Holy Spirit Articles
Articles by Dave Brown and Bryan Gibson
The Work of the Holy Spirit
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit Baptism -- Just the Scriptures Please
The Holy Spirit's Role in Conversion
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Please view this video before going on: Led by the Spirit vs "Felt Led"
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THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by Dave Brown
There is probably no other subject that causes greater controversy today than exactly how the Holy Spirit influences the Christian. Much of this is caused by speculation involving things that have not been revealed. It is impossible to present all of the passages that deal with this subject, and every Christian should give this subject intensive study. Our goal here is to present some basics to put this study into perspective.
The Holy Spirit is given to all Christians. Acts 5:32 states: “And we are witnesses of these things; and {so is} the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
The Holy Spirit dwells in all Christians. Rom. 8:9: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
To many these statements imply that the Holy Spirit is interacting directly with every Christian, imparting to them new revelation or guiding them directly. Yet, no such conclusion is inferred by these verses, nor can we see this elsewhere in the New Testament.
The essence of the gift of the Holy Spirit is not the mechanism of revelation, but the revelation itself. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The Holy Spirit miraculously revealed the truth in the first century, and confirmed this truth by miraculous gifts (Mark 16:20). It was not the revelation, nor the confirmation, but obedience to the truth that led to salvation. When we read the scriptures we can get the same understanding of this truth that Paul had (Eph. 3:4).
Similarly, the context of Romans 8 gives us insight into what the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is. Rom. 8:10-11: “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” The indwelling of Christ is used interchangeably with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, indicating that both terms are being used metaphorically.
Going back to verse 4 we see that the result of this indwelling is that of obedience: “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” When we are obedient to the truth it is by the power of the Holy Spirit, for without the revelation of the truth, this would be impossible. We absolutely could not come to the right conclusion without God’s revealed word.
It is quite clear that not all Christians in the first century had miraculous powers, even though they clearly had the indwelling of, and the gift of, the Holy Spirit. Luke makes it quite clear that many of these miraculous powers were limited to the apostles (see Acts 2:43; 4:33; 5:12). Now, some Christians did receive miraculous gifts, but these were imparted by the laying on of the hands of the apostles (Acts 8:18). This imparting was not universal (see 1 Cor. 12:27f).
There is much to be learned from the church that apparently had more miraculous spiritual gifts than any other – Corinth. A careful reading of 1st Corinthians (as opposed to say, Romans) indicates that these miraculous gifts did not give this church any advantage. It was a very troubled church with many, many problems. In fact, the gifts themselves had become a matter of jealousy.
The problem that they had is identical to what we are describing above. They valued the miracle itself over the truth that was being delivered and confirmed by it. Notice 1 Cor 13:8-10: “Love never fails; but if {there are gifts of} prophecy, they will be done away; if {there are} tongues, they will cease; if {there is} knowledge, it will be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.”
Paul looked to a time when these spiritual gifts would no longer be necessary, i.e., the full-grown, perfect revelation would be a reality. At that time there would be no need for the “parts” and they could “put away these childish things” (1 Cor. 13:11). As are many childish things, they had a purpose for the church in its infancy, but once God had spoken and the truth was revealed and written down, there was no longer a need for ongoing miracles.
INDWELLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
by Dave Brown
Introduction
That the Holy Spirit indwells all Christians is clearly taught in the New Testament. In fact, the New Testament teaches that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit all indwell the Christian. Consider the following:
"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." (I Jn 4:12).
"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Cor 6:19).
The indwelling of Jesus and the indwelling of the spirit are used interchangeably in Romans 8:9-11: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."
So the question is not: "Does the Spirit of God indwell the Christian?" but "How does the Spirit indwell?" Is there some mystical method to bring it about? Does it produce miraculous powers? What is its effect? The first step in answering these questions is to recognize that the indwelling is not physical — it is spiritual. From Romans 8:9-11, the indwelling of Christ and the Spirit are identical — you cannot have one without the other. Clearly, the physical body of Christ does not indwell the Christian, and neither should we view the Holy Spirit as a physical being. The indwelling of God in our lives is much more powerful than a mere physical presence (see Jn. 16:7), since it results from the most powerful of spiritual influences (Rom. 1:16).
