Gifted with the Holy Spirit
Adding the divine Person of the Holy Spirit to this list of gifts is like adding the sun to a bag of marbles. He is so far above and beyond any mere thing we can be given, even so great a thing as eternal salvation. Yet, Holy Spirit is truly one of the "gifts" of saving grace we received from the Father when we accepted Jesus as our Savior. The Holy Spirit came immediately to live within us! Oh, but there is so much more to this gift than even that stupendous display of Self-giving love.
And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Acts 2:38
All scripture citations are from the English Standard Version (ESV) unless otherwise noted.
Help on the Inside
Jesus said that He would send the Holy Spirit to be our “Helper.” This has been wildly misunderstood with people thinking that only Christians “have” the Holy Spirit or that the Holy Spirit only 
came to help people after the resurrection. God has always and will always be doing things for us by the Holy Spirit. That is nothing new.[2]
The Holy Spirit did all kinds of great things for Jewish believers in the Old Testament. He does great things for everyone who calls on the Lord and always has. Not only that, He has always been the giver and sustainer of life for everyone and every creature in creation, regardless of whether they know Him or not.[3] None of this has changed through anything that Jesus did for us by His death and resurrection. What did change?
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
The altogether new thing that God is doing for us is that the Holy Spirit now lives inside all who give their lives to Christ through faith-conversion and the new birth.[4] This (along with Christ’s sacrifice) makes the “new and living way” possible.[5] The Holy Spirit lives inside of us as our Helper, helping us to live in a “new way” that was never before possible outside of childhood—the way of surrender and trust.[6]
Before we became Christians, the Holy Spirit our Helper was always doing things for us, even if we didn’t know it, but now that we are Christians, He is helping us from the inside to live through Him.[7] Faith conversion helps us in two tremendous ways. We can call on the Lord with confidence that God by His Spirit will do for us more than we can ask or think.[8] We can also call on the Lord for His help in surrendering so that God can live through us in ways He never could before.[9]
A New Way of Life
Naturally, God will go on doing things for us. He always has! The missing element—the part the “sending” of the Holy Spirit is intended to correct—is that now we can truly live for God by trusting Jesus and obeying Jesus with the Holy Spirit helping us on the inside. By indwelling us the Holy Spirit is able to help us live as we were always meant to live with real joy, peace, freedom and faithfulness.
By all means, keep on thinking of God as “out there” and “up there,” but add to that “in here.” Think of Him as willing to work for you, but think also of Him as wanting to live through you. If you are in Christ through faith, then the Holy Spirit is in you, working, working, working to help you learn how to live in and with and through His inner Life.
Next "Free Gift" to Open
Gifted with Justification Don’t you just hate feeling inwardly accused or condemned? It is bad enough feeling guilty when we are guilty, but it really stinks to feel like a skunk for no good reason! The truth is that we need to be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have truly been forgiven where our real sins are concerned. But because we have an enemy (A.K.A. “The Accuser”), we also need powerful protection against that “shadowy” voice which is always finding fault. God’s answer to both? He “justified” us!
Free Downloads
pdf Saved by the Free Gifts (eBook) (847 KB)
pdf Gifted with Holy Spirit (this article) (299 KB)
Scriptures on the Holy Spirit
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39
"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' John 14:25-28
"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. John 16:12-15
Endnotes
[1] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. Ephesians 1:13-14
[2] From the very beginning, God has been “doing” what He does by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Genesis 1:1-2
[3] When You send forth Your Spirit and give them breath, they are created, and You replenish the face of the ground. Psalms 104:30 AMP
[4] Holy Spirit our Helper will be with us eternally: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14:16-17
[5] As you can see by this verse the “new and living way” is through faith in what Jesus has done for us, but that we are meant to strive for “the full assurance of faith”—a life characterized by the peace-confidence that comes through total surrender: Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:19-22
[6] And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all]. Matthew 18:3 AMP
[7] Here is just one example of how the Spirit works through us: When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Matthew 10:19-20
[8] Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21