner or Hitchhiker?

by Pastor Mitch Horton | September 1999

II Corinthians 13:14 - "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."

John 14:15-18 - "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (16) "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever," (17) "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. "(18) "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you."(NKJ)

John 16:13-14 - "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."(14) "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." (NKJ)

As a believer, you encounter the same pressures, stresses, and problems in life that everyone does. But there is a major distinction; you have a different set of answers! And the great news is that you don't have to face life's fight alone. You have not been left here as an orphan to figure it all out by yourself. The Holy Spirit has been given to you to be your helper, or your partner in life.

In II Corinthians 13:14, the word communion comes from the Greek word koinonia. According to Kenneth Wuest,* koinonia is described as: "a joint participation, a belonging in common to, a partnership, an association, an intercourse, a sharing; a relationship between two individuals which involves a common interest, and a mutual, active participation in that interest and in each other."

For us to allow the Holy Spirit to be our partner, we must determine to have the same interests in our lives that He has, and we must be willing to cooperate with Him so that He can fulfill His desires in us. If you're not interested in the same things regarding your life that He is, and if you don't cooperate with Him in fulfilling those interests, then He will be unable to manifest Himself in you. And He will become grieved. The Holy Spirit will just be hitchhiking a ride through life, never allowed to help you, and remaining unable to manifest God's presence in your life and circumstances. The results will be a life void of joy and spiritual fruit, spent fulfilling the desires of your flesh.

The Holy Spirit has two major interests in you. His first interest is to make you act, think, and look like Jesus! His second major interest or desire is to use you to reach your "world" for Jesus.

Your main goal and ambition in life as a believer should be to become Christlike in character. You should be actively looking for areas of your life that are unlike Him and seeking to change them. When you were born again, your spirit was made alive with the life of God! The Holy Spirit wants to take the life that's on the inside of you and make it visible on the outside of you through your conduct and personality. That's what Romans 8:29 is speaking of when it says that we are to be "conformed to the image of His Son." The Greek word for conformed means "to take what is on the inside, and let it be seen on the outside."

We're not just to hear the word, but we are to seek to practice the word in our daily lives. This will cause the process of mind renewal to transform us little by little into people who show Jesus' character to others. We grieve the Holy Spirit when we know that we should change, but yet we stubbornly or lazily refuse to cooperate with His desires by neglecting the word of God, and by not practicing the word that we do hear. His job is to help us change! He can only do that if we cooperate with Him. The Holy Spirit cannot and will not work in your life alone! He will only manifest Himself in your life as you actively seek His aid.

The first way that you can cooperate with the Holy Spirit as your life partner is to make the word of God the most important thing in your life! Jesus called the Holy Spirit the "Spirit of Truth." The men God used to write His word and to make it available to us were inspired by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit went to the trouble of having the written word made available to you, would He in His ministry in and for you neglect the very book that He inspired to be written? I don't think so! The first way that the Holy Spirit begins to manifest Himself in your life is by makingthe word of God reality to you. For Him to do that, you must take time to read and meditate on the word. One of the first things He will do in you is to bring back to your thought life the word of God that you have heard (John 14:26). To neglect the word is to neglect the very tool that the Holy Spirit uses to help you in life!! NEVER GET SO BUSY THAT YOU NEGLECT THE WORD!

As a young believer, I developed a habit of thinking on scripture verses during times of mental inactivity each day. My mind was full of unseemly and unedifying material, and I found that often it automatically reverted back to those negative thought patterns. However, I discovered that by practicing Philippians 4:8, that is, by making myself think on things that are true, honest, just, pure, etc., I was able to keep wrong thoughts from dominating my life and giving me "the blues." And the best way to do that was to consciously think on verses of scripture.

A side benefit of keeping the word of God in my mind was that I began to notice something rising up in me at times, producing tremendous joy. I didn't know then what the anointing of the Holy Spirit felt like. But I found that the more I spent time with the word of God, the more frequently the anointing would rise up within me. You will have the same thing happen to you as you spend time meditating on the word!

The Holy Spirit loves the word, and when you purposefully involve the word of God in your lifestyle, you will find Him bringing it back to your conscious mind throughout your day. Then with the word, He will begin to challenge attitudes and actions in you that keep you from God's best.

I encourage you to begin today to allow the Holy Spirit the opportunity to be your partner and helper by centering your life, your thoughts, your decisions, your meditations, your actions,and your future in the word of God. It's a decision you'll never regret!