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Why Should I Go?
CHAPTER 4
To Learn About The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit
I wonder how many Christians never get to this place in their walk with God. I think in most cases it’s because of a lack of teaching. In some cases it could be that the Christian has heard the proper teaching but chooses not to appropriate it for their areas of weakness. The Christian journey does require some work on our part. I don’t mean work relating to participating in the activities of the church, but in getting our mental perspective aligned with the word of God.
If you are born again and are attending a church where the gospel is being preached, where teachings are being presented on varied doctrinal topics, where you are being taught how to address your weaknesses, you are in a great place. If when you sin you confess it to God the Father and are learning about and reflecting upon God’s divine perspective the Spirit will begin to impact you with his presence. You are now beginning to understand the meaning of the following verse which is found in the book of Galations.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Galatians 5:25)
The apostle Paul is instructing the Galatian believers saying that in view of the fact the new divine life resident in their beings, was supplied by the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
What does it mean to walk in the Spirit?
It means they were to conduct themselves under the guidance, impulses, and energy of that life.Another way of saying this is as we walk by faith by thinking with a new perspective this will bring all the infinite resources of grace to the aid of the saint, and put in operation all the activities of the Spirit in his behalf.
Did you get that? I’ll say it again in another way. As we choose to do our part by hiding the word away in our heart and reflecting upon it throughout our day this causes the ministry of the Holy Spirit to be effectual in our life. Wow! Walking in the Spirit doesn’t mean that we have entered into some religious system of trying to please God. This is what many churches espouse and I will say that it has an allure to it. All of our life we have been involved in endeavors to try to attain this or that. Unfortunately in the Christian realm this same mind set continues. We try to impress the pastor with our volunteering. We try to please God by obeying the commands of the church without any inward changes taking place in our life. Well you don’t have to continue on participating in this process any more. You have been made aware of how to activate the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your life and when you do this on a consistent basis the realities of his ministry will become more and more apparent to you.
With this in mind, what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit all about?
Well you got a glimpse of his ministry in relation to what he provides for the believer at the moment of salvation. Let’s read this over again and remind ourselves of his benefits.
At salvation we are:
- Baptized with the Spirit.
By the agency of the Holy Spiriteach of us has been suited to our appropriate place by means of the endowments (gifts) of the Spirit to constitute the body of Christ-the church.
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)
2. Sealed with the Holy Spirit:
When the Holy Spirit comes into our life he is the seal (a stamp of ownership) indicating to God who is his. A seal can also refer to a down payment in the sense of having tasted the Spirit we have begun to taste the life of the future world that God had promisedus.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13)
3. Given gifts (spiritual endowments) by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit distributes the gifts individually, to males and females, as he wishes.
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. (1 Corinthians12:11)
4. Provided security by his seal.
The Holy Spirit is God’s seal (mark of ownership) indicating that the transaction whereby the Son of God paid the penalty of human sin at the Cross is a finished transaction, and that God owns us as His property by right of purchase, until the day of the redemption. Some say that the day of redemption refers to the rapture of the church, when we will meet the Lord in the clouds of the air not only to receive a glorified body at this time, but also to eceive rewards in regard to the quality of our works.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)
There is so much more in regard to the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in relation to our walk with him. As you become aware of his ministry by learning about what it is and then over time seeing it come to pass in your own life you will gradually be a witness or testimony to both believers and unbelievers, who will recognize God working in your life and will want this reality to be what takes place in their own life.
So with a lot of ado here is the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the yielded believer.
The Holy Spirit:
● Along with the word of God causes the believer to worship genuinely God the Father.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)
● Will reveal or cause us to know (to give us insight into the meanings) of the truth that he hears from the Father.
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. (John 16:13)
● Can communicate to us, by conveying words which we are only able to be heard exclusively by us in our mind, irrespective of who may be in our vicinity, directing us to go up to a certain individual and engage in a dialogue about God’s Son.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. (Acts 8:29)
● Can cause different members of the body of Christ to: prophecy (the anointed speaking forth of words of edification (to build up), exhortation (a call to encouragement), and comfort (consolation- includes the healing of distress,, of sorrow, of persecution, and of suffering) for the church), see visions (the appearance of the objects or events to pass before the mindwhile being awake); dream dreams (the appearance of the objects or events to pass before the mind while being asleep).
