Sonship & the Fruit of the Spirit

Living Rock Church

Sonship & the Fruit of the Spirit

Part 3

David Lyon

The Holy Spirit is basic to everything. We shall never know anything or accomplish anything in our Christian lives without the Holy Spirit. We must know Him personally and intimately. He is to be an ever-growing Presence within us, and living in such a way that we avoid grieving Him and bring pleasure to Him through our obedience to His government in our lives is – quite simply – the key to everything!

In this unit we will continue our discovery of the Spirit-filled life: what it means to have God’s Presence within us. In particular, we will look at two closely-related aspects:

The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit

Matthew Ling

The Holy Sprit is the executive agent of the Trinity, yet He has been seriously neglected down through Church history. Although the Holy Spirit was the power and the energy in Christians from the beginning, Christians were slow to give Him proper theological recognition and definition. Before the third century, the Holy Spirit did not even receive a firm place in the creeds of the Church, the Apostles’ Creed simply says, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” The creed doesn’t even acknowledge whether the Holy Spirit is a He, She, or and It. The Holy Spirit has suffered from neglect, depersonalization, neutralization, mis-definition, and a whole host of other unhappy things. I believe these happened precisely because of His importance; the Holy Spirit is that Person of the Holy Trinity who comes directly in touch with us in life and experience. Satan is not at all adverse to our having intellectually orthodox views of the Holy Spirit, but he is clearly against our becoming involved with Him in our lives. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings the life, power, energy, illumination, and enablement of the Triune God to reach us, individually and corporately.

The Indwelling Holy Spirit

David Lyon

As we saw in session 1, the Holy Spirit is the mighty Third Person of Trinity. He is the ‘executive agent’ of the Godhead. He is the One who completes the Father’s work; manifests God’s Presence in the world today; and imparts the power of God to the believer. He has been and will be active in our world from beginning to end. The Bible tells us that at the very beginning, He was hovering over the waters, waiting to create life (Ge 1:2); and that at the very end, He will be calling people to take the free gift of life! (Re 22:17). From start to finish He brings dynamic life!! As Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life...” [Jn 6:63] It’s vital that we get to know the Holy Spirit as personally and intimately as possible. It’s not enough to know about Him. He wants us to know Him. Many believers are either robbed of a personal relationship with Him altogether (because they think He’s an “it” – an impersonal influence, power, energy), or else are experiencing only a fraction of what God has for them (because they understand so little of the His actions and activities).

The Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Matthew Ling

We are first introduced to the phrase “baptise you with the Holy Spirit” by John the Baptist. All four gospels contain John’s prophecy that Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit, and John portrays this activity as the pinnacle of the ministry of the now arriving Messiah.