The Holy Spirit wants to express God’s presence & power through you…

We each express this reality in (at least) four distinct ways.

1. We have the mind of Christ = we have access to what He thinks about a given situation.

1 Corinthians 2:16 (NLT, emphasis added) asks a specific question— and then provides the answer:

Who can know the Lord's thoughts?

Who knows enough to teach him?

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 

In other words, when you are seeking the Lord, you can think His thoughts. This is one way we know what the will of God for our lives— we pray and connect with what God thinks.

2. We have been given His Spirit = His presence is always “closer than close” to us.

1 Corinthians 2:12 reminds us that “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us” (NIV).

You do not need to worry about your prayers “hitting the ceiling,” as if they must transmit from where you are to where God is. He remains near you.

1 Corinthians 6:17 tells us that “whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in Spirit” (NIV). The connection here is the same connection we read of the Godhead— that God is one (Deuteronomy 6:4). It’s the same expression used of the connection to describe marriage (Genesis 2:24, Matthew 19:6).
It's an unbreakable union.

3. We have His desires, coupled with His ability to do the will of the Father.

In Philippians 2:13 we read that God is working in us “to both will and do His good work” (emphasis added).

Notice two aspects of His transformative power in us:

1. Our will = God changes our desires— so that we desire to do His work. He transforms our mindset.

2. Our ability to do = God empowers us to actually do the very deeds He has placed before us.

Many believers latch onto Paul’s internal tug-of-war as a description of what the Christian life should be like (“the good that I want to do I don’t do, but that evil I want to avoid is what I continue falling into,” in Romans 7:15f.). However, a closer look at the text reveals that Paul reminds us that we live with no condemnation when we do mess up (as Peter continued doing before walking in the full power of the Resurrection), and we now live in the Spirit instead of the flesh (see Romans 8:1, 8:5).

The infusion of “Christ in you” means we have the capacity now to know God’s will, as well as do it.

4. We will do greater things than He did, that is, we serve beyond our personal capacity and “do things” at the capacity of Heaven.

In John 14:12 Jesus says (NKJV, emphasis added),

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

Not only will we do the same things Jesus did (which includes His words/teachings, His miracles/deeds, and how He responded to and loved people/embodied grace), we will even do greater things!

Notice, too, that Jesus is not saying that “the Church” will collectively do greater things. He says that the one person who believes in Him will do greater things!