The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost to take up where the Savior left off, but most Christians don't realize that. The Lord Jesus suffered, died, rose again, went back to heaven, sat down, and sent the Spirit to take over the work of God on earth. This is the time of the Holy Spirit!

All through the old Testament the prominent person working on earth was God the Father, the Almighty One. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He was the prominent One at work here on earth. Today the Holy Spirit is the prominent One at work in carrying out the plan and purpose of God on earth. We need to recognize this. Many people falter in their Christian lives because they are not consciously depending on the Holy Spirit to do to and through them what He came to do.

The Spirits Takeover

What a startling announcement it was in John 14 when Jesus told His disciples He was going away. Questions came fast and furiously. What were they to do? Fear seemed to grip their hearts. Then the Lord Jesus made a most encouraging statement: "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you" (John 14:16,17).

The Lord Jesus had been ministering, teaching, leading, and walking with His disciples for three years. Now He was about to finish the work He came to do, to be crucified, to bear the sins of the world in His own body on the cross, be buried, and rise again. Then He was to go back to the Father. This gospel then was to be carried into the world (Matt. 28:19,20). While here in His body, the Lord Jesus could be in only one place at a time and was therefore limited to ministering to those in that one place.

The disciples had been with Him constantly, and the question now was who would teach them and lead them after He left? He told them, "I'll send another Comforter." The Greek word for "another" means "another of the same kind," as He Himself was, with infinite wisdom and power. Who was this other Comforter? Why, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. He was not coming to live in only one body as the Lord Jesus did, but was especially prepared to live in each believer. The Holy Spirit all through the past had been with the disciples and the people of God, but now He "shall be in you," declared the Lord. What a revolutionary truth! Not only that, but in contrast to the Lord Jesus leaving them, the Holy Spirit was to abide forever!

Fit all this together with Hebrews 1:3. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, God said, "When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High." One searching question needs an answer: Why did the Lord Jesus sit down? The simple answer is, He was finished. He had come to be the Savior, He had finished all His work in being the Savior, and He went back to the Father and sat down. Then forty days later the Holy Spirit came to take up where the Savior had left off.

This is the most transforming truth a believer can ever get hold of. Tragically, judging from hymns, sermons, books, and talk, most Christians are not consciously aware of the fullness of this truth. Most are still looking to, asking for, and depending on the Lord Jesus to do the very things He sent the Holy Spirit to do. If Christians would begin to look to, ask for, and depend on the Holy Spirit to do the things the Scriptures tell us are His responsibility and ministry today, their lives would be transformed.

From a parallel, let's try to get in our minds the picture of God's work as He planned it. If a college student went into the business office and asked to see his grades, the accountant would say, "You are seeing the wrong person; go to the academic office---that's their job." If one went into the academic office to ask about his bill, the dean would say he was in the wrong office and direct him to the business office. Now, there is no jealousy among these different officials in a school. Neither is inferior to the other. It is simply that each has a different responsibility. So it is with the Trinity. There is no jealousy or inferiority between the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but each has a different ministry and responsibility.

Christians do not witness to non-Christians about the Holy Spirit to try to get them saved. They tell about the Lord Jesus and His work. He is Savior. A lost person needs to know who the Savior is and what He came to do  and then let the Savior save him. And Christians need to be told who the Holy Spirit is and what He came to do. Then they need to let the Holy Spirit do what He came to do in their lives. This is both profound and simple. It is the key to the joyous, victorious life.

Possessing the Spirit

Just what did the Holy come to do? Begin in Romans 8:9: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." A person who has let the Savior do what He came to do---save him---has the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit enters into his body the moment he is saved. If someone doesn't have the Holy Spirit, "he is none of his." He isn't saved. A Christian may not be aware that the Holy Spirit lives in his body, even as Paul had instructed the new and untaught Christians at Corinth: "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you..." (1Cor. 6:19). These were "carnal" Christians, but they too had the Holy Spirit.

Christians must be biblically correct. It is unscriptural to exhort a believer to "receive the Holy Spirit," for he already has the Holy Spirit. The proper exhortation is for the believer to let the Holy Spirit have him or let the Holy Spirit control him.

Again, it is totally unscriptural to exhort a believer, a born again Christian, to "be baptized by the Holy Spirit," "for by one Spirit are we all (believers) baptized into one body" (1 Cor. 12:13). Again, these were carnal Christians, yet they had already been baptized by the Holy Spirit.

This is how one is "in Christ." He is "baptized" or "immersed" into one body, into Christ, and thus he is a new creature. For "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Make no mistake about it. Every Christian needs to let the Holy Spirit possess him. This is the scriptural teaching that must be made clear.

