I felt led to write something and share it: Who is the Holy Spirit and how do we experience Him and discern His voice?
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He exists as one of the three persons that make up the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Though I could go into deeper details from the Old Testament, I will focus on what the New Testament tells us about the Holy Spirit here, as much as I am able at this moment.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. (John 14:16-17, John 16:13) He cannot lie, as God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), and He speaks only what God speaks through Him. He is perfectly good, righteous and holy, just like the Lord is, since it is His Spirit.
We receive the Spirit when we are born again after having believed in Jesus and repented of our sins. (Acts 2:38) We are then grafted into Christ and we then have our being in Him, and Him in us. (John 15:4-5) Our bodies then become temples to the Holy Spirit, and we become a member of His Body. (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Corinthians 16:9, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
He is our teacher, and He teaches us all things and leads us into all Truth. (John 16:13, John 14:26, 1 John 2:27) Everyone of Jesus’s sheep hears His voice and it is through the Holy Spirit that He speaks to us and leads us. (John 10:27, Romans 8:14) It is through His Spirit that our spirits communicate with God after we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is also He who gave us Scripture. (2 Timothy 3:16)
The Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus inside of us (John 15:26), glorifying Jesus. (John 16:14) Without Him, we cannot confess Jesus as our Lord. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
It is the Spirit that gives us our new nature and enables us to live lives obedient to God, by the Grace and the power of God working in us. We crucify the flesh by the Spirit, as our old self died on the Cross with Christ, and we become alive in Him. (Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:6, Colossians 2:13) His Spirit gives life, abundantly in this life and eternally in Heaven. (2 Corinthians 3:6, Romans 8:11, John 6:63, Galatians 6:8, Romans 8:6)
The Holy Spirit conforms us into the image of Christ, renews us (Titus 3:5), transforms us (Romans 12:2) and gives us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). He sanctifies and washes us (1 Corinthians 6:11) He strengthens us and gives us power, love and a sound mind (Acts 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:17, Ephesians 6:10, Ephesians 3:16). He gives us the Fear of the LORD, but He does not bring us confusion or fear. (1 Corinthians 14:33) The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22). The Spirit of God will enable us to live by His will and do His commandments. (1 John 3:24)
The Holy Spirit also searches the depths of God as well and reveals God’s thoughts to us. (1 Corinthians 2:10-15) We are also told to pray in the Spirit on all occasions (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20), and the Spirit of God intercedes for us in prayer, revealing to us the will of God. (Romans 8:27)
The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. As God speaks through us, His words have the divine power to destroy strongholds and arguments (lies that speak against the truth that God has given us through His Word). (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), as His Word is Truth and His Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. (John 17:17, John 16:13) He gives us the words to speak when He wants us to speak. (Matthew 10:20, Mark 13:11, John 12:12, Acts 4:33).
There are gifts of the Spirit that God gives to us. (1 Corinthians 12) I won’t go into detail, because I simply don’t know enough about them right now to speak with any authority. But what’s important is that they are all manifestations of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7) and therefore it is God that is working in us. We should eagerly desire gifts and especially prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1) All true prophecy comes from the Holy Spirit, spoken by God and carried by the Holy Spirit to us, and the prophecies will always be true, since God keeps His promises and cannot tell a lie, or they do not come from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21, Isaiah 55:11, Numbers 23:19)
There are also signs and wonders, miracles, that we are told that we will do in Jesus name, through the Holy Spirit once we believe and have received the Holy Spirit. We are not to seek them, but they will follow those who believe, as we preach the Gospel with Power, to glorify and testify about God. (John 14:12, Acts 4:33, Acts 14:3, Mark 16:17-20) As with gifts and prophecy, it is God doing them through us. It was by the Holy Spirit that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11) and it is He that does all miracles that we see God doing in the Bible and today. It is also the Holy Spirit that gives us the words to speak when He chooses to do them through us. (Acts 19:11, Ephesians 3:20)
How do we discern the Spirit from our own spirit, the flesh and evil spirits?
