“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” 2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV)
Think about the following question for a moment,
As you say, share and hear the Apostolic Benediction, do you
have an appreciation of its significance?
Do you know what is meant by “the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit”?
Too many Christians give little or no consideration to the
Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, who lives in complete harmony
with the Father and the Son, neither separate nor subordinate but equally God.
The Holy Spirit moves in tandem with the Father and the Son,
taking you along on that journey when you are in fellowship with Him. The Holy
Spirit is neither distant nor unreachable for He dwells within your born-again self.
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the
Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your
own” 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NIV)
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| "Dove" by H Lee Shapiro |
When you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, just
as the Holy Spirit, as a dove, descended upon Jesus, so He descends upon you,
the believer. The Holy Spirit comes and lives inside you in constant and
continuous fellowship, partnership and comradeship.
To be in fellowship with God’s Holy Spirit is no ordinary
relationship, it involves an intimacy that is extraordinary, beyond our natural
capacity to imagine.
To be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit is to be infused
with Spirit’s essence; it is to be immersed in a renewed life where faith
transcends human limitations, and transformation of your mind is an every-day
experience.
When you are in fellowship with the Holy Spirit, He is an
ever-present friend, always available to you to comfort, guide, counsel, teach,
lead, and bear witness to Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit lives in every born-again believer and it is through the Holy Spirit at work deep within you that
enables you to appropriate to yourself the infinite fullness of the grace of
Jesus Christ and the all-encompassing love of God.
To be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit is to exist in the
profundity of His Presence, no longer fixated with the natural but transfixed by
the spiritual.
“You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but
are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in
you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not
belong to Christ.” Romans 8:9 (NIV)
The Holy Spirit was sent by God in answer to Jesus’ prayer,
to be to you what Jesus had been to His disciples during the years of His
personal companionship with them (see John 14:16,17).
Jesus was with them day after day, week by week, month by
month and year after year; an ever-present, loving and devoted Friend, a mighty
Helper, and a compassionate Comforter and this is exactly what Spirit is to
you. He literally lives in the depths of your being every minute of every hour
and every hour of every day.
The Holy Spirit takes possession of you in fellowship. And
just as the Father and the Son are worthy of your adoration and your praise, so
too is the Holy Spirit of God. He is worthy to receive your love, your faith
and your complete surrender to Him.
To be in fellowship with the Holy Spirit is to step into the
depths of the hidden wonders and mysteries of the Divine.
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide
you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only
what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” John 16:13 (NIV)
Being in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is living a life
where every moment is consumed by the grace of Christ Jesus and the depths of
God’s relentless love.
Beloved, as you journey on the road to Pentecost, awaken the Spirit
of God that abides within you, and pursue true fellowship with Him.
Amen †
Shelley Johnson “On the Road to Pentecost: the Fellowship of
the Holy Spirit” © 2013 revisited April 27, 2025
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