The Lord’s Promise of Power (3) — The Exigency of a Re-Awakening on Life-in-the-Spirit
1. The mission of the Holy Spirit as the ‘helper’
The thrust or essence of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to be for us “another helper” (Jn 14:16) Generally, the ministry or function which the Holy Spirit exercises for the advantage of the Christian people, by its nature, is multifold or manifold and all-encompassing. However, its core is to be a ‘helper’ to God’s people. The Holy Spirit is God’s ‘help’ given those who believe; he is the ‘helper’ from above. The ultimate end of every Christian activity is to unite us to the divine Trinity. The Holy Spirit ‘helps’ us reach this goal by rendering us pleasing to the Godhead, by advocating on our behalf before God and by obtaining for us whatever is necessary for our wellbeing and salvation. To the Romans, St. Paul explained it in this way: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.” (Rm 8:26) Bearing in mind its varied and many imports and implications, it is important to underline the fact that the Holy Spirit was given to the redeemed in Christ as a ‘helper’. He is the gift of divine ‘help’. Such a deliberate design and divine mandate, is instructive of the relevance and exigency of the presence, the power and the actions of the Holy Spirit for and among Christians. The omniscient and benevolent God knew that the Christian would need help in many ways, in many areas and in many circumstances of life, and he made provision in anticipation for such, by making available to us his own divine Spirit, whose power can handle all vicissitudes.
2. The Spirit of power — the Lord’s promise of power to the faithful
The need for ‘help’ by human beings — which implicates the incapacitation of human nature — directly corresponds to the need for ‘power’ — which itself, implicates capacitation and potence. Thus, the promise of a ‘helper’ directly implicates and corresponds to the promise of ‘power’. In other words, the promise of ‘help’ equals the promise of ‘power; since ‘help’ — which is a metaphor for ‘need’ or ‘inability’ — can only be relieved or resolved or rectified by ‘power’ — which on its part, is a metaphor for ‘potency’ and ‘capability’ or ‘redemption and ‘provision’. When God, first, through the ancient prophets, and finally through Jesus Christ, promised to pour out his Spirit upon all his people — upon all who believe — it was a promise to send them the ‘help’ of a divine ‘helper’. But what makes this ‘help’ possible and unique is the ‘power’, the divine power, with which this divine helper comes — since without this superior and overriding power, the ‘helper’ would avail little or nothing in his mission to help. It is in this sense, the promise to send a ‘helper’ is ultimately the promise to send a superior ‘power’. Again, it is in this sense that we can refer to the Lord’s promise to send us the Holy Spirit as the Lord’s promise of power; certain that the Holy Spirit is in every sense, the Spirit of power.
Therefore, it can be said that the phrase ‘the promise of power’, is the couch or concept that best captures both the prerequisite roles of the Holy Spirit for a steadfast Christian life as well as the Christian’s immense and imperative need of him, given the necessitous condition of fallen humanity. The event of the descent of the Holy Spirit signalled the fulfilment of the Lord’s promise of power. And beyond theological theoreticals, this is what is demonstrated in the Acts of the Apostles and in the unprecedented evangelical engagements of Christ’s apostles, which began soon after the day of Pentecost and continues even today, everywhere in the world.
3. Mandated to abide with us and to dwell within us
“The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, nor knows him: but you shall know him; because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more. But you will see me.” (Jn 14:17–19) As Jesus explained to his apostles: the presence of Christ would remain among his faithful followers by the presence of the Holy Spirit; the work of Christ would continue among them through the action of the Holy Spirit. the Holy Spirit has the divine charge to ‘abide with’ us and to ‘dwell within’ us (Jn 14:17); in other words, to ‘be with’ us and to ‘live in’ us. This is the basis of the perception and conception of the Holy Spirit as an ‘indwelling presence’ in the faithful believer and as an ‘abiding presence’ among faithful believers. The Holy Spirit is God’s personal gift given to dwell within every desirous believer.