We are told to test all spirits (1 John 4:1) and we need God-given discernment, which is one of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10), because we have to have the Spirit in order to discern the things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-15). No amount of human, worldly wisdom or natural discernment will be able to understand or test any spirits, because it is God who speaks this to us, in us, as He reveals Himself to us (John 14:21) and also teaches us to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). We can do nothing without Christ. (John 15:5)
Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and cannot speak a lie, He will never speak contrary to the Gospel. That means the FULL Gospel, not a half-gospel or a false gospel, but the full gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written, including the Old Testament. He cannot tempt anyone to sin, (James 1:13) (though He can lead us into trials (Matthew 4:1)). When we hear, feel or see anything that we perceive could be the Holy Spirit, we have to test it against Scripture. We have to test the spirits that affect our own minds, heart and souls, whether we perceive them as thoughts, visions and dreams, voices, urges, feelings, impressions, insights or actual spirits, and we have to test other people who speak to us, to see whether they are of God or not. We have to test the spirits with the Word of God to see if they are telling us the truth, and we have to test them by their fruit, to see if it is the fruit of the spirit or the flesh. (Matthew 7:15-20, Galatians 5:22-23, 1 John 4:8) We test to see if the spirits follow God’s commandments or if they excuse sin. (1 John 3:24, 1 John 3:9-10) The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and never, ever excuses it (1 Corinthians 6:9-1). But He is also our Comforter (John 14:26), who reveals God’s mercy, grace and compassion to us. He does not make us feel condemned or accused (Romans 8:1). We also test the spirits to see if they glorify the Father and the Son Jesus Christ or not. (1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 John 4:2-3, 1 John 4:14-15, 1 John 2:22)
I could talk more about the flesh and evil spirits too, but I feel that it’s for another time, because in order to discern any spirits, we have to know the Holy Spirit first, in order to spot the counterfeits.
I’m speaking the next part freely without quoting Scripture.
This is my own experience with the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is 100% HOLY. He feels perfectly pure and clean, because God is light and in Him there is no darkness, no evil, no sin. He will make you feel God’s perfection inside, and yet make you see your own imperfection and sinfulness. He will make you want to flee from your selfish desires and live for and glorify only God and not yourself, He will overcome every desire to sin inside you, as He reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to you. As Jesus overcame the world, we overcome the world in Him.
His voice is perfectly holy, heavenly and loving, yet so sharp and clear, there is no mistaking it once you have really heard Him speak. Though He can be harsh when He needs to chastise you and will send you through fiery trials to perfect you, He will still let you know that He is for you and never against you, because you are His. We are His children, and God is our Father, Jesus or best friend, and He lets us know that. He has chosen those who are truly His children, and He wants us to accept that, and walk as new creations without holding back. He leads us as our Shepherd, and pulls us into His arms, protects us in Him, and He will never, ever leave us.
He is pure love, and His love is more than we can understand. He gives us that love, but it isn’t an emotional, sappy love, it is an extremely powerful love that can be felt in your whole being, that gives you deep compassion for the lost, the poor, the widows, the fatherless, the oppressed or those who are being attacked or falsely accused. It is a love that makes you agree that unrepentant sinners cannot come to Heaven and be with God, because God wants justice and sin has consequences, but rather than accusing and condemning will want you to see each and every soul on Earth be saved and set free, and whatever God wants you to do, you will do. It is a love that makes you forget about everything else, all selfishness, all greed, all lust, all worldliness, and all you can feel is how God sees the person or people that He is pointing you to, and it will lead you to react as Jesus would have reacted, sometimes with great compassion and sometimes with overwhelming zeal for God. He also gives you awesome power and self-control to do His work on Earth, and that power is miraculous no matter what gift He has given you.
