4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, - Titus 3:4-6 (NKJV)

It is impossible to develop our character without the help of the Holy Spirit. We have to see that the Holy Spirit is responsible for many things in our lives. We are renewed by the presence of the Holy Spirit of God. He changes our character. He creates us anew and makes us like Him. Salvation is something that the Holy Spirit helps us with as well. We cannot change without His help and we can allow Him to change us where we need a change. 

The Indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit

16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another []Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. - John 14:16-17 (NKJV)

The Holy Spirit indwells our being. And from the scripture above, we see that it is impossible for someone who is not born again to receive the Holy Spirit. The bible says, "for He dwells with you and will be in you." The Holy Spirit indwells our being for us to become like Him. Why should we become like the Holy Spirit? Because through one man, sin spread out and that's why, even little kids can commit the most heinous crimes you could think of. 

17 For if by the one man's []offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.) - Romans 5:17 (NKJV)

One man's offense reigns in this world. That's why we need salvation and need the presence of the Holy Spirit. There's a life that exists after we are born again. The Holy Spirit indwells us to reign in life. Some of us have probably read stories about celebrities that are great in their craft, but not so great in their character. And even in the church, we can also have poor character development. What exactly does the Holy Spirit want to produce in us? 

Reigning through the Holy Spirit 

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 []gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)

The bible tells us that we are known by our fruits. But what does this mean exactly? Are people just naturally good? Are people naturally bad? Maybe. Most of the times, we become what we are exposed to and what we see in our environment. How can we break certain cycles? How can we become different from what other generations experienced as young people? By learning to develop the inner man. The spirit man. By now we should know who the inner man is. 

If we choose to co-operate with the Holy Spirit, we can become exactly what the Bible says we are. The key is in learning to choose the life that God has set apart for us. We can choose to live a holy life and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. 

Walking in Love

35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - John 13:35 (NKJV)

Jesus died for us because of Love. We have to learn to love people. The disciples were not a group of family members. Even though some were related to each other, but they were not a family in the biological sense. What proves that we are followers of Christ? If we love one another. If we cannot love, we'll fail to do many things. And without love, we cannot serve God. There are many who serve God, but some may not be doing it because they love God. 

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. - Romans 5:5 (NKJV) 

The Love of God is the highest kind of love. The love of God is what is known as Agape love. This kind of love is unconditional. Everyone needs love. We all need to love and to be loved. And this is what proves that we are believers, if we can love. 

The Joy of the Lord

10 Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." - Nehemiah 8:10 (NKJV)

Joy is different from happiness. Happiness depends on external factors. Some of these can be having a job. Being in a relationship. Having money and the things we desire. But joy comes from the Lord. It doesn't depend on mood. Joy is the most beautiful ting that anyone could ever receive. You could be broke and have the joy of the Lord. You could be in the worst situation and still have the joy of the Lord. That's how come Paul and Silas could still praise while in prison. We need this joy too. 

The peace of the Lord 

5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, []we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, - Romans 5:1 (NKJV)

Real peace comes from God. Anything else is worldly. We have peace through Jesus Christ. We should refuse to live in environments that don't encourage the peace of God. In Christ, we have peace. This is something we have to be conscious of. Is there something we can do to continually live in peace even in the most difficult times? Yes!

3 You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. - Isaiah 26:3 (NKJV)

How then can we stay in constant peace? By looking to God in everything. We should always want to hear from God. One of the biggest problems in our society today is that everyone has an opinion. It doesn't matter what we think. It matters what God thinks. Not everything we think is godly. If we are going to have peace even about certain decisions, we need the input of God. If our minds are constantly fighting what God says about even controversial topics, we won't have peace. 

If God says something is wrong. We have to see it that way regardless of what the majority say. Living and walking in peace has everything to do with consciously choosing to stay in God and staying in His word concerning every affair of our lives. 

Having the patience of the Lord

4 Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? - Romans 2:4 (NLT)

We need to have patience with people. We need to have patience because God is patient with us. And there are people who are also patient with us as well. God is patient with us to help us grow and learn to overcome our sins. We can choose to be patient with others as well and give them the benefit of the doubt. 

