.jpg)
The primal ministry
Of all teachings I have heard about the coming of the Spirit, no one cares to highlight what Christ highlighted in His promise of the Spirit, that is, “He will convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). That means the primal ministry of the Holy Spirit is not some religious experience but it is to show a sinner the condition of his sin, because of the righteousness of the Holy One and the judgment that must follow. From this, the good Spirit then goes on to produce regeneration (salvation) through the process of repentance and faith.
The indwelling Spirit
“Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who, is in you?” asks the concerned Apostle. In other ways, those who are in Christ
– believers I should say – have the Lord himself living within them through the Person of His Spirit. If there is anything I remember from the eighth chapter of Romans is that “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His” (Rom 8:9). This is key to understand because they are some groups who teach that someone can become a Christian without the Holy Spirit, until they receive Him sometime later in some religious experiences; wrong! The moment you trust in the Lord is the moment you are saved, indwelt and sealed until the day of redemption (Eph 4:30). It’s not an experience but its reality.The evidence of the Spirit
How then can you know that you have the Spirit; what is the evidence? Again, some people have been taught that unless you speak in tongues you have no Holy Spirit. I am actually one of those people who know the painful experience of being looked down upon as being less spiritual and even forced to speak in tongues. Such scenarios are indeed an unfortunate tragedy, although they are highly unnecessary considering that Scripture is clear that the gift of tongues is not for everyone. Perhaps you didn’t even know this, no worries, just open 1 Corinthians 12:29-30 and you will read the words “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” The gifts of the Spirit my dear friend, are given by the Spirit Himself according to His purpose and will. What then is the evidence of the Spirit within you? I could open Romans 8:9-11 again and explain how those who truly have the Holy Spirit are led by Him to crucify the flesh. This means that those without the Spirit are obvious by their indulgence in carnality. As much as that is enough to convince me, I will go on and tell you about something Scripture calls the fruit of the Spirit. That means you simply have to look at your life and discern whether you have love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That is the evidence of the Spirit.
The baptizing Spirit
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13
Again I marvel, that everything about the Holy Spirit in today’s church is boxed into one category; speaking in tongues. Like I said, tongue-speaking is a gift that is given to some believers in the Church, for the purpose of edifying the Church as do other gifts. Here I should also highlight another error of confusing being filled by the Spirit and being baptized by the Holy Spirit as the same thing. It’s not the same thing! The reason why we misunderstand Scripture is that we appeal to our personal experiences as the basis of our interpretation, instead of beginning with what the Bible says, then we can judge experiences based on that. What then does it mean? To baptize as we all know is to immerse, or deep into something. Baptism in the Spirit – according to our text above – is that process when the Spirit introduces someone into the body of Christ – the subject matter in that of course, is unity. All believers are considered as one body of Christ. This process of making into one body is called Spirit Baptism. Question: when does one become a member of the body of Christ? The moment he becomes a Christian of course! Again I say, Spirit baptism it’s not an emotion, a warm feeling or a wild religious experience but it is mainly an invisible work of the Spirit through a believer at the point of salvation. Hence we can conclude that all who are in Christ are already members of the body of Christ; they are already baptized by the Holy Spirit, regardless of whether they felt that or not. We are going to see experience, emotion and speaking in tongues in our study of being filled by the Holy Spirit; next time.
Dear ones, thanks again for visiting Evangel Africa, as you can see these are extremely hard issues, yet being ignorant will not help us either. Instead, we are to labour in prayer and the Word to fully know about our Savior as He has revealed Himself. Lord-willing we will meet again on another day, have a good one.
Sinothi Ncube
Related Content...
Comments
Post a Comment