“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)
It is through the Holy Spirit’s working and leading that God builds and maintains His church. Our Lord Jesus says in Matthew 16:18b, “I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” We know that the Holy Spirit replaced Jesus on earth after He returned to His Heavenly Father. Jesus builds and maintains His church through the Spirit. How does He do this?
It was the Holy Spirit who convicted our hearts while we were still sinners and showed us our need of a Savior. This matches what Jesus says of the Spirit in John 16:8, “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” It is the Spirit who allows us to be born again (born into the family of God), as Jesus describes in John 3:5-6. It is the Holy Spirit who promises to fill the life of any born-again believer who asks for Him in faith (John 16:23). It is the Holy Spirit who guides us in all truth as we walk the narrow way that leads to eternal life (John 16:13). It is the Spirit of Truth who helps us to understand God’s Word with the lens of Christ’s teachings. It is the Holy Spirit who unites the hearts of all believers and allows us to love God above all and our neighbor as ourselves.
The Holy Spirit is the breath of life within the body of Christ. As God breathed life into the first man Adam, He also breathed spiritual life into His church on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit descended and filled the lives of the believers. What does the body of Christ look like when the Spirit unites Christians? Paul describes it perfectly in Colossians 3:12-17, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
The kind of Christian unity described by Paul to the Colossians is deeply rooted in agapé love, which is a self-sacrificing love that comes from God through the person of the Holy Spirit. How do we know that it comes from the Holy Spirit? Paul says, “put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (Colossian 3:12). Are these not the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23a? Scripture states, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Christians who treat each other with the fruit of the Spirit safeguard their hearts and relationships from disunity. Once again, we see how the Holy Spirit unites the lives of believers in the body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is essential to the health and well-being of the church and its ability to carry out the Great Commission. Without the Spirit, no church can maintain a clear, biblical course. The church’s roadmap is the Word of God through which the Spirit speaks to us. The Spirit wants to communicate with us for various reasons. He wants to encourage us and exhort us to continue doing the things that we are doing right for Him. He comforts us in difficult situations. He wants to warn us of dangers that exist, like false teachers and false doctrines. He wants to lead our lives as we work for the Lord. Should it happen that we stray from His leading, He will convict us of wrongdoing. For the Spirit to be able to convict, encourage, and guide us, we need to have a sensitive heart to hear the speaking of the Spirit. Listening to the Spirit, and being obedient to His prompting, is a sure way to accomplish the work He has for us, and ultimately get us to our final destination victoriously.
In Revelation 2-3, we find a clear illustration of the importance of God’s church listening to the Spirit. There, Jesus commands the Apostle John to document how the seven churches of Asia Minor stood before God. John was to share these reports with the churches to direct or redirect their spiritual course. Of those seven churches, only two were on a healthy spiritual course, five of them were not. Yet, even of the five, Jesus commends them for the good that they were doing, before He mentions the areas where they needed to mend their ways. John records how Jesus closes His address to each church with the words, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7a). In this case, it was Jesus who spoke to John about the state of the churches. Perhaps some of these congregations had stopped listening to the Spirit’s leading, and Jesus wanted to remind them to listen and “hear what the Spirit has to say.” It’s vital that we listen to the Spirit’s voice. There are other voices that try to get a church’s attention, like trends and traditions. We must be careful to listen to the voice of the Spirit, and not these other voices.
Jesus had something to say to each of the seven churches: some things positive, and some things negative. Let’s remember that this illustration applies to every church today. Jesus wants every church to listen to what the Spirit has to say. If we fail to listen, how will we know the Spirit’s leading? If we refuse to allow the Spirit to lead His church, He will no longer abide with us, nor give us the strength to work effectively for Him. If Jesus gave a report on your spiritual health or the health of your local congregation, what would He have to say? I’m sure He would have some good things to say, but what else would He tell you? Perhaps He’s trying to tell you something today; are you listening?
David Knelsen
Hamilton, ON
Be the first to comment