Understanding the purpose and ministry of the Holy Spirit is essential for us to walk in the fullness of Christ. It is an indictment against the Church that there is so much ignorance, confusion, and misinformation about the Holy Spirit.
We are going to start with the very basic understanding of the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit and what we all should expect to experience as believers in Christ.
It is only by the Holy Spirit that we can experience the fullness of Christ.
If we limit or somehow quench the Holy Spirit through ignorance, wrong thinking, wrong believing, and wrong practices, we will never grow up into Him in all things (Eph 4:15). We will not give God the glory He deserves. We will not complete our mission and fulfill our purpose. We will limit the power and demonstration of the Holy Spirit through our lives, and we will not bear the fruit we could have, had known and embraced the truth about the Holy Spirit.
There are two Primary ways Believers are to experience the Holy Spirit
We see overwhelming evidence in the New Testament that believers in Christ are to experience the Holy Spirit in two ways. We must understand both experiences to fully grasp the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of Jesus.
Unfortunately, the Church is overrun with confusion about the Holy Spirit. So much so that we have become divided, weak, and powerless as a people. It is no surprise, because the devil knows that he is powerless against the work of the Holy Spirit, and powerless against us when we understand what has been made available to us.
This teaching should bring some clarity and understanding about the present-day ministry of the Holy Spirit and empower us to walk in the authority to control, limit, and destroy the works of Satan in our entire circle of influence.
THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN: The first way we experience the Holy Spirit
The first experience we have in our relationship with the Holy Spirit is our new birth. We receive the Holy Spirit within us as the incorruptible seed that reconnects us to God, removing the separation caused by sin. This experience transforms us spiritually into a new creature that has never existed before that moment.
This experience gives us access to a personal and intimate relationship with God. This is what the Bible calls being born again or born of the Spirit.
John 3:5-7 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
This experience translates us from the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
Being born again of incorruptible seed is what makes us a new creature. It is this experience that gives us eternal Life. The life of the Spirit of Christ inside us is evidence of our adoption into God’s family and a down payment on the promise of eternal inheritance.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
I think most Christians have a good basic understanding of what being born again means and most agree upon the Holy Spirit’s work at salvation. The purpose of the Holy Spirit within us is to gain us access to the Father, citizenship in Heaven, it opens our understanding to the truth of the scriptures and is the seed of the kingdom of God that is necessary for spiritual growth and sanctification.
THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON: The second experience of the Holy Spirit
The second way we are to experience the Holy Spirit is by being filled with or being baptized with the Holy Spirit. This experience is to equip and empower us for ministry to others. This experience is the Holy Spirit upon us, not within us. This activity of the Holy Spirit is what the Bible refers to as the anointing. The Holy Spirit upon (anointing) is supernatural empowerment to minister to others, exercise Kingdom authority and fulfill God’s purposes on the Earth.
The anointing is God’s chosen method of moving through us with power and demonstration.
The Holy Spirit within us restores relationship and reconnects us with the Father in a way that allows us to have intimacy with Him. The Holy Spirit upon us equips us to minister to others supernaturally on the Father’s behalf.
In the Old Testament, the anointing was the only way people experienced the Holy Spirit. They were spiritually dead, without the life of God’s Spirit inside them. We see many stories of people being empowered by the Holy Spirit to do amazing and miraculous things. But when that task was fulfilled, the Holy Spirit would depart, and they would be left just as spiritually dead and empty as they were before the Holy Spirit came upon them.
We now have that same Holy Spirit living and abiding inside us. When we experience the Holy Spirit upon us to minister and the anointing eventually leaves, we don’t feel empty and dead, but encouraged and more alive!
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is an experience that follows our initial salvation. We see this modeled in the apostles’ lives, in the upper room, in many instances throughout the New Testament, and even in the life of Jesus.
It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit that prepares us for ministry, giving us the supernatural power and abilities to be a witness for Christ to the world.
The Apostle Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He had a supernatural encounter with Jesus that blinded him and caused Him to become a believer. He was born again at that moment. For three days, he was without sight until Ananias laid hands on him to restore his sight and be filled with or baptized in the Holy Spirit.
After Jesus was resurrected, He appeared to some of His disciples. He walked through the wall
John 20:21-23 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
When do we receive the Holy Spirit? When we are born again. The disciples in that room were all believers, but the Holy Spirit had not yet been given. When Jesus walked through the wall as the resurrected Lord, He breathed on them just like the Father breathed the breath of life into Adam in the beginning. The Holy Spirit was now available again to all mankind.
Later, we see Jesus giving them instructions to tarry in Jerusalem to receive the promise from the Father, which is the filling, or baptism of the Holy Spirit. So, we see clearly that there are two experiences with the Holy Spirit that are available to us, and they both are necessary to fulfill God’s purposes in our lives.
Even Jesus needed to have the Holy Spirit upon Him before He started His earthly ministry. The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 4:6-7 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Why would Jesus need to be filled with the Spirit?
Jesus could not complete His Earthly ministry without the Spirit upon Him. The Holy Spirit came upon Jesus and remained when He was baptized in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit never lifted and never waned. Jesus was immediately tested and tempted in the wilderness and then preached and ministered supernaturally the rest of His life. This is our model. If it’s good for Jesus its good for us.
The Holy Spirit within is a mystery like a man and woman being married and becoming one flesh. Marriage creates a unique, permanent kinship where two individuals become a single, integrated entity, mirroring God’s design for complete unity and reflecting His covenant love
The Holy Spirit upon us empowers believers and sets them apart for ministry.
The Holy Spirit upon is the anointing that equips individuals to do God’s work, which often involves proclaiming good news, healing the sick, delivering the oppressed, and breaking spiritual strongholds or “yokes” of bondage and limitation. Jesus’ own ministry was defined by this purpose, as He declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor… to set the oppressed free”.
Ephesians 4:18-21 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
If we can be filled with the Spirit, we can also be emptied. It is important to be continually filled with the Spirit. This passage tells us that it is God’s will for all believers to be constantly filled with the Holy Spirit. The phrase “Be filled with the Spirit” in verse 18 uses the continuous verb, which is always present tense. Our Christian lives should be filled with activity that fills us with the Spirit.
Regardless of whether we believe that we receive all of the Holy Spirit at the new birth or that there is a subsequent event of being baptized in the Holy Spirit after we are born again. We can’t deny the scriptures that instruct us on being filled with the Spirit.
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