The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Body

I was about to reply to the recent post on the Holy Spirit, and began to think that my reply might better be considered a new topic. I thought Robert W had an awesome reply to the question asked, and it made me think of some things that God has been showing me from His word.

The work of the Holy Spirit is central to New Testament Christianity. The significance of Christ's return to the Father was the coming of the Holy Spirit of God to dwell in the believer. Christ was with them, but it was God's desire to be in them, in us. To have the Holy Spirit, to have the comforter, the paraklete, living in me and working through me is far superior to having Christ in earth in bodily form. This was the point of Jesus statements in the latter half of John 14.

Paul, in 1 Cor., gives the most detailed teaching on the Holy Spirit and of His workings in man in all of the NT. There was carnality and as a result error on the part of the church at Corinth in general, and Paul dealt with many things, giving detailed teaching as he did so.

I might say that one cannot take 1 Cor. 12 and 14 out of the context of 13, nor out of the context of the entirety of the letter. Paul deals with the workings of the Holy Spirit in the body through the entirely of the letter. I have come to realize that 1 Cor. 2 holds the same degree of influence over 1 and 3 as 13 does over 12 and 14. While proper understanding of the purpose and operation of the gifts of the Spirit in the church pivots around the agape love of Christ and our walking in and ministering from that love, the proper understanding of God's desire for the body of Christ pivots around the baptism of the Holy Spirit and what this means in the life of a believer.

Paul in the 1st chapter makes the statement that it is his desire that the whole body speak the same thing and be of the same judgment. He says that people were separating themselves into factions or we might say denominations or "non-denominational" denominations by making distinctions based on what teacher they followed. He lists himself, Apollus, Peter, and even Christ (the ones who say, "we separate ourselves from all others because we are non-denominational."). But Paul says it is God's desire that there be no division among us. If you read carefully this applies to what we teach and believe, to doctrine if you will. Some would say this is impossible. In chapter 3 Paul goes on with his teaching about this division by saying that the church at Corinth were babes in Christ and could not handle meat because of this carnality. Truly by dividing themselves based on their favorite teachers they were stunted in their spiritual growth, and their subsequent ability to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Could it be that this is one of the primary reasons the modern American church seems to be so devoid of power? It is worth considering.

But between chapters 1 and 3 is that chapter which, to some, seems to be disconnected. Really it is not. This chapter highlights what is arguably one of the most important works of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. A function that, in my opinion, surpasses tongues and the gifts of the Spirit, although I believe very strongly in the active operation and use of tongues and the gifts in the church today. Continued...

Paul begins by saying that His preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but was in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Now demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit are not found simply in a difference in words. This is the same dunimas power as is spoken of in Acts. It is the demonstrated power of the Holy Spirit. It is the same demonstrated power as accompanied the word in Matt. 16:20. It is the same power Paul spoke of in 1 Cor. 4:19 that set the true man of God possessing the Holy Spirit apart from the man who had intellectual knowledge and enticing words. Paul said in chapter 4, we will test these guy's power and that, rather than their words, will tell us what is truly in them. It is speech anointed by and backed up by the demonstration of the Holy Spirit through signs, miracles, etc.

Paul then goes on to say that what he is saying is the perfect wisdom of God. Paul’s words were the perfect wisdom of God, the mysteries of God, the hidden things of God. The princes of the world could not know these things. Why? They are spiritually discerned (vs. 14). So Paul had some kind of an inside track, some way that he knew the hidden things of God. He was somehow able to speak wisdom that came directly from the throne. Then he contrasts what was true of old testament men without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit with the experience of a new testament man who has been filled with the Holy Spirit. He quotes an OT passage. It is written that eye has not seen nor ear heard…BUT they are revealed to those filled with the Holy Spirit. How is this so? How can we know the hidden things of God, the mind of God we might say?

Paul draws an analogy from physical man. You don't really know what is going on in my mind. Only my own spirit knows that. Likewise it is only the Holy Spirit of God that can know what is the mind of God, not the carnal mind of man. If we have received the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit of God, we have, through that Spirit, the knowledge of the hidden things of God because the Holy Spirit knows those things.

We are filled with the Holy Spirit of God. We are saturated, baptized, immersed in the Holy Spirit. This communion with the Spirit of God causes us to know in our own spirits the things of God. 1 John 2:20 tells us that having an unction from the Holy One causes us to know all things. Not just some things, but all things. We, having receive the Holy Spirit have also received the things that are know of the Spirit of God that have been prepared for us. Paul caps this off by reiterating that we have the very MIND OF CHRIST.

How this effects our lives. The key to the church coming into doctrinal unity is allowing the HOLY SPIRIT to interpret scripture for us. Dogmatically following a teaching of man and trying to fit the word into that teaching is the antithesis of interpretation by the Spirit. If we will seek to be filled with the Spirit, and if we will cast aside loyalty to man and study the word on our knees, we will eventually begin to speak the same thing. If we have the right attitude toward our brothers, and in times of disagreement doctrinally humble ourselves and both agree to seek God and both agree that truth is more important than vindication, we will eventually begin to speak the same thing. It is NOT coming to an agreement with each other, it is each one coming into agreement with GOD!

Prayer...Oh My!!! Jesus is our intercessor, our mediator between us and God. He ever lives to make intercession. To have His mind and to thus be able to agree with HIS INTERCESSION? What power our prayer would have. We pray many things out of our intellect, but to come into agreement with the very things that are in the heart of Christ as He intercedes for His body is to truly pray prayers that avail much. I personally believe and have experienced this to be why praying in tongues is so important and powerful in my personal prayer life. It is to bypass my intellect and pray in agreement with the wisdom of God.