What Causes the Holy Spirit to Indwell the Christian?
This question is answered in Ephesians 3:14-19: "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 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 fullness of God."
Read this passage several times and meditate on it. Notice that the indwelling of the Spirit, Christ and God are all mentioned as being the same thing. Notice that the indwelling comes by faith: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ..." Faith can be true or false, living or dead. James 2 declares that faith without works is dead, i.e., “faith only” is dead. This proves that “faith only” is an oxymoron, for if the indwelling of God proceeds out of a living faith, this will generate good works.
So to determine the source of the indwelling of God we must find the source of true faith. The only passage in the New Testament that declares the source of faith is Romans 10:17: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Should we be so surprised that placing God’s word in our hearts will result in faith, and that faith will result in the indwelling of God? Jesus himself is called the Word in John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
This means that God’s indwelling is something that is up to you — it is up to you to fill yourself with God’s word and thus build the condition "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith." This is a principle of God’s established truth; it does not require anything miraculous.
The miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit in the first century were to reveal and confirm the word (Mk. 16:20). The power is in the gospel (Rom. 1:16), and the essence of the gift of the Holy Spirit is not the temporal proofs that established and proved it, but the revealed truth itself. It is through the study of that word that we can truly realize the indwelling of God’s Spirit within us.
What Are the Results of this Indwelling?
While it is clear that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit does not result in the ability to perform miracles in this day and age, clearly the Holy Spirit should still be seen as a gift of God and not just something that we create through our intellectual study of God’s word. Indeed, some scholars who do not believe that the bible is of God study it all their lives but it never produces faith, and certainly the Holy Spirit cannot be said to dwell within them.
But let us turn to the effects of the indwelling. We drew on the eighth chapter of Romans above for evidence that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of Christ are identical. This same chapter goes on to provide us with some other effects that this indwelling produces. In particular, note the following:
- Rom. 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Our resurrection and eternal life depends on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
- Rom. 8:13: “…for if ye live after the flesh, ye must die; but if by the Spirit ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” This indicates that the Holy Spirit in some way enables us to overcome the “deeds of the body,” i.e., sin.
- Rom. 8:26-27: “And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself maketh intercession for (us) with groanings which cannot be uttered; and he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to (the will of) God.” This indicates that the Holy Spirit assists our prayers by making them fit to be placed before the presence of God. Also, another passage from Paul sheds light on the subject …
- Gal. 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; against such there is no law.” Certainly this is the fruit of the Spirit indwelling the Christian.
These are merely some examples, and they are not meant to cover all that results from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Neither do we know (and are not aware of where the bible tells us) of just exactly how the Holy Spirit accomplishes these things. This is not important. The important thing is that the Holy Spirit is active and playing a major role in the salvation, good works and ultimate eternal life of Christians today.
HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM -- JUST THE SCRIPTURES PLEASE
by Bryan Gibson
Much has been written and said about Holy Spirit baptism, sometimes with little concern for what the New Testament actually teaches. We will do our best to stick with the scriptures in this article.
John the Baptist promised that “one mightier than I” would baptize with (“in”—ASV) the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16). That this One would be Jesus was confirmed to John in a remarkable way. God told John, “Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). John saw what God described when he baptized Jesus (John 1:32; Matthew 3:13-17), and so he knew for sure that Jesus was the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Here is where we need to be careful. We might assume that Jesus baptized people with the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, but we can only find two instances in the New Testament specifically described as Holy Spirit baptism.
First, Jesus promised the apostles that He would baptize them with the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8). He specifically told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until they received this promise, and it was there in Jerusalem that they were baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4, 33).