After the ascension, Christianity entered its second phase: a new and higher phase. This is the phase of interior presence and the phase of interior witnessing. It is the phase of the indwelling Spirit. The Messiah has left the streets of Jerusalem and Judah and has entered the hearts of his followers. The pharisees could no longer find him to interrogate him, but he was not absent among his own. Through his Spirit abiding with them and dwelling within them, he was present and active in all who believed. In this new phase, Christianity was given a new minister — the Holy Ghost, who arrived and to over control on the day of Pentecost. Therefore, this phase can be called the phase of the Holy Spirit; it is the phase of the unseen Spirit. In this new phase, the same Spirit which was in Christ was poured out unto his faithful followers, so that Christ and indeed the Spirit of Christ, were with them, everywhere they went. Remarkably, in this new phase, the distinguishing element of the followers of Christ is no longer merely being a part of the multitude that followed him and listened to him; rather the guarantee of belonging to Christ today, is the indwelling and abidance of the Holy Spirit — the Spirit promised and sent by Christ. This same function of ‘sealing’ Christ’s faithful belongs to the Holy Spirit even today.
4. The guarantor of our belonging to Christ and of being found in him
It is the Holy Spirit who witnesses to Christ in us. It is the Holy Spirit who links us to Christ! His presence and active ministry in us is imperative, since indeed, it is the Holy Spirit that testifies of Jesus and bears witness to him in us (Jn 15:26) It is him who glorifies Christ (Jn 16:4) and gives efficacy to his work of salvation in us. The Apostle Paul is convinced that no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. (1Cor 12:3) Again the Apostle John wrote: “By this you will know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1Jn 4:2) A deliberate and flourishing relationship with the Spirit who is the prove of the life of Christ in us, cannot be overemphasized. This is often called fellowship or communion with the Holy Spirit! It is friendship with the divine Spirit!
By the function of his presence, it is the mission of the Holy Spirit to maintain the connection between the baptised and the Christ. The Holy Spirit, who is “the Spirit of Christ” (Rm 8:9), whom the Father sends in the name of Christ (Jn 14:26) and at the behest of Christ (Jn 14:16), is the link to the ascended Christ now enthroned at the right hand of the Father. (Mk 16:19; Hb 1:3; Lk 1:32; Ps 110:1) As though he were his vicar, Jesus says, “If I do not go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn 16:14) Without doubt, the Holy Spirit is like the resident envoy of the Triune undivided God, dwelling among men. The first Epistle of St. John says: “And by this we know that he abides in us: by the Spirit he has given us.” (1Jn 3:24) Again it says: “By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit.” (1Jn 4:13) Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, is to be ‘present’ in us! In other words, part of the mission of the Holy Spirit is to abide in us and us in him.
In this sense, the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of belonging to Christ who is the Saviour and to God who is the Father. In this post ascension phase of salvation history, the Holy Spirit is the envoy of the heavenly God sent to us; his designated abode is the soul of the baptised and faithful believer. The Holy Spirit is like the minister plenipotentiary of God sent among us. To live in negation or negligence of him is to cut of the active link that connects us with the being and the power of the Trinitarian God. Pointing out this linkage role of the Holy Spirit to the Romans, St. Paul says: “Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. But you are not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ”. (Rm 8:9) It is the function of the Holy Spirit to keep us connected to the Godhead and to all that pertain to us in God. (Rm 8:11; 1Cor 3:16) The leading of the Holy Spirit is the mark of sonship in God. St. Paul states it quite very plainly: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rm 8:14) Furthermore, he adds: it is the same Spirit that “testifies together with our spirit that we are sons.” (Rm 8:16)
5. The manifold mission of the Holy Spirit
Our goal here and indeed the purpose of this reflection on the Holy Spirit is to show how much it is important for today’s orthodox Christians to cultivate — or to deepen, as the case may be — a greater awareness and a living communion with the Holy Spirit; and in so doing to profit even more abundantly from the multiplicity of ministries exercised by the Holy Spirit for our advantage. It is the Holy Spirit that regenerates us in baptism! It is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies! It is the Holy Spirit that anoints us! It is the Holy Spirit that confirms us with his divine power! It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin and guilt! It is the Holy Spirit that endows us with charisma! It is the Holy Spirit that empowers us with virtues! It is the Holy Spirit that emboldens us in the service of God! It is the Holy Spirit that inspires us unto good actions! It is the Holy Spirit that prays in us, annulling our weaknesses! It is the Holy Spirit that transforms us to be pleasing to God! It is the Holy Spirit that ‘Christifies’ us! It is the Holy Spirit that vivifies us with the life of grace! It is the Holy Spirit that fortifies us against the onslaught of evil! It is the Holy Spirit that strengthens us with fortitude to persevere in the good! It is the Holy Spirit — the giver of life — that renews us! It is the Holy Spirit that guarantees our place in Christ, in God and in salvation. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is such that, as the Church and indeed Christianity cannot function without him, in the same manner, a balanced and efficient Christian life is so dependent upon him that it is impossible without him.
