Spirit-led Life | Holy Spirit Mission

INTRODUCTION

One of the most neglected subjects today at church is the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, in other words, God’s presence or the Spirit-led life. Without the Holy Spirit; you cannot live a godly life; you cannot serve the Lord adequately nor can you understand the scripture properly.

Growing up in a Pentecostal home, I have noticed that there is a tendency by some in the charismatic churches to have limited the work of the Holy Spirit to prophesy and tongues. On the other side, the non-charismatic protestants tend to limit the work of the Holy Spirit to the study of the word, order and growth in maturity.

• Why did Jesus send the Holy Spirit?
• What is the role of the Spirit of God?
• What is the mission of the Holy Spirit?

Spirit-Influenced Life

HF: Today we are going to look at the mission of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life.

Who is the Holy Spirit?

We saw last week that the Holy Spirit was present at creation hovering over the earth and that we serve one God in three persons: The Father, The Son, & the Holy Spirit. The whole created work is done by God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-17 ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

The Holy Spirit is our helper, someone who comes alongside us.

The Holy Spirit is a Person.

The qualities of a person that can reason, think, that has emotion, that has will, that can make choices and so on are found in the Holy Spirit.

We have the Trinity here in John 14, and the Holy Spirit is addressed as “he” here.

Trinity

If someone asks: Do you believe in three gods? No

• Our understanding of the Trinity is the most important Christian theology.
• There is no hierarchy in the Trinity.
• There is this functional equality in the Trinity.
• All Christians agree on Trinity.

So which God do we worship when we gather? What is his name? We worship a Triune God. There are three persons of the Trinity. One Godhead. One God – Three Persons.

The Father does His work.

The Son does His work.

The Spirit does His work.

The work of the Holy Spirit is a vital part of every believer’s life. The Spirit gave birth to the church on the day of Pentecost and entrusted her with the mission to proclaim the Kingdom of God in this world. The role of the Spirit is both fundamental and instrumental in the life of the church and its believers. We cannot become what God wants us to be or and we cannot accomplish anything that God wills apart from the Holy Spirit.

That key feature of the Holy Spirit is the sense that “heaven” (not in a spatial sense but understood as a foretaste of a promised future), in all its wholeness, fullness, and beauty, has invaded planet Earth by means of the Spirit. The church is the arena in which that “heavenly invasion” plays itself out.

Acts 2:1-4 ¹When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ²Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Because the Spirit has “invaded” and God’s nature has “infected” human hearts, and because the very power that raised Jesus from the dead is accessible, the church should live differently—as “a colony of heaven.”

We are living in-between the times

The Kingdom of God in us and the kingdom of this world where we live.

We are living in the culmination of the ages: 1 Corinthians 10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.

The apostle reiterates this notion when he says in: 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

The church “lives between the times.” “Heaven” had invaded and planted its flag by means of the cross of Christ. But the war is not over. That is why when Paul talks about Christ, salvation, and the church, he speaks both in terms of the present and the future: “We have been saved,” he writes to the Ephesians (2:8); but he also says we “are being saved” (1 Cor. 1:18) and that “we shall be saved” (Rom. 5:9).

The church lives within a “wonderful tension” of two contradictory realities—heaven and (fallen) earth. If this tension is “strung” too tightly, the church goes into “heavenly overdrive”—claiming too much, too fast, and usually for the wrong reasons. This is what happened at the church in Corinth: they went overboard in their sense of “all this and heaven too” (“over-realized eschatology”). This displayed their selfish behaviour (wives rejecting sexual relations with their husbands, 1 Cor. 7).

When this tension is too loose, however, the church’s vibrant witness falls flat. This was displayed in their proclivities (inclination) toward immorality (a man taking his father’s wife, 1 Cor. 5). Rather than reflecting the rule of heaven, it resembles the reality of the world. This is affecting the contemporary church. The world, not heaven, “is too much with us.”

The church has to live as whose lives here are determined by the coming age by the power of the Holy Spirit.

What is the mission of the Holy Spirit? Signs of a Spirit-led life.

1. Spirit-led Conviction of Sin.

The Holy Spirit begins the saving work by convicting of sin.

