The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit

Continued:

Now that all this has been looked into lets get back to the Holy Spirit and imperative necessity of His ministry.

The ministry of the Holy Spirit is an all-important factor in the Christian life. It make all the difference in the world s to whether a Christian has an intelligent understanding of what the Holy Spirit is ready to do for him in life and in his service, and what his adjustment to the Holy Spirit should be in order that He may fulfill His ministry in and through the saint in the most efficient way. The secret of a successful, God-glorifying, powerful, sweet, courageous, victorious Christian is in the correct adjustment to the Holy Spirit on the part of the Christian. He is the antidote for every error, the power for every weakness, the victory for every defeat, and the answer for every need. And He is available to every believer, for He lives in his heart and is life to the soul.

Gal. 4:19 is the verse we are going to look at in the Greek text and see the imperative ministry of His ministry.

The words 'My little children" are more accurately "My children." The diminutive [something small or young] is not used here. Paul had won these people to whom he was writing to the Lord Jesus. He says he is travailing in birth for them. He is straining every nerve and exerting all his pent-up love for them in earnestly praying for them. He is praying that Christ be again formed in them.

The word 'formed' means, on the Greek, 'to give outward expression of one's inward character.'

We use the English word 'form' in that sense in the sentence, "I went to a tennis match yesterday, and the winning players' form was excellent." This means that the outward expression which he gave of his inward ability to play tennis, was excellent. So it is translated, "My children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be outwardly expressed in you."

The verb is a passive voice [look up in the dictionary the words 'passive' and 'principle.'] That means that the subject of the verb is passive, inactive, does not act himself, but is acted by an outside agent. That brings us to the truth that man does not express or manifest 'himself' as the Christ, but that the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is given that ministry to manifest Christ in His beauty to, in and through the saint. In John 16:14, His words are, "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." There is a demonstrative pronoun in the Greek text which is brought out in the English translation. "That One shall glorify Me." Then the Lord says in effect, "I will not glorify Myself. That One [the Holy Spirit], shall glorify Me."

Question - Can you define the word glorify? [To glorify is to manifest the hidden excellence and worth of an object.] The word 'receive' refers, not to a passive acceptance, but to an active appropriation. The Holy Spirit is to take of the things of Christ and show them to the believer. In that way He expresses the Lord Jesus [THE Word] through the Christian. 'Faith consists not in working, but in receiving a mere influence or emanation from God's voice. Gal. 3:2

The Holy Spirit is not just something that is issued forth from God as fragrance emanates from a flower. He is the power of the expressed Word, doing THE Word, within the heart of the one who will hear Him. This expression IS God, and this expression IS MERCY. This Mercy of God becomes manifested WITHIN man, and this is certainly unmerited [not by earning a favor], but is through the Mercy of God, [also word for: favor in the old Hebrew tongue] Through this, internal (abiding) mercy called grace, The Holy Spirit, through power of THE Word, transforms every life source of man, from the spirit death unto spirit life, through the renewing of the mind, and thus receiving the mind of Christ. [Having His thoughts of Life, Light and Truth] We therefore can be filled up OF Him [He thus taking full possession of our whole being, and He, therefore living Himself, in and through us. We would then be filled up with Him, even so much to overflowing. The more we yield, the more He possesses the inward parts. The more of the inward parts filled, the more of His glory is manifested that we become clothed upon of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.. This clothing is HIS Righteousness that has been manifested to our understanding, and the yielding up of self life is because the desire of Him is being manifested within, and IS become our mutual desire.

The Christian life is a prism in which the Holy Spirit breaks up into it's component graces, the beauty of the HOLINESS OF THE LORD.

If the believer doesn't have an intelligent understanding of and subjection to the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there is little of the Lord Jesus seen in his life. The Holy Spirit does the best He can under the limitations imposed upon Him under the circumstances. If the Holy Spirit is prevented by the believer, then the life of the Christian will know little of the sweet MERCY-GRACES of the Son of God, revealed within him. However on the other side of the coin, if the believer will truly TRUST and BELIEVE the voice of God, within him, and yields to His Holy Spirit's power to transform, then this Christian knows marvelous blessings of God bestowed within.

