The Holy Spirit is with us, but what does that mean in the natural and in the Spirit.  God is Spirit and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and truth.  Praising God is right. God is worthy of all praise, therefore, praising Him is entirely appropriate.( Ps. 33:1).  All creation praises Him. ( Ps. 150:6).  All the heavenly host praise and worship Him. (Ps. 148:2).  This is a natural response for the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit.  To praise God in truth is to do so in reality.  We are in process and pilgrimage.  We are seeking the Lord with all our heart and soul.  We desire to enter into His presence, to communicate with Him.  As a friend of God our desire is to interact with Him and the avenue is through the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The cumulative participation with the Spirit is the hidden life that we seldom behold.  That hidden life is not populated mainly by stories of conquest, of pulling down spiritual strongholds and snatching someone who is perishing from the flames of hell, even though these events are certainly in the story.  Both the natural and Spiritual life are full of solitude, waiting in patience, carrying out our daily assignments, simply sitting at the feet of the Lord in rest and quiet, contemplating His wonder, praising and worshipping. Engaging in the eternal conversation, not so much with words or thoughts, but in the Spirit.  John begins his Revelation by noting that he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. (Rev. 1:10).

The search for God is life long and it is meant to be intense and consistent, not as burdensome labor, nor as consuming concentration, or even with the sense of desperation one experiences when searching for something misplaced.  When we seek God earnestly we will find Him. (Deut. 4:29).  So, when you enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise you continue to seek, perhaps through affections or supplication, maybe in response to His working in your being.  In the presence of the Almighty expect dynamic variation, yet know that He is love.  He meets you where you are, but He draws you to where He is, and that is transformation.  Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Pd. 34:8).  Give release to your faith, considering God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine. Reaffirm your bond as His servant, laying down all to which you have been so desperately clinging.  Release and enter into the rest of the Lord. “But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12: 22-24).

The Holy Spirit does not force you to do things, but that does not mean that you have free will and may do whatever you desire.  Your ability to accomplish your will and attain your desires is very, very limited.  As you get older you learn this.  Free will is choosing which shirt you will wear today.  However, this is about the Holy Spirit, rather than theology.  The Lord leads us in His will.  He prompts us and He works things together, so that we follow Him, even when we are uncertain.  If, we are surrendered and submitted to Him, the hidden life will blossom. Striving in our own best thinking and best judgment is not generally fruit bearing activity. Yeshua said I can do nothing by myself. (John 5:30).  As it was true of Him, it is more so, true of us.  So, as we seek His will, asking Holy Spirit to work in us and through us for His pleasure, then the power of God may be manifested.  God answers prayer, Holy Spirit prayer, and He works in His people. (Rom. 8: 26-27).  “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Col. 1:29).  This is how Paul described that work of God, by His powerful energy.  This great hymn puts it another way:

I come to the garden alone
while the dew is still on the roses,
and the voice I hear falling on my ear
the Son of God discloses.

And he walks with me, and he talks with me,
and he tells me I am his own;
and the joy we share as we tarry there,
none other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of his voice,
is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
and the melody that he gave to me
within my heart is ringing.

I’d stay in the garden with him
though the night around me be falling,
but he bids me go; thru the voice of woe
his voice to me is calling.