What is the Role of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives?

We talk a lot about the role of the Son of God in our lives, but not as much about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

I, therefore, want to devote this thread about the role of the Holy Spirit.

What then is the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives???

Another question to help us in our research are the other names of the Holy Spirit?

The ones that immediatley come to mind are "Comforter" and "Holy Ghost."

"...The Holy Spirit, the representative of Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All 'good things' are comprised in this. The Creator Himself can give us nothing greater, nothing better...."(MB, p.188)

um - {MB 132.2}

The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw the attention of men to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures. {AA 52.4}

Interesting is it not, that the Spirit is what makes effectual the salvation wrought out by the death of our Redeemer? If it were a legal issue, what more is needed? This is becaues it is not a legal issue, it is a real issue, and salvation is HEALING. And the healing is wrought out by the Spirit.

In those two quotes I see the role of the Holy Spirit as being:

1 - The representative of the Son of God in our individual lives.

2 - As a regenerating healing agency in our individual lives.

The Holy Spirit's role is more than that though.

You make this an either/or issue, when it is a both/and issue.

The Holy Spirit is also sometimes simply referred to as the Spirit as in John 16:13 where we see another role or function:

Another role or function of the Holy Spirit is to guide us into all truth.

I think we could add, on the basis of the second quote, that other roles of the Holy Spirit are to call our attention to Christ's sacrifice, unfold the love of God to us and open to us the truths of Scripture.

How does the legal model save you? It doesn't. We are not in legal trouble, we are in real trouble. Is the roll of the Holy Spirit judicially clear us? Do you have any evidence to that effect? And when we look at the roll of the Holy Spirit, it is to make effective that which Christ did. If there is any legal aspect, it is only that God has the right to heal us. Our salvation is not that we are legally off the hook because of what Christ did. No. Christ did not come to save us in our sins. He came to save us FROM our sins, not some judicial execution. Sin pays it wage, death. God is not the executioner of the sentence against sin. We need to be "born again", remade in the image of God. It is not a legal process as much at you insist that it has to be. Forgiveness is not a legal process. So yes, I do focus on the reality that our salvation is a HEALING process, not a LEGAL process, because that is what it is. No healing, no salvation. Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

Amen to that. John 16:13, I believe is an absolutely important function of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord speaks to His people through the Holy Spirit (Spirit of Truth), which He gives to His prophets, to communicate to us. As we learned in Zech. 4, He authorizes His prophets to be the spokesperson for His will and prophecy.

Yes, truth is shown to any and all who humbly and obediently follow Him, but prophecy (That which will come) is given ONLY to His prophets. The danger is that when we as NON prophets interpret the Scriptures in a way where we declare prophesy( private interpretation) that is in contradiction to His authorized prophets, we are heading down a false path that will lead to destruction.

Our perfect example is Korah and his followers. Moses was God's AUTHORIZED prophet, to speak the words of the Lord. Yet as they marched forward in the desert, certain men became full of themselves thinking they were hearing the Lord's voice just as Moses was.

They declared, on that fateful day that THEY were being guided just as Moses was and that God had made no distinction in speaking to Moses His prophet. In other words, they showed unbelief in God because they showed unbelief in HIS prophet.

So too today. God gave us a most beautiful prophet (EGW) to lead and start our church. Yet He did not authorize her to finish the work before the "great and dreadful day of the Lord". His word authorized His "Elijah" prophet to do that (Malachi 4:5).

The Spirit of Truth has spoken through the unrolling of the scroll. Are we humbly accepting the message that His word says will be viewed with disdain?

"What greater deception can come upon human minds than a confidence that they are right, when they are all wrong? The message of the True Witness finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that deception. They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight of God.

While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true situation of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness. The testimony, so cutting and severe, cannot be a mistake; for it is the True Witness who speaks, and his testimony must be correct."

"It is not enough to merely profess to believe the truth. All the soldiers of the cross of Christ virtually obligate themselves to enter a crusade against the adversary of souls, to condemn wrong, and sustain righteousness. But the message of the True Witness reveals the fact that a terrible deception is upon our people, which makes it necessary to come to them with warnings, to break their spiritual slumber, and arouse them to decided action." (RH, Sept.16, 1873)

"There is to be in the churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of their heart by confession and repentance.

In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their expectations and ideal, they will oppose the work.

"Why," they say, "should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?" Because they did not respond to the warnings, the entreaties, of the messages of God, but persistently said, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing."(Maranatha, p.220)

The Lord in Rev. 3 warned us the Laodicean church, we would think we don't need more truth. But He gave us a life rope--His last message of Elijah.

Are we listening or scoffing?

I would like to focus on the role of the Holy Spirit guiding us into all truth.

