THE HOLY SPIRIT – PART SEVEN
The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
Part Seven
By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.
© God’s Breath Publications
We have learned that the Holy Spirit is our Advocate and that He indwells us when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. We have also learned that the Holy Spirit is instrumental in the process of us coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. He energizes the truth in our mind. He convicts us of sin which causes us to repent and turn to Jesus. After this the Holy Spirit begins a process of spiritual regeneration within us. He encourages us to grow spiritually into the image of Christ. At our conversion we are baptized into the Body of Christ with the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ. Thus we receive the Holy Spirit as a gift from God when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit separates us from sin and death. We are also sealed with the Holy Spirit and this guarantees that we will always belong to the Lord. This establishes the fact that our salvation is secure. Finally the Holy Spirit gifts us for service so we can minister to other followers of Christ. He distributes spiritual gifts to each Christian so that they can minister to others in unique ways to build up the Body of Christ, His Church.
After salvation takes place in the life of a follower of Christ the Holy proceeds to minister to us in seven critical areas to foster growth in our Christian life. In the last segments of this series we learned that the Holy Spirit brings us intimacy with God and that He also illuminates Holy Scripture to us so we can understand what it says regarding holy living and our calling to become like Christ. The Holy Spirit also magnifies Christ to us in our relationship with God. This serves to encourage us to be like Christ, worship Him and emulate Him. The Holy Spirit also leads us in God’s will so we can become the person we were meant to be as we serve God and others. Now we will cover other ministries the Holy Spirit carries out in our lives as followers of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit’s Ministry Area Number Five
The Holy Spirit Ministers to Us
Through Other Believers
The Holy Spirit ministers to us as followers of Christ by giving us spiritual gifts to equip us to serve each other, anointing us for such ministry. This means we use the spiritual gifts He gives us to serve, encourage and edify other believers and they do the same to us with their specific spiritual gifts.
Hebrews 10:23-25
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Here we see in Hebrews that we are called and commanded to spur each other as Christians to do good works, obey Holy Scripture and live as Christ lived. Here the word for “spur” is in the Greek, “paroxusmos” which means to incite or provoke to do good deeds and love others. Believe it or not sometimes we do need to confront each other as followers of Christ to seek to love people and obey the Lord. This does not mean we are to do it out of guilt or an impure motive, but we do need to evaluate how we are living as a believer and sometimes mutual accountability helps in this area. Just as we are called to “spur” one another on to good works, the Holy Spirit will do this as well. First He gives us specific spiritual gifts and then convicts us to use them with the influence and guidance of God’s Word.
Romans 12:4-8
“Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”
Paul here in Romans 12 informs us that there are many different people in any one body of believers or church and not all of them have the same calling, purpose or spiritual gift. God through the Holy Spirit will gift some as teachers, some as helpers, and some as encouragers. Each person should use their spiritual gift or gifts to minister to others in the body of Christ because that is why they were given. When we fail to discover and use our spiritual gifts we leave a hole in the ministry of God in the local Church. We miss out the enjoyment of using our spiritual gift(s) and others miss out the blessing of us expressing it towards them.
In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul instructs us about the different kinds of ministries, actions and gifts that God uses to encourage and grow those in a local church body of believers. While there are many different kinds of spiritual gifts and abilities, it is the divine Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts and works to bring unity, fellowship, ministry and blessings to the church fellowship. He also works in and through us to minister to people outside the church as we minister to others and evangelize people who haven’t accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. Spiritual gifts are given by the Spirit of God, not to build ourselves up, but to build up others in the church body. While we will benefit from using our spiritual gifts as we minister to others, the prime purpose of us receiving spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit is for edification and growth of others, not ourselves.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”
Paul again in Ephesians 4 repeats his explanation of why God appoints some as teachers, preachers and evangelists which are specific types of spiritual gifts. Such spiritual gifts prepare people so they can perform works of service towards others, build us up in spiritual maturity and promote unity in the fellowship of believers.
Ephesians 4:11-13
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Several scriptures also illustrate the fact that with the Holy Spirit living within us we are able to love others as God loves us for the Spirit of God is love. This enables us to minister to each other in Christian love because the Holy Spirit empowers us to love in this manner.
Romans 5:5
“God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
We are to love one another, pray for one another, edify one another, comfort one another, exhort one another, rebuke one another, reprove one another, teach one another because we are energized and led by the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit’s Ministry Area Number Six
The Holy Spirit Gives Us Power to Live for God
Paul in Ephesians speaks about how the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to live as a true follower of Christ and bring glory to our Heavenly Father. This power comes from God’s love from which we are strengthened and enabled to love and serve others. There is a link between the depth of God’s love and the strength of His power. When we experience God’s love and live in it, we also are able to draw upon His power to live as we should as we serve one another.
Ephesians 3:14-21
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
We will face trials, hardships and struggles, but the power of God lives in us as the Holy Spirit enables us to cope and overcome any obstacle. Paul speaks of this in 2 Corinthians. This is his own witness of how the power of God worked in Him and it can in each of us today.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
We also face numerous spiritual battles in life, against evil, false teaching and manmade philosophies, but God grants us the power to withstand adversities and enemies as the Holy Spirit works in us and ministers to us.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.”
Power from the Holy Spirit in our lives enables us to:
- Carry out effective service and ministry
- Carry out effective spiritual warfare
- Overcome Sin
- Carry our burdens (continue in the hope of our glorious future)
- Witness to others
- Praise God
- Have right relationships.
In our next segment of this series we will cover the last ministry area of the Holy Spirit and also how we can be filled with the Holy Spirit on an ongoing basis.