He will lead you into all truth, righteousness and holiness, correct you when you sin, and then deliver you from those sins and enable you to walk in holiness, wearing the Righteousness of Christ. He will keep your eyes fixed on Jesus at all times, lets you see and feel the heart of God towards the lost and the broken, and He will enable you to do the same works as Jesus did and greater. He will give you power, as He gives you the words to speak, but yet with a gentle and meek spirit. He will give you an immense calm inside that will trust God through any storm that He may allow in your life. He quickens your spirit and gives you a sound mind that is so sharp and discerning no lies will deceive you. What you previously saw as light turns out to be darkness, as He opens your eyes and leads you down the narrow road. He will make you want to live by God’s will and not your own, surrendering to the Lord Jesus as much as possible every moment. He will make you want Him more and more every day.
He will make you want to shout the name of JESUS from the rooftops, showing His love to the world, glorifying our Savior in you and through you, not just by your words, not just by your actions, not just by speaking Scripture, but by being in Him at all moments every day, letting God revealing Himself to others through you, in the way that He chooses. He will give you such deep joy that is beyond all understanding and He will remove your fears and fill you with praise to God! He will happily teach you anything and everything that you ask Him (if it’s according to His will) and give you wisdom. He will remove all bondage and set you free! He will let you see and feel Jesus for who He is and transform you into His image, and He won’t let you miss a moment of it, because He keeps you awake and sober, with eyes and ears open, and He makes sure that you enjoy the new life that He has given you, in the Spirit and not in the flesh. He will set your heart on fire for the Gospel and He will send you out to do His work, and enable you to do mighty works for His Glory!
It’s all for the Glory of God, Jesus Christ in us and we in Him! Living for eternity and not for this world, seeing His will be done and His Kingdom come!
That is the Holy Spirit.
This was fun, praise the LORD!!!
It felt like I was taking a test, and I love tests, although it was the Holy Spirit working in me and through me. 
Feel free to correct me or add anything if there is anything I have missed or messed up, or anything from your own experiences.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He exists as one of the three persons that make up the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Though I could go into deeper details from the Old Testament, I will focus on what the New Testament tells us about the Holy Spirit here, as much as I am able at this moment.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. (John 14:16-17, John 16:13) He cannot lie, as God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18), and He speaks only what God speaks through Him. He is perfectly good, righteous and holy, just like the Lord is, since it is His Spirit.
We receive the Spirit when we are born again after having believed in Jesus and repented of our sins. (Acts 2:38) We are then grafted into Christ and we then have our being in Him, and Him in us. (John 15:4-5) Our bodies then become temples to the Holy Spirit, and we become a member of His Body. (Ephesians 2:22, 1 Corinthians 16:9, 1 Corinthians 12:12-13)
He is our teacher, and He teaches us all things and leads us into all Truth. (John 16:13, John 14:26, 1 John 2:27) Everyone of Jesus’s sheep hears His voice and it is through the Holy Spirit that He speaks to us and leads us. (John 10:27, Romans 8:14) It is through His Spirit that our spirits communicate with God after we are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It is also He who gave us Scripture. (2 Timothy 3:16)
The Holy Spirit bears witness of Jesus inside of us (John 15:26), glorifying Jesus. (John 16:14) Without Him, we cannot confess Jesus as our Lord. (1 Corinthians 12:3)
It is the Spirit that gives us our new nature and enables us to live lives obedient to God, by the Grace and the power of God working in us. We crucify the flesh by the Spirit, as our old self died on the Cross with Christ, and we become alive in Him. (Galatians 5:16, Galatians 5:24, Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:6, Colossians 2:13) His Spirit gives life, abundantly in this life and eternally in Heaven. (2 Corinthians 3:6, Romans 8:11, John 6:63, Galatians 6:8, Romans 8:6)
The Holy Spirit conforms us into the image of Christ, renews us (Titus 3:5), transforms us (Romans 12:2) and gives us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). He sanctifies and washes us (1 Corinthians 6:11) He strengthens us and gives us power, love and a sound mind (Acts 1:8, 2 Timothy 2:17, Ephesians 6:10, Ephesians 3:16). He gives us the Fear of the LORD, but He does not bring us confusion or fear. (1 Corinthians 14:33) The fruit of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22). The Spirit of God will enable us to live by His will and do His commandments. (1 John 3:24)
The Holy Spirit also searches the depths of God as well and reveals God’s thoughts to us. (1 Corinthians 2:10-15) We are also told to pray in the Spirit on all occasions (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20), and the Spirit of God intercedes for us in prayer, revealing to us the will of God. (Romans 8:27)
The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. As God speaks through us, His words have the divine power to destroy strongholds and arguments (lies that speak against the truth that God has given us through His Word). (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), as His Word is Truth and His Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. (John 17:17, John 16:13) He gives us the words to speak when He wants us to speak. (Matthew 10:20, Mark 13:11, John 12:12, Acts 4:33).
