A Match Made In Heaven: The Holy Spirit & The Law

“Oh, how I love your law. Your law is my delight” – Psalms 119

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1

The whole concept of the Holy Spirit living in someone has been one that intrigues me and always has had me thinking about how genuine obedience is perfectly linked with the Holy Spirit. I find it truly remarkable how acutely vital the Holy Spirit of YHWH (God) plays a role in my life and in the relationship to God’s Holy Law.

I recently watched an incredible film: The Revenant. It was filmed during
the harshest months of Winter. While watching the film, I couldn’t help but realize the absence of color, life and growth. I believe when we deliberately choose to disobey God’s commandments, our hearts turn into a winter-like state. Our relationship with God and the Holy Spirit becomes cold, fruitless… lifeless. The rough and striking cold winds of disobedience hit us and we respond with our stubborn heads down and arms folded tightly, not wanting to move or budge. The word “revenant” means: one that returns after death or a long absence, and that is exactly what happens when we love God through our obedience of His Word. The Holy Spirit melts the snow away, awakens us from our deep slumber, and introduces us to Spring. It is where gentle wildflower fields of blessings and joy begin to stem, and leaves from the glorious trees, which provide security and relief, start to stretch once more. I am swiftly reminded of this Bible verse: “And the effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever” -Isaiah 32:17. My gosh, it is startling that when you actually put to practice the Word of God, you start to realize how infallible His Word is. But all of this capability of obedience is solely because of the work and power of the Holy Spirit in me (Ephesians 3:16); my flesh is way too fragile, way too sinful to rely on, and so is my own strength too weak to obey the Words of my King. The desire to fulfill the Law in which I have grown to love and delight in, creates in me more of a need for the help from the Spirit. “And now, Israel, what does YHWH your God ask of you but to fear YHWH your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul” -Deuteronomy 10:12. The Spirit helps me achieve this very fundamental commandment. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,  even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” -John 14:14-18

I love the 3rd person of God: the Holy Spirit. And I do not want to grieve Him with disobedience. The Holy Spirit has given me life and has freed me from sin and death. The Holy Spirit has given me the ability to love as Yeshua loved. The Holy Spirit confirms that I am YWHW’s daughter and lovely princess. He guarantees my salvation and protects me from being deceived; He helps me recognize the True Shepherd’s voice. The Holy Spirit also aids me in my prayers. I was thinking about it the other day: there are always two gathered when I pray by myself, because the Holy Spirit is with me. It’s an amazing and humbling gift that God gave us the Holy Spirit, and I can honestly say that I can do absolutely nothing without Him (John 15:5).  The Law that binds and the Holy Spirit that gives freedom seem like complete opposites that can never work in perfect synergy, but side by side they are a perfect match.

Allow me to encourage you with a passage that waters my soul! (See if you can count how many times the word “Spirit” appears).

“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 in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 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. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:1-12

One can receive the Holy Spirit when they place their faith in Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16

We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and because of that we are subjected to God’s wrath, judgement and eternal separation from Him. There is nothing that we can do to earn or pay our way into receiving the gracious gift of eternal life; the bible says that even our good deeds are filthy rags. But God, who is so rich in mercy and grace, loved us so very much that He sent His son to live a sinless life in order to be a perfect and spotless sacrifice to pay for all of our sins. Because Jesus Christ was human, He could die; and because He was also God, His death had an eternal and infinite value. Jesus bore the wrath and judgement of God on the cross on our behalf so that He can have an inseparable relationship with us. He then rose from the grave in 3 days proving that His sacrifice was sufficient as payment of our sins.

Once you receive these truths in faith the bible says you are now a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” And you now can have an eternal and intimate relationship with your Creator. I pray that you come to put your trust and faith in the one who came to die so that you may live and start living a life for His glory with the help of the Holy Spirit who now lives in you because of your faith in Him. As Yeshua himself said in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”