From the Pastor’s Study

Dave Cahen

“Who is the Holy Spirit and What is His Promise?”

The Holy Spirit embodies us at salvation by first convicting us, then regenerating our heart to Christ; then enables us to use our gifts to further His Kingdom. His promise to us comes through His presence, His purpose, and His provision.

The Holy Spirit is probably the most confusing and misunderstood part of the Trinity in believers and unbelievers. In fact, some may never come to belief in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior because of this lack of understanding. Without the Holy Spirit, a person can have a lot of knowledge of God and His Word, but never reach salvation. Perfect examples of this were Jesus’ disciples. Even though they were eyewitnesses to the Son of God, they didn’t understand who He really was. Upon the gift of the Spirit given at Pentecost; they not only understood, but were able to proclaim all that they had witnessed. Many times it is like this today. A person can grow up in church and live what everyone thinks is a good, even holy life. They may think they are saved and are often baptized, but true salvation comes only when belief is true enough in their heart that God gives them the gift of the Spirit. Then it all begins to make sense.

The Holy Spirit is in fact there from the beginning in a born-again Christian’s life. Upon His indwelling, not only do things begin to make sense, but a new love and hunger for God and His Word manifests as well. Not only does the knowledge they may have gained in the past become clearer, but the desire to gain more knowledge grows. This cycle of understanding is critical to real growth and understanding, and the Holy Spirit is the guide behind it all. Scripture outlines twelve ways in the totality of the Christian experience that the Holy Spirit acts. They are to convict us (John 16:8), to testify to us (Rom. 8:16), to regenerate us (John 3:5), to guide us (John 16:13), to fill us (Eph. 5:18), to glorify Christ (John 16:14), to interpret for us (John 16:14), to impart gifts in is (1 Cor. 12:1-11), intercedes for us in our prayer life (Rom. 8:26), blesses our work for Christ (Acts 2:41), warns us (John 16:8), and He inspires (The Bible was written entirely by men inspired by God through the Holy Spirit). Let’s focus on the convicting, regenerating, and the gifting; but it is easy to see how all these acts of the Spirit are a part of the maturation of every Christian.

Just as Jesus cleaned out the Temple of every sinful, unclean thing; so does the Holy Spirit clean out us, whose body is a Temple once Jesus Christ resides in our hearts. First is the act of convicting us of our sins; giving us a true understanding of our sin and making us guilty of it. This step is without a doubt the first one necessary toward salvation and the first one most people miss-step and unfortunately never gain true salvation. This is the place where the 50% reside; the difference between the 80% who think they are Christians and believe in God and the 30% who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. In the United States alone that represents 300,000,000 people. They cannot allow the Holy Spirit into their heart because they cannot allow themselves to feel convicted and guilty of any wrong. If they do, they know they must stop. Like the story of the rich ruler (Luke 18:18-30), a person must give all their worldly ways away to have their heart right. It’s the same with most people; they simply cannot willfully do it.

The other part of the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration, comes after conviction. The fears and doubts that we are worthy of being in a personal relationship with God; being accepted into His family, are now gone. The Holy Spirit testifies on our behalf to the Almighty God (Romans of our new born cleanliness and God accepts us. With this assurance, we can now be truly regenerated and saved by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and begin to live a new life.

Of course, many of the things listed above will begin to take place including interpreting the Bible in new ways so understanding and true growth abound. From these things, a person will search for how and where they can plug into the Kingdom. This manifests itself in gifts that are given by God through the Spirit, and now the believer wants to use that gift. This act of the Holy Spirit is called the enabler. The Spirit enables us to understand our vocation as well as understanding our justification and sanctification. Our vocation cannot be neglected. Jurgen Moltmann said the assurance of the Spirit “does not lead to a dream of worlds beyond this world; it leads ever more deeply into Christ’s sufferings and into earthly discipleship.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Grace received is responsibility assumed. Service is costly; grace is loving and free, but never cheap and without resulting responsibility.” This step, out of their comfort zones and into the service of Christ, many Christians are not willing to take.

The Spirit enables us to do more than begin a new inward journey, and be more than personally transformed. It allows us to accept a journey outward to others, enhancing our capacity to love others, and our desire to help others. Living in the 21st Century in our society and our world today, if there is anything we need to take hold of, understand, and experience; it’s the infilling experience of walking step by step with the Holy Spirit, God’s great Promise to us; His presence in us as God, a Person of the Trinity, His purpose to transform us, and His provision to grow fruit for the Kingdom through us. There is no other place that you can receive the Power that you need to live a Holy Life, except through the indwelling Spirit of God, living in you, and through you everyday.

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED THE PROMISE?