Jesus baptized the apostles with the Holy Spirit to give them power for their work as His witnesses (Acts 1:8; 4:33). They were empowered in basically two different ways. First, the Holy Spirit revealed all truth to them (John 14:26; 16:13), so that what they spoke and what they wrote was inspired of God. Secondly, they were empowered to perform miracles, in order to confirm that what they were teaching came from God (Acts 14:3; Mark 16:20).
There is only one other example specifically called Holy Spirit baptism in the New Testament—a Gentile named Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:44-48; 11:15-18). That this was an unusual event can be seen in Peter’s words when he recounted what happened: “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). To describe this unique event, Peter had to go back to the time when the apostles were baptized with the Holy Spirit (“at the beginning”).
Cornelius and his household were baptized with the Holy Spirit for a special purpose: to convince the Jews that God made no distinction between them and the Gentiles, to show that the Gentiles could be saved through Jesus Christ—without having to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Acts 11:17-18; 15:5-11). It had this very effect on the Jews in Jerusalem because this was their reaction when Peter told them everything that had happened: “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life” (Acts 11:18).
Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not something we should seek today—in fact, it was not even sought by the people cited in the examples above. It had a unique purpose for the apostles and for Cornelius and his household. We don’t need it for the reasons the apostles did, because all truth has been revealed and confirmed. And we certainly don’t need it for the reason it was given to Cornelius and his family, because we can learn the same lesson from what happened to them. The “one baptism” of Ephesians 4:5 is water baptism, and it is necessary for the remission of sins (Acts 10:47-48; 2:38; 8:35-39). Holy Spirit baptism was a promise, fulfilled in only certain individuals; water baptism is a command that everyone must obey.
We hope that we have not left the impression that the Holy Spirit has only a minor role in our salvation today. Please consider the other articles on this page that deal with the work of the Holy Spirit today, and especially the next one that discusses the Holy Spirit's role in conversion.
THE HOLY SPIRIT'S ROLE IN CONVERSION
by Bryan Gibson
In the article above on the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Holy Spirit Baptism – Just the Scriptures), we pointed out a promise Jesus made to His apostles, that He would baptize them with the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:5, 8). Jesus made another promise regarding the Holy Spirit, and this one has a more general application: “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). Read the surrounding verses and you can see that Jesus is clearly talking about the Holy Spirit. Remember this promise, because we will come back to it shortly.
The best way to understand the Holy Spirit’s role in conversion is to look at the actual cases of conversion recorded in the Book of Acts. What role did the Holy Spirit play in these conversions? He did just what Jesus said He would do—He convicted these people of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. How did He accomplish that? He did it through the preaching of the gospel, which shouldn’t surprise us in the least, because it is the gospel that is “the power of God to salvation” (Romans 1:16). Yes, the gospel was preached by men, but ultimately it was “by the Holy Spirit” (1 Peter 1:12), because the words they spoke were revealed by the Holy Spirit (John 16:13; 1 Corinthians 2:6-13; Ephesians 3:1-5). Jesus had this to say about the life-giving power of these words: “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).
To illustrate, consider the conversion of some Jews in Acts 2. Notice verse 37 in particular: “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” This is exactly what Jesus was talking about—these people were convicted by the Holy Spirit, because the gospel Peter preached to them was revealed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). Study the conversions one by one, and you will see this same truth illustrated over and over again. Pay close attention to how they responded when they heard the gospel, and realize that this is the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion.
Of course, the Holy Spirit does not convict everyone—the Book of Acts also has plenty of cases of non-conversion. Some were not converted, because they did not receive the word “with meekness” (James 1:21). The problem was not with the Holy Spirit, or with the words He revealed; the problem was with the hearers. As Stephen said to his audience, “You always resist the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51). The gospel is compared to a fragrance in 2 Corinthians 2—to some it is the “aroma of death,” to others it is the “aroma of life” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16).
We urge all of our readers to give close attention to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Welcome it “not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13). It will tell you “words by which you and all your household will be saved” (Acts 11:14). Give the gospel a fair hearing, and the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin; He will show you how to be right with God; and He will impress upon you the urgency of it all by warning you of the judgment to come.
What are the conditions of salvation given by Jesus?
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