Monday | 03 November 2025
When the Son comes to dwell in the heart of a believer, He prays to the Father, asking Him to send the Holy Spirit to them. Joh 14:16. Jesus described the Holy Spirit as ‘another Helper’ who is sent by the Father to be with the believer, and in them. Joh 14:15‑17. These are two distinct implications of receiving the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is with a believer when He takes up residence, with the Father and the Son, in their heart. They now have the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Son and the Holy Spirit abiding in their heart.
The Spirit’s initiative within the hearer is to make them spiritual by freeing them from their bondage to the way of the flesh. Gal 5:17. The most fundamental expression of the Spirit’s initiative to enable a believer to be spiritual is to convict them of sin, righteousness and judgement. Explaining this work of the Spirit, Jesus said, ‘And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged.’ Joh 16:8‑11.
Through the conviction of sin, the Spirit is bringing to a hearer’s attention their fleshly desire to define their own name and expression as an identity. This is what it means to be unbelieving. When a person lives by the sight of their own eyes and by the understanding of their own heart, they do not believe that Jesus has fulfilled the works that belong to their sonship, and that He is to be the substance of their life as a son of God. 1Jn 5:11‑13. Unless they receive the conviction of sin, they will believe the lie that their own way is true and leads to life. 2Th 2:11. Instead of living as a son of God, they will live as a son of disobedience and thus remain under condemnation. Eph 2:2.
Further Study:
John 14
References:
Joh 14:15-17
If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.
Gal 5:17
For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Joh 16:8-11
And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgement, because the ruler of this world is judged.
1Jn 5:11-13
And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
2Th 2:11
And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie.
Eph 2:2
In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.