… so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

I want to tie up some loose ends today: The Holy Spirit is the one that produces His holiness in us as we walk in dependence on Him (Gal. 5:16-23; 1 Cor. 6:11). The Spirit opens our minds so that we can understand the truths of God’s Word (1 Cor. 2:9-13). These are some of our first baby steps in the Spirit.

The Spirit confirms our adoption as children of God and helps us as we struggle to pray (Rom. 8:15-17, 26). The Spirit strengthens us with power in the inner being so that Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith (Eph. 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit seals every believer so that we are kept for the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30).

So it’s not surprising that as time goes by, we find that the Holy Spirit is the power who produces in us His fruit, like Peace and Joy as we trust in Him, so that we abound in Hope.

This requires a shifting in how we think – how you and I perceive reality. We’re either going to limit our thinking to the natural, living in that place of limitation, or we’re going to open ourselves to the Spirit and enter into a Joy and a Peace that culminates in a life-attitude of Hope.

And this Hope, produced by the Spirit, is still, only the beginning: True hope results in rest (Matt 11:30). Not that our lives don’t have troubles, but with Holy Spirit Hope, we come to rest in who God is for us because our Hope is in Him. We live in Jesus, not our circumstances, and we are repositioned within the intentionality of God, which is, ‘as He is, so are we in this world’ (1 Jn 4:17).

Then the day comes when we are no longer practicing Holy Spirit Hope, we have become Hope. His nature is our nature (2 Peter 1:3,4). Whenever Jesus occupies us in some area, we go from having something to being something. When the Lord possesses you or me in fruit or grace then we become defined by it. It’s more than just a grace we are enabled to display. It’s who we are.

And it is at this point that Hope becomes a lethal weapon against the enemy of our souls. We can inflict our Hope on the enemy and win. We can walk into a place that is seething with despair and just bring Jesus’ Hope, Peace, and Joy because you or I showed up there. And that’s what being light is all about (Matt 5:14).

As a side thought: there’s a huge assumption out there that the way we do spiritual warfare is to get large groups of people rallied together, offended and angry. But the truth is, the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23) is more dangerous against the enemy than anything we produce: it’s how we do spiritual warfare and win.