Gordon Fee shared in the Preface to his book, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, comments that drove the writing of his book. I am sharing several of them that should give contemporary Christians reason to be more effective in their witness to the Holy Spirit.

“The bottom line is . . . the generally ineffective witness and perceived irrelevancy of the church in Western culture. Here, it seems to me, is where the real difference between Paul and us emerges, where in a culture similar to ours the early believers seem to have been more effective than we are. I am convinced this is due in large part to their experience of the reality of the Spirit’s presence. . . . Crucial to this experience was the early church’s understanding of the Spirit as the fulfillment of Jewish hopes of the return of the divine presence . . . . What this meant for early Christians was that the Spirit was not only the personal presence of God in and among them (both individually and corporately) but that their understanding of God had to be broadened so as to become trinitarian. . . . Equally crucial to the experience of the Spirit was the early church’s self-understanding as “thoroughly eschatological,” in the “already/not yet” sense [which I have discussed in my books]. The first believers really believed that the future had begun, being attested by the gift of the outpoured Spirit, who also served as the guarantee of the future consummation. . . . This personal, powerful, experience of the eschatological Spirit not only transformed them individually but made them effective in their being the people of the good news in pagan Grego-Roman culture. And this is why I think they had the better of it, and why we would do well to recapture something of that reality.”

My next blog posts will include informative comments by Gordon D. Fee in his book, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God. I highly recommend you obtain and read the two books I have chosen from which to lift excerpts that deal with the Holy Spirit who is personal and lives.

In Romans 8:14 it is stated, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Ryrie shares that “leading in this passage confirms our sonship and the benefits that flow from it. Sons are led. . . . This work of guidance is particularly the work of the Spirit. . . . The child of God need never walk in the dark; he is always free to ask and receive directions from the Spirit Himself through the various means He uses.”

In my books and blogs I have shared in detail how dualist interactionism is relevant to this communion with the Holy Spirit, a bidirectional interaction between the immaterial Mind of God/Holy Spirit and the immaterial mind of Man through the material synaptic networks of the human brain. We have had the ability to commune directly with the person of the Holy Spirit restored by the resurrected Jesus Christ who was a sin sacrifice in behalf of all repentant mankind.

Ryrie discusses in detail what is meant by the filling of the Holy Spirit, also applicable to the indwelling by the Holy Spirit. He points out that “to be Spirit-filled is to be Spirit-controlled. And to be so controlled requires dedication of life, victory over the reigning power of sin, and constant dependance on the Spirit.” In a preceding blog I gave the prime example of one’s being controlled by the Holy Spirit, and that was Jesus Christ as He lived on earth, obedient to the Father even to His death on the cross in our behalf. Ryrie states that “it may be said that one of the consequences of being Spirit-filled is the producing of Christlikeness. This involves . . . nine features. These are referred to as fruits of the Spirit and include love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness and self-control. Again I refer the reader to Ryrie’s book in which each of these fruits is discussed in detail.

In Ephesians 4: 7-11 the giving of spiritual gifts is attributed to the risen and ascended Jesus Christ through His giving of the Holy Spirit to believers. Ryrie stated that “the Greek word for spiritual gift (charisma) is related to grace.” Thus, a spiritual gift is due to grace given to people by the risen Lord and the Holy Spirit. Gifts include apostleship, prophecy, miracles, healing, evangelism, pastoring, teaching, serving, faith, exhortation, discerning of spirits, mercy, giving, administration, tongues and the interpretation of tongues. I refer the reader to Ryrie’s book for explanations of each of these gifts.

Ryrie speaks to the sealing of believers in the Spirit. He states, “According to 2 Corinthians 1:22 it is God who seals the believer and gives the earnest or pledge of the Spirit. Ephesians 1:13 adds that we were sealed with the Spirit when we believed. Ephesians 4:30 states that we were sealed by or with the Spirit until the day of redemption. . . . God does it by means of the Spirit to seal in the sphere of the Spirit. . . . The believer is sealed the moment he receives Christ as Savior. . . . Sealing lasts until the day of our redemption . . . . This refers to that future day when our redemption will be fully accomplished, which includes receiving our resurrection bodies. . . Thus sealing guarantees the complete fulfillment of God’s promises to us.”

I have included these quotes by Ryrie since there is much ignorance within the church about what “sealing” means. Ryrie has made it clear, and we can maintain our faith and hope in this promise of God through His Spirit.

I quote from Ryrie, “It is Christ’s work through the agency of the Spirit in joining those who believe to the church, the body of Christ. . . . Crucifixion involves death, but death is not extinction; rather it is separation. So our co-crucifixion with Christ does not mean that our old nature becomes extinct; rather, we are separated from its domain and dominion so that we can live in a new way of life.”

Ryrie shares that “the permanent and universal-among-all-believers indwelling ministry of the Spirit is at the heart of the distinctiveness of the Spirit’s work in this church age. Although he did live within some people in the Old Testament, that indwelling was neither permanently guaranteed nor universally experienced even by all believers. It was also the focus of our Lord’s promise to His disciples concerning the ministry of the Spirit after His (Christ’s) departure from earth (John 14:17). . . . Today the Holy Spirit lives in the beings of Christians only, and He does so in all Christians. . . . Paul had to remind believers in the early days that this was a fact (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19), just as it is necessary to instruct believers today of its truth. Too often, some of God’s people seem to think that the Spirit comes and goes and that this erratic and usually unpredictable behavior of the Spirit is often based on the individual’s feelings. . . . the truth of the Spirit’s indwelling does not depend on our feeling or knowing that it is true. . . . The Holy Spirit is the One who reveals to the Christian the indwelling of our Lord Jesus in him. . . . ‘The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us’ (1 John 3:24). Thus the knowledge of the indwelling of Christ is dependent on the ministry of the Spirit, which is not restricted but which operates in all believers.”

Ryrie discussed the role of the Holy Spirit in inspiration, especially as it applied to the Bible. He said, “Spiration (breathing out) rather than inspiration (breathing into) would be a better word to use in that reference. The verse [2 Timothy 3:16] simply says that the Scripture is God-produced without mentioning any of the means God may have used in producing it or the result of its production.”

I have endeavored in my research to identify possible means by which Scripture was produced and how we hear from the Holy Spirit in our time by the process of dualist interaction, the neural synapse being the model for my investigations. Perhaps we are getting a little more understanding of this process thanks to advances being made in the neurosciences. Ryrie continues:

“. . . behind the human was the divine author of revelation, the Holy Spirit. Peter, referring to Old Testament prophecy, declared that ‘men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God; (2 Peter 1:21). The agents were men; the source was God; and the single author moving the human instruments was the Holy Spirit. The word moved indicates that the Spirit bore the human writers along as He directed their writings. . . . man’s will (including his will to make mistakes) did not bring us the Scriptures; rather, the Holy Spirit, who cannot err, did.”

Ryrie relates that the Bible ascribes many attributes to the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say, “If these are the attributes of Deity, then one can only conclude that the Spirit is divine." The following are those attributes:

The Spirit is said to possess omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and is said to be truth. He is called the Holy Spirit and is said to be a giver of resurrection life. He is said to possess creative wisdom. “Thus the Holy Spirit is said to possess attributes that belong to God, something possible only if He is Deity.”