Having the kindness of the Lord

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. - Romans 5:8 (NKJV) 

I always think about salvation. To me, that's the greatest kindness that can ever be shown to a person. We were all headed the same direction until Jesus came. After Jesus died for us, we now had a choice. We could choose Heaven. Salvation gave us an alternative. Everyone was destined for Hell. But God chose to send His Son to die for us. And in doing so, we can sit in the heavenly places together with Christ Jesus. 

Are we kind people? These are the things that build our character. Kindness really deals with how we treat people. How we talk to people and how we make others feel. Kindness is so rare that when someone acts in kindness towards us, we talk about it everyday. We can choose to show kindness in our everyday life. 

Having the goodness of the Lord 

10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. - Galatians 6:10 (NKJV)

The bible says, "Let us do good to all." What the Holy Spirit does in our lives is to improve our being. Some of us just need to be good, and we'll start to live the best lives for Jesus. And you see, we all need to develop our inner man. We all need to develop ourselves in the things of God. And we can always ask God to help us to walk in the way that He expects us to walk in. On our own, it's hard. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do all things. 

Having the faithfulness of the Lord

God is faithful to us. But are we faithful to Him? 

2 And since our first duty is to be faithful to the one we work for, - 1 Corinthians 4:2 (CEV)

We should choose to be faithful workers of God. We must be faithful with everything we are given to do as we serve God. We don't serve man, but we serve God. And He is the One we are to be faithful to. We should ask God to help us become faithful in the work He has given us.  

Having the gentleness of the Lord

God wants us to be gentle. To be calm and to be lovely people. The Holy Spirit can really beautify a person's character. At some point Saul was the most fierce persecutor of Christians, but after the Holy Spirit worked on him, he turned into the man who wrote most of the letters in the New Testament. Now that's something only the Holy Spirit can do. Most of us haven't persecuted anyone, so there's hope for us. 

Having the spirit of self-control 

7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. - 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)

If we are going to effectively walk in God, we need to be disciplined. Having a consistent prayer life requires self-control. If we sleep less, we'll find time to pray. Anything that we do for God requires discipline. We need self-control in our appetites. We need self-control in our eating habits. Our spending habits. And we especially need self-control in our sexual urges. 

It doesn't matter how holy we are, we all have sexual urges. Having sexual urges is not a sin, but the lack of control is usually what results into sinning. The same sexual urge that we have to control now as young unmarried singles will be needed later in a healthy Christian marriage. It's not about the urge, but about what we do when we have those urges. Allowing the Holy Spirit to help us control our urges protects us against temptation. 

28 People who cannot control themselves are like cities without walls to protect them. - Proverbs 25:28 (ERV)

Of course, self-control deals with many other things. But if we are honest enough as young people, this is the area where we struggle with the most. The spirit of self-control on us protects us from destruction. Any kind of sin leads people to ruin. And the more people sin, the further and further away they'll be from God. Self-control helps us to remain within our bounds. The minute we leave those boundaries, destruction sets in. 

In every country, rich and poor, young people struggle with sexuality. We need to accept the truth of the word concerning our sexuality. God cares about how we conduct ourselves. 

3 God wants you to be holy. He wants you to stay away from sexual sins. - 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (ERV)

God's desire is for us to free from all kinds of sexual sins. The bible doesn't say that we should stay away from having sex. But it says that we should stay away from sexual sins. Anything that is sexual has the power to entangle us and has the power to start habits that are hard to break off. The spirit of self-control protects us against ourselves. Even we can be destructive. But by God's Grace, we can live a holy life and fulfill God's purpose for our lives. 

Declarations

1. My body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, redeemed, cleansed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus. 

2. My members, the parts of my body, are instruments of righteousness yielded to God for His service and for His glory. 

3. The devil has no place in me, no power over me, no unsettled claims against me. 

4. All has been settled by the blood of Jesus. I overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony, and I love not my life unto death. My body is for the Lord and the Lord is for my body.