Jesus said: John 16:8-9a When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin…

Conviction about sin is a work of the Spirit of God. A sinful heart will not feel convicted, conviction has to come from the Holy Spirit, who invades the fallen heart and convicts of sin.

2. Spirit-led Repentance.

The second thing that the Spirit of God does in salvation is produced out of that conviction of repentance. Conviction is guilt. Repentance is a desire, a deep desire, a strong desire to turn from that which causes the guilt, to turn from sin.

2 Timothy 2:25 Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth…

Man on his own does not repent. God grants repentance through the Holy Spirit.

Acts 11:18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Repentance is a gift of God worked in the heart by the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is the agent of conviction which then leads to repentance.

3. Spirit-led Regeneration.

Under the hearing of the Word of God, the gospel, comes the conviction of sin, repentance and then the regenerating, giving a new life.

John 3:5–7 ⁵Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

So the Holy Spirit convicts of sin. The Holy Spirit turns the heart toward repentance. The Holy Spirit regenerates the heart and we are saved.

4. The Holy Spirit Indwells In Every Believer.

Dwells – to remain constantly at home.

When a person is saved the Spirit of God the Holy Spirit takes up residence in that person’s heart.

Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.

When you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ when you were saved, that very instant the Holy Spirit came to live within you and he has been dwelling with you ever since. You might have not seen him with your eyes of flesh. You have many times in your life missed the Holy Spirit because of the business of life, pressures of life, or circumstances, but he has always been there. He has never left you. He has never forsaken you. The Holy Spirit of God dwells with and in you if you know Jesus as your saviour.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

5. The Coming Of The Spirit Is God’s Promise Fulfilled: His Presence Returned To His People.

Coming of the Holy Spirit meant God had fulfilled what he promised Jeremiah and Ezekiel when he said:

Jeremiah 31:31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

God’s Presence in Tabernacle

The “old arrangement,” under which God’s presence dwelt first in the tabernacle and later in the temple, proved unworkable for God’s people. God threatened to remove his presence when the wandering Jewish refugees bowed to the calf at Sinai.

Exodus 33:3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

Exodus 33:15-16 ¹⁵Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

God ultimately said “enough” and removed his presence from the temple: Ezekiel 10:18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim.

In Ezekiel the Spirit of the Lord takes the prophet to a valley full of dead bones and promises Ezekiel that these bones will indeed live.

Ezekiel 37:14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

Apostle Paul uses the phrase, “I will put my Spirit in you” in the context of the church: 1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

God kept his promise; His presence has returned to his temple. Only this time, we are it! We are his dwelling place.

In order to recapture that sense of the heaven-invasion, the contemporary church must first remember who it is—the dwelling place for God’s very presence.

6. The Spirit Empowers God’s People In Both Ordinary And Extraordinary Ways.

Not only has God’s presence returned, but it is his empowering presence. God personally and dynamically engages his people as he communicates in perceivable, sometimes extraordinary, ways the very impulses of his heart and purpose.

The living God is a God of power; and by the Spirit the power of the living God is present with us and for us. – Gordon Fee

Empowerment Of The Holy Spirit in a Spirit-led life:

•  life Witnesses

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

• Strengthen In Times of Adversity And Gives Us Great Power And Endurance

Talking about the Spirit in Colossians 1:12 ….being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience… The Spirit-led life

1 Thessalonians 1:6 …..for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.

• Power And Strength For Each Day

Whatever trials in life, the Holy Spirit provides us fresh strength every day.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ⁷But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

• Live Holy Lives

“God’s temple is sacred and you [plural, meaning the church] is that temple!” And for that very reason, there must be no immorality among us: That distinguishes the church “from all the other people on the face of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit enables us to live in such a way that they “will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Gal. 5).

Paul’s most common language for believers is his use of the term “the saints” (or “holy ones”). “They live differently and are empowered to do so because they are Spirit people, whatever else.”

Gatherings as God’s Temple

1 Corinthians 3:17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

But today, it seems, the church has forgotten who it is.

• When God’s presence filled the temple, “the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud” (1 Kings 8:10).
• When Moses came into God’s presence, he “hid his face” (Exod. 3:6)
• Elijah “pulled a cloak over his face” in God’s presence (1 Kings 19:13).
• Worshipers should come into God’s presence in preparation to meet with the living God.

Today, however, when believers gather for worship, there is little sense of the awesomeness of God’s presence. In some liturgical settings kneeling is a gesture of awe, but for most people, it is simply rote (habitual repetition).

In other words, the Spirit is not merely some abstract “force” or “influence” for Paul. The Spirit is the dynamically engaged presence of God revealing himself in wondrously ordinary and extraordinary ways through the believing members of the empowered church.

7. The Spirit Makes “The Many” One.

Ephesians 4:3-6 ³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

While we individually realize the ‘salvation of Christ’, it is not “individualistic.” Individual salvation is not the “final goal” of God’s saving activity through Christ, according to Paul. Constituting “a people for God’s name” is.

When Paul writes to the Corinthian church he says, “we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body.”

1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Remember, the people personally receive the gospel, however, Paul emphasises that the force of the gospel is seen in how the many (Jew, Gentile, slave, free) become one. Unity is a must in Church. The bitter divisions in the church are a scandal before the world. The fights and quarrels among believers are a hindrance for the gospel. Unity is important within us.

Paul’s key images for the church embody relationally interdependent constructs

• Temple

The temple was God’s new dwelling place in the corporate life of the individual members of his church, the “living stones,” to borrow Peter’s imagery.

• Family

Paul uses the image of the family in Ephesians (2:19), telling the church that they are members of “God’s household.” Paul carries the idea further when he tells the church in Rome that they have received the “Spirit of adoption” through whom they cry, “Abba, Father” and which “testifies … that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:15-16).

Romans 8:14-16 ¹⁴For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

• Body

Paul’s body, carries the most pervasive implications. The image reflects the very nature of the Godhead itself in its unity and diversity. The body is unified by “one and the same Spirit,” Paul says (1 Cor. 12:11). Yet it is incumbent upon the body to allow the free expression of its individual parts. That is why Paul goes to great lengths in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 to strike the right balance between free expression of diverse gifts, on the one hand, and mutual, harmonious, restrained (i.e., tested) orchestration of the gifts for the edification of the body on the other. Where there is no exercise of the gift, the Spirit is not operating. But where the body is not edified (with or without “gifts”), the Spirit likewise is not operating.

Our interdependence is particularly seen in Paul’s relentless use of the Greek word allēlōn—“each other.”

Everything is done “allēlōn.”

References to ‘One another’ used by Paul

• They are members of one another (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25).
• Who are to build up one another (1 Thess. 5:11; Rom. 14:19).
• To care for one another (1 Cor. 12:25).
• To love one another (1 Thess. 3:12; 4:9; 2 Thess. 1:3; Rom. 13:8).
• To pursue one another’s good (1 Thess. 5:15).
• To bear with one another in love (Eph. 4:2).
• To bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2).
• To be kind and compassionate to one another.
• Forgiving one another (Eph. 4:32; Col. 3:13).
• To submit to one another (Eph. 5:21).
• To consider one another better than ourselves (Phil. 2:3; cf. Rom. 12:10).
• To be devoted to one another in love (Rom. 12:10).
• To live in harmony with one another (Rom. 12:16).

Christians are, before all else, members of one another—members of God’s family. That diminishes self-importance and independent spirituality. That is why in 1 Corinthians (5:1-13) Paul aims his “heaviest artillery,” not at the individual living in incest with his stepmother, but at the church for its failure to deal with these matters. “The sinning man is not even spoken to—he is simply to be put outside the believing community. Paul’s rebuke is directed at the church for its arrogance and its failure to act.”

The church has been lured away from its corporate consciousness and responsibility due to an “intense possessiveness and individualism.”

Believers, go to church more so than they gather as the church. And in that, they miss the purpose of the Spirit calling forth “a people for God’s name.” We find our individual significance as we live it out with people whom we may not always like or feel comfortable with, but whom we love in a new kind of way.

8. The Spirit’s Ministry Perfects Us.

a. The Spirit’s ministry includes both “Fruit” &“Gifts.”

Christ’s nature and ministry must be recreated in character (“fruit”) and in service (“gifts”), and both are intended for the benefit of the believing community.

• The Fruit of the Spirit

“The fruit of the Spirit is a description of an individual believer which translates into a community living, not just individual piety.” “The very individualizing of the fruit of the Spirit is part of the problem.

“Individual piety can’t ‘do love’ very well. You have to ‘do love’ in the context of other people. The expression of Joy in relationships, peace has to do with shalom in the community, and patience is long-suffering toward others. This is, after all, written to a community where people are biting and devouring one another” (Gal. 5:15).

“The essential nature of the ‘fruit, is the reproduction of the life of Christ in the believer and the believing community.” This means, for Paul, there is little sympathy for a Christian who cannot seem to “get the victory” over a besetting sin. Paul would not understand an “appeal to helplessness” on the part of any who claims to walk in the Spirit: “The point of Galatians 5:16 is promise: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the desire of the flesh.”

Yes, we have to be realistic. We bump our noses all the time. … However much we wish it otherwise, divine perfection does not set in at conversion. But divine infection does. The living God himself has invaded us in the person of the Spirit whose goal is to infect us thoroughly with God’s likeness.”

• Gifts of the Spirit

Gifts, on the other hand, embody manifestations of the Spirit, commonly (though not exclusively) exercised in the context of corporate worship.

1 Corinthians 12:4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 ⁷Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰to 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. ¹¹All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

These include “forms of service” (Rom. 12:7-8; 1 Cor. 12:28) such as serving, giving, caring, helping; “the miraculous” (1 Cor. 12:9-10; 2 Cor. 12:12), which could include the faith that moves mountains, healings, “working of miracles”; and “inspired utterances,” such as teaching, messages of wisdom, prophecy, knowledge, discernment, revelation, exhortation, glossolalia, interpretation (1 Cor. 12-14). Paul “simply would not have understood the presence of the Spirit that did not also include such manifestations,” writes Fee.

When we meet together we need to allow the Spiritual gifts to operate through us. Worship that is truly Spirit-directed—where fruit tempers the gifts—will be wholeheartedly, vitally Trinitarian. God the Father and Christ the crucified and risen Savior—not Spirit ecstasies—is exalted.

The fruit and the gifts, in concert with one another, bring the fullness of life to believers, but more so, to the believing community where God intends these blessings to operate.

The Spirit, If Invited, Transforms Worship

When spirit-filled people worship God, the transformation of worship is inevitable. Spirit-led worship includes participation by all. Spirit-led worship services burst with the joy and the power of the Spirit. People respond spontaneously to the move of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God.

God’s presence with us.

Therefore Spirit-filled worship and Spirit-led worship brings “heaven” in all its wholeness, fullness, and beauty on Earth. The church is the arena in which that “heavenly invasion” plays itself out. Sunday morning, this is the extension of heaven  or “a colony of heaven.” After Spirit-filled worship when we get back, we take God’s presence with us into our homes, offices, and the land at large.

CONCLUSION

Today, we need to ask whether or not we are Spirit-led believers. According to Rom. 8:9, “Every Christian has the Spirit from the moment of his or her believing.” It will be better to ask: “Does the Holy Spirit have you?”

Is the church living by heaven’s rules in Earth’s arena?

Are you a Spirit-led believer? Where there is witness, strength, power, and holy living.

Is God’s very presence sought, expected, and perceived in worship?

Is the life of Christ being reproduced individually and corporately in spiritual fruit?

And is the Spirit orchestrating the church’s mission by empowering you to use your spiritual gifts?

Does your individual and gathered worship leave enough elbow room for the Spirit to speak and edify through the spontaneous interplay of believers?

Gordon Fee says that Moses’ prayer at Mount Sinai lies at the heart of Paul’s understanding of the Spirit: “If your presence doesn’t go with us … what else will distinguish your people from all other people on the face of the earth?”

Jesus tells us to ask for the Holy Spirit.

Luke 11:11-13 ¹¹“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We begin the Christian life by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith. That is the only way the Christian life can continue to live, by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith. We cannot begin our Christian life in the power of the Spirit and then become perfect in the power of the flesh. Let’s ask for a fresh touch by God’s Spirit today to have the Spirit-led life.

We have domesticated the Holy Spirit and missed the point of His Mission.– Gordon Fee

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