Among those who are only trusting in the God-man, His death for their sins, and His bodily resurrection from the dead for God’s forgiveness, there is the potential danger of thinking or speaking of the Holy Spirit as an “it,” a “force,” a “dynamic,” a “power,” or something like that. He is none of those things. We must remember that the Holy Spirit is Almighty God, and that He is a Person — that He thinks, that He feels, and that He makes decisions.

If you are trusting only in the Person and works that I mentioned for God’s forgiveness, then the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. He was the One who created your heart of flesh by giving you spiritual life, making you a new creature. He was the One who made you understand the gospel, and who made you repent of your sins and trust in Christ, His death, and resurrection. Right now, He knows everything about you, and He is right now inside of you, watching your every action, hearing your every thought and word. But remember that He loves you, that He wants what’s best for you, but that He feels sorrow over your sins, and that He is willing to discipline you by the instruction of your Father.

Also, remember that the Holy Spirit is the same God as your Father in heaven, and the same God as your Lord Jesus Christ. So, when the Holy Spirit acts, it is the desire of your Father and your Lord that He act.

Scripture commands us to be continually controlled by the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with our hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks to the Father in everything, and being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. In another passage, most of those commands are basically repeated, but, instead of commanding us to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to let the word of Christ dwell richly within us. That is how you allow the Holy Spirit to control you — let His Word dwell richly within you. Notice that it says to let it dwell richly within you. That means that it must be at home inside of you. You must welcome it, you must share your heart with it, you must love it, and embrace it, and live life with it. Furthermore, it says to let it dwell richly within you. That means that it is to be rich within the home of your heart, that it is to be in abundance, and that you are to consider it to be like riches that are so precious and valuable.

Are you letting the Holy Spirit control you through living by His Word?