Reminders About the Holy Spirit and the Life of Godliness

Greetings, My Friend.

The pressures of each day compound over time, do they not, and it is likely that we forget many scriptural truths regarding our salvation and life with God that we should at all times labor to maintain. Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is one of those truths. The Bible describes an intimacy between Christians and the Holy Spirit that is at the core of living a godly life. If you are currently unaware of the Spirit or have forgotten the way of godliness, perhaps it is time to join me in acknowledging this condition and confess that it is we and not God who have altered course. May what follows remind us of the Spirit’s place in our lives and warm our thoughts toward renewing life with God the Spirit.

The natural course of this world is according to trespasses and sins, according to the prince of the power of the air, and according to the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2) For Christians, we also once conducted our lives confined to this environment, guided and driven by the lusts of our flesh and fulfilling their desires. (Eph 2:3) This condition, the apostle Paul tells us, made us objects of God’s wrath. (Eph 2:3) The scripture comforts us, though, affirming that those who are objects of God’s saving love and mercy are no longer under His wrath but are now people created in Christ Jesus who are to know the riches of His grace and walk in good works. (Eph 2:4-10)

Because our original “apart from God” condition is presented as natural (it is the way we entered this world and the spring in our hearts from which desires and passions flow), and the newness of our union with Christ by means of God’s saving and transferring work into His kingdom as supernatural, we as Christians can and do experience the continued presence and pull of that which is of our natural order—the flesh—on our hearts and minds. Both the apostle Paul and Peter encourage us to press on in the calling and work of God in our lives and not to be overcome with the demands of the flesh and the deceitfulness of sin. We do not have to live according to the flesh, but we must desire and choose to live from and toward God. Living from what God provides us toward those desires and ends God intends is godliness.

Central to not living for the flesh but living a godly course is our keeping close to the Holy Spirit, who we as Christians have received (Eph 1:13-14), and our recognizing how the Spirit leads us into the course of godliness. In presenting this to you, I will partner three sets of texts then conclude with a fourth verse. The first three groupings will consider the Holy Spirit’s Person, His Power and His Presence. The forth will remind us of His Passionate Pleading. In this letter, I present The Person of the Holy Spirit. The other parts will follow. My friend, if you profess Christ, consider your relationship with God the Holy Spirit, and examine your understanding and awareness of His work in your life.

The Person of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 12:31-32, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.” Ephesians 4:30, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Jesus presents the Holy Spirit as one who can be blasphemed, one who can be sinned against in such a way that no forgiveness can be found. This dreadful fact and condition leads one to conclude that the Holy Spirit is God. (If you are wondering what sin is unforgivable, read Mark 3:22-30.) The Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament is referred to in personal terms, and it is clear from Matthew 28:19-20 that the Holy Spirit is grouped with the Father and Jesus, and He is therefore worthy of the same honor, devotion and affection that we would render to the Father and Jesus. The testimony Jesus gives in Matthew 12 is a powerful endorsement to the Holy Spirit that we as believers would do well to heed.

When we turn to the apostle’s words in Ephesians 4, he warns us that a Christian can grieve and sorrow, or disappoint, the Holy Spirit. The text, 4:30, is surrounded by verses addressing the new life a Christian should evidence: a life created by God in righteousness and true holiness (4:24), something the Ephesians apparently learned from Jesus (4:20-21). If the life created by God for us is one of holiness, then the spirit required to desire and live that life need be holy. In our natural condition, we have neither a holy spirit nor holy desires. But, as Christians, we now have the Holy Spirit Himself. Closing off one’s relationship with the Holy Spirit not only removes the holy stream of direct influence, understanding and direction for godly living but it seamlessly returns one to one’s self and, thereby, to a life absent of that divine influence. This disinterest and disregard for the person of God in the Spirit, about whom Jesus delivered such powerful testimony, will naturally lead to dire consequences.

The contrast between an unsaved person’s capacity to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and commit an unforgivable sin, and a Christian’s capacity to grieve and sorrow God’s Spirit is both illuminating and challenging to ponder. As Christians, we have been granted an intimate and abiding relationship with God the Spirit. We can willfully shun and disregard this relationship, essentially saying “No!” to God, thus rejecting the Person of His presence. If we do so, we escape the type of judgment and condemnation received by those who categorize Jesus’ work as satanic when it was truly the work of the Spirit in Him. (Mark 3:22, 29-30) Agreed, the nature of these two situations is different. But, if the consequence of blaspheming the Holy Spirit carries such a weight of punishment, what rational wrangling could ever convince me that dismissing the Holy Spirit in my life is at all acceptable and not an offense to God? Only the flesh dare voice such twisted reasoning and, at the same time, find comfort in approving such a godless outcome. The fallen nature resident in our hearts is godless. Why would the flesh desire the Spirit Himself or the things of the Spirit? Let this be a warning to us.

[As an aside, one may here want to refer to the events involving Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, but I would argue that what occurred there is not the same as what Jesus disclosed in Matthew 12.]

Pause with me now and confirm to yourself the role and the value of the Holy Spirit in your life. Do we conclude that we live in disregard of the Holy Spirit, or that we find ourselves in conscious regular fellowship, or communion, with Him? My friend, we as Christians, only by God’s love and grace, enjoy a supernatural and blessed relationship with God that commands our preference and pursuit of God the Spirit. If we do not grieve the Spirit, then we welcome Him, value His work in our lives, and we keep the relationship open to receive all that He desires for us. If the constant pressures and distractions of life, or your preference for the pursuit of self’s desires and sin, have removed you from intimacy with the God the Holy Spirit, this is the time to change direction and pursue Him. The Father is committed to you and has given you His Spirit. Do not grieve Him but welcome Him as part of your life regularly.

“O Lord, help us, we are slow to learn.”

Carl