Christ And The Holy Spirit. Introduction. This Week We

Fee completes his writings with his own conclusion: “The Spirit must be reinstated into the Trinity, where he has never been excluded in our creeds and liturgies, but has been practically excluded from the experienced life of the church.” Moreover, he argues that the very nature of the Triune God, as being three yet one, must become the character of the church both in its oneness and in its function, by the very application of the Spirit’s threefold work of the Trinity. Without this experience, the witness of the churches to the Resurrection today will remain generally ineffective in comparison with the witness of the early Christians, though they lived in a culture very similar to ours. As the title of Fee’s book emphasizes, we are meant to find God’s Spirit empowering for us in the present era while at the same time awaiting the consummation of Christ’s final return.

Charles Ryrie holds a Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary and a PH.D from the University of Edinburgh. Hence, he is quite knowledgeable about theology and the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Ryrie’s book is comprised of twenty-two chapters. He includes a section in the book that provides other helpful books the reader might find invaluable to read on the subject of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the book there are two indexes – an index of subjects and an index of select scripture passages.

Gromacki’s book is comprised of fifteen chapters. The book focuses on the personality, deity, and symbols of the Holy Spirit. Six chapters are dedicated to the various aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry. There is a chapter that focuses on the baptism of the Holy Spirit as well as one that discusses what it means to be indwelled and filled by the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit as well as speaking in tongues are covered in the book. Each chapter is divided by headings and these headings are separated into sub-headings. Theses headings and sub-headings keep the reader focused on what the chapter is about. The book ends with a discussion of the future of the Holy Spirit.

The fundamental theme presented in chapter twenty five and twenty six of David W. Dorries book Spirit Filled Christology maintains that Jesus came, not only as a pathway for salvation, but also to lead as an example of the Spirit’s movements and to empower His church with supernatural abilities to further the ministry that He began. In order to expound upon his statements, Dorries uses historical context.

Often times we are at a loss for words when it comes to talking about the person of the Holy Spirit. Beth Felker Jones in her work entitled “God the Spirit” serves as an introduction to the study of the Holy Spirit in a distinctly Wesleyan and Ecumenical Perspective. Jones is working against the notion that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is often the most neglected of all Christian teachings (1). She recognizes her experience within the Wesleyan tradition as one that shapes her pneumatology and this book. She asserts that one of Wesleyan Christianity’s special gifts is it’s “leaning against any tendency to neglect the Spirit” (4). Even with this framework she aims to place the Wesleyan perspective in a larger ecumenical milieu that shows the continuity of a Wesleyan pneumatology with the Tradition of the Church. Overall, her approach is very accessible, as she assumes very little and writes in such a way that allows her to cover large dogmatic topics clearly and concisely. By merit of simply being an introduction only style book, there is the risk of glossing over topics and not providing enough in depth discussion to fully understand and comprehend the doctrine discussed. A reader should feel confident that Jones has indeed provided us with a solid introduction to Wesleyan pneumatology that has the ability to bear fruit and initiate growth in the life of the believer.

When an individual comes to faith in Christ he or she is not left alone to battle the struggles of sin, lead people to Jesus, experience heartache and sorrow, find God’s will, or live a life that is pleasing and honoring to the Lord. No, Christians are given an awesome gift that cannot be purchased or earned. Believers are blessed with the gift of a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said in John 14:16, “ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.”(ESV) Sadly, many believers do not have a correct understanding of who the Holy Spirit is, or what He does. The purpose of this paper is define the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of God is the active force or power in one’s life, which most certainly includes spiritual formation (Pettit, 2008, p. 46). When Jesus was speaking with his disciples he made it clear – by using the analogy of a vine and branches – that apart from him they could do nothing (John 15:5). Only if one is connected to Christ will they have the ability to bear fruit and the way Jesus empowers those connected to him is through the Holy Spirt that that father will send in his name (John 14:26). The fact is that the triune God dwells in the Christian in and through the Holy Spirit. One sees this when they place multiple passages together to gain a full understanding of this concept. For example, Jesus made it clear that he and the father would come and make their home with the disciple (John 14:23). In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul reminds the Corinthians that their bodies are the very temple of God because the Holy Spirit dwells in them which is similar to what Jesus said would happen when he sent the Holy Spirit after his resurrection and ascension (John 14:17, 16:7).

Jesus, after he was crucified, was buried and then raised from the dead three days later. He appeared in his new physical body, still fully human and fully God, to his disciples and a vast amount of people before ascending into heaven to sit at the right hand of God. His disciples then waited until the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost, bringing the Holy Spirit to them, so that they could spread the gospel and share the love of God to the Jews and the Greeks, and bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit exist three in one in the holy trinity, and

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and is equal in essence and in power in the Trinity to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit was originally sent by Jesus after his ascension into heaven, Jesus himself saying that he would send a “helper” after he departed from the earth. This spirit is worshipped just as the Father and the Son are, and also participated in the creation of the world, sustaining and giving life continually to all things, and exhibits the uniqueness and characteristics of the third person in the Trinity. This is the same Holy Spirit that divinely inspired the infallible word of God, and although the canon is now closed, the Holy Spirit still works powerfully and constantly in the life of the church and in believers. The Holy Spirit is the giver of spiritual gifts, which are given at conversion and help the believer become more like their creator. The presence of the Holy Spirit is evident in the life of all true believers, and this Spirit turns cowardly men into mighty warriors for Christ who accomplish actions way beyond their natural ability.

It is important to note the defined goals of the Trinity. One being that God sent His Son, Jesus did not send God. Jesus tells us in John 6, that He came to do the will of His Father. Jesus was not doing His own selfish will but everything He did was for His Father. Jesus and God sent the Holy Spirit according to Jesus’ words in John 14:26, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you”. It is necessary to recognize the distinctions of the roles of the Trinity as if the roles were not distinctive there would be no Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is God Himself. He is a person that we can have a personal relationship with. Also, the Holy Spirit is the one that God gave to us as a guide, to direct and teach us in living a Holy life (King James Version, John 14:16). The Holy Spirit is the voice inside of us that tells us when something is not right with the choices that we have made. The voice inside of us comes from God, who loves and cares enough to show us our error that we have made. Also, the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity; where God transformed into three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When a person is born again, they believe and receive Jesus Christ (John 1:12-13), God comes through people’s life through the Holy Spirit (1Cor.3:16). The

To start our research, we need to ask a critical question at the very beginning : Who is the Holy Spirit? The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. Jesus never referred to “it” when He was talking about the Holy Spirit. In John 14,15 and 16, for example, He spoke of the Holy Spirit as “He” because He is not a force or thing but a person. The point is especially important at a time when pantheistic tendencies are

In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is the source of life and creation. The Holy Spirit worked in the lives of men that God placed His Spirit upon such as prophets and kings to perform His service. Therefore, the Holy Spirit was not given universally in the Old Testament but selectively and temporarily for service. However, in the New Testament, the Spirit grants life to God’s people and believers are brought to faith, in Jesus, through the sovereign work of the Spirit.

• The Holy Spirit is the spirit of love that dwells in each and every last one of us, it is not a part of the body so if the body dies, the spirit will continue to live. Because love never dies.

The Holy Spirit plays a very vital role in the lives of each and every believer; He can strengthen us with a strength that we cannot even begin to muster up in ourselves. He can bring us joy that we cannot even begin to find in the things of this world. He can bring peace to our lives more than anything that we can ever find on this earth. “The Holy Spirit which is primarily an energizing process, is also a revealing, refining, consuming, illuminating process, and one by which we are made to glow with love to God, and love to man, and love to souls.”