Answer 7: He gives us the love of Christ for the people around us.

Something strange happened when I began accepting in my heart the fact that God was sending me into the lives of people around me in life. I started to care about them. It’s not that I was cold and uncaring before that. The reality is that while I tried to be friendly and thoughtful toward people I encountered, I just didn’t really think about their inner lives or what kind of brokenness might be impacting them. I didn’t see much past the surface.

But that’s not how Jesus sees people. The Bible tells us that when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. Why was it that I didn’t have Jesus’ concern for people around me until I made myself available to him as his witness? The Bible says that it is through the work of the Holy Spirit that we have ‘the mind of Christ’. It tells us that when we receive the Holy Spirit he will give us the power to be Jesus’ witnesses in this world. 

That is, the Holy Spirit’s power accompanies his purpose! What is his purpose? To enable us as we witness for Jesus. When I made myself available as a witness, when I accepted my sentness, then I put myself in the stream of the Spirit’s activity in the lives of the people around me. When I began moving with the Spirit’s purpose, then he began doing his work of activating the mind of Christ in me—Jesus way of seeing the people around me.

How does the Spirit get involved in a person’s salvation? It starts with what he does in me, the witness, as I accept God’s role for me as he reaches into those people’s lives. The Spirit changes my perspective on the people around me to be more like Jesus’ perspective.

The Spirit will do the same for you as you move in step with him toward the people in your life!