Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: What exactly does the Holy Spirit do in the life of a believer? The answer may surprise you because he's been working in ways you've never fully given him credit for. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll walks us through four specific life-changing roles the Spirit plays from the moment of your salvation onward. He regenerates, he identifies, he seals, and he illuminates.

And if you've ever wondered why scripture suddenly comes alive, today's message holds the answer. Chuck titled his message "Getting Reacquainted with the Spirit of Power."

Chuck Swindoll: I've discovered when you get serious about spiritual things, you not only get serious about church, you get serious about God. Like, who is he? Who is he?

And so we get to understanding more about God the Father and the Son. The Father plans our salvation, and God the Son implements the plan by going to the cross and dying for us. And God the Holy Spirit is empowering it, as we shall see.

Let me show you. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 6: "Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away." It is a divine wisdom that comes from his word. We speak—look at verse 7—"God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory."

Greater what? Before there ever was the beginning of time, God planned the wisdom, the knowledge, the truth to live by. All of that arranged in the Godhead, all put together, all known, all ready to be delivered.

And then man falls in the garden and his whole mind is changed, his heart is changed, his will is changed. And now you've got to permeate all of that, but the wisdom is there nevertheless. So we need divine help.

Verse 10: "For to us God revealed them"—that's the truths of his word, the truths of his mind—"God revealed them through the Spirit"—capital S, that's the Holy Spirit—"for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." He searches even the depths of God. Can you imagine what that's like?

We hit the surface, we learn a little. Every once in a while, we're around someone highly intelligent, and we listen and we realize how much that person knows. Someone said that an education is going from an unawareness to awareness of your own ignorance. You become aware of the depth of information you don't know.

When you relate to the Spirit of God, you're relating to one who has it all known, has it all understood. And his major role is to communicate that truth to you in bite-sized chunks that you can take and apply. That's his role. He reveals them to you.

Look at verse 11—we can identify with this: "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him?" Right now, I have thoughts that you don't know, and you have thoughts that I don't know because they're only known by each one of us individually.

Now look closely: "Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God." How good is that? And he's not keeping it to himself. His role is to unveil that truth and to let you get a corner on it and begin to see it. It's called spiritual insight, discernment.

It becomes a filter system in this wicked, deceptive world where you're hit on all sides by the media, and you have to filter through that and come up with truth in the midst of a pile of error. That's the role of the Spirit.

Verse 12: "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God"—why?—"so that we may know the things freely given to us by God." I have had people say to me, "It doesn't matter that I know that much." Wait. If you're ever tempted to say that, zip it. Zip it. Don't say that.

If you really mean that, you're a prey to every cult that comes to your door. You don't care about knowing what you believe? You're ready for a fall. The enemy loves to hear you say that. The adversary feeds on that kind of thinking.

If the Spirit of God exists for the single purpose of revealing God's truth, doesn't it make sense we need to know that truth? That's why you were bored in previous churches where the truth wasn't taught. That's why you came out of that false religion where you realized, "This is not doing good, this is toxic, this is hurting me." You weren't getting truth.

Let me say at this moment, if you are grasping any of this information, it's because of the Spirit of God. I would add this: if you do not know the Lord, this information is dull and boring to you because you haven't the Spirit of God to make it meaningful to you.

You can't see the Spirit because he's invisible. You can't know the work of the Spirit except in deep inner feelings, sometimes through conviction, sometimes through divine guilt that he may bring over sin in our lives. Occasionally our conscience is troubled because we have grieved God in something we have done or said or even thought. That's the work of the Spirit within us, but we cannot see with these eyes because the Spirit of God, his work, is not a tangible work.

When you get truth, you're set free. "You shall know the truth, and"—what?—"the truth will make you free." Yes. Freed from those things that once captured you and controlled you. "We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God so that we may know the things freely given to us by God."

Let's go further. Let's dig further into his role. When I did my study, I came up with about 30 to 35 things the Spirit of God does. You'll be happy to know we won't go through all 30 to 35 of them. But I'm going to spot maybe three, four of them that are important enough to underscore.

Go from 1 Corinthians to Titus, Titus chapter 3. You get to the letters of Timothy, you go one further, one book further. The next letter is the one to Titus. Chapter 3, verse 5.

If you like taking notes, I've given you an outline that you can follow. I fill mine in every week in preparing, and so I've got mine all filled in. It helps me because thoughts disentangle themselves over the lips and through the fingertips. As you write your thoughts down, you'll grasp them even if you don't hang on to this very long. Just the writing down of those things will help you.

One of the four that I want to mention is the Spirit regenerates. He regenerates. Verse 5: "He saved us"—this is a 'he' referring to God the Father, God our Savior—"saved us... not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of"—there's our word—"regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit."

