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In the past years, claims about the Holy Spirit’s work have spread across the entire world. Many have professed to have had the Holy Spirit work in their lives through “tongues” and other emotional experiences, and the “gifts of the Spirit” have received a lot of publicity.

Sadly, what these things generally come from is a wrong concept of the Holy Spirit. A large number of those who profess Christianity seem to view the infilling of the Spirit as a sort of optional “add-on” to Christianity. They view Him as coming in a second stage of Christian experience, and His gifts as His main purpose on earth. They believe that He is found in the extraordinary (such as tongues, miracles, or prophecies) and really not too important in the mundane tasks of life. These concepts, or at least some of them, can probably be found deeply entrenched in the theology of practically every mainstream Protestant denomination. Very few of those who profess our faith seem to be able to see how the work of the Spirit is important in every area of our lives.

The New Testament teaches us that the Holy Spirit is present with every saved person: “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” This is not an issue of a second experience or an optional emotion; it is a spiritual life or death issue! Paul is telling us here that if the Spirit is not doing His work in someone’s life, that person is not saved. The work of the Spirit is so important to Christianity that no one can truly be saved without Him.

But the Spirit is far from being simply a bystander in someone’s life. In the passage that the Scripture above came from, Paul is talking about what is probably the Spirit’s most important work, one that has been hidden by the tongues movement and other emotional systems. This work is the Spirit’s guidance in our lives. In Romans 7, starting in verse 7, Paul explains the predicament that an unsaved man who desires to be holy will find himself in, that Paul himself was in as a Pharisee.

He could read and understand the Law, and he purposed to obey it, but he found out that he couldn’t. It was impossible, because his entire body (“my flesh”) simply refused to do what he would have liked to have done, and he ended up continuing in sin. He found himself caught in the grips of spiritual death, and it seemed that there was no way to escape. The anguished experience culminates with his cry in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Then, in verse 25, he finds the answer through Jesus Christ. He goes on to explain that while his mind is desirous of good things, his flesh still is pulling on him to go into sin. But, continuing on into Chapter 8, he explains that he no longer has to follow the flesh on its downward course into hell, because now, through Christ, he has another option: to follow the Spirit, and be free of condemnation. He is now free of “the law of sin and death.” He can choose to do right, fulfilling God’s commands. The way he can do this is through the Spirit’s work in his life, by following the Spirit instead of the flesh. Before his conversion (tied to the Spirit’s filling him) he had only one way to walk: after the flesh. Now, cleansed by Jesus’ blood and filled with the Spirit, he walks after the Spirit. There are no other options. Either the Spirit is guiding us, and we are on our way to heaven, or we are listening to what our flesh is calling us to, and we “cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

So the Spirit’s main work in our lives is to guide us in the way that we should go. He produces holiness. “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.” The Spirit puts forth goodness and righteousness and truth in our lives. We don’t have these things without Him.

This is where the fruit of the Spirit that is listed in Galatians 5 comes in. These are the things that He brings into our lives. These are the paths in which He leads us.

First, He leads us in love. Love to God, which manifests itself in obedience to Him (I John 5:3) and worship of Him. Love to our neighbor, which manifests itself, at least partly, in mercy toward him.

Second, He leads us in joy. He produces the joy of the Lord in our lives. He shows us how much better it is to serve God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin. We can see the prize ahead of us and know that the things awaiting us in heaven are much better than sin can give to us. The Spirit is the Comforter.

Third, He leads us in peace. If we have no peace, then we need to “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.” The Holy Spirit produces a peace that the world cannot. He gives us peace and comfort even in tribulation.

Fourth, He leads us in longsuffering. He enables us to take suffering without striking back. He makes us able to handle things that men do against us without immediately having to retaliate or inflict punishment.

Fifth, He leads us in gentleness. He makes us able to help others and to properly deal with the froward. “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men…” (II Tim. 2:24a)

Sixth, He leads us in goodness. He makes us able to do righteous things instead of unrighteous ones. He gives us power to work for God

Seventh, He leads us in faith. He gives us strength to trust God in our trials. He gives us faith to commit everything we have to God, to let Him run our lives.

Eighth, He leads us in meekness. God hates pride, and His Spirit helps us to ignore ourselves and focus of God’s work.

Ninth, He leads in temperance. He helps us to control our appetites and desires, to know when to stop doing good things before they become selfish.

After this list, Paul tells us, “And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” For the Spirit to work, for us to be saved, we have to be willing for Him to do whatever He desires in our lives. We have to commit everything to Him. The Scripture does mention the gifts of the Spirit. But the Spirit will not give His gifts to someone who will not let Him make His fruit. No one need try to get the gifts (although he may desire some of them, I Cor. 12:31), because the Spirit will give the gifts He chooses to those who are filled with Him. It is wrong to focus on the gifts and forget the Spirit’s work in our daily lives, and it is very unlikely to result in any of the true work of the Spirit. We must commit ourselves to Him before the rest can follow.