The Holy Spirit ministers to us in numerous ways. Because of humanity’s fall into sin, all human beings are born into a state of spiritual death. This makes us morally impotent. We have no ability to do anything that God ultimately considers to be good. But when the Holy Spirit gives us new life, he changes our hearts and minds so that we love God and desire his blessings. In short, he gives us the desire to live ethically. In Romans 8:9-10, the apostle Paul wrote these words:

You … are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Correspondingly, we have a moral obligation to submit to his control over our lives, and to pursue our godly desires in place of our sinful desires.

The Spirit is not external to us, helping us, aiding us, but he actually dwells in us. That is, his presence, his power, all of his resources are available to us as he dwells in us. So, we have the very presence of God in our lives. And this should motivate us to live for Jesus Christ because the Spirit is dwelling in us. [Dr. Gregg R. Allison]

Besides indwelling us, the Holy Spirit also ministers by gifting believers with supernatural abilities to perform works of service for the church. In the Old Testament, he gave spiritual gifting only to special individuals, such as prophets, priests and kings. But the Old Testament looked forward to a day when the Spirit would be poured out on all of God’s people. Listen to Peter’s words in Acts 2:16-17:

This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: "And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”

Joel prophesied of a time when the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all believers, extending spiritual gifting to everyone he indwelled. Peter taught that this came to pass at Pentecost. From that day forward, every believer in the church has been spiritually gifted.

We know that some spiritual gifts are fairly common — things like serving, preaching, teaching, evangelizing, encouraging, contributing, and administration. The more spectacular gifts, such as visions, miracles and tongues, are less common. But regardless of which spiritual gifts we have, the Holy Spirit bestows gifts in order to build up the church. So, whatever gifts we possess, our moral duty is to use them for the good of God’s people. Listen to Paul’s teaching on this matter in 1 Corinthians 12:7:

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

One of the clear ethical implications of living in the presence of the Holy Spirit is that we are obligated to identify and use the gifts that God has given us.

The spiritual gifts were given by God to the church for the common good that all believers may serve him, and that they may serve one another within the church, and they are brought together as a body. And therefore, that will mean that there is no spiritual gift that’s inferior to the other, but all spiritual gifts are equally important in the kingdom of God for building the church and for helping us to serve God better together. [Dr. Vuyani Sindo]