Be Ye Holy: The Holy Spirit's Role in Our LivesSample

There's an inseparable connection between holiness and truth. In John 14:17, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth," revealing that the Holy Spirit's primary role is to lead us into all truth. This relationship is profound: truth comes from what is holy because what is holy comes from the Father, and the Father is holy.

When the Holy Spirit comes, truth comes. They arrive together, like goodness and mercy. When the Holy Spirit enters your life, truth is revealed to you and becomes part of your nature. You begin to see things as they truly are, not as the world portrays them.

This understanding takes us back to the Garden of Eden. From the beginning, God intended for humanity to walk in both holiness and truth. Adam and Eve lived in perfect communion with God, experiencing His holy presence directly. In that state, they understood truth as God intended.

Everything changed when they chose to reach for knowledge apart from God's holiness. By eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were essentially saying, "We don't need Your Holy presence to discern truth—we can determine it ourselves." They gained knowledge but lost the holiness that gives knowledge its proper context.

Satan's deception was masterful. He promised them knowledge but deliberately omitted that without the Holy Spirit’s guiding presence, this knowledge would become distorted. The enemy knew that knowledge without the Holy Spirit's discernment would eventually lead to confusion where evil could be called good, and good could be called evil.

This describes our world today. Societies celebrate what God calls sin while condemning righteousness as intolerance. This inversion happens not because people lack information but because they reject the Holy Spirit and the truth He brings. Without the Holy Spirit's illuminating presence, humans can possess encyclopedic knowledge yet lack the wisdom to interpret it correctly.

The tree in Eden represents humanity's first attempt to find truth apart from holiness—and we've been repeating this mistake ever since. God's solution remains the same: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who restores what was lost in Eden. When we welcome the Holy Spirit, we regain the ability to discern truth through God's perspective rather than our limited human understanding.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says, "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Without the Holy Spirit, we cannot properly discern truth in the world, in other's lives, or even in our own hearts.

This is why engaging with Scripture is crucial—the Word itself is holy, revealing the Holy Spirit’s character and nature. As we engage with Scripture, the Holy Spirit illuminates truth in our hearts and minds, allowing us to see clearly amid deception.

When the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we represent Jesus to the world. John 14:26 says, "But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you." The Holy Spirit is Jesus' representative, and holiness represents Jesus through us.

This means we cannot live like the world if the Holy Spirit is in us. When the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are set apart—which explains why we sometimes don't feel like we fit in, even among other believers whose standards of holiness might differ from what the Word actually teaches.

Pause and Ponder: In what areas of your life do you need the Holy Spirit to reveal "truth" that might be obscured by the world's perspective or your own desires?