How the Holy Spirit Makes Us More Like Jesus
The Holy Spirit Is Making Us More Like Jesus
When we think about the Holy Spirit working in our lives, our minds may go first to something extraordinary. We think about healing, prophecy, miracles, or bold faith in the face of spiritual opposition. We want to see God move in ways that make His power unmistakable. Those desires have a place in the Christian life, and Scripture encourages us to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. But as we continued our Holy Spirit series at LEV Church, we considered a work of the Spirit that can be easier to overlook: His ongoing work of transforming us into the image of Jesus.
An illustration from the world of superheroes helped bring that tension into focus. The Hulk represents the kind of strength that seems to grow when opposition comes. It is easy to imagine spiritual empowerment that way: the enemy attacks, our faith rises, and we become bolder in confronting darkness. Steve Rogers, however, displays something significant before he ever becomes Captain America. His character is already evident. The comparison gives us a way to recognize our own priorities. We may be drawn to the visible demonstrations of spiritual power while giving less attention to the character the Holy Spirit desires to form within us.
Jesus’ words in John 14 help explain why we connect the Holy Spirit with extraordinary works. During His farewell conversation with His disciples, Jesus says that those who believe in Him will do the works He does, and greater works, because He is going to the Father. Shortly afterward, He promises that the Father will give them another Helper, the Spirit of truth, who will remain with them forever. The connection between the Spirit’s presence and the continuation of Jesus’ work is meaningful. Yet understanding that promise also requires paying attention to the whole conversation, including Jesus’ love for the Father, His obedience, and His call for His disciples to remain in Him.
Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 12 affirms the importance of spiritual gifts. He describes words of wisdom and knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miracles, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, and interpretation. These gifts come from the same Spirit, who distributes them according to His will. They are given for the benefit of the whole body. At LEV, we believe the Holy Spirit continues to work through His people today, and we want to welcome what He gives. His gifts are expressions of His care for the church and His work through it. They are worth desiring, receiving, and exercising faithfully.
At the end of that chapter, however, Paul introduces what he calls a more excellent way. The next chapter explains that even remarkable spiritual activity can be emptied of its significance when love is absent. Someone may speak in tongues, prophesy, possess extraordinary knowledge, or have faith that moves mountains, yet without love, Paul says, that person is nothing. He even includes giving away possessions to feed the poor among the things that can profit someone nothing without love. That last example deserves our attention because it reaches beyond what we usually think of as supernatural gifts. Even an outwardly generous action does not, by itself, tell the whole story of a person’s heart.
This brings us to a question that shaped the message: What is love? First Corinthians 13 describes love as patient and kind, free from envy and pride, unwilling to rejoice in wrongdoing, and committed to truth. These descriptions matter deeply because they help us recognize love in action. But we can read them as another list of things to accomplish. We may start comparing acts of kindness with acts of spiritual power, trying to determine which activity makes us more spiritually mature. Paul’s words invite us to consider something deeper than a competition between different kinds of actions. They direct our attention to the love that must give those actions their meaning.
Scripture brings that understanding back to God Himself. First John 4:7–8 connects love with knowing God and tells us that God is love. Love has its source in His very character. Patience, kindness, humility, and generosity express something real about Him; they are never meant to become detached from Him. The goal of our lives, therefore, cannot be reduced to producing a more impressive collection of behaviors. We are called into relationship with God, and the transformation that grows from that relationship reaches into our desires, motives, choices, and treatment of others. Our actions matter as expressions of the One we are coming to know.
Second Corinthians 3:18 places the Holy Spirit at the center of that transformation. As we behold the Lord’s glory, we are being transformed into His image, and that work comes from the Lord, the Spirit. This gives us a clearer understanding of what we are seeking when we ask the Holy Spirit to work in us. We are inviting Him to make us more like Jesus. His work reaches beyond an isolated moment of empowerment into the ongoing shaping of our lives. We can be eager for Him to work through us while also becoming willing participants in what He wants to change within us.
What does becoming more like Jesus look like? John 14:31 gives us a foundational answer. Jesus explains that He does what the Father commands so the world may know that He loves the Father. His obedience expresses His love. To be transformed into the image of Jesus is to love the Father and His will above everything else. That kind of love reaches into the places where our preferences are strongest. It asks us to surrender our own will when it conflicts with His. As the Spirit forms Christ’s character in us, our relationship with the Father increasingly shapes what we want and how we live.
Jesus also commands His disciples to love one another as He has loved them. Our love for the Father becomes visible in how we treat people. To love others as Jesus loves is to express the very nature of God. The patience and kindness described in 1 Corinthians 13 belong here, as the lived expression of a heart being shaped by Him. This keeps us from treating love as a disconnected effort to be nicer. We are learning to reflect the God we know, following the example of the Son who reveals Him and depending on the Spirit who transforms us.
That relationship also helps explain why teaching about the Holy Spirit continually leads us back to Jesus. In John 14–16, Jesus describes the Spirit as the One who teaches, reminds His disciples of His words, guides them into truth, and glorifies Him. The Spirit draws our attention to Christ and helps us live in response to Him. A growing knowledge of the Holy Spirit should deepen our attention to Jesus’ words, our love for the Father, and our willingness to obey. Spiritual gifts belong within that relationship and purpose.
In the middle of that conversation, John 15 gives us Jesus’ teaching about the vine and the branches. He calls His disciples to abide in Him because fruitfulness depends on remaining connected to Him. Read alongside the promises of the Spirit in the surrounding chapters, that invitation helps hold the message together. The life Jesus describes grows through continuing relationship with Him. As we remain in Him, the Spirit works to bring our lives into greater agreement with His character and the Father’s will.
Paul brings love and spiritual gifts together in 1 Corinthians 14:1, calling believers to pursue love and earnestly desire spiritual gifts. Both belong in the life of the church. Our pursuit of love draws us toward the God who is love, and our desire for His gifts opens us to serve others as His Spirit enables. This week, take time to read John 14–16 and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal where you still need transformation. You do not need a ministry title to open Scripture, seek God, and respond to Him. The invitation is personal: to know Him, to remain in Him, and to offer a willing yes as He makes you more like Jesus.