Getting back to the main line of thought. Paul prays that Christ might again be outwardly expressed in these Christians. That means that at one time Christ was outwardly being expressed in their lives. At one time these believers were in correct adjustment to the Holy Spirit and were subject to His ministry. The very fact that the Lord Jesus was not being expressed in their, shows that they were not being recipients of His ministry at this time. What happened? What hindered them from possessing the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives? Paul gives the answer in Gal. 1:6,7 "I marvel.....These Galatian Christians had turned the message of GRACE to the message of Judaizers. Judiasm is the religious doctrines and rites of the Jews. These Judaizers were nominal Christians who accepted Jesus as messiah, and as Saviour of Israel only. They were existing in name only; not real or actual. They taught that a Gentile could be saved only by entering Christianity through the gate of Judaism. When a Greek accepted Christianity, the tendency was to interpret his new found faith in terms of Judaism, his old system of religion. This is what the Judaizers were doing. Paul fought against this.

These Judaizers came to the Galation Christians who were truly being regenerated, Spirit-indwelt children of God, and taught them that they were to be justified by the law - yet, they had been pronounced free from guilt or blame from serving the Mosaic Law Gal. 5:4. There was no such thing under the law as an INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT Who had come to take up His permanent residence in the believers heart for His ministry of sanctification - this setting apart for holy purpose. This teaching deprived the Galations of their dependence upon the Spirit, and so also of the Spirit's work of manifesting Christ in the inward and ourward expression of Christ in their lives.Acts 19:2. This is what Paul means when he says, "You are fallen from grace." v.4 We must note that it's the working of the Holy Spirit, for it's written in Gal. 5:5, "For we, by the Spirit".......HE offers the cure, for the condition in which we find ourselves, in these words, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." 5:6 "Continue ye in My Love." To continue to walk in the Spirit, is to also be the same as walking in HIS Love. Thus, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, [His fruit], is witnessed [through manifestation of the Word of Truth (Jesus)] on the inward parts by the one who is walking in the Spirit vss. 22,23 This, being the works of grace. The Galations had fallen from grace, in the sense that they had deprived themselves of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, of which He ministers every moment.

The position of these Galations is the position a child of God may hold until he becomes intimately acquainted and familiar with the teaching regarding the Person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul confronted the Corinthians with a question, "Did you receive the Spirit when you believed?" Acts 19:2 They answered, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." This is the explanation for the fact that there is so little of the beauty of the Lord Jesus in the lives of so many earnest Christians. The are doing their best to live a good Christian life, but their own strength is not equal to the task. There is a certain amount of victory, and they enjoy the things of God, but as for their lives radiating the Lord Jesus, there is very little of that. It is only the ministry of the Holy Spirit that can give that spiritual translation of the Word to express Jesus Christ within the life so Christ can become formed in man.

If the Holy Spirit is not recognized nor depended upon for His work, He cannot perform it, for, just as Jesus needs a person to recognize Him as Lord and Saviour, so also the Holy Spirit needs the Christian to recognize His ministry.

The Galations had fallen from that state of total dependency upon the Holy Spirit. Most Christians have never been in that state of dependency, therefore have not fallen from it, but because of their ignorance of this teaching, are not recipients of HIS work, and stay within their own works. In Rev. 3:2 "I have not found your works perfect before God." It is the Holy Spirit Who is the perfect, Who manifests the beauty of the Holiness of God, within man, so man can see Him as he IS, and not as One Who just WAS or WILL BE.

It would be well if one who introduces a soul to the Saviour, also introduce him to the Holy Spirit. It is sad, and all too often, that the soul winner himself is also in need of the teaching of the experience in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He is available for every child of God.

Lord Jesus, bless this one reading this lesson. May he hear your Holy Spirit voice and follow this opportunity to receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit within him. May he have the power of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, work abundantly in him, so that he may know You, and the POWER of Your resurrection. May He be transformed, by the renewing of his mind, that he may have the mind of Christ, and have Christ be formed in him, which is Your Will and Testament to be given through Your Holy Spirit Who is now available to this person. I pray he receives the Holy Spirit, that Your POWER may be made know within him, through this GRACE. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. AMEN