In J.I. Packer’s Keep in Step with the Spirit, the Spirit is said to have a specific function in the life of the church. As I’ve been teaching on the Spirit’s work and role in the church, I’m struck by how important and equally amazing it is to have both fellowship with the Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14) and to be empowered by and partnered with the the Spirit. Simply amazing. At any rate, Packer notes that the Spirit is relate to:
1. Power – the God-given ability to do what God wants us to do and what, apart from the Spirit, we otherwise could not do.
- Power for hope (Rom. 15:13)
- Power for miracles (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; Rom. 15:18-19)
- Power for prayer (Eph. 6:18-19; Rom. 8:26-27)
- Power for praise (Eph. 5:18-19; Phil. 3:3)
- Power for preaching (Acts 4:33)
2. Performance – the impartation and energizing of spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 12:7).
3. Purity – the Spirit sanctifies our motives and actions and delivers us from the power and pollution of sin; the Spirit cultivates His fruit in our lives (Gal. 5).
4. Presentation – of the truth, in the sense of making us aware of spiritual things: revelation, interpretation, illumination (Eph. 1:17; 1 John 2:20,27).
5. Presence – the Holy Spirit makes known to us and in us the person of Jesus; He mediates the presence and power of Christ in our hearts; His role is to throw a floodlight, as it were, on the person of Christ (John 16:14).
Luke is a pastor-theologian living in northern California, serving as a co-lead pastor with his life, Dawn, at the Red Bluff Vineyard. Father of five amazing kids, when Luke isn’t hanging with his family, reading or writing theology, he moonlights as a fly fishing guide for Confluence Outfitters. He blogs regularly at LukeGeraty.com and regularly contributes to his YouTube channel.
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