18 Things the Holy Spirit Does Not Do (part 2/3)

Your view of God affects every decision you make and every action you take.

Yet our view of Him is often shaped by old covenant traditions rather than new covenant truths. 

In this blog post series we take a look at the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Seeing the Holy Spirit through the lens of grace without a mixture of law allows revelation of the Holy Spirit and His work to become clear.

In the last post we discussed 6 things the Holy Spirit most definitely does not do. Here are the next 6.

The Holy Spirit does not:

7. Teach you to keep the Law

You need to realize that you can’t keep the law (Rom. 8:3-4). Only Jesus Christ can successfully keep the law and live the perfect life. He lives in you and wants to reveal His love – which is the fulfillment of the law – and perfect life through you.

God doesn’t want you to rely on your law keeping, but on His law keeping ability.

Watchman Nee said it like this,

God’s requirements have not altered, but we are not the ones to meet them. Praise God, He is the Lawgiver on the Throne, and He is the Lawkeeper in my heart. He who gave the Law, Himself keeps it.

In other words, as you allow the Spirit of Christ to live His life through us, you’ll find yourself keeping the law effortlessly.

8. Tell you to tithe

The tithe was part of the Old Covenant law. The law is not of faith (Gal. 3:12)… everything that is not of faith is sin (Rom. 14:23b). Thus if you feel obliged to tithe, you are sinning.

The Holy Spirit has set you free from the law – including tithing – and tells you to decide in your own heart how much you want to give before you start giving grudgingly (2 Cor. 9:7).

Regardless of a person’s motive (even if it’s done out of a pure heart), if we put ourselves back under the law, we sin, because the law is not of faith.

If we think we have to tithe today (even if we think we are doing it in faith), we are not led by the Spirit, because the Spirit will never lead us to try and do stuff that was part of the Old Law Covenant. You are free from the law (Rom. 7:1-6).

9. Give you pain, hardships and sickness to teach you a lesson

Some things are of God, and some things of the devil. If it’s good, it’s God. If it’s bad it’s the devil (John 10:10). We embrace the good and resist the bad (James 4:7).

God never uses or allows pain and sickness to teach and train (discipline) us. He has the Word (2 Tim. 3:16) and the Holy Spirit (John 16:13, 1 John 2:17) to do that.

The Holy Spirit didn’t come to teach you with hardships. Yes, we suffer hardships for the Gospel’s sake, meaning persecution, but God is not the author of hardship and suffering. He does not teach with sickness.

If God were to use sickness as a lesson, then you should pray for the symptoms to worsen so you can really learn your lesson.

If you believe God teaches through sickness, then you are in conscious rebellion against His will if you go to the doctor to seek help.

If pain and sickness were from God to draw you to Him, pray that every family member becomes sick with cancer so they can all draw near to God. You wouldn’t wish that on them, why do you think God would?

10. Give you more of God

You don’t need more of God. You have Him! We don’t seek more of someone we already have. Seek to know Him more? Always. Seek to have more of Him. Not when you already have all of Him and are complete in Him (Col. 2:9-10).

Song lyrics like “Set a fire down in in my soul. That I can’t contain, that I can’t control. I want more of You, God. I want more of You. Pour it out” may sound good and have a great tune but it’s nothing more then language of unbelief (Sometimes it seems we’ve got a songbook theology rather than a Biblical based theology).

You can cry out for more of God till you’re blue in the face but you won’t get more of God. Why? You’re full of Him. There is nothing left for Him to pour out because you’ve been filled with His fullness, and brought to completeness.

God hasn’t got anything else to give you, because He cannot give you more of Himself. You have it all! You can leave the days of “seeking God” behind since you’ve found Him. What’s left to do? Discover and enjoy your fullness in Him.

11. Give you spiritual blessings

You are already blessed with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). How can the Holy Spirit give you what you already have?

The Holy Spirit does not give you patience, humility, love or anointing as separate gifts of His grace. He is not measuring out some patience to the impatient, some meekness to the proud, some love to the unloving, some anointing to the unanointed, in quantities.

You have been given thé Gift of God – the Holy Spirit – to meet all your needs (2 Tim. 1:6). As you look to Him to live out His live in you, He will be patience and humble and loving and anointing and everything else you need. Rest in Him!

12. Increase your anointing

Would you say the anointing is a “spiritual blessing?” If yes, and the Word says you have every spiritual blessing, which anointing do you think you don’t have?

But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you (1 John 2:27).

“You have received anointing” is past tense which means you already are anointed. The anointing is the Holy Spirit. If you have Him, you are anointed. The Anointing abides. It doesn’t come and go. It never leaves, lifts, comes, increases or loses it’s potent power. If it came and went you would be unborn-again every time it left.

You are always anointed in the exact same way Jesus was anointed to heal the sick, set the oppressed free, raise the dead and proclaim the Kingdom of God (1 John 4:17, Mat. 10:7-8). How else does God expect you to do the same and greater works if you lacked anointing and He had to increase it over and over?

Well, that were the next 6 things the Holy Spirit does not do.

Question: Is there an area you need to rethink concerning the Person and work of the Holy Spirit? What is something you’ve found the Holy Spirit does not do? Share your thoughts by clicking here.