When the ministry of the Holy Spirit is properly understood and taught, "He shall glorify me" (John 16:14), said the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is to have preeminence in everything (Col.1:18). For Him to be glorified and have preeminence in one's life, the Holy Spirit must do it---and He will, once He is given His proper place in a believer's life. It is not a work-up or self-induced effort; the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ through believers. The proper teaching and emphasis on the Holy Spirit always results in glory to Christ.

One other point needs to be clarified. God declares, "Christ in me, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). Also, "Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20), said Paul. But, frankly, how does He do it? The Savior is in a body at the right hand of the Father.

The answer is simple and given to us in Ephesians 2:19-22. God tells us that all believers, "fitly framed together grows unto an holy temple in the Lord, in which ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit". Christ does it in the Person of the Holy Spirit. So once again the Trinity, that great mystery of "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9), comes to light.

All of the Trinity are operative today even as in other ages, but the Holy Spirit is the One operating prominently. In the Old Testament it was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who was prominent. Then while Christ was on the earth, He was prominent in the ministry of God. Now it is the Holy Spirit who is prominent in the ministry of God on earth. He, of course, turns our attention immediately to Christ when He is allowed to minister properly.

Conquering the Flesh

In Romans 8:13 God says, "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the (flesh). . ." How does one conquer the flesh and its passions? Not by crucifying himself in a deep struggle of self-denial, but in a conscious yielding to the control of the Holy Spirit. The "fruit of the Spirit is. . .temperance (self-control)" (Gal.5:22,23).

Oh, how many go down in defeat trying "to put to death the deeds of the flesh" without a conscious looking to and  dependence on the One the Savior sent to do it for them---the Holy Spirit. Just as many people try through all kinds of deeds to save themselves, many Christians try through all kinds of deeds to control or crucify the flesh, instead of letting the Holy Spirit, who came to do it, accomplish it for them.

Some who "quit this" and "give up that" and "don't go here and there" become self-righteous and pharisaical about it. When one depends on the Holy Spirit and realizes He has accomplished the degree of sanctification that is in a person's life, he cannot "glory in the flesh, " but will glorify the Lord Jesus. This can easily be the answer to those with a holier-than-thou attitude. Too much work is done by Christians in the energy of the flesh, and you can detect that it does not radiate Christ but exalts that person instead.

I smoked for eight months after I was saved. During that time I tried to quit scores of times. Once I tore up a whole pack of cigarettes one at a time, saying over and over again, "I hate you, I hate you." Surely, I thought, through this psychology I would stop, but an hour later I bought another pack. I struggled to quit and failed. At 4:00 A.M. on January 1, 1941, after being up all night at a New Year's Eve party, I cried out to God with a broken, desperate heart, "O God, You take them out of me." Bless the Lord, I never touched another cigarette. No way can I say that I quit. No way could the flesh get any glory from it. God did it all. That's the way He wants it all along, that "no flesh should glory in his presence" (1 Cor. 1:29).

Led by the Spirit

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God. . ." (Rom. 8:14). I love great gospel songs. John W. Peterson, a personal friend of mine, has written a song that is one of my favorites, "Jesus Led Me All the Way." There is a sense in which the savior leads us through example. Indirectly He leads us, but it is directly by the Spirit. Christians, then need to be scripturally correct by looking to and depending on the Holy Spirit to lead them.

What an exhilarating and humbling experience it is to see the Holy Spirit truly leading in one's life. One night my wife and I went visiting for our Church. She had been given four names and addresses of people we planned to visit. Before we left, we prayed that the Holy Spirit would lead us to someone prepared to be saved.

As we were on our way, we came to a stop sign. In the next block back to our left was a service station operated by Gene, a Christian we knew. The Holy Spirit impressed my heart to run by for just a minute to encourage him, for he had been having problems. While we were there, a man's name came up in conversation. I had witnessed to this man, who also operated a service station, and had been quite burdened to see him saved.

Gene excitedly said, "Why, he lives right down the street." I again felt a deep urge and burden to go by and see him. When we knocked at the door, his wife answered. We introduced ourselves and were invited in quickly because it was five degrees below zero. He was at work, she said. After a few minutes of light talk, I began witnessing to her. As I spoke of Christ suffering for her sins, she burst into tears.

I said, "God has been dealing with you, hasn't He?" She nodded yes. When I finished she joyfully bowed her head and received the Lord Jesus and was gloriously saved. About an hour later, as we began to leave, she startled me by saying, "I knew you were coming tonight."

I said, "How could you? I didn't know you existed; you didn't know I existed. We didn't plan to come here." Then I told her how we had happened to come.

She replied, "I know all that; I've prayed all day God would send someone tonight to tell me how to be saved." Glory! This is the thrill and reality of the Holy Spirit leading one's life.

