Take a look at the question..."who" not "what". We often think of the Holy Spirit as some kind of power rather than the person that He is. In doing so, we often, in our own minds, subordinate the Holy Spirit to the First and Second Persons of the Trinity. As a result, we may miss the blessing as we misunderstand who the Holy Spirit is.
As many of you know, I have been preaching through the teachings of the Reformed Faith. We began weeks ago with Total Depravity and have recently finished a two part series on the particular nature of Redemption. It hasn't been easy to get to this point for many. It is curious that the the doctrines of depravity, election, and redemption are often too much for people to bear. But everyone wants to hear about the invincibility of grace and the perseverance of the saints. The problem is that you cannot fully appreciate any of the points of the Reformed faith without also fully embracing and appreciating all of the other points. In other words, you can't have a party unless you are going to pay the band.
Tomorrow, I am supposed to begin preaching on Irresistible Grace. I started off this week by trying to answer two questions: Who is the Holy Spirit? and "What is the work of the Holy Spirit in Salvation?" Obviously, these two questions would be difficult to answer in 35 minutes (40 if I go long!). So tomorrow, I will begin preaching about who the Holy Spirit is.
Funny, most Presbyterians tend to ignore the Holy Spirit because of the charismatic abuses of the doctrines of the Spirit. I bet the Arminian would be happy if we would have done the same thing with the doctrines of election! We miss out on so much if we ignore the Holy Spirit and the teachings from Scripture. So this week, we will set out on a journey as we take a look at John 14 (where Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to the disciples and the Church). Who is this third Person of the Trinity?
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Who is the Holy Spirit?
Posted by Pastor Dan at 9:18 PM
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2 comments:
I have heard sooo many christians give credit to the Holy Spirit when they have specific feelings inside or when they rest their hand on a map and all of the sudden decide they need to be missionaries in Uraguay because thats where their index finger was pointing to! What are some good "tests" we can do to make sure that internal feeling isnt just indegestion or our missions trip is a legit moving of the Spirit?
True. Our "call" to certain ministry can be very confusing and/or misleading. I believe that we can be very sure about our calling and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
Every Christian is called into some kind of ministry. God has caleld us all to work as a body and as such we work in unison (see Ephesians 4:11). So how do we know that our call is that of the Holy Spirit? How do we know we are called at all?
First, I believe that calling comes from God through the work of His Holy Spirit. This is tested by our own conscience, the approbation of God's people, and godly counsel. Of course this is assuming that our calling is tested by a careful study of God's Word and prayer which are the primary means of grace by which we know the true calling of the Spirit.
Of course the approbation of God's people and godly counsel are subordinate to the inward call, God's Word and prayer.
What we have to be careful of is jumping into something that is not a true calling. This is often the case when all godly counsel points us elsewhere, when we don't pay attention to the prompting of the Holy Spirit through much prayer and the Word and when all those around us discourage us from going on with "our call".
To be sure, there are ways to test our calling by the Holy Spirit. Random finger pointing should be left out :-)
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