Harnessing the Power of the Holy Spirit

 Date: 07/04/2026

“Why of all places in the toilet?”

That was my first thought when I felt the presence of God so strongly in the morning while showering in a hotel in Malaysia. Then I thought I heard His gentle reply: “I’m giving you strength to face the day.”

At that moment, a fresh understanding came to me: God actually wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit every day, so that we can live and walk through each ordinary day with His strength — not relying on our own limited strength.

Although this thought is not new to us and most of us as believers would have known this, on that day it came afresh to me like a rhema revelation.

So what does that mean to me?

I am an advocate of the term “spiritually natural.” It does not mean I go around constantly asking God, “What must I do? What must I do?” as if listening to a sycophantic voice telling me every single step. It also does not mean I go around as if being possessed by some unknown forces and doing great and marvelous things all the time.

Instead, I realized that when God fills me up to overflowing, it is like a spillover effect — the spiritual simply spills over into our everyday life.

What does that mean in practical terms? Sometimes a sudden thought or inspiration comes that allows me to handle things more creatively. Or there is a natural instinct deep down to do something that later turns out to work well. While I am doing my usual daily routines, somehow I can do them faster or more effectively. All these are simply natural from the spillover effect of the overflow of His presence.

I notice that there are two extremes that many believers tend to fall into, including myself, especially when we try to live our Christian walk, often with good intentions, but unknowingly end up relying on human effort alone.

On one extreme, when a problem or challenge comes, we go to the altar, get filled with the Holy Spirit, feel the power of God upon us, and then go home and do nothing. We wait passively for the problem to disappear on its own. But the problem often remains there.

On the other extreme, we believe that God does not want us to sit and do nothing. We must be hands-on and take full responsibility. So we push hard, control every detail, and work everything out in our own strength — even after we have prayed. In doing so, we unintentionally shut God out of the situation and never really allow Him to work in and through us.

So the question is: How do we find the balance? What does it really mean to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit in a practical, everyday way — not just as a theory or a one-time experience?

I was given this simple picture that helped me understand the balance.

Imagine you are paddling a kayak in still water. You are rowing with all your own strength. Your arms quickly grow tired. Fatigue sets in fast, and progress feels slow and exhausting.

But then a strong current begins to flow in the same direction you are heading. Now you are still paddling, but the current is carrying the kayak forward. The paddling becomes light and easy. You still use some energy, but it is greatly reduced. You move much farther with far less effort.

However, under such circumstances, if we do nothing at all — thinking that the current will just push us forward — we will literally capsize. Likewise, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, if we do nothing at all, we actually risk slipping into a hyper-spiritual mode where the infilling becomes nothing more than a nice feeling that produces no real change in our daily life.

The action itself has not changed — you are still paddling. Nothing looks different on the outside. The only difference is that you are now aware of the current and you are paddling together with it instead of against it or by yourself. Even so, you still need to keep your eyes looking forward. If you keep turning around to stare at the current all the time, you will lose balance and the kayak can capsize.

Likewise, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing looks different on the outside in our daily routines. The only difference is that we are now aware of His presence and we move together with Him. Even so, we still need to keep our eyes looking forward on what is in front of us. If we keep constantly asking the Holy Spirit “What to do?”, we can easily get distracted, slip into a hyper-spiritual mode of trying to hear Him, and end up listening to our own thoughts while thinking it is the Holy Spirit.

This is what harnessing the power of the Holy Spirit looks like in daily life. The Holy Spirit is like that current. He gives us the strength, the momentum, and the supernatural help to move forward. But we still need to “paddle” — to take obedient steps, to do our part, to keep moving in the direction God is leading. It is all very spiritually natural and practical at the same time.

Harnessing the power of the Holy Spirit is not about doing nothing, nor is it about striving in our own strength. It is simply about learning to paddle faithfully while resting in the current of His presence — moving forward with far less effort, yet still fully engaged. Most importantly, it is supernaturally natural.

 

But how does this actually work in real life? How can we make it practical in our daily life?

From my limited understanding, I would like to share what I have observed through my own journey.

When we encounter the power of the Holy Spirit, whether someone prays for us or we experience it surprisingly even alone at home, the key is to allow ourselves to enter deeper into His presence. We let Him fill us to the fullest of His presence. Let us refrain from attempting to control His presence or try to stop any manifested effects if they come. Instead, we simply let it flow naturally. This is not about creating drama, but about opening up the channel fully so that we can experience His infilling to the fullest and, most importantly, beyond fullness into overflow.

Why is the overflow so significant? It is because during that time of spiritual experience, we are actually conditioning our being with His presence. So when such a session finally ends, this overflow can slowly become a second nature to us and naturally spill over into our real daily life. This may not happen immediately after we first experience the overflow, but as we spend more time being in His presence and being filled by Him, the conditioning process will gradually take place over time.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” John 14:26 (NKJV)

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” John 16:13 (NKJV)

However, if we contain or limit the infilling, we are actually using our human strength to put a cap on what God wants to do, even without realising it. Once we put on that cap, the same cap tends to remain subconsciously in our daily life. We may still receive occasional inspiration from the Holy Spirit, but it may not flow as naturally. Our natural being has not been conditioned, and somehow because of that the effect of the Holy Spirit has been limited — not because God is limited, but because we have subconsciously put the limitation on Him. Over time, this limitation can even become a second nature to us in our daily life. In other words, we condition ourselves for the limitation without realising it.

Let us therefore be careful not to limit the Holy Spirit by putting any cap on His work in us. For those who have realised this, I gently encourage you to open up usher in the fullness of the Holy Spirit into your life. Let Him fill you to overflowing so that He can work in and through you in a marvelous yet supernaturally natural way.

To those who have been experiencing His presence, let us continue to open up more and more each day, because the presence of God is limitless — just like the river that flows from His throne.

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Revelation 22:1 (NKJV)

“Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east… Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed.” (Ezekiel 47:1, 5 NKJV)

Most importantly, may this overflow become supernaturally natural in our lives — not by striving, but by simply allowing Him to work in and through us.

I hope that through this sharing I have brought the pragmatic aspect of how to harness the power of the Holy Spirit into everyday life.

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.” Joel 2:28-29 (NKJV)