When we believe in Yeshua and come to Him for salvation from our sins, we also receive the down-payment for that salvation through the gift of the Ruach HaQodesh (the Holy Spirit). But the Spirit does not connect and interact with us so that He can just live quietly and inactively within us—nor to be the object of our euphoric fixation or ecstatic zeal—but so that we can fully proclaim the Good News of Yeshua in power.

The Ruach can empower us toward this end in many different ways. The Spirit can lead us (Psalm 143:10) and move us (2 Keifa 1:21). He can speak to us (Acts 20:22f), reveal to us the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 2:10), and, in turn, give us the words to speak the truth of God (Mark 13:11). Additionally, the Ruach can act upon us indirectly through others, working within them to warn and admonish us (Nehemiah 9:30) and to touch our lives through the many diverse manifestations He distributes (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Perhaps most importantly, the Ruach also transforms us inwardly and forever through our rebirth in Yeshua (John 3:7f, Titus 3:5f).

But for all the work that the Holy Spirit generously does on our behalf, once that inner transformation has begun, it is then up to us to decide whether or not we will respond to that renewal righteously and cooperate with the Ruach in God’s holy purpose for our life. And that means actively choosing every day to live in the new life of the Spirit in opposition to living in the old ways of our flesh. It is our responsibility to not resist the Holy Spirit by listening to and gratifying our desires, but instead yield to His prompting to obey the word of God and submit to the righteousness of Messiah. Paul teaches extensively on this, contrasting the Spirit and the flesh.

“But I say: walk in the רוח, Ruach, and the desire of the flesh you will not bring to its goal. For the flesh desires contrary to the רוח, Ruach, and the רוח, Ruach contrary to the flesh, for these are opposed to one another, so that the things that you want—these you may not do…. And the actions of the flesh are also unconcealed, which are: sexual immorality, uncleanness, sensuality… and such like…. those doing such things will not inherit the Reign of God. But the fruit of the רוח, Ruach is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control… and those who are of Messiah ישוע, Yeshua have crucified the flesh along with the passions and the desires. If we will live in the רוח, Ruach, in the רוח, Ruach we will also walk.” (Galatians 5:16-25, mjlt)

It is impossible to overemphasize just how absolutely crucial this is to our life in Messiah. We do not have license to sin, as if it will have no bearing on our salvation. Paul is confronting us—“those who are of Messiah Yeshua”—with a binary choice: We can live by the Spirit and inherit the Reign of God, or we can live by the flesh and inherit what our sinful actions warrant. Since, in Messiah, you already have the Spirit, it is not a matter of your being incapable of resisting your fleshly inclinations. It is a matter of how and where you choose to walk. It is a matter of what boundaries you will adhere to, whose voice you will listen to, and whose urging you will find most compelling.

In Messiah, we have been set free and given the gift of eternal life, but we still have to choose to accept that gift every single day, and not return to those bonds again. And in the Spirit, we can do it! As followers of Messiah, this should be our response to God: to allow ourselves to be influenced and led by His Spirit, and to choose to walk in Him so that we may fulfill the purpose of our lives. The Ruach helps us to become the person that Yeshua has now remade us to be. He empowers us to resist and overcome our flesh, and He sets our new self free so that we can walk in obedience and righteousness, through Yeshua’s narrow door, into life.

If you are in Messiah, then the Ruach is already alive within you. Choose, therefore, to live and walk in—and to be changed by—the Holy Spirit of God.

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