I've got Jesus.  Why do I need the Spirit? The title of the first session and as Paul answers in Romans 8:9 Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him."  We cannot live the Christian life without the Spirit of God.  There. Bold enough for us?  This study is simply amazing! It is also more important than I ever thought.  Until now.  The first question asked us to list some of our beliefs about the Holy Spirit and we talked about conscience, part of the Trinity......and then the personal stories of the Holy Spirit's movement began; we heard of a pilot headed for an inevitable crash in a fighter jet able to pull up at the last minute avoiding fatal injuries unexplained but unavoidable reassurance in the cockpit at the right time and a life-long commitment to Christ made afterwords.  An eight week old infant with a heart condition, pre-operative tests reveal a fixable condition, the surgeon begins surgery and finds that the tests were wrong, the condition was Not "fixable."  Unexplainably (even to him) he proceeds....she's over a year old with no complications. Needs met at just the right time, the list goes on.  Amazing.  And this is just in our group study here!  We serve an awesome, almighty God!  So how do we serve him with a spirit filled life?  Here are some of the scripture we've looked at so far:  Acts 1:4-8, Acts 2:1-3, Acts 4:31, Romans 8:1-17, 8:26-27, 15:13, 1 Corinthians 2:12-14, 3:16, 6:9-11, 12:7-11 2 Corinthians 3:17-18, Galatians 4:4-7, 5:16-25 Ephesians 3:14-16, 1John 4:13
After reading these passages we learned that 2 Peter 1:3-4 is right, we have EVERYTHING we need for life...A life in the Spirit.  We've learned that peace in the Spirit is a maturity and completeness that we reach by James 1:4  perserverence in trials.  2 Peter 1:5-8 spoke of pursuing that Godly character requires the Spirit leading us but as Don said, "we can choose to love, have compassion or not....grieving the Spirit."  We have spent alot of time studying Galatians 5:16-25, the fruits of the Spirit, and what should distinguish a Spirit filled person from a non-Christian.  "Too often we work in Our Own strength to be the kind of people who look like Jesus....we don't rely on the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit. (p25 Forgotten God Study)  If the Spirit works through us, how should the supernatural results differ from what we can accomplish on our own? and what are some clear and practical ways the Spirit can work through you to bless others?  Look at 1 Corinthians 12:7
Ephesians 1:3-14 reinforces what we have in Galatians 5:22-23.  The Spiritual blessings. Eph. 1:3-14 uses words and phrases such as: Chosen before creation...v.4, Out of love...v.5, Redemption....v.7, Grace..Lavished on us v.7, In Him we were chosen....v.11, finally...A PROMISED SEAL....The Holy Spirit.
So. What do we do now? What is my calling? What's yours? What is ours?  Through the Spirit not our effort.  Mark Batterson author of Wild Goose Chase defines our effort compared to the Spirit; "I don't know a single Christ follower who hasn't gotten stressed out over trying to figure out the will of God.  We want to solve the mystery of the will of God the way we solve a Sudoku or crossword puzzle.  But in my experience, intellectual analyisis usually results in Spiritual paralysis."   It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all.  John 6:63.