Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

Preface
Introduction: the big sister?

1. New life in the Spirit - (John 3:1–8)
2. Knowing Jesus by the Spirit - (John 16:5–16)
3. The Spirit of adoption - (Galatians 4:4–7; Romans 8: 15–16)
4. Seeing by the Spirit - (1 Corinthians 2:6–16)
5. Walking by the Spirit - (Galatians 5:16–26)
6. Getting more of the Spirit? - (various texts; Ephesians 5:18–21)
7. Resisting the Spirit - (Acts 6:8 – 7:60)
8. The Gifts of the Spirit - (1 Corinthians 12:1–11)
9. Empowered by the Spirit - (Acts)
10. The Spirit and the future - (Ephesians 1:13–14)

Conclusion: Experiencing the Spirit

Further reading

Knowing where and how a book started is often a helpful piece of information. The majority of these chapters first appeared as sermons preached at Knighton Evangelical Free Church and
Avenue Community Church, both in Leicester. I preached them because I had a concern that we had a poor understanding of the work of the Spirit, myself included. I therefore set myself the task of preaching through a number of relevant passages.

The sermon series and this book were not supposed to be a comprehensive statement of all there is to say about the Spirit, but rather a good representation of who he is and especially what he does in our lives. In terms of the title of this book I wanted to say something about what experiencing the Spirit is supposed to be like.

Introduction : The big sister?

My wife, Charis, was once trying to explain who the Holy Spirit is to our children. They’d got hold of the idea of God the Father and they didn’t have a problem with Jesus as God’s Son, but they were struggling with the Spirit. In a slight moment of desperation Charis decided to push the ‘family’ picture a bit further. ‘We’ve got the Father and the Son,’ she said, ‘so the Spirit is a bit like the big sister.’ The children weren’t so sure and were subsequently sent to talk to their Dad.

That exchange illustrates the difficulty many of us have with the Holy Spirit. We know he exists, we know we should believe in him, and we’re sure he’s important, but he remains something of a mystery. As a result, some Christians have stayed rather quiet about the Spirit – we’re not too sure what to say about him.

Others, of course, speak with great confidence and enthusiasm about the Spirit. We are challenged to be ‘open to the Spirit’, to live a ‘Spirit-filled life’, or asked whether we know the ‘empowering of the Spirit’. All of which sounds either exciting or scary, depending on our background, personality and a whole variety of other factors. Because of this, the Spirit has sometimes been a source of controversy, with some people feeling he is like the awkward family relative we don’t mention because to do so would be to open up a can of worms we can’t handle.

At one level it’s easy to say who the Holy Spirit is. Look in any theology book and it will tell you he is the ‘third member of the Trinity’. That’s not the most helpful of definitions, but it does tell us some important stuff. It reminds us that God is a tri-unity. The Godhead is made up of three distinct persons who are equally divine and are utterly united in love and purpose. So God is a relational, personal God even within himself – not a solitary being who is alone in the universe and looking for friends.

But being a trinity doesn’t just mean God is relational within himself; it also relates to how God ‘works’. The three persons in the Godhead are not only distinct persons; they also have distinct roles. So it is the Father who initiates and rules – this is why Jesus says he is dependent on him and can do only what the Father does (see John 5:19). And then it is through the Son that the Father acts. So, for example, it is through Jesus that the world is created, that rule and judgment are exercised, and that salvation is achieved.

But what about the Spirit? What is the Spirit’s role? That is the subject of this book. I need to warn you that because we are dealing with how God works in the world our topic is very broad. The Spirit has a role in all that God does and so we could discuss virtually everything. We’ll look at the main passages in which the Spirit’s work is described in the New Testament. My aim in doing so is try to build a picture of what the Spirit does, and so of what experiencing the work of the Spirit in our lives should look like for us.