The Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church

A small bible study for our church's camp this weekend:

The Presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church
The Holy Spirit is sometimes referred as the “forgotten member of the Trinity”. This may be due not only to the fact that most individuals and churches find it difficult to relate to the third member of the Trinity, but also because we, as human beings, love to as the old saying goes, “pulling your self up by your own bootstraps”. We forget that as a church, we don’t only follow an order or service, good as it may be, but we get things accomplished through and by the Holy Spirit.

Have you asked the Spirit to help you through this day?

God gives us the Holy Spirit so we can be assure of our salvation

We have been given the Holy Spirit to zeal us as God’s chosen people. In Ephesians 1:13-14, we read that the Holy Spirit is the zeal the marks us as part of God’s people. This is the same Holy Spirit that testifies to our spirit that we are children of God, cf. Romans 8:16. Too many Christians question their salvation by measuring how many good works they do. Some even claim that only through an external action the believer, and others will know if they truly have the Holy Spirit! But Paul says that all who believe in God, receive the Holy Spirit at that very moment, cf. Ephesians 1:13. Putting it in simple words, there is no Christian without the Holy Spirit!

How can we doubt that we have the Holy Spirit if the Bible tells us so?

The Church needs the presence of the Holy Spirit at all times

When we go to cathedrals, as tourists of course, we love to admire the beauty and grandeur of the place. We admire its paintings, architecture, and its awesome presence. We try to be quite and conduct ourselves with respect. This is not only polite, but we may feel overwhelmed by the place. But do we as a church, God’s temple, behave the same when we are gathered? A cathedral may be a place of peace, contemplation, but the Spirit of God does not dwell there. We are the true temple of God, I Corinthians 3:16. We are called the household of God, I Timothy 3:15. So we are confronted once again with this reality, just a there can be no Christian without the Spirit, there can be no Church without the Spirit

How do we behave within God’s house?

The fruits/gifts of the Holy Spirit are to be used within the Church and wider world

One of the main problems within the Corinthian congregation is that the manifestations of the Spirit were used to show off their “spirituality”. They didn’t appreciate that by God giving those gifts to such a sinful people, God was showing his mercy rather than his favouritism. The gifts were given to up build one another in love, not to put those who were seen to have lesser gifts, cf. I Corinthians 12. But as mentioned before, we are not going to achieve unity by our own efforts. We may be polite to one another, but that politeness must be because we love one another. Only the Holy Spirit can change our hearts of stone into a heart of flesh, cf. Ezekiel 36:26. Paul warns the Galatians what it is to live a life where the Spirit is not present as a church, cf. Galatians 5:13-21. But after that, he gives us what to live through the Holy Spirit is, 22-26. If we live a life in the Spirit, then, the world will see that we are one, and be a great testimony as to the power of God among us, his church, John 13:35.

Are we allowing the Holy Spirit to take hold of our church?

Prayer.