Is the Holy Spirit both more known, and yet more mysterious, than we can imagine?
When I went to Casa Bernabe this year, it really moved me, emotionally and spiritually, to see the kids at the orphanage, and to see all that the staff at Casa Bernabe were doing to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, providing for their physical and spiritual needs. I was certain God wanted me to move to Guatemala and start working at the orphanage right away! I thought that my emotional reaction was the Holy Spirit was showing me the direction that my life should take. (It wasn’t.)
In Romans 8:1-2, Paul talks about the Holy Spirit.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
What is the “Spirit of life” that Paul is referencing? It’s the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who have been in perfect community since before the beginning of time (see Genesis 1:1).
But who is the Holy Spirit? Sometimes we think about the Holy Spirit as this mysterious, woo-woo being. In one sense, yes, He is totally supernatural, and works sometimes in mysterious ways. But in another sense, I think the Holy Spirit wants to do a work within us that is very known. Simply put, He exists to glorify Jesus and to make us more like Jesus. He wants to do a work of death and resurrection in every area of our lives (see Romans 6).
God says, in Isaiah 55:9, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (KJV)
Because God is always working for our good and for his Glory (Romans 8:28), we can be certain of “what” the Holy Spirit is doing, though we may not always recognize the who, when and how. Sometimes, God doesn't reveal that to us until later — or sometimes He doesn’t reveal it at all. And that’s actually a gift, because in His mercy, He keeps us from the temptation to boast over what we’ve done.
“For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Romans 8:3-4