Part of his ministry is to illuminate our mind, counsel our heart and fortify our will. In so doing the Holy Spirit guides us to adjudicate and navigate between good and evil, between what edifies and what is futile, between what is profitable and what is vain, between what leads to ‘life’ and what leads to ‘death’. Jesus puts it thus: “And when he comes, he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because they do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father … and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned.” (Jn 16:8–11) It is the Spirit of God active within us that brings us to repentance, to a profound knowledge of the horrors of sin, which makes us penitent. This was what happened when Peter spoke to the crowd, just after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:37; 26:29–30; Jn 8:9; Jud 8:15); so that in their thousands, the people turned to the Lord Jesus and to the new way.
6. The Holy Spirit holds the power to effective witnessing to God in a godless world
Part of his ministry is to confer on us the power to witness to Jesus and to the Gospel — the new way, the new teaching, the new law, the new covenant. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) The power of this Spirit who empowers the faithful for witnessing to the Gospel and the Christ is attested to in the accounts of the Acts of the Apostles and the evangelization activities of the apostolic Church. (cf. Acts 2:4; 8:5–25; Mt. 28:19; Mk. 16:15; Rm. 15:19) While we can say that the Holy Spirit gives the believer the power to witness to Jesus, in whatever form one’s circumstance of life makes it needful, we can better say that the Holy Spirit is this power himself. The Holy Spirit himself, is the power of witnessing and evangelising. His person, his presence and his power constitute the principle necessary for the capacity and efficacy of evangelization and a life of daily witnessing. To effectively evangelise, we need ‘power’. And as Jesus explained it to his apostles, it is only when we receive this Spirit that we can have the power of efficacious evangelization.
The Blessed Mother of Jesus was the first, in the New Testament, to encounter this ‘power’ of the Holy Spirit which, both equips us and enables to go out and bear witness to Jesus. On the day of the annunciation, the Angel Gabriel said to her “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee” (Lk 1:35) To begin her witnessing — her special role as the mother of the Lord, she needed the Holy Spirit. The power of the Spirit began at once to manifest and witness through her, as she went to visit Elisabeth in Hebron. (Lk 1:39–45) Like the Blessed Virgin, today’s Christians too, need this ‘overshadowing’ presence and power of the Holy Spirit, for effective witnessing to Christ and for Christian fruitfulness. In our Christian witnessing, St. Paul acknowledges that we are impeded by the fears and timidities of our finite humanity. It is for this reason that God gave us an aid, a helper. God gave us the Spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. (2Tim 1:7) It was in this way that the apostles themselves overcame their own fears after the ‘scandal’ of the crucifixion; beginning their ministry only after encountering the gift of power, the Spirit of power, at Pentecost; and thereafter, in that same occasion, converted 3,000 men to Christ. (Acts 2:1–41)
7. The Spirit who was given to us is also the giver of gifts
Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to endow the Christian soul with varieties of supernatural virtues and powers which enliven the Christian life and edify the Christian community. These supermundane competencies have in the Christian and biblical traditions been known as the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are special charisms consequent upon the life of grace, vouchsafed the faithful in Christ by the action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the dispenser of those divine gifts and spiritual faculties, availed us by the providence of God, which concede to the Christian man the facility or ability to do even those things that are beyond ordinary human capacity and proclivity. From the very moment of the descent of the Holy Spirit, before they launched into their missionary ministry, the apostles and disciples of Jesus, received these gifts and began to operate in them, using them as special aids for the facilitation of the apostolic enterprise. After them and with their aid, their successors also received these gifts and functioned in them t edify the Christian community. It is an error to pretend that the special gifts of the Spirit no longer exist or are no longer necessary or to attempt to suppress their rightful use on account of incidences of abuse or counterfeiting — which have been present even from the days of Jesus’ apostles themselves.