Does anybody have any thoughts on that role or function of the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit has more than one role!
He gives spiritual gifts according to His will (1 Corinthians 12:7–11)
He also comforts us (John 14:16, KJV)
He speaks (Acts 8:29)
teaches (Luke 12:12)
reveals (Luke 2:26)
testifies (Acts 20:23)
searches (1 Cor. 2:10,11)
He sets people apart for service and sends them on their way (Acts 13:2,4)
He commands and guides (Acts 8:29)
He declares things to come (John 16:13)
He sets our minds on the things of God (Romans 8:5)
He “convicts the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:7-11).
Through the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13)

He leads us to Christ. (John 15:26)

Christ is the way, the truth and the light.
He is the only Savior.







Yet the question remains -- how do we recognize the voice of the holy spirit from our own thoughts and desires?
All kinds of opposing doctrines are taught, each person presenting them claiming they were led by the spirit.

We need to remember it was the Holy Spirit that inspired Biblical writers to write what is now our scriptures.
The same Holy Spirit uses that book as His textbook in teaching us God's will.

The Word is the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17)which He uses to cut away wrong habits and ideas, if we allow Him to impress us with truth as we contemplate Biblical passages.

It is also necessary for us to be in continual prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17) -- to be connected.

Another way to tell if we are following the Spirit’s leading is to look for signs of His fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22). What are these fruits? Love, peace, kindness, joy, patience, temperance, faith, goodness, meekness

You raised an interesting question in relation to the role of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

If the Holy Spirit is leading both of us in a particular truth, but we both have reached a different conclusion, then how could we both be right in regards to the guiding of the Holy Spirit seeing there is only one particular of truth?

Let us use an obvious church issue, which is the WO issue, as an example, not to discuss here, but simply as an example.

Let's say that I believe WO isn't biblical, which I actually do, but you believe that WO is biblical and we both say that the Holy Spirit guided us to our separate conclusions.

How could the Holy Spirit have guided us to two opposite conclusions? I ask, as there is only one truth that the Holy Spirit would have guided us into. How do we respond to something like this in relation to the role of the Holy Spirit guiding us both into all truth?

Dedication, thank you so much for that wonderful study. I very much appreciate all the time you devote to sharing Bible truth. God bless you. God cares about saving truths. Side issues like WO must not detract from proclaiming saving truths.

Daryl- How could the Holy Spirit have guided us to two opposite conclusions? I ask, as there is only one truth that the Holy Spirit would have guided us into. How do we respond to something like this in relation to the role of the Holy Spirit guiding us both into all truth?

Brother Daryl, may I say that even this question appears to be guided by the "Spirit of Truth." Because that is a serious true question we need an answer and it must be the correct answer.

We have posted the study on Zech. 4 and God sent that to answer your specific question. He knew beforehand these questions we have , therefore, He sent through His prophets studies and symbols that give our answers.

Briefly Zech. 4 lesson teaches us that it is the "prophets" of God who speak His will and future events. Not man individually. God speaks the truth through them by His Spirit of Truth. Once we have this gift,and it is a --gift, we will be able to recognize "truth" as spoken by the prophets and put into writings. THERE will be our answer.

But this gift is given only to those who "do His will".

"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17)

Yet you ask, "But the Scriptures appear to support both sides of the issue, what then?"

God promised in Malachi a "restorer" and he was to come and restore the truth (and proclaim the kingdom before the G and D day of the Lord-- the next appearing of the Lord) that needs to be set straight. God knew we needed someone to clear questions like this in these last days.

In other words by sending His last prophet, many issues are cleared IF we believe it.



We did a report on this WO issue. Women's Ordination

How could the Holy Spirit have guided us to two opposite conclusions?

The Holy Spirit has a lot of roadblocks to overcome in order to lead people to truth.
How long did it take Jesus Himself to get His disciples to understand the truth of His mission on earth?


If prophets are to settle the question as to what is truth, by what do we test the prophets to see if they are true prophets?
For every true prophet (like Jeremiah) we find there were many false prophets (like Hananiah).



Often people miss the truth because they don't study it out for themselves. They aren't the ones on their knees with open Bible studying. People more commonly find some theory that sounds good -- has lots of proof texts and possibly even a lot of EGW quotes strung together to shape some "belief" that is sold to them as truth. Or they have a favorite preacher or writer, that feeds them, and they accept his words. (They may be receiving truth, or they may not be).



They then read the scriptures (and EGW) not so much to "see if these things are so" but rather to find more ammunition to support what they have chosen as "the truth".

That's what happened in Christ's day -- they were sure the Messiah would bring a literal kingdom and free them from oppressors -- and they had plenty of texts to base it on. But somehow they missed the whole meaning of their sanctuary services, which pointed to Christ's sacrifice and death.


We need to prayerfully read and study God's Word in context, and in the whole of salvations history. Dig deeper.

We need more of the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ. Which is more important than a lot of things people get all caught up in and lose all the greater things taught in God's law.
The Holy Spirits first work is to change our lives so we exhibit the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

This topic on the Holy Spirit is a very important topic --
As, like one person says, we are facing an oil crises, a great lack of a genuine connection through the Holy Spirit with Christ, the source of all truth and righteousness.



By His Spirit