The Holy Spirit and Our Thoughts

In many places in Scripture we find that the Holy Spirit works within us by giving us thoughts.  He brings to mind thoughts and verses from God’s word that address our need of the moment.  The spiritual strength of the Christian lies in the comfort and encouragement that comes from the Spirit of God.  Observe carefully, and you will see that the Spirit most often works by awakening and stirring up proper thoughts in the mind.  While He was with His disciples on earth, the Lord Jesus taught them many things to strengthen their faith and encourage them in affliction.  Christ promised that after He left them, the Holy Spirit would come and “bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  The Spirit would teach them by reminding them of Christ’s words (John 14:26).  In Hebrews 12:5 spiritual weariness and loss of heart is attributed to forgetting what had been taught.  Remembering and forgetting are both acts of the mind, having to do with our thoughts.  Throughout the Bible, our strength for faithful obedience and patience in afflictions lies in our thoughts.  The Spirit influences us by bringing to mind appropriate promises and commands, according to our specific need at that moment.  Our part is to have the word of God “richly dwelling within us,” giving the Spirit a storehouse of truth in our hearts, ready for His use.