There are gifts of the Spirit that God gives to us. (1 Corinthians 12) I won’t go into detail, because I simply don’t know enough about them right now to speak with any authority. But what’s important is that they are all manifestations of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7) and therefore it is God that is working in us. We should eagerly desire gifts and especially prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1) All true prophecy comes from the Holy Spirit, spoken by God and carried by the Holy Spirit to us, and the prophecies will always be true, since God keeps His promises and cannot tell a lie, or they do not come from God. (2 Peter 1:20-21, Isaiah 55:11, Numbers 23:19)
There are also signs and wonders, miracles, that we are told that we will do in Jesus name, through the Holy Spirit once we believe and have received the Holy Spirit. We are not to seek them, but they will follow those who believe, as we preach the Gospel with Power, to glorify and testify about God. (John 14:12, Acts 4:33, Acts 14:3, Mark 16:17-20) As with gifts and prophecy, it is God doing them through us. It was by the Holy Spirit that God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11) and it is He that does all miracles that we see God doing in the Bible and today. It is also the Holy Spirit that gives us the words to speak when He chooses to do them through us. (Acts 19:11, Ephesians 3:20)
How do we discern the Spirit from our own spirit, the flesh and evil spirits?
We are told to test all spirits (1 John 4:1) and we need God-given discernment, which is one of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10), because we have to have the Spirit in order to discern the things of God. (1 Corinthians 2:10-15). No amount of human, worldly wisdom or natural discernment will be able to understand or test any spirits, because it is God who speaks this to us, in us, as He reveals Himself to us (John 14:21) and also teaches us to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). We can do nothing without Christ. (John 15:5)
Since the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and cannot speak a lie, He will never speak contrary to the Gospel. That means the FULL Gospel, not a half-gospel or a false gospel, but the full gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written, including the Old Testament. He cannot tempt anyone to sin, (James 1:13) (though He can lead us into trials (Matthew 4:1)). When we hear, feel or see anything that we perceive could be the Holy Spirit, we have to test it against Scripture. We have to test the spirits that affect our own minds, heart and souls, whether we perceive them as thoughts, visions and dreams, voices, urges, feelings, impressions, insights or actual spirits, and we have to test other people who speak to us, to see whether they are of God or not. We have to test the spirits with the Word of God to see if they are telling us the truth, and we have to test them by their fruit, to see if it is the fruit of the spirit or the flesh. (Matthew 7:15-20, Galatians 5:22-23, 1 John 4:8) We test to see if the spirits follow God’s commandments or if they excuse sin. (1 John 3:24, 1 John 3:9-10) The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and never, ever excuses it (1 Corinthians 6:9-1). But He is also our Comforter (John 14:26), who reveals God’s mercy, grace and compassion to us. He does not make us feel condemned or accused (Romans 8:1). We also test the spirits to see if they glorify the Father and the Son Jesus Christ or not. (1 Corinthians 12:3, 1 John 4:2-3, 1 John 4:14-15, 1 John 2:22)
I could talk more about the flesh and evil spirits too, but I feel that it’s for another time, because in order to discern any spirits, we have to know the Holy Spirit first, in order to spot the counterfeits.
