How The Holy Spirit Helps Us Respond To Difficult People

1. The Holy Spirit helps us speak the truth in love to deceitful people. Paul wrote, "Speaking the truth in love, let us grow up in all aspects into Him who is the Head, even Christ." (Eph. 4:15) Ask the Lord to help you speak the truth in a loving way to people who are prone to deceive, cheat or practice intrigue.

2. The Holy Spirit gives us wisdom to know how to respond to people who falsely accuse or judge others. When Jesus went to stay at the house of Zacchaeus people muttered, ‘He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.’ Yet, Jesus won Zacchaeus over with love as indicated when He said, "Today, salvation has come to this house, for the son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:7-10) Ask the Lord to help you follow the fine example of Jesus who let love triumph over all forms of evil accusations.

3. The Holy Spirit gives us the grace to not respond with vengeance to those who are obsessed with control, power and their own authority. When Jesus healed the man who was blind from birth they sought to discredit everyone involved. The Pharisees said, "This man (Jesus) is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath. However, the man who was just had his sight restored said, "Whether he (Jesus) is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see." (John 9:16-25) Ask the Lord for the grace to not seek to repay evil for evil, but allow the Lord and your good works to convince people of truth

4. The Holy Spirit fortifies us when we are willing to stand up against humanists and materialists for their distorted value system. The Spirit of God will give you the discernment, articulation and the best approach with humanist and materialists as He did with Jesus and the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler said to Jesus, ‘Good, teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?... Teacher, all these commandments I have kept since I was a boy! Jesus looked at him and loved him then said, ‘One thing you lack ... sell everything you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me." (Mark 10:17-22) Ask the Lord to give you the love, wisdom and respectful approach to humanists and materialists in order to bring them to a point of decision regarding their eternal destiny.

5. The Holy Spirit enables us to bring calm and perspective to angry people. Just as the Spirit led Jesus to calm the fearful and angry disciples when the guards came to arrest Jesus, so He can provide you with whatever you need to do the same. The disciples said to Jesus, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" And one of them struck the servants of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered and said, "No more of this! And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. Then he said, ‘Am I leading a rebellion?’ (Luke 22:49-52) Ask the Lord to enable you to bring calm, direction and a cool head to situations when others seem to lose control of their emotions, objective thinking and eternal perspective.

6. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to motivate half-hearted, mis-directed or lazy people. The Spirit will help you know how to motivate people according to their particular needs. One day Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never Lord will you go to Jerusalem and suffer, die..." Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matt. 16:21-23) Ask the Lord to help you to motivate people as Jesus did.

7. The Holy Spirit encourages us to shine positive light on people and situations when others are cynical, doubting and largely negative. The Spirit will help you follow the example of Jesus when Nathanael doubted that any good thing could come out of Nazareth. Philip said, "Come and you will see." When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." Nathanael said, "How do you know me?" Jesus said, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you!" Nathanael declared, ‘Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." (John 1:46-50) Ask the Lord to allow you to encourage and inspire as Jesus did for God’s glory.