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: (Acts 2:16-17)
● Can warn us not to go to a certain place by having His directive conveyed to us through another member of the body of Christ.
And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem. (Acts 21:4)
● Causes the righteousness (requirements) of the moral precepts of the Mosaic Law (e.g. thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, etc.) to be fully satisfied or accomplished in the believer
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)
● Is the evidence that we belong to Christ.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Romans 8:9)
● Stops completely the corrupt inclinations and passions of the body, as we endeavor to cherish and cultivate his influences.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)
● Gives us a witness (evidence) of his presence with our human spirit in a joint-testimony to the fact that we are a child of God, when he produces in us the effects of his influence, which are the spiritual qualities of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16)
● Helps (shares with) us to carry the heavy load of our infirmities (trials and troubles; physical, emotional, and spiritual disabilities; the general weaknesses of the spiritual life), for when we are operating in weakness, we are unable to ask for the right things in prayer in connection to any of these circumstances. In this instance he intercedes (for consultation, conversation, or supplication) to God the Father according to his plan for our life with groanings (sighs), which cannot be expressed with words.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26)
● Illuminates, helps us to understand, the things [the blessings (benefits) of salvation] that God has graciously bestowed on us.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)
● Distributes at least one gift (non-office) to each believer, as proof of his presence.
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. (1 Corinthians 12:7)
● Changes (transforms; a gradual change on the outside that comes from the inside) us into the same image (Christlikeness) from one degree to another (from justification to sanctification to glorification), when we with unveiled (uncovered face), keep on beholding (reflecting) as in a glass [mirror (the symbol of God’s word)] the glory of the Lord (he who is the image of the invisible God).
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
● Provides the believer with himself in order to help them advance to spiritual maturity, the advancement of which has nothing to do with adhering to a system of works.
Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?( Galatians 3:3)
● Causes us to experience the liberty (to be free from the power of sin in his daily life; free from the Law with its demands and threats) that we have been called to so that we will operate in his love (self-sacrificial) and thereby serve (promote the spiritual welfare of) one another.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve on another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:13,16)
● Gives us access (used of those who secure for one the privilege of an interview with a sovereign) into God the Father’s presence.
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)
● Builds us together with the other members of the church by means of a process of construction, growth, and eventual completion for a place where God lives.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22)
● Strengthens us with his power in our inner man, by means of the granting of God the Father, so that we might have an ever deepening fellowship with Christ in our hearts by faith (by believing his word), thus being securely settled and deeply founded in love so that we may be able to comprehend (grasp with the mind; understand) what is the breadth, length, depth, and height (the love of Christ in its entire dimension); and to know (experience) Christ’s love, which passes knowledge (surpasses mere knowledge that is without the experience of God’s love), in order that we might be filled with the nature of God.
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19)
● Distributes to some believers an office (leadership) gift (e.g. apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers).
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Ephesians 4:11)
● Directs and empowers us to pray on every occasion with all prayer (prayer of various kinds, formal, silent, vocal, secret, public, petitionary) and supplication (an imploring request: for averting evil; asking God for help; filled with heavenly longings and aspirations; to remain in communion with the Lord).
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; (Ephesians 6:18)
● Will produce in us his love, a genuine divine love toward our fellow believers, instead of a human hypocritical love, as long as we choose to engage in consistent habitual obedience to the Word, by which our souls have become purified (delivered from the power of sin in the past with present results).
Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: (1 Peter 1:22)
● Causes us to know that God the Father abides (a strong assertion of God's continuous fellowship) with us.
…And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. (1 John 3:24)
Well what do you think? Are you surprised as to the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit, which is available to us? He wants to partner with us while we are on this spiritual journey. As we work together with him our perspective toward attending church gatherings changes. No longer is church simply a duty to attend and a place where a system of good works characterize it. Church becomes a place where God shows up in the lives of each believer and his gifts become manifest. Church becomes a place where we learn about the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how for it can become actual in our life. Church becomes alive and so do we. Shouldn’t this be the characterization of church?
This brings us to our next topic of discussion. Just what are those gifts of the Holy Spirit that are given to the members of the church? What are their names and functions?
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