The Holy Spirit fulfills the role of the sanctifier. To be sanctified is to be made holy, or righteous. Sanctification is a process that begins the moment we become Christians. The process continues until death when the believer is made finally, fully, and forevermore righteous….Our sanctification is a cooperative venture. We must work with the Holy Spirit to grow in sanctification. (R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith)

…the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit performing tasks that only persons can perform. The Spirit comforts, guides, and teaches the elect (see John 16). These activities are done in a manner that involves intelligence, will, feeling, and power. He searches, selects, reveals, comforts, convicts, and admonishes. Only a person could do these things. The response of the Christian, then, is not mere affirmation that such a being exists, but rather to obey, love, and adore the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity. (R. C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith)

I conclude this series of quotes from Billy Graham’s book, The Holy Spirit: Activating God’s Power in Your Life, with these comments:

There should be no more distinctive mark of the Christian than love. . . . The Holy Spirit is the one who reproves, convicts, strives, instructs, invites, quickens, regenerates, renews, strengthens, and uses. He must not be grieved, resisted, tempted, quenched, insulted, or blasphemed. He gives liberty to the Christian, direction to the worker, discernment to the teacher, power to the Word, and fruit to faithful service. He reveals the things of Christ. He teaches us how to use the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. He guides us into all truth. He directs in the way of godliness. He teaches us how to answer the enemies of our Lord. He gives us [direct] access to the Father.

…as I abide in Christ - as I maintain a close, obedient, dependent relationship with Him - God the Holy Spirit works in my life, creating in me the fruit of the Spirit.

The unpardonable sin is rejecting the truth about Christ. It is rejecting, completely and finally, the witness of the Holy Spirit [in our human spirit and soul], which declares that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who alone can save us from our sins.

It is not how much of the Spirit we have, but how much the Spirit has of us. He is in us in all His fullness, whether we see this exhibited in our lives or not. When we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, you and I receive Him in full, not just in part. Then as we come to understand more and more of Christ’s lordship, we surrender and yield more and more.

In my book, Nerve Endings of the Soul: Interaction between the Mind of God and the Mind of Man through Neural Synaptic Networks, concordance is discussed between the process of sanctification and that of synaptic plasticity by which patterns of behavior and thought are strengthened over time.

…God places a seal on us when we receive Christ. And that seal is a person - the Holy Spirit.

“The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4). Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes. Only He can convict us of the depth of our sin, and only He can convince us of the truth of the Gospel. . . . the Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of truth” in John 14:17.

…the operations of the Holy Spirit among men in the three periods of human history may be defined by three words: “upon,” “with,” “in.” In the Old Testament He came upon selected persons and remained for a season (Judg. 14:19). In the Gospels He is represented as dwelling with the disciples in the person of Christ (John 14:17). From the second chapter of Acts onward he is spoken of as being in the people of God (1 Cor. 6:19).

…consider Romans 8:10 (KJV), which says, “If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin.” Or consider Galatians 2:20, “Christ lives in me.” It is clear in these verses that if the Spirit is in us, then Christ is in us. Christ dwells in our hearts by faith. But the Holy Spirit is the person of the Trinity who actually dwells in us, having been sent by the Son who has gone away but who will come again in person when we shall literally see Him.