5 Practical Ways to Live in the Power of the Spirit Every Day

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The Holy Spirit is often the forgotten member of the Trinity. Christians all know about God, we study about Jesus every week in church, but the Holy Spirit? Not so much. Some choose to reject Him completely and live the Christian life as if the Holy Spirit doesn’t exist. Others seem to glamorize one or two ecstatic experiences above all others and reduce the Holy Spirit to cheap parlor tricks in a worship service.

But one thing we can’t escape as Christians is that Jesus himself pointed to the Holy Spirit and told His disciples to live in the power of the Spirit, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” (Acts 1:8). What follows that commandment in the book of Acts is a movement unlike anything the world had seen in which a group of ragtag followers of Jesus lived lives of explosive power and turned their world upside down. That same power and potential of the Holy Spirit still exists today for all believers, but we seem to be missing it. A quick survey of Christians and churches could tell all of us that too many don’t seem to be living in the dynamic world-changing power of the Holy Spirit. So how do we do get back to that? How can we see what happened in the book of Acts happen today? What does it look like on a practical level to live in the power of the Spirit everyday? Here are five ways, and to help you remember they spell out the word G.H.O.S.T. (for Holy Ghost).

Get before God.

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Living in the power of the Holy Spirit starts when you get before God. James 4:8 talks about this when James says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” This first step is all about intentionality. It’s about you living as if God’s presence is so important for you that you get up early to spend time with God. Mark 1:35 tells us Jesus himself got up early in the morning to pray and spend time with the Father. If we want to live in the power of the Spirit, we have to start in God’s presence on a regular basis, and that takes intentionality. Don’t be surprised if God’s power seems to be lacking in your life if you never make it a priority to get before God. Carve time out of your day to speak to Him, stop everything, completely unplug, get still, get quiet, and get before God. That’s the first step to living in the power of the Spirit.

Humble yourself.

If you want to be filled with the Spirit, you need to empty yourself first. God won’t fill you with His Spirit if you’re already full of yourself. One thing you’ll find in Scripture is that God hates pride. James 4 talks about this as well, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:6, 10). James says that if you’re prideful, God actively opposes you. Many Christians will never experience the full power of the Spirit because God is actively opposing them because of their pride. God hates pride. Humbling yourself is about submission, of emptying you of yourself so that God can fill you with the Spirit. Pray kneeling, declare your dependence on God, ask for His help, cultivate humility. Living in the power of the Spirit will never come without humility. So, however you need to get over yourself, get over yourself.

Obey what the Spirit tells you to do.

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This requires listening and obedience. First, when you get before God, don’t do all the talking. Listen. If you look at Acts 13, you’ll find that the first missionaries ever were sent out when a group of church leaders were together praying and fasting. Not only did the Spirit speak, they listened and obeyed. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off” (Acts 13:2-3). Just like you instinctively know the sound of your mother’s voice because you’ve spent so much time in her presence, the more time you spend in the presence of God, the more recognizable the voice of His Spirit will be to you. Then it’s up to you to obey, because when the Spirit speaks, He’s not giving you suggestions, He’s giving you commands. But since you’ve already humbled and submitted yourself by this point, you’re ready to obey.

Specialize in your spiritual gifts.

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We don’t normally think about this one as much but spiritual gifts are absolutely vital. The whole point of spiritual gifts is that they are God’s custom way to exercise the Holy Spirit’s power in and through your life. Or to put it another way: if you want to live in the power of the Spirit everyday, discover and lean into your spiritual gifts. “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4, 7). Specializing in your spiritual gifts starts by knowing what your spiritual gifts are. There are online tests and quizzes you can take. Be an active part of a church where you can leverage and develop your spiritual gifts on a regular basis. When you exercise your spiritual gifts as part of a church body, you are literally demonstrating the Spirit’s power in your life.

Test everything against the Word.

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This is critically important. Without the “T”, Christians can get into some crazy areas, and Christians have done that. “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Living in the power of the Spirit does not negate the need for God’s Word but works in tandem with it. The value of the Bible is that this is the inspired Word of God. God has already spoken to us about His will here. That doesn’t mean that God can’t speak to us outside of the Bible. God wants to interact with you everyday through the Holy Spirit. But it does mean that God will not tell you something through the Holy Spirit that contradicts what He has already told us through his word. That’s why you have to know what the Bible says, because it’s the borders from within which God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit.