MESSAGE BEARER MEMO
By Ryan Shaw
These bi-weekly memos are to provide encouragement, exhortation, and spiritual nourishment in the lives of those who have signed the Message Bearer Creed as you prepare to serve the Lord globally, and are influencing your peers with this vision.
The Holy Spirit – Part # 1
Who Is the Holy Spirit and What Are His Works?
Any discussion on the Holy Spirit today is usually fraught with tension and division. There are a great many opinions that permeate the body of Christ. And people, ministries, and whole denominations take sides according to their theological traditions and understanding. Any debate or discussion with members of another understanding tends to involve a lot of finger pointing and frustration, even more solidifying the great divide. I believe this is a sad commentary on the church today and contributes to the fact that we still have so much work to do in the task of global proclamation.
Due to the above reality, all involved have shied away from biblical teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit. We’ve not wanted to enter the debate so we steer totally clear of providing biblical teaching. We’ve thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Most believers that I talk with in the emerging generation have very limited understanding about the Holy Spirit. In whichever theological camp they may find themselves, there is a reluctance of teachers to teach in depth. Instead these primarily emphasize only their distinctives on the Holy Spirit without giving the full picture. This only contributes to the great divide with dogmatic, yet incomplete understanding.
When I look back on my years and discipleship in college, I can recall very little thorough teaching about the Holy Spirit. This is a grave problem as Jesus clearly placed the person of the Holy Spirit and His works very high. He recognized the necessity of His role in accomplishing the purpose of God on the earth. The enemy, who knows the distinct power and purpose of the Holy Spirit, is overjoyed by our bickering and subsequent neglect of teaching about Him. We seem to be playing into his hand instead of gaining understanding and personally internalizing doctrinal truths. Unless we grasp and then internalize His nature, His purpose, and His relation to us, we will not be effective in living for God and bringing glory to Jesus Christ as His message bearers.
For this reason, I have chosen to focus the next three Message Bearer Memos on the person of the Holy Spirit. In this initial memo I will focus on who the Holy Spirit is and what are His works. The next Memo will highlight the biblical teaching on what it looks like and means to be “full” of the Holy Spirit and to live the Spirit-filled life. Lastly, I will emphasize the Holy Spirit’s pivotal role in global proclamation.
Trying to teach on this subject in three memos is obviously difficult. There is so much to say and so much scriptural admonition that I will only be touching the very tip of the vast iceberg. These are only introductory remarks. Throughout these teachings, I will underscore scripture verses. I hope each person will take the time to go and personally study these in depth. At the end of the memos I will include a Bibliography of books to help you make sense and further understand this subject yourself.
Who Is the Holy Spirit?
First, throughout the scriptures we see that the Holy Spirit is God! (Acts 5:3,4; Matthew 28:9; Acts 28:25,26; Isaiah 6:9). He was involved in creating heaven and earth. (Genesis 1:2; Job 26:13) He influenced people to become born again. (John 3:5-7) He convicts of sin, emphasizes righteousness, and anticipates the judgment to come. (John 16:8) We find evidence that He is eternal, (Hebrews 9:14) that He is omniscient, (1 Corinthians 2:10) that He is omnipotent, (Luke 1:35) and omnipresent. (Psalm 139) All of these characteristics link Him in equality to the rest of the Trinity. Therefore He deserves the adoration and worship of the people of God. We tend to focus our worship on Jesus and God the Father, often to the neglect of the Holy Spirit.
Second, we are biblically taught that He is a person, not some informal “it.” He has a mind (Romans 8:27) He possesses knowledge (1 Corinthians 2:10,11) and has a will of His own. (1 Corinthians 12:11) We find Him acting and forming relationships in the scriptures which only a person can do. He speaks, (Acts 1:16) prays, (Romans 8:26,27) comforts, (Acts 9:31) teaches, (John 14:26) works miracles, (Acts 2:4; 8:39) and can be resisted. (Acts 7:51) He commands (Acts 8:29; 11:12; 13:2) and forbids certain actions. (Acts 16:6,7) A great characteristic that proves He is a person is that He has emotions. (Romans 5:5; Ephesians 4:30) He feels pain and experiences great exaltation just like us.
Third, we are given ample biblical evidence that the Holy Spirit seeks to, above all else, glorify and exalt Jesus. This is His supreme goal. Rather than focus on Himself (as He could) His role in the Trinity is to lift up the person, the personality, and attributes of Jesus. (John 16:13,14) Remember that Jesus is the express image of God the Father. (Colossians 1:15) To show us what God is like, He sent His Son. Therefore, the Holy Spirit wants to help us see Jesus in all His splendor and glory because He is the perfect picture of God Himself. The Holy Spirit woos and leads us to a greater view and eventual love for Jesus. His focus on Jesus may be a reason the church so often neglects Him. He is working to get the focus onto Another. He is like a spotlight ever seeking to illuminate the majesty, beauty, splendor and love of Jesus.
The Seven Works of the Holy Spirit
Oswald J. Smith, missionary statesmen and founder of Toronto’s Peoples Church in 1939, has written extensively on the subject of the Holy Spirit. He teaches that in the scriptures we find seven concepts that describe the work which the Holy Spirit performs in the life of a believer. (Smith, p. 103 ff)
First, the Holy Spirit baptizes us into one body. (1 Corinthians 12:13) The Holy Spirit takes a sinner and regenerates Him through the blood of Jesus and places him in the body of Christ. This experience takes place at the time of conversion. Second, the Holy Spirit is a Gift to the body of Christ. (Acts 11:17; Acts 10:45; Acts 2:38) He Himself is the Gift. We find multitudes of believers receiving this gift in the scriptures. Cornelius and his household received the Gift when they believed. On the day of Pentecost when 3,000 believed, they received God’s Gift. This Gift is given at the time of conversion. Third, the Holy Spirit indwells us. (1 Corinthians 3:16) He has baptized us into the body of Christ and given us the Gift of Himself and now He indwells us. He is within us and this is true of each and every believer.
Next, we find the Holy Spirit sealing us. (Ephesians 1:13) According to Smith, this sealing involves three parts: a finished transaction, changed ownership, and eternal security. First, the believer has now been saved and that individual is the Lord’s. Second, the believer now belongs to God and is His property. The individual has changed allegiances and loyalties and has a new master. Third, he has been given eternal life and will not perish. The believer is safe and sound in the Father’s possession. The Holy Spirit thus seals a believer and it is the Spirit Himself who is the actual “seal.” He has been born again, is God’s child, and that God guarantees His eternal safety.
Fifth, the Holy Spirit provides the guarantee. (Ephesians 1:13,14; 2 Corinthians 1:21,22) This guarantee is a foretaste of the fullness that is to follow. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the glory that is ours as our inheritance. He leads us into the presences of Jesus and it is wonderful. We sometimes are overwhelmed by it now! What will it be like when see Him face to face? The Spirit continues giving this guarantee to us throughout our lives until we die and enter Jesus’ presence.
Sixth, the Holy Spirit fills us. Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.” The original Greek states this as “be being filled.” The admonition here is that we are to be continually filled again and again. It is not a one time thing that we do and then it’s done for our lives. Every true follower of Jesus has been baptized into one body, has received the gift of the Spirit, is indwelt by the Spirit, has been sealed, and has the guarantee of His inheritance. But not every true follower of Jesus is filled with the Spirit. Hence the Spirit dwells in us at conversion, but we have a choice and must cooperate with Him in order that He might fill us. As we yield ourselves, turning from sin and submitting our will – body, soul, and spirit – in order to do His will, the Spirit is enabled to fill us and make us believers who bear eternal fruit. The Holy Spirit can dwell in us and yet not control us, which is the essence and requirement of becoming filled with the Spirit. Sometimes this happens at conversion depending on the depth of conversion experience. Most often, however, there is a crisis that draws a full initial yielding to the Spirit which He responds to with His filling. Then we are admonished to regularly affirm and surrender control and our will to Him, thus receiving by faith the filling of the Spirit continuously.
Lastly, the Holy Spirit’s works in the life of a believer include His anointing. (Luke 4:18,19) Here is the key to effectiveness as a message bearer. Jesus evidently had the Spirit indwelling Him earlier, but did not begin His public ministry until he had been filled by the Holy Spirit. This process included the anointing power to produce fruit that remains. If we are to produce fruit as message bearers there is no way around it – we must be anointed with God’s power for the task.
God has called us to preach the gospel, bring comfort to the broken-hearted, set free the captives, who are enslaved to Satan, bring sight to the spiritually blind, etc. This is impossible for human beings and can only be accomplished by the anointing which the Holy Spirit gives. All through the generations, the Holy Spirit has anointed His message bearers. He anointed with power Samson, Elijah, and Jeremiah. He filled and empowered Jesus, Paul, Peter, and so on. Historically, we see it with William Carey, David Brainerd, Amy Carmichael, Hudson Taylor and many, many more. They were not content with one experience but communed, fellowshipped, and surrendered daily with the Spirit and He thus supernaturally enabled them to bring forth great fruit.
Let us not compare ourselves with these giants of old. We might never be a Brainerd or Carmichael. But God will use us beyond what we can do in our own strength and stretch us to the potential that He sees in us. Let us then choose to wait upon Him, take ourselves off the throne of our lives, give ourselves completely to Him to control us, spend much time alone seeking His face, agonize for the lost in intercession, and allow Him to empower and enable us to bring Jesus great glory through powerful ministry among the least reached.
Selected Bibliography:
Smith, Oswald J., The Enduement of Power, (Edinburgh; Marshall, Morgan, and Scott;
1933)
Green Michael, I believe in the Holy Spirit, (Grand Rapids; Eerdmans Publishing
Company; 1975)
Tozer, A.W., Keys To the Deeper Life (Grand Rapids; Zondervan; 1957)
Cho, David Yonggi, The Holy Spirit, My Senior Partner, (Orlando, Florida; Creation
House; 1989)
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