What does that mean? That means when you and I were converted to Christ, regardless of our age, even though we may not have known anything about this, new life was given to us. If it were not for the Spirit's work, you and I would not know the new birth.

2 Corinthians 5:17: "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, all things have become new." You know why that's true? Because of the work of the Spirit.

When you say, "I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as my own personal savior. I have determined I can't get myself to heaven on my own good works. I believe the Savior died for me on the cross, and I will take that death on my behalf and I will place my faith and trust in him." At that moment of salvation, you're given new life. It's called the new birth. John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born anew." And then he goes on to explain it must be by the Spirit and water. And the Spirit he has in mind is the Holy Spirit.

Now look at verse 5 again: "He saved us... not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration." Look at that. "Even the renewing by the Holy Spirit," we could read it.

At conversion, we are cleansed within. All of those things that have been characterizing our lives, put in one general category: sin. That is cleansed, that is washed, that is washed away. Thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, he regenerates us at conversion.

And many would teach from this, and perhaps it's correct, that there is a continual renewing of the Spirit throughout the life of the believer. When we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from our sins and from all unrighteousness. The work of the Spirit is in the cleansing work of our lives.

Think of washing clothing, washing your car, washing—now, this is the inside of your life. Because he's invisible, he does his invisible work inside that part of us that no surgeon's scalpel can ever reach.

The word of God is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit. The word of God penetrates to the very place that no one else can reach. And when he reaches you with new truth and new life, he cleanses you, he washes you.

"Generate" is to begin; "regenerate" is to begin again. You began at birth from your mother's womb. But there must be a regeneration for you to say you are now in the family of God, you are born anew. It's a second birth; it's a spiritual birth.

So the first thing we name is he regenerates us. Now back to 1 Corinthians. Told you we'd be moving back and forth, so let's go from Titus back to 1 Corinthians 12. Here we are, verse 12 of chapter 12. You'll see the second of the four we're going to point out that the Spirit does.

1 Corinthians 12, verse 12: "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one..." Hold on, that sounds like a tongue-twister. Think of your own body. It's made up of head, arms, legs, fingers, toes, organs, that part which is seen, that part which isn't seen. All of it makes up our anatomy, and it's made up of many parts or, as called here, many members, but it's one body.

So also is the body of Christ. The universal family of God is called in scripture the body of Christ. Now, where's the Spirit at work in this? Look at verse 13: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of that one and the same Spirit." What does that mean?

Paul is teaching the body truth, that is, in the family of God called a body, there are many, many people called here members. Many different functions carried about by many different ones. Some gifted in one area, others gifted in others.

Now watch closely. How do we get this all amalgamated? How do we get all of this together? How does it become a unit? We have the Spirit to thank for that. Verse 13: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body."

"But I'm a Jew, and I'm not a part of that Gentile..." He says whether it be Jewish or Greeks, whether one be slave or free. The point is there is no status, there is no race, there is no separation. Regardless whether slaves or free, Jews or Greeks, we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

This occurred at salvation. Because of the erroneous teaching regarding the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you will perhaps read some who teach that you need to pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You need to pray that you'll be baptized in the Spirit. Never once are we commanded to be baptized.

It happens to us. It happens within us, not because of what we decide, but part of coming to Christ includes the Spirit of God placing us into the body of Christ and also placing us into Christ himself.

The original term *bapto* means to dip, literally to dip. And in ancient days, you would go to a someone who would work with clothing, with fabric, who would dip a garment and would change the identity of the garment. You take a white garment and you dip it into scarlet dye; it comes out scarlet.

You take a lost sinner and, by the work of the Holy Spirit, dip that one, if you will, into the person and the work of Christ; the person comes out saved, born again. The work of the Spirit is to identify us with the body of Christ and with Christ himself. He baptizes us.

You were born with certain colored eyes. You can pray all day and all night, and your eyes are going to still be that color. Some of you can... well, you put in contacts. That's not fair. Stay with my illustration. You got eyes that are originally that color; you're going to die with eyes that color. That's given to you.

Baptism is like that. You have been placed into the body of Christ, and that is a marvelous permanent place to be. In fact, permanent reminds me of Ephesians chapter 1. So let's go there next.

Some of you are saying, "I'm getting tired of this." I'm saying I don't care. Ephesians chapter 1. If it were all in one section of scripture, I'd keep you in one section, but it isn't. So you've got to turn from one to another. I know it's hard work, but try turning those pages.

Here we read he seals us. Ephesians 1, verse 13. Referring to Christ: "In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him"—in whom? In Christ—"with the Holy Spirit of promise." He permanently secured our salvation when we came to know Jesus. We have the Spirit of God to thank for securing us in our salvation.

