Preface/Part 1: The Holy Spirit is a Gift to the Church
Part 2: The Holy Spirit Ministers to the Believer
Part 3: The Holy Spirit Ministers Through His Enabling Gifts
Part 4: The Spirit Superintends His Gifts
Part 5: Conclusion and Acknowledgements

The Holy Spirit: An Approach to Understanding His Gifts

This statement was adopted in 1974 as a result of controversy over the role of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of Spirit. Download as PDF.

Preface

The preparation of this paper was undertaken with two basic assumptions in mind:

1. There is validity today for the expression of the biblical gifts of the Holy Spirit.
2. The reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit qualifies the believer for any of the gifts that the Holy Spirit may choose to give him.

Several guidelines were also kept in mind:

1. The Scriptures are the final authority and experience is to be interpreted in light of the Scriptures.
2. God is sovereign and it is futile to circumscribe Him.
3. The truth is to be spoken in love, rather than to create strong polarization.
4. This project must keep the whole United Brethren fellowship in focus.
5. This project is exploratory and suggestive rather than exhaustive. Hopefully it will help clear the way for a better understanding of what the gift of the Holy Spirit means to us, and how He would minister through His church today.

The scripture quotations, unless noted otherwise, are from the New American Standard Bible.

1. The Holy Spirit is a Gift to the Church

As Jesus Christ ministered to His disciples, the time came when He instructed them concerning the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself was to leave them, but He would not leave them comfortless. In John 14-16, Jesus told them why it would be necessary for Him to go away, and He spoke concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He made it clear that the Holy Spirit does not operate in a vacuum nor in non-personal objects. "Unto you" is one of the key phrases in Jesus' delineation of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in the believer and there the Spirit's ministry comes into focus.

The believer's "body is a temple (or sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God" (1 Corinthians 6:19). The giving of the Spirit was dependent upon the "glorification" of Jesus, which involved His death, resurrection, and ascension. Following this glorification, it is for the individual person to receive the Spirit on the condition of simple faith in Jesus.

In order to have a better grasp of the significance of the Holy Spirit, it would be well to consider some of the descriptions of His person. A term used to refer to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is the word parakletos, often translated "comforter," helper," "intercessor," or "advocate." In military language, parakletos referred to one who was an "encourager," one used to rally troops for battle, or to cheer them to fight.

Also in the context of Christ's teaching, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth (John 14:17), the teacher and remembrancer (14:26), the one who will testify of Christ (15:26).

Another work of the Holy Spirit is that of enabler. That is, He makes man able to cope with life. He is the fulfillment of the promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). Life is always calling us into battle. The One who makes us able to stand up to the opposing forces, to cope and to conquer, is the parakletos. He is the Holy Spirit, who makes real the presence and the power of the risen Christ. The word parakletos has a colorful background in the Septuagint, portraying comfort and consolation in distress which keeps a man on his feet. Left to himself, he would collapse. It is the Comforter which enables a man to pass the breaking point and not break.

As an advocate, the function of the Holy Spirit is to safeguard the interest and throne rights of the Lord Jesus in the world, the Church, and the individual believer. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 16:14, "He shall glorify Me." His work is to represent, speak of, and exalt Christ. He is to deal with man in regard to Christ, and to convict him of sin against Christ. "Christ, Christ, Christ" is the theme of all! It is His speech and the direction of all His activity.

But the Lord not only said of the Holy Spirit, "He shall glorify Me," but also "He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you" (John 16:14). This simply means that after the Holy Spirit has brought us to repentance, He will show us the resources of Christ to deal with our acknowledged sinfulness.

As was noted above, all these provisions of the Spirit are conditioned on faith in Jesus Christ. The one act of faith does not neglect the Holy Spirit but embraces the Spirit. Faith in Jesus results in the gift of the Holy Spirit. We cannot receive one without the other. The Holy Spirit comes in Jesus Christ as recorded in Galatians 3:14, "in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Individuals sometimes think that the Holy spirit comes to them through their surrender, commitment, obedience, and devotion. However, we need to understand that the Holy Spirit comes to man through the absolute obedience of Jesus Christ to God.

The Scriptures assume that the gift of the Holy Spirit at conversion is complete. Continuing experiences of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer may have caused some to think of the initial reception of the Spirit as a partial experience.

The Scriptures equate the baptism in (by, with, of) the Holy Spirit with conversion. Basically, the same Greek terminology is used in the gospel references to the baptism with the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:11, Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, John 1:33, and in Acts 1:5, 11:16) and 1 Corinthians 12:13: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." In each of these the Greek preposition en is used before Holy Spirit (in 1 Corinthians 12:13, before Spirit only).

This Greek preposition is also used before the Greek word for water in Matthew 3:11 and John 1:31,33, where the issues of John's water baptism and the Spirit baptism are being discussed. It is absent, however, before water in Mark 1:8, Luke 3:16, and Acts 1:5 and 11:16. Whether the writers use of the preposition en (in, by, with, of) is theologically significant, or a matter of individual style is debatable. If the former, the preposition en may mark the element or environment in which the baptism takes place. It should be translated "in" before Spirit in each of the above references and also before water in Matthew 3:11 and John 1:31,33. Where it is absent, it may mark the instrument or matter with which the baptism is effected.

It is appropriate to speak of the baptism by Jesus in (or by, with, of) this Holy spirit. Indeed, John the Baptist in the gospel passages cited above did say that Jesus would perform such a ministry, whereas he (John the Baptist) came to baptize with water. A comparison of the scripture passages in the gospels and Acts with I Corinthians 12:13 is interesting. It leads to the conclusion that Jesus' baptism of the believer with (or in) the Holy Spirit refers to the regeneration or salvation experience. At the time of his conversion, the believer is immersed or baptized in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in him, and by that baptism the believer is also made apart of, and comes into, the church. Often some of the consequences of this Holy Spirit baptism are not experienced until later in the believer's life. It does, however, open one to the possibility of experiencing both the infilling of the Holy Spirit, the various gifts (charismata) of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit.

Though we recognize that the baptism in the Spirit occurs at conversion, we also recognize that for various reasons the fullness of the Spirit's presence in the life may not be appropriated until later. This has been described by some as a baptism in the Holy Spirit or sanctification.

The baptism in (or with) the Holy Spirit, or the conversion experience, does not eliminate the need for continuing experiences or subsequent infillings of the Holy Spirit. These are referred to in Acts 2:4, 4:31, 9:17, 11:24, and 13:52. It was because of the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit that the disciples began to speak in other tongues at Pentecost. They witnessed with boldness and did many other wonderful deeds.

The early Christians were obviously equipped for service by the infilling of the Holy Spirit. If one will recognize conversion as the baptism in the Spirit, he may also be able to use "baptism in the Spirit" to refer in a non-technical way to subsequent fillings of the Holy Spirit. This is true because we regard the term "baptism" as a flexible metaphor, not a technical term.

Jesus' action in John 20:22 where He breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit," has been variously understood and interpreted. Conclusive interpretations are impossible with the information we have. One possibility is that Jesus' action and words were the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or conversion, for the disciples. The later Pentecostal experience for them was a continuing experience of the Holy Spirit by which they were filled (Acts 2:4) for the service of preaching they were to do that day.

Another interpretation is that Jesus' actions were symbolic of what was to take place at Pentecost. There, the baptism of the Holy Spirit would be experienced, together with the infilling of the Holy Spirit for the service of ministry to be rendered that day. The former interpretation is the more likely, since Jesus had already been raised from the dead and the conditions for salvation, or for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, had already been met.

Next: Part 2: The Holy Spirit Ministers to the Believer