Without the aid of the supernatural effects produced in the soul by means of the many gifts of the Holy Spirit — who himself is the ‘gift of God’ (Acts 8:20; 2:28; 10:45; 11:17) and the ‘promise of the Father’ (Acts 1:4) — the Christian life would be without fervour and flavour; but would rather proceed tepid and spiritless, with the coldness likened to ice in winter, with the aridity likened to yam planted in a scorched land and with the uncertainty likened to a yachter without a radar, a sailor without a sonar. This is because, the Christian life is a spiritual life; and the compass of this spiritual life is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the ‘presence’ that ennobles the Christian soul, the ‘power’ that enables it and the ‘person’ that divinises it. In the absence, in the soul, of these acts of condescension of the Holy Spirit — which have been called the gifts of the Holy Spirit — the Christian life would certainly leave much to be desired. It would be largely rudderless, ineffective, uninteresting, unattractive and unfruitful. It is the operations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that give delight to the Christian soul, just as, it is the presence of the Holy Spirit that empowers Christian living, in the first place.
8. The socio-psychological effects of life-in-the-Spirit
Part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to produce in the faithful of Christ the social and psychological effects of the life of grace — that is the divine life in which we share even while here on earth. The socio-psychological effects of life-in-the-Spirit are those detectable beneficial, behavioural accruements and recompenses of the life of grace which the Holy Spirit engenders in the soul. In the Christian tradition, they have been called the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are the proceeds or leverages or advantages that result from life-in-the-Spirit, that is, a life lived in active communion with the Holy Spirit, which manifest in the forms of socio-psychological phenomena, such as joy, peace, circumspection and equanimity. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the visible and pleasant effusions of grace in the life of a Christian, in consequence of a life of communion by the soul with the Spirit of God, the third Person of God
While the gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifestations of Christlikeness, activated by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the soul, the fruits of the Holy Spirit — the fruits of grace — can be likened to delightful and delectable, pleasant and palatable psychological or emotional outpourings of a life lived in union with the Spirit of Christ. St. Paul gave us a roster of these fruits in his letter to the Galatians; in which he also confirms that they do not proceed from the works of the law, but are effects of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. St. Jerome’s Vulgate version of the Bible lists twelve of such fruits: “But the fruit of the Spirit is, charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, chastity. Against such there is no law.” (Gal 5:22.23) What cannot be overemphasised here is that both the gifts and the fruits of grace are direct effects of an active communion with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit I the seed of the fruits. These fruits of the Spirit in the Christian soul is the fulfilment of the Scripture “For the tree is known by its fruit.” (Mt 12:33; 7:16–20; Lk 6:43–44)
9. It is the Holy Spirit that leads us to all truth
Part of his ministry is to lead us into all truth. He is the Spirit of truth! (Jn. 16:13) It is his mission to lead men to the knowledge of truth; that is, the true knowledge of reality; that is, the true knowledge of God, of the world and of the self. In his duty as a guide to all truth, as the revealer of all truth, the Holy Spirit brings us to the right understanding of the things of God, the things in the world and the purpose of our own being. At Eden mankind was infested with satanic deception resulting in a fundamental vitiation in human nature; and since after then, mankind has remained a victim of diabolic deception, volitional depravation and moral declination. Fallen man, therefore, needs the aid of the Spirit of truth to return to ‘all truth’. Jesus identified himself as the truth. In other words, in God is found the truth about all things. Then Jesus proceeds to tell us that, in order to arrive at the knowledge of truth, we have, and we would need, the Holy Spirit as our guide. Thankfully then, the truth about Truth’ and about ‘all truth’ and how to come to the knowledge of them, have been revealed to us. Without close acquaintance with the Holy Spirit, even Christians would remain in the darkness error, which lead to needless vacillation of the will, depravation of morals and privation of the good.