There's another right here in Ephesians, and that's chapter 4, verse 30. Turn ahead to 4:30: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." Another reference to this personal or permanent securing work of the Holy Spirit.

Here we are, hearing the truth, we believe it, we become aware of the gospel, we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Watch closely: "You were sealed for the day of redemption." So the Spirit of God seals us. What does that mean? That means we're his forever. A seal is a seal. A divine seal is a permanent seal.

Have any idea how many people live their lives never sure of their salvation? Praying that they will not lose what God has given them, or praying that they will not sin so badly that they will wake up one day and they'll be lost again. I have a great question for those who think like that: How bad is too bad? That you have moved from saved to lost? No one can ever answer that because there is no such thing as the loss of salvation.

Salvation is a gift, and God doesn't take his gift back. We receive the gift, and as a result, we are born again and we can never be unborn. Our children were born into our family; they have our nature, they have our blood, they even have our temperaments in many ways because they're in the family. They'll never be not a part of our family. Same as it is because of the Spirit of God who seals us.

And now, one more great: John chapter 16. John 16, verse 13. I happen to like stuff like this, but I know for some of you, it's a bit of a chore. John 16:13, follow there with me. "When He"—referring to the Spirit—"the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

So there is the illuminating work of the Spirit. We have four of them now. Four. He regenerates. He baptizes or re-identifies us with Christ. He seals us. And he now, according to this verse, illumines us. See what it says? "He guides you into all truth."

Listen to me. When we began this message some time back, you did not know some of the things you now know. The reason you now know them is because of the work of the Spirit. He uses a gift that I may have, and he uses my voice and words that you can understand, but they sink in because of the work of the Spirit.

Now you know why the person you bring with you who isn't saved and sits through a message like this, bored to tears, you know now why they're bored. They don't have the Spirit. To them, it's just a lot of gobbledygook. They're all concerned about, "When's that guy going to be through? When's he going to stop yelling? When is this going to be over? Why did I ever say I would come and sit in this meeting?" You know why? They're not saved. Or they're walking in the flesh, but let's stay with the thought that they don't have the Spirit. It takes the Spirit to illuminate truth.

That's why it's exciting for you. That's why when you get the truth, it changes the way you want to live, the way you want to respond to life. It changes your attitude. It changes your response to people that are difficult. You've begun to grasp the truth, and he has guided you into the truth.

Let me give you three words that you need to remember: Revelation, Inspiration, Illumination. Revelation has to do with God giving his word. He reveals his word to a set number of people for about a 1500-year period of time. In the days of the writing of the Bible, God revealed his word.

Revelation has ceased. There is no more revealing of divine truth. I don't care what people tell you, I don't care how convinced others may be when they say that they heard from God last night. Check and see what they had for supper. May have been a bad enchilada, or they may have been awakened because of a dream and they thought that was God speaking. God no longer reveals divine truth; it's contained within the covers of this book. He reveals his truth.

Inspiration—that has to do with the writing, the recording of the truth that God has revealed. That ceased. Now, we may be inspired to write songs or inspired to write poetry or inspired to write certain notes of encouragement. That's a different kind of inspiration. This inspiration has the word "miracle" connected to it.

*Theopneustos* is the word; it means God-breathing his word into human beings. And a select number of people took a stylus in their hand and, without error, they wrote the original manuscript of scripture. That's called inspiration. That ceased.

But illumination goes on to this very moment. Because we live in a land where there is every type and style and font and color and size text of the Bible, we tend to take it for granted. But you go to a country that doesn't have a Bible—oh, let me tell you, they'd love you to tear one page out and leave it with them. Why? Because it is like no other writing. It is the revealed, inspired, written word of God that will illumine them for life.

Bill Meyer: The Bible isn't just another book. It's the revealed, inspired truth of the living God. And the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in you every time you open it. Revelation has ceased. Inspiration has ceased. But illumination? That goes on right now. In your heart, in your circumstances, in your need.

This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll is presenting a message titled "Getting Reacquainted with the Spirit of Power." There's a lot more Chuck wants to show us, so keep listening to this teaching series.

Insight for Living has an engaging Bible study workbook for this series as well. It's called "How Great is Our God." It's in the "Searching the Scriptures" line, which uses the same Bible study methods that Chuck used when putting his sermons together. To purchase the spiral-bound Bible study workbook for this 12-part series, call 800-772-8888. That's 800-772-8888.

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I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe the Holy Spirit's role in the Christian life, Monday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "Getting Reacquainted with the Spirit of Power," was copyrighted in 2008, 2009, 2016, 2019, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.