Now that we’ve established that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the triune God, we must turn our consideration toward His work. Since the Holy Spirit is our Helper, the question rightly asks How does the Holy Spirit help us?

We could summarize the catechism’s answer into the following statement: The Holy Spirit helps us be disciples of Jesus. The Holy Spirit enables us to be Christians. The Spirit convicts us of sin in order to lead us to repentance. The Holy Spirit comforts us by giving us strength to die to self on a daily basis. The Spirit guides us into all truth. He pours spiritual gifts upon us for purpose of maturing together as the body of Christ. He gives a desire to obey Christ, since our love for Christ is proven by our obedience to His commandments. Finally, the Spirit enables us to pray to the Father by the blood of the Son and to understand the Scriptures that He authored.

Each of these things is what it means to be a disciple. A disciple prays and pours over the Scriptures. A disciple longs to obey God. A disciple uses his or her giftings for the edification of the whole body of Christ. A disciple follows the Spirit’s guidance in truth, lives by the Spirit’s strength, and repents at the Spirit’s promptings. These are the basics of living a Christian life, yet we cannot do any of them without the help of the Holy Spirit.

Let us take the example of prayer. Saying a prayer is easy. Anyone can do it, and, in fact, most people probably do make some kind of prayer at some point in their lives. Prayer to the true God, however, cannot be made by just anyone. God the Father gives ear to the prayers of His children, those “who are led by the Spirit of God” (Romans 8:14). In fact, it is the Spirit within us that enables to call God our Father and testifies that we have been adopted by Him (Romans 8:15). When we pray, therefore, we have faith that the Spirit brings our prayers to the throne of the Father through the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ our High Priest.

Praying, understanding the Scriptures, repenting of sin, these are all fundamental elements of following Christ, and we are powerless to do them without the Spirit’s power. Jesus words to His disciples are certainly true: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Since the Spirit unites us to Christ, we can also testify that without the Spirit we can do nothing. To be filled with the Spirit of adoption is to be a Christian. A Christian without the Holy Spirit is, in reality, not a Christian.