The Spirit of Adoption

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15). How does a Christian enter into that personal and close fellowship with God, to call Him "Abba, Father"? Paul said it is the "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

There doesn't seem to be an overwhelming number of people who have an intimate fellowship with the Father. Their prayers often seem so distant. God seems so far away and so unreal. Others talk to and about the father in such a personal way that you feel they have already seen Him face to face. This deeply personal relationship comes through the Holy Spirit when He is allowed to produce it.

Assurance of Salvation

Then, "the Spirit himself bears witness with your spirit, that we are the children of God" (Rom. 8:16). Many Christians struggle for years with a lack of assurance of salvation. How does one get that deep-settled assurance in the very recesses of his soul? Once again the Holy Spirit in the One with this ministry. There is no jealousy, no conflict of interest, but it just makes sense that if some would look to the Holy Spirit, whose ministry this is, instead of vaguely praying or asking the Lord Jesus to do it, they might find that same witness borne in their hearts.

Help in Prayer

"Likewise the Spirit also helps our infirmities: . . . (making) intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered" (Rom. 8:26). It is a common admission that most persons have a weak prayer life. Too often Christians are in a dilemma as to how to pray and for what to pray.

God has the answer by telling us that this is ministry of the Holy Spirit. While the Lord Jesus was here, the disciples prayed, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). Doesn't it follow, then, that Christians should seek and depend on the Holy Spirit to help and direct them in prayer? Go to the proper authority in this area as well. It could transform your prayer life. Paul admonishes us to pray "always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit" (Eph. 6:18). Could this be the answer to the frustrations in your prayer life? Try the Holy Spirit in this area of Christian growth.

Fulfilling the Law

One inclusive ministry is given in Romans 8:4: "The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Every born-again person's heart longs for righteousness to be produced in his life. To go down the list of the Ten Commandments can be discouraging. It is thrilling, though, when one realizes that he himself cannot stop his coveting or other problems, and then begins to trust and expect the Holy Spirit to overcome them. You can be sure  that, given the opportunity, the Holy Spirit will accomplish much more in a shorter time than all the struggling of the flesh for years before. It is not a passive permission but a definite, deliberate dependence on the Holy Spirit that brings the results.

Walk in the Spirit

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). What a phenomenal promise. He did not say, "You won't have any desires of the flesh," but he said, "You won't fulfill the desires of the flesh." Some have erroneously taught that you will come to a place of losing all your urges and desires of sin. Often when some have felt they have come to such an experience, but then are again tempted to sin, they become totally disillusioned and defeated. No, I repeat, He said, "You won't fulfill the desires of the flesh." He did not say, "You won't have a desire to sin." There just has to be that conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit to see victory accomplished. Bless God, this promise will be fulfilled when one lets the Holy Spirit do what He came to do.

The Fruit of the Spirit

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law" (Gal. 2:22, 23). These are not personality traits that some have and some don't. They are the beautiful fruit produced in abundance by the Holy Spirit when He controls a life. One does not shake a fruit tree or pull and twist its branches to make it produce. You just cultivate that tree and that is the way it produces the fruit. Christians need only to learn to cultivate their lives so that the Holy Spirit flows freely within to produce His fruit. There is no way in the world anyone can love those who are unlovely or enemies apart from a bushel of this fruit of love produced in his life.

Transformation by the Spirit

One last thing, but perhaps one of the most important factors, is the transformation, the change, that the Holy Spirit produces. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed . . from glory to glory even by the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18). We have seen those who radiate Christ. Their faces beam. Joy bubbles from them. Love is genuinely poured through their lives. The simple truth is that they bear the image of Christ. God declares this change is "by the Spirit." When Moses came from the presence of God and his face glowed, the Bible says he knew "not that the skin of his face shone" (Exodus 34:29).

This deep, wonderful, genuine spirituality is God's doing. Man doesn't put it on like so much make-up. It just comes through from within. Bless God, it is available to all who will yield to the power and intricate work of the Holy Spirit. Christians need to be discerning, not divisive, about this. Believers need to quit struggling and striving to attain spirituality and simply let the Holy Spirit take over their lives to see all this accomplished in them.

Yes, the Savior finished what He came to do, then went to heaven and sat down. Now the Holy Spirit wants to take up where Christ left off and finish what God only started the moment of salvation.

Key Benefits

• Witness for Christ
• Boldness in all situations
• A light in this world of darkness

This entire page of the Holy Spirit is taken from the book "HOW ON EARTH CAN I BE SPIRITUAL? YOU CAN STOP AN UP AND DOWN CHRISTIAN LIFE" by C. Sumner Wemp. Used by his permission. We challenge you to read this book and others by this man of God that is a testimony of the power and grace of the Holy Spirit that shines Christ through him as a great light in this world of darkness.