God desires for the manifestation of the sons of God walk this earth. John 1:12, Romans 8:14. But this manifestation cannot be fully realized without the Spirit of God dominating our lives. It is only when it can be said of me...and Travis, full of the Holy Ghost did...that I am walking where God desires me to walk. Not in my own power, not in my own wisdom, but in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Praise God!!!

I have been reading Art Katz lately, and he shared how God put it on his heart to re-study the bible, not from the stand-point of what he already knew or had been taught by rabbis or bible teachers, but from the foundational word itself. It revolutionized his life. He took each new study as a clean slate and prayerfully took it to heart.

Thinking about what you have written here Travis makes me think of the powerful manifestations of the Holy Spirit and power in nations like Africa. They have had relatively no teachers so take the word literally as their starting point and signs follow them that believe.

As you have said the "I am of Apollus" mentality is a road block to believing His word. Now I am not saying we can't learn from amazing teachers, like Art Katz, but we must again return to the Holy Spirit to teach us all things.

The outflow of spending time in His presence, and allowing Him to illuminate the word to us and praying in the Spirit, will cause our impact on the world around us to be exponentially more than it could ever be otherwise. We will turn the world upside-down, because it won't be our intellect, or biases, doing it, but the Spirit of the Living God.

Phanetheus: The power of the Holy Spirit working in us is the key. When Jesus explained how He was able to do miracles, He plainly said that He did not do these things out of any power of His own, but through the power of the Holy Spirit. He emptied Himself of divine privilege and operated as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit, although His identity never ceased to be God in the flesh. It is that same abiding and indwelling anointing of the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to fulfill Jesus' words in John 14 when He said that we as believers would do the same works that He did and even greater works because He went to the father. In John 16 He even said it was needful for us that He go so the comforter could come.

Goldminer: AMEN!

Romans 8:11-13

11But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

Often I see so many think of the work of the Holy Spirit in us as duplicating and going even beyond what Jesus did in miracles.

However, when I read the great chapter of Romans 8, the chapter addressing the work of the Holy Spirit in the body, I do not see, not even once, any doctrine Paul tells us as having to do with preforming miracles.

Again I go to Galatians, another book concerning the work of the Holy Spirit in the body, and I still fail to see anything addressing our preforming miracles.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church age I believe is a work conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. Christ formed in you. Not Christ the miracle worker formed in you. Christ in you, THE HOPE OF GLORY.

The greatest miracle of all is God himself entered our world, took on the form of a servant, was born of a virgin, became obedient unto death of a Cross, took upon HIM the sin of the world, being raised again for our justification, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Only God Almighty can do that..not you!

The Gospel message of salvation is the work of the Holy Spirit through the BODY known as the Church.

To suggest we can do miracles greater that God, I believe is a concept taken totally out of context leading to destruction. Abide in me and I in you as YE CAN DO NOTHING without me.

Blessings,
R.G. Benjamin

R.G.

I know that many take the scripture talking about "greater works" and say that this does not apply to what we would classify as miracles. Even if we were to agree that this statement does not talk about miracles, it is still impossible to get past the first half of that scripture. The works that I do.... All one has to do is look at the gospels and see all of the works that Jesus did. Almost without exception all of His recorded works were miracles. We will do the same.

You are absolutely correct in saying we can do nothing aside from Him. It is only the power of the Holy Spirit in and through us that allows us to effectively minister...period, be it preaching, teaching, counseling, praying, healing the sick, casting out demons, miracles, gifts of the Spirit, prophecy, you name it. In fact, careful study of what Jesus told us will demonstrate that even He did nothing of His own power or ability, but was totally reliant on the power of the Holy Spirit of God and did only what His Father told Him to do. It is the same with us. No more, but no less either.

1 Cor. addresses miracles, the book of Acts is one miracle after another. It is in the context of Acts that all of Paul's letters are written. One would not necessarily expect to find a great deal of mention of miracles in the epistles as he would in Acts, which is a history of event rather than instruction to individuals or churches. Galatians for example addresses the legalism that the judaizers were attempting to bring back into the church. The letters very purpose would probably preclude significant mention of the miraculous.

One thing we must remember is that miracles are not to exalt the one through whom they are performed. They are ministries of the Holy Spirit of God through His servants to others as an expression of His love and compassion and directed as the Spirit wills (1 Cor. 12:11).

It is absolutely true that a major work of the Holy Spirit is in transforming us and conforming us into the image of Christ. It is also true that being baptized in the Holy Spirit should bring with it an accompanying holiness that was not possible without the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. But this does not mean that God using His people in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit is not a valid and important function of the Holy Spirit.

I have seen God totally transform lives through the gift of the word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy, gifts of healing, tongues and interpretation. God has used me to see the hold of a demonic spirit broken over a person (she was unconscious and unresponsive prior to prayer and had been cursed by someone involved heavily in witchcraft), to see instantaneous healing of a severely fractured ankle (the boy was out of his cast and playing basketball within the hour), and have seen scores of other miracles over the course of 30 years as a believer. I say this to say that my own experience is a witness before me and confirms the Word. These things did not lead to destruction, but rather served as witness to these people of the power of God and changed their lives.

The greatest miracle of all is God himself entered our world, took on the form of a servant, was born of a virgin, became obedient unto death of a Cross, took upon HIM the sin of the world, being raised again for our justification, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Only God Almighty can do that..not you!

Oh how true this is. Christ was uniquely qualified to do this for us. Without this, there is nothing. All other discussion becomes empty. Praise God for this unspeakable gift! Amen.