11 & 12 Oct 2025 (Pastoral Page) WHY THE HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT OPTIONAL FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

by Ps Lim Wei-en

We are presently running a “Life in the Spirit” course on Thursday evenings. One of the reasons for this is a growing awareness that we need to better understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the Christian life.

When we think about salvation, we must understand that this is more than a one-time event (justification) – it’s also a lifelong journey of becoming more like Christ. The Bible calls this sanctification – the progressive work of God in the life of the believer, making us more and more free from sin and conformed to the image of Christ, which is our destiny (Rom. 8:29).

But here is the truth we often forget: we cannot sanctify ourselves. The flesh—our ingrained desire for independence from God—will always resist His transforming love. The world and the devil reinforce that resistance, tempting us to rely on our own strength, using even good works or spiritual disciplines to alleviate our feelings of guilt and shame apart from God, and deny our need for His grace.

That’s why the Father, in His wisdom and mercy, gives us His Holy Spirit – the promised gift that is ours now through the finished work of the Son. The Spirit is not an impersonal force, but God’s personal presence in us. He is the third Person of the Trinity – one with a mind that knows God’s thoughts (1 Cor 2:11), a will that can decide what is good for Christians (1 Cor 12:11), and emotions that include grief (Eph 4:30). He is God Himself, yet distinct from the Father and the Son.

It is the Spirit’s role to bring the Father’s love and the Son’s work to life in us. And He does this in a profoundly personal way. He doesn’t take control of us like a puppeteer; rather, He lovingly influences, teaches, convicts, comforts, and empowers us toward holiness. As we look back over the course of our lives, we might recognise His transforming work in us. It is He who:

• Convicts us of sin (John 16:8–11), showing us our need for grace.

• Bears witness to Jesus (John 15:26), showing us why Jesus is the Saviour, the only way to the Father.

• Regenerates and renews our hearts (Titus 3:5), giving us a new life so that we are born again into a new spiritual reality.

• Liberates us from sin’s power (Romans 8:2), giving us the ability to break free from sin’s hold over us.

• Forms Christ’s character in us (Gal 5:22–23), changing us at a deep level so that what emerges instinctively in different situations is the fruit of the Spirit instead of the fruit of the flesh.

• Assures us that we are children of God (Romans 8:15–17), so that we live from a place of loving acceptance, not for it.

When we live in the Spirit, we are no longer driven by the need to hide our shame or prove ourselves through moral striving. Instead, we live as beloved children – trusting God to provide all we need for a life of godliness and fruitful service.

In our desire to know God, it’s easy to blur the roles of Father, Son, and Spirit. Yet, understanding their distinction deepens our worship and reverence for the different Persons of the Trinity. Take for example, the truth that God is love: The Father is the source of love. The Son is the revelation of that love through His incarnation, death, and resurrection. The Spirit is the indwelling presence who applies that love to our hearts and conforms us to Christ. The three Persons thus play complementary roles in the life of the believer – all are essential.

If we fail to distinguish the Spirit’s role from the Father’s and Son’s, we risk two errors:

1. Reducing the Spirit to a feeling or force, leading to emotionalism or a fear of what He wants to do in our lives.

2. Neglecting the Spirit altogether, leaving us to live moralistic but powerless Christian lives.

But when we rightly know the Spirit as the personal, divine agent of sanctification, we will not be afraid of Him and we will want more of Him in our lives, so that we can experience genuine transformation. We will rely on Him to make the truths of Scripture alive in us, help us pray when words fail, comfort us when we fall, and empower us to love and serve in ways beyond our strength – for the glory of God.

If you would like to be filled afresh by the Spirit, consider starting each day in the coming week with this prayer:

Lord, I no longer want to live the Christian life alone, in the power of myself. I want to open to You in the truth of who I am, in Christ and in need of Your life-giving presence. Thus, I want to learn to depend upon You in my weakness and need, to be filled with Your Spirit by Your enabling, and to abide in the Vine, apart from Whom I can do nothing. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.