I’d like to share a brief series on how the Holy Spirit is given to us, and how he works in our lives—taken from John’s Gospel. But first, let’s take a moment to consider how significant the Spirit is in our walk as Christians.
God ‘pours out’ his Spirit on Pentecost day, just a few weeks after raising Jesus from death. We know that this death and resurrection has changed everything—for the whole world really, but particularly for us believers. But the same is true when God pours out his Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
Let’s see how this works out.
What has happened to Jesus has demonstrated how much we hate God. But his resurrection is a decisive victory over our perversity. That’s the best news ever! And God has put him in charge of everything from then on.
But now, the evidence of this victory is that God pours out his Spirit on everyone who turns from their godlessness[1]. The Spirit will begin the enormous task of renewing and transforming the whole creation.
This is the way God fulfills his promise to create a loving and faithful people[2]. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of sin[3]. It is he who enables us to call Jesus Lord[4]. He makes forgiveness real by coming to us as a presence[5]. He enables us to call God Father in the same way Jesus did[6].
Because the Spirit lives in us, our whole life is a sacred space where pollution is out of place[7]. We can begin to produce fruit that has a definite ‘made in heaven’ label on it[8]. And much else besides—as we shall see.
The question for us all is this: do we want this change? Do we know ourselves well enough to know that change is going to have to be by a presence and an energy that comes from above?
It’s important to get this clear because the world around us, and our own nature, teach us to live by what we see, and especially by what we can do. But no one can be a Christian in this way. The Christian life is a ‘top-down’ life. Everything essential comes from God.
So, we must always be expecting the Holy Spirit to be supplying what we can’t do—within us as well as by us. Effectively, every Christian needs to know that their life is an ongoing miracle—quiet perhaps but still a miracle.
What others need to see in us is not what we have made of our lives but what God has done. If they see our good works, it needs to be clear that they are seeing what has come from above[9].
Here’s an example of what I mean—from Luke’s Gospel. The disciples have seen Jesus rejoicing in the Holy Spirit while praying to his Father[10]. That must have been an amazing experience. A little later, they ask Jesus to teach them to pray and Jesus says that his Father will answer them willingly. He will give his Spirit to them. They will relate to the Father, and pray to the Father, just as he did[11].
Isaiah warns against wanting something that is not of his Spirit[12]—something that comes from us rather than from above. It’s possible to think we are pleasing God by reading the Bible as a text book and then going through the motions of doing what it says, while, all the time, our desires are fixed on something else.
In a similar way, Paul warns the Galatians not to try to finish their Christian lives using their own ideas and energies rather than what the Spirit supplies[13].
So, in these few articles, let’s ask God to show us, and encourage us, to believe that the same real and intimate relationship that Jesus has with his Father, by the Spirit, can be ours also. Then, it will be clear to us, and to others, that our godliness is exactly that—us being full of God—full of his Spirit, and full of the naturalness and energy that he creates.
[1] Acts 2:33
[2] Ezek. 11:19; 36:27
[3] John 16:7-8
[4] 1 Cor. 12:3
[5] Acts 2:38
[6] Gal. 4:6
[7] Rom. 8:9-16; 1 Thes. 4:7-8; 2 Thes. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:2
[8] Gal. 5:22-23
[9] Matt. 5:16; 1 Cor. 2:4-5
[10] Luke 11:21
[11] Luke 11:1-13
[12] Isa. 30:1
[13] Gal. 3:3
Simply True 