The Person and the Work of the Holy Spirit
… because
He is God with us
John 16:7 “It is
expedient for you that I go away”
If
there is an ugly sister in the Trinity, it is the Holy Spirit. Everyone prays
to the Father and loves the Son; but who is the Holy Spirit? We bow our knee to
the Father and hang an artist’s rendering of Jesus’ face in our homes and
churches; but who is the Holy Spirit? The common man understands the power and
holiness of the Father and the love and sacrifice of the Son; but who is the
Holy Spirit? We all had a father, and we all know what a son is; but the “Holy
Ghost” resembles something from Halloween in the unconscious mind.
During the twentieth century, there was a high emphasis on the Holy Spirit and His supposed gifts. The birth and blossoming of both the Pentecostal and charismatic movements ignited debates and discussions. One day, church historians may have to record that no single issue has split more churches and done more damage to local churches than the tongues movement. Certainly, everyone would agree that Christianity lost major ground during the twentieth century in America.
The
person sold to the public as the Holy Spirit looked a lot more like an
ecclesiological game leader than a power from heaven, as men and women fell
aimlessly on church platforms across America as some mockery to the presence of
the power of God. Christ came to pay for our sin and gave us the Holy Spirit to
empower us to live sinless lives. Sin-free living is power with God, and it
cannot happen without the Holy Spirit.
God’s Spirit came down in
power in the early church, and the result was a mass of transformed lives.
Today’s largely artificial reenactment of Pentecost has produced entertainment
and confusion, but very little power. Churches today hang revival signs on the
front of their buildings, as though we had the power to make a revival. If
revival comes, or when revival comes, it will come with or without a sign. It
will not come at the call of men, but rather the wind out of heaven will blow
when and where it decides. Our job is to confess sin and live pure lives.
One
of the greatest problems with the Holy Spirit is that we frequently think of
Him not as a Person, but rather as a force like gravity or a magnetic field. He
is a Person. He comes to guide, but too often He grieves in the corner of an
unrepentant heart. Today’s church is shivering in the cold and desperately in
need of fire from heaven. The flame must be kindled through earnest obedience
to the Word of God.
The
Person of the Holy Spirit is as incomprehensible as the Father and the Son; but
He is predictably present on the other side of repentance. The Flame of God,
the Breath of God, can readily found in a life of obedience or a church filled
with obedient people.
The Person and the Work
of the Holy Spirit
… because He is God with us
John
16:7 “It is expedient for you that I go away”
Names for the Holy Spirit
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Nature of the Holy Spirit
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Work of the Holy Spirit
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