A sound and solid faith, a firm foundation in God, a steadfast trust in divine providence, a deep appreciation of the price of salvation, the delights of the life of grace, an illumined perception of life, a balanced and pleasing way of life, etc, which all emanate from profound knowledge and right understanding, would be so farfetched without the Holy Spirit. He guides us to all truth — and this refers to truth in all its depths and dimensions. Along this same line, as Jesus explained it to the apostles, the Holy Spirit is also a teacher and the ‘Reminder’. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (Jn 14:26) It is his ministry to remind us of what God has revealed — what Christ has taught — and to lead us to the fullness of their depths and meanings. (cf. Jn 12:16; 15:26; Lk 24:8; Acts 11:16)
10. The Holy Spirit is the ‘soul’ of Christianity
Indeed, enough cannot be said about our everyday need of the Holy Spirit and about the great exigency of a re-awakening regarding the ministry and role which the third person of God is ordained to exercise in the daily life of Christians and in the sanctification that fulfils our salvation in Christ. The Holy Spirit is the gift that fulfils all gifts and realises all expectations. His presence and action within and among us is so central and so crucial that the Father gives him to us as a fulfilment of every good thing. Gladly, our good Father gives him to us again and again, at every supplication; and this is so that we may escape the Grave wretchedness of living without him. “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? So, if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Lk 11:11–13) The Holy Spirit is the immeasurable ‘good’ which the good Father has given to his children; the Holy Spirit is the great gift always and forever given to us by the good God. The Holy Spirit is God’s promise of power, made available to us for the realisation of every good work and for victory over every vicissitude; he is the gift from on high, promised and sent; to ‘help’ us and to ‘comfort’ us, to empower us and to lead us to all truth, to sanctify us and to dwell within us. To ignore him would be the greatest of folly!
From the little exposition that has been made, we can proceed to state that the Holy Spirit, the power promised us by the Lord, is the soul of Christianity. The Holy Spirit is the greatest need, both of the Christian community and of every Christian. He is both the principle and the power on which Christ, the bridegroom of the bride, the head of the body, hinged his Church. It is by him that the Church is animated; by him that the rock of its foundation is kept firm; and by him it is ultimately guided to the harbour of truth. It is also by him that the faithful of Christ are vivified and become rooted in Christ. It is by means of the Holy Spirit that we are baptised and blessed in Christ with every spiritual gifts. Yet it is him who produces in us, the fruits of grace and of every good work. The Holy Spirit is our advocate; but he is also the judge of our conduct — he convicts us of every unrighteousness. He is both the fire and the wind. After the ascension of the Christ, the Holy Spirit became the boss! You cannot do much without him. Jesus commanded his disciples to await him in prayers, cenacled in the enclosure of the upper room; and to do nothing, until he arrives. If the apostles who lived and dined with Christ, could not do without the Holy Spirit, we then, have even a greater need of him. We cannot do much without the Holy Spirit; he is the power promised us by the Lord, for a glorious Christian life. The least that every Christian can do and should do is to seek his friendship and fellowship.
Michael Richmond Duru
24th May 2022
https://michaelrichmondduru.medium.com/subscribe
