The Gift of the Holy Spirit

What I would like to have us understand better, this morning, is this truth. The Holy Spirit is given as a gift to believers in the New Testament so that they might really know Christ and follow Christ in their everyday experience. This is the meaning of the Spirit's being given in New Testament times. I will speak to you in detail, in coming messages, of how God worked this out in the life of the early Church, but this morning I would like to give you a brief overview of what God the Father and God the Son intend, when they give the Holy Spirit to individual believers as a gift.
They intend 3 things. 1st – The Father and the Son intend that you and I who believe in Jesus Christ should know experientially the power of Christ's resurrection. 2nd – The Father and the Son intend that we should know experientially the presence of both gifts and grace at work in our hearts. And 3rd – The Father and the Son intend that we should know experientially the Promise coming to others around us; especially to our children. To shorten these three points in your thinking; think of the power, the presence, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.