The Person & Work of the Holy Spirit In New Testament

The Person Work of the Holy Spirit in New Testament

Friedrich Nietzsche , an existential philosopher of the nineteenth century narrates a story of a blind man , who on a bright morning lighted a lantern , ran to a marketplace looking for God , and then announced to the jeering crowd that God is dead . We have killed Him- you and me . We are all murderers .Whither are we moving now .Do we not wander through an endless nothingness ? Does not empty space breathe upon us ? Has it not become colder ? Does not night come

on continually , darker and darker (Lavine .1984

.324 ) What Nietzsche means is not the death of God but the death of belief in God . Due to consumerism and materialism , life of man has become a commodity . Belief in the Absolute good , the personal God the God who as father involves in our lives every moment of our day , has taken the back seat . As Karl Marx says , money is the jealous God of Israel (Lavine 1984 .p .276 ) He says that the modern commercial world is a religion of money worship . Thus , we find more cases of depression more cases of suicide , new cults arising everyday trying to pull people towards the darkness . However , are we not `believers ? What is missing in our lives ? The early Christians lived in joy and radiance . Their life was a life of love and happiness that non-Christians identified them by the love they had for others . Theirs was a life filled with the Holy Spirit . We see the spiritual power among Christians has waned . George Smeaton of Scotland says that whenever Christianity was an active force the doctrine of the Holy Spirit was uniformly regarded with the Atonetonment and Justification by faith . The distinctive feature of Christianity , as it address to the life of man , is the work of the spirit (Pink , 2005 , chp .1

However , in today 's world is the Holy Spirit relevant ? Samuel Chadwick in his book `The joyful news ' says , The gift of the Spirit is the crowning mercy of God in Christ Jesus . It was for this all the rest was . The Incarnation and Crucifixion , the Resurrection and Ascension were all preparatory to Pentecost . Without the gift of the Holy Spirit all the rest would be useless . The great thing in Christianity is the gift of the Spirit . The essential , vital , central element in the life of the soul and the work of the Church is the Person of the Spirit (Pink , 2005 , chp .1

The great importance of reverent and prayerful study of this subject should be apparent to every Christian . The importance of the Holy Spirit is reflected in words of Christ in his final discourse to His disciples during the last supper (John 14 to 16 .Everything that proceeds from God is through the Holy Spirit .Therefore , we must be well instructed in the doctrines concerning him . The doctrine so important is mostly neglected . In the last two generations lot have been written...