“[T]he Spirit is a breath of renewal. Through death He ever leads to life. That fact is revealed even in the death of the Son of God, for it is written that through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without blemish unto God. The winter wind that beat upon Him in His dying was but the preface to the summer wind of Pentecost.”
~G. Campbell Morgan
The Holy Spirit is God operant in the world, through generation (creation), regeneration (salvation), revelation, and, if welcomed, sanctification (the journey through the Christian life).
Four Functions in Brief
It can be seen that the Spirit of God created, and continues to create, everything—the function of generation and, it’s foreseeable, the function of regeneration, too.
The selfsame Spirit reveals himself through truth to the mind and heart of the virgin believer, as well as continuing along the revelatory trajectory regarding, as time is concerned, pre-existing believers. At various points this is either regeneration or sanctification: again, through Divine revelation and the believer’s response.
Salvation, regeneration, and sanctification, therefore, are implicit of the mould of Divine action—not unlike the implicitness in God the Trinity—which explains the function of growth in the Holy Spirit through the process of life.
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The biggest impact of the Spirit of God is felt, arguably, when the Lord feels far away.
When God Feels Far Away
We must ask ourselves, as we feel far from the Spirit, the Presence vacating, what on earth could have happened for such a Spiritual possession to be found as unfound.
Many times it could be simply that we are tested—the Spirit finding cause to grow us and, through same, to generate new life and sanctify it as worthy of passing through the furnace of the living God. Sometimes, however, it’s because we have grieved the Spirit and, like a friend who is continually hurt from our constant disparaging, he slowly departs.
It pays to be honest, for the Spirit does grieve so much not to be part of our lives in these cases. Where one moment of solemn reflective penitence secures rapport with the Spirit, afresh, it beats whole seasons of virulent ignorance to have our own way, yet have no causative relationship with the Spirit.
Simple enquiries at God’s distance prove good toward our regeneration.
The Holy Spirit can only be alive to us if we are alive to him.
Redeeming Power for Life
One Power stands for all eternity in the holy establishment of life. Such a Power divulges power quietly, known as much to the heavens and all creation as it is within the mind of one. Such a quiet Power could, however, never be quantified.
Pathetic is the motive that denies such a Power. It is rather like attempting to smite the inventor of smiting.
We must know that this Power for Life is the engine behind all generation and regeneration, as well as the revelation of all wisdom and sanctification of all worth. It is the power behind all things as much as it is a power that wishes to be for us, not against us.
It is up to us whether or not we wish to be aspirated by the Breath of Renewal. The Holy Spirit will force himself on nobody.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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