“The GRACE of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the LOVE of God, and the COMMUNION of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen” 2Cor. 13:14.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit are to be experienced and not merely to be confessed. There is no doubt about the fact that we have abundant knowledge of the grace of Jesus Christ and the love of God but a very limited or scant knowledge of the communion of the Holy Spirit. Communion in itself, is not a passive word but an action word.
The word fellowship which is koinonia in Greek has the following meaning; communion, presence, sharing together, participation with, intimacy, friendship and comradeship – one who is there with you, in season and of season, even so in the battles of life.
The fact remains that many believers know about the Holy Spirit instead of knowing Him. Not too many are actively involved in fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Till this moment, many are still reading about Him from the Bible, books and listening to sermons about Him. Knowing about Him is like chasing the shadow instead of receiving the substance.
Knowing of someone is not the same as knowing the person. In fact, the difference between knowing about a person and knowing the same person experientially is like the difference between two colours. It is possible to know about someone without necessarily knowing the person. I am here saying that for as many as desire to leverage available Godly benefits, be they material or spiritual, you do not have to merely know about the Holy Spirit; you need to know Him. The latter is profitable for you as it opens the door to several incentives necessary to enjoying Him, His ministry and by extension, your stay here and the beyond.
Basically, the lack of an intimate knowledge of the Holy Spirit is the fundamental reason for the denial of many treasured benefits, especially in our walk with the Almighty. Jesus told us clearly that the Holy Spirit came for our advantage or profit or good. He did not come to point out our sins or weaknesses and failures, but He came to strengthen us in our areas of weaknesses so that we can fulfil our God-given destinies.
Knowing about Him does not require any effort but knowing Him will definitely require something. As a person, it requires such things as your will, time, attention, discipline, love, commitment and faithfulness, just to mention a few. In other words, there has to be a conscious and determined effort on your part to cultivate a relationship with this eternal helper.
Given the foregoing, the question could then be asked: how do I get to know the Holy Spirit? A simplistic attempt at responding to the above question, may be to say, that this is possible through books, Compact Disks (CDs), and also sermons on the subject matter. However, you cannot know the Holy Spirit from any of those things mentioned because He is a person that does not live in a book or CD. It takes a personal relationship and communion with Him to know Him as a person. You can read about Him from books and the Bible and even listen to excellent messages on Him and never get to know Him, the reason being the lack of one-on-one personal relationship and communion with Him. The fact that you know definite truths about Him tells me that you are on the right track of knowing Him experientially. Therefore do not stop at knowing about Him from books and other people but go further to know Him personally and intimately as a person.
Koinonia is the Greek word for fellowship which is what it takes to know the Holy Spirit. There cannot be experiential knowledge of the Lord Holy Spirit without fellowship. Again I say, you don’t need intimacy with Him to know about Him. However, you need intimacy with Him to know Him.