For the past five weeks, we as a church family have explored some of the main doctrines of our Christian faith in our sermon series, “Keeping The Main Thing The Main Thing.” One of the main doctrines of our faith is the Trinity, which is the belief that there is one God who exists in three equal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The word “Trinity” is not necessarily found in the Scriptures but the idea of one God in three persons is found in the very beginning of the Bible, in the book of Genesis, and it is key to understanding the Gospel and therefore you too. When it comes to the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God or the Holy Ghost, we seem to be a bit perplexed and a little unclear. We spend so much time talking about God the Father and God the Son, but the Holy Spirit always seems to be put on the backburner for some reason.

    The Holy Spirit has so many vitally important roles in our lives as believers. In the personal faith journey, the Holy Spirit leads and guides us on our walk with Jesus Christ every day and enables and provokes changes within us.  The Spirit provoking and enabling us to change assists us to live the life that God wants us to live and to be more of the men and women that God intended us to be. As changed people, living with the presence of the Holy Spirit, we can be used by God to reach others for Christ and be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. This is further lived out in community with other believers.

    In the community, the Spirit leads and unites believers. The Book of Acts as well as Paul’s letters attested that early Christians were aware of God’s Spirit leading the new church. The same Spirit is leading the church today. Life in the Spirit encompasses the communal life of the church in worship, mission, evangelism, service, and social witness. The church, which the Spirit has brought into existence, is used by God for the healing of the nations.

    Finally, the Holy Spirit, through its work in personal faith journeys and in the community of believers, promotes responsible living in the world. On a personal level, the Spirit empowers us for ministry in the world by giving us fruits and gifts. Fruits and gifts are the outgrowth of the Spirit’s work in us, by grace, through our faith in Jesus Christ. The fruit of the Spirit, which are love joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, help us to live responsible, meaningful lives in a world that prioritizes temporal things, such as monetary success, beauty and fame by focusing our lives on godly living, which flows horizontally person-to-person. 

    Overall, the Holy Spirit is pretty amazing. The Spirit helps us, convicts us, changes us from the inside out, lives in us, brings us everlasting peace, teaches us, empowers us, and, ultimately, points us to Jesus Christ. This is indeed the work of the Spirit in our lives as Christ-followers. Praise God for the Holy Spirit!