Unfortunately many misunderstand or misinterpret the Spirit's work in our lives. Often there are two mistakes made when dealing with the Holy Spirit; one, certain aspects of His work is exaggerated in some unscriptural ways or two, the importance of the Spirit is underemphasized so that we don‘t clearly grasp the full impact of His work in our lives.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is a response to the promise of the Father spoken by Jesus in John 14-16. In those chapters the Holy Spirit is spoken of as the Comforter/Helper & the Spirit of Truth. According to Jesus, He (the Holy Spirit) will teach us, guide us, bears witness of & glorifies Jesus Christ, and convicts us of sin (John 14:26, 15:26-27, & 16:8, 12-15). According to Jesus the Holy Spirit will work with us and be in us along with Christ Himself (John 14:7-20). What an awesome thing!!
The Spirit works in our lives in 3 ways; 1. He dwells in you (John 14:17, Romans 8:9-11; Ephesians 1:13-14) & acts as a sort of down payment to what we will receive from God when this age comes to its glorious end, money in the bank so to speak and the final pay off is out of this world! 2. He works with or along side us (John 16:8-11, Romans 8:25-27). 3. He also comes upon us (Acts 1:8; 2:17). When we are saved we are immediately given the down payment of the Spirit and He dwells in us, however, the challenge of any Christian is to get that which is on the inside of us working on the outside almost like an overflowing glass of water. Jesus left his baptism full of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1), however, he returned "in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). To live a life completely mastered by the Holy Spirit so that you are consistently fulfilling the will of God, one must sacrifice and completely devote themselves to the Heart and Mind of God. Just like Jesus and the 120 in the upper room in Acts 1& 2. We set aside time and sacrifice when we pray, read the Word, attend church, serve, and when we deny ourselves for the benefit of others and the greater glory of God.
The Spirit also give gifts to individuals in the Church. These gifts are not given so that we may grasp the admiration and attention of others but the gifts are given for the edification and building up of the Body of Christ. These gifts are spoken of all throughout the Bible but Paul specifically speaks of them in Romans 12, Corinthians 12-14, and Ephesians 4 and in each case he speaks of the unity of the Body, the responsibility of exercising these gifts, and mostly importantly he underlines our proper motivation in the use of these gifts and that motivation is the love of God Himself (Corinthians 13).