God's Word For You is a free Bible Study site committed to bringing you studies firmly grounded in the Bible – the Word of God. Holding a reformed, conservative, evangelical perspective this site affirms that God has provided in Jesus Christ his eternal Son, a way of salvation in which we can live in his presence guilt free, acquitted and at peace.

 
 

THOUGHTS ON THE HOLY SPIRIT

THE DIFFERENCE THE SPIRIT MAKES – 2

The Holy Spirit teaches and instructs us how to live as God’s dearly loved children. But he does more than just tell us how to live – he works in us; he changes us, so that our minds and our actions, our thoughts, our words and our attitudes, are increasingly brought into line with God’s good and glorious purpose for us. This transforming work of the Spirit is anticipated by the Old Testament prophets, through whom God said:

‘I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws’ (Ezekiel 36:27). and

‘I will put my law in their minds and write in on their hearts …’ (Jeremiah 31:33).

Viewed together as anticipations of the one new covenant established by Jesus Christ, these two verses reveal an active synergy between the Spirit of God and the word of God. This synergy between Spirit and Word is affirmed by the New Testament, where we read -

That the ‘sword of the Spirit’ is ‘the word of God’ – Ephesians 6:17.

That Jesus taught that the Holy Spirit would teach and remind his disciples of everything that Jesus had told them, and referred to the Spirit as ‘the Spirit of truth’ (John 14:15 – 16:15).

That what being ‘filled with the Spirit’ looks like (Ephesians 5:18 – 6:9), parallels what letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly looks like - (Colossians 3:16 – 25).

That the letters of Jesus to the seven churches, recorded in Revelation 2 & 3, is ‘what the Spirit says to the churches’ – Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22.

God’s Spirit and God’s word/truth are not either/or options. What the one is the other is. What the one does, the other does. To live by the Spirit is to live by God’s word/truth. To live by God’s word/truth is to live by his Spirit.

As we saw in the previous meditation, the Holy Spirit changes our whole mindset, our whole worldview. He enables us to see life and reality through the lens of the truth about Jesus Christ, truth that has an amazing, profound and all-encompassing impact.

Paul, having told us about the super-abundance of the spiritual blessings that God, in his love, has lavished upon us in Christ (Ephesians 1:3 – 14; 1:19a – 2:22; 3:2 – 13), prays (1:15 -19a; 3:1, 14 – 21) that God will open the eyes of our hearts and enable us by his Spirit to live our lives within the reality of that great, amazing love. It is only then, having thus prayed that we will really know God’s great love for us, that Paul then begins to tell us how to live as those who are called God’s ‘dearly loved children’ (4:1 – 6:18).

As the Holy Spirit enables us to grasp the surpassing greatness of God’s love he also enables us to live our lives grounded in the reality of that love, so that a transformation is continually taking place. This on-going, Spirit-generated transformation includes:

A life lived with such full confidence in God’s love –

That we no longer fear God’s judgement – 1John 4:16 – 18.

That we are characterised by peace, joy and freedom from guilt in God’s presence – Romans 14:17; 15:13; 1Thessalonians 1:6.

That we are full of hope – full of sure and certain confidence in God’s faithfulness and God’s acceptance – Romans 15:13; Galatians 5:5.

A life so overpowered and overwhelmed by the love of Christ that it increasingly reflects that same love –

A life in the process of being transformed into the image of Christ – 2Corinthians 3:17, 18.

A life in which the Holy Spirit is creating Christ-like qualities – 2Corinthians 6:6; Galatians 5:16, 22, 23; Ephesians 5:9.

A life that expresses towards others the same grace and forgiveness that each believer has received from God – Ephesians 4:32 – 5:2; Philippians 2:1 – 11; Colossians 3:12 – 13.

A life empowered by the Spirit to live in love and unity with other believers – Ephesians 4:3; Philippians 2:1; Colossians 1:8; 2Corinthians 13:14.

A life in which prayer is an unimpeded, intimate conversation uninhibited by any thought of unworthiness, and enabled and sustained by the assurance affirmed by the Holy Spirit – Ephesians 6:18; Jude 19, 20.

This life resulting from the transforming work of the Spirit is what the New Testament calls ‘being filled with’ or ‘full of’ the Spirit. Whenever this fullness of the Spirit is mentioned it is always in a present, on-going sense, and is something all Christians are commanded to be. It is quite a different thing from being empowered by (‘filled with’) the Spirit to do things like preaching, healing or miracles, and which is reported, but never commanded; it happens when God so wills. (Note that the New Testament writers used two different Greek verbs are used to refer to these two different kinds of being filled with the Spirit - pleroo, and the adjective pleres, when referring to a life submissive and responsive to the Spirit's teaching and instruction; and pletho when reporting being filled with/empowered by the Spirit, to accomplish something beyond one's normal human ability. )

© Rosemary Bardsley 2024