I’m speaking the next part freely without quoting Scripture.
This is my own experience with the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is 100% HOLY. He feels perfectly pure and clean, because God is light and in Him there is no darkness, no evil, no sin. He will make you feel God’s perfection inside, and yet make you see your own imperfection and sinfulness. He will make you want to flee from your selfish desires and live for and glorify only God and not yourself, He will overcome every desire to sin inside you, as He reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to you. As Jesus overcame the world, we overcome the world in Him.
His voice is perfectly holy, heavenly and loving, yet so sharp and clear, there is no mistaking it once you have really heard Him speak. Though He can be harsh when He needs to chastise you and will send you through fiery trials to perfect you, He will still let you know that He is for you and never against you, because you are His. We are His children, and God is our Father, Jesus or best friend, and He lets us know that. He has chosen those who are truly His children, and He wants us to accept that, and walk as new creations without holding back. He leads us as our Shepherd, and pulls us into His arms, protects us in Him, and He will never, ever leave us.
He is pure love, and His love is more than we can understand. He gives us that love, but it isn’t an emotional, sappy love, it is an extremely powerful love that can be felt in your whole being, that gives you deep compassion for the lost, the poor, the widows, the fatherless, the oppressed or those who are being attacked or falsely accused. It is a love that makes you agree that unrepentant sinners cannot come to Heaven and be with God, because God wants justice and sin has consequences, but rather than accusing and condemning will want you to see each and every soul on Earth be saved and set free, and whatever God wants you to do, you will do. It is a love that makes you forget about everything else, all selfishness, all greed, all lust, all worldliness, and all you can feel is how God sees the person or people that He is pointing you to, and it will lead you to react as Jesus would have reacted, sometimes with great compassion and sometimes with overwhelming zeal for God. He also gives you awesome power and self-control to do His work on Earth, and that power is miraculous no matter what gift He has given you.
He will lead you into all truth, righteousness and holiness, correct you when you sin, and then deliver you from those sins and enable you to walk in holiness, wearing the Righteousness of Christ. He will keep your eyes fixed on Jesus at all times, lets you see and feel the heart of God towards the lost and the broken, and He will enable you to do the same works as Jesus did and greater. He will give you power, as He gives you the words to speak, but yet with a gentle and meek spirit. He will give you an immense calm inside that will trust God through any storm that He may allow in your life. He quickens your spirit and gives you a sound mind that is so sharp and discerning no lies will deceive you. What you previously saw as light turns out to be darkness, as He opens your eyes and leads you down the narrow road. He will make you want to live by God’s will and not your own, surrendering to the Lord Jesus as much as possible every moment. He will make you want Him more and more every day.
He will make you want to shout the name of JESUS from the rooftops, showing His love to the world, glorifying our Savior in you and through you, not just by your words, not just by your actions, not just by speaking Scripture, but by being in Him at all moments every day, letting God revealing Himself to others through you, in the way that He chooses. He will give you such deep joy that is beyond all understanding and He will remove your fears and fill you with praise to God! He will happily teach you anything and everything that you ask Him (if it’s according to His will) and give you wisdom. He will remove all bondage and set you free! He will let you see and feel Jesus for who He is and transform you into His image, and He won’t let you miss a moment of it, because He keeps you awake and sober, with eyes and ears open, and He makes sure that you enjoy the new life that He has given you, in the Spirit and not in the flesh. He will set your heart on fire for the Gospel and He will send you out to do His work, and enable you to do mighty works for His Glory!
It’s all for the Glory of God, Jesus Christ in us and we in Him! Living for eternity and not for this world, seeing His will be done and His Kingdom come!
That is the Holy Spirit.
This was fun, praise the LORD!!!
It felt like I was taking a test, and I love tests, although it was the Holy Spirit working in me and through me. Feel free to correct me or add anything if there is anything I have missed or messed up, or anything from your own experiences.
