Embracing The Holy Spirit

If you step back and look at the story Scripture is telling from beginning to end, one truth becomes clear: there is a problem humanity cannot solve on its own. There is a breach between Creator and creation—a relational chasm between God and mankind. And because of that divide, there’s a hard reality we often resist: we can only relate to God on God’s terms. That’s the first step to embracing the Holy Spirit.

That’s the heart of the issue. We don’t simply decide how relationship with God works. We need God in order to truly know God. If we want to meet Him, He must introduce Himself.

Access Without Dependence

Throughout history, humanity has struggled with this truth.

We want access without dependence.

We want relationship without surrender.

We attend church but stop short of being the church.

We pray consistently but obey selectively.

We hold Bibles while failing to truly hold to God’s Word.

In the process, God becomes familiar—manageable—reduced to something closer to a peer than a holy Creator.

But you can’t know God without needing God.

John’s Reassurance

That’s why the apostle John offers such powerful assurance:

“This is how we know that we abide in Him and He in us—He has given us His Spirit” (1 John 4:13).

Our confidence in relationship with God doesn’t come from effort or knowledge. It comes from God Himself showing up in us. The requirements of relationship are met when God takes responsibility for what we never could.

Moses and the Law

This truth becomes clearer when we understand the role of the Law. Through Moses, God gave His law to Israel—not as a finish line, but as a mirror. The law revealed God’s expectations, but it also exposed humanity’s inability to meet them. Over time, God’s people ignored parts of the law, added their own rules, and even lost it entirely. The result was repeated failure, hardship, and distance from God.

The law wasn’t meant to reveal God’s holiness as much as it was meant to reveal our need.

Jesus Shows Up

When Jesus arrived, everything changed. He didn’t reject the law—He fulfilled it. And that fulfillment exposed a crucial difference: there is a difference between keeping God’s rules and simply not breaking them. The religious leaders clung to rules about God, while Jesus lived in relationship with God. The tension wasn’t about obedience—it was about intimacy.

Scripture tells us the law was a guardian, protecting us until faith in Christ was revealed (Galatians 3:23–25). And under the New Covenant, God promises something radical: He will write His law on our hearts. No longer will people say, “Know the Lord,” because all will know Him—not through rules, but through relationship.

How? By giving us His Spirit.

The same Spirit that empowered Jesus now lives in us. Because of Christ, we are no longer bound to the letter of the law but invited to live in the freedom of the Spirit (Romans 7:4–6). This is a new way of living—not driven by rule-keeping, but by relationship.

You can live for God—but more than that, you can live with God. Because God Himself has chosen to live in you.

You need God to know God. So as you step into a new season, why not embrace a new way of living—by His Spirit?

Want to learn more? Watch the sermon here.