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Holy Spirit

May 3,  2009  - Dale

Does the Holy Spirit still have a role in modern church life? For some modern church attenders, their question is a bit like the followers of John the Baptist that Paul found at Ephesus one time. They said, “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”

But without the Holy Spirit there is no church. There are no Christians. It is the Holy Spirit who baptises us into Christ and into his church. A person who does not have the Spirit of Jesus living in them does not belong to Jesus, according to Paul.

Of course all of us do know there is a Holy Spirit. But how is he supposed to be at work in our lives? In many ways, is the simple answer. But two ways stand out:

Perhaps the dominant characteristic of the Holy Spirit in the bible is that he is a speaking Spirit. Although the Spirit comes on people for acts of power in the Old Testament, it his role through the prophets that seems most prominent. This is the case in the New Testament too.

Jesus tells his disciples to take the message of repentance and forgiveness to all the nations. But he promises them power from God to do it. So a major role of the Spirit is to speak through us and to bring God’s word with power when we speak it.

A second way in which the Spirit works in us is in making us more like Christ. The great dilemma of the Christian faith is how to live in a more holy way.  Repeatedly throughout history Christians have reverted to keeping rules as the means to be more holy. Outward structures, habits, methods, traditions, rules and laws are regularly used to help Christians live rightly.

But all these methods fail to change what is inside. They may create outward appearances that meet with approval from others, but they don’t actually make us more godly.  Only God does that. So God the Holy Spirit lives in us to produce the wonderful fruits of God’s character in our character and behaviour. He does this as the word of God is brought to life in our minds and as our wills decide day by day to live according to the Spirit’s direction.

Living by the Spirit in our speaking and behaviour, is one way to describe how the Holy Spirit is at work in us. When we say it like this we are acknowledging that we have a role too. It is to follow, be led, trust, obey, depend and to expect that the Holy Spirit will do God’s work in us and through us.  And to remember that there is no other Christian life apart from this.

Dale