The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

As far as I know, both by reading and experience, we in the Reformed camp and we in the Charismatic camp do not have a different understanding of Who the Holy Spirit is. The Holy Spirit is a person (not a 'power' or 'projection') He is not an impersonal force, nor simply another mode of God's being. Reformed and Charismatics do not differ on the doctrine of the Trinity as it relates to any Person of the Trinity, including the Holy Spirit. (Yes, some weirdness exists in some writings within Pentecostal/Charismatic, and even some Reformed circles. However, by and large, we share a common orthodoxy in this regard.)

I trust that we would agree on this.

What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

Ah, there's the rub. We don't disagree per se, on the doctrine of the person of the Holy Spirit. But we don't agree on our understandings of how the Holy Spirit works in God's people. I trust this is also obvious, but I want to tease out the significant differences and suggest that the Charismatics are on to something the Reformed folks can receive as helpful.

Let me say that I'm deeply indebted to PRMI's Dunamis Project for clarifying this point for me and much of what I will say is taken, pretty much, right out of their book. However, the basics of this teaching is known outside of PRMI and Dunamis circles as well. Though not universal in Pentecostal/Charismatic circles, it is often acknowledged--often enough to be a teaching not unique to PRMI.

Spirit Within / Spirit Upon

A key distinction in Scripture on how the Spirit works among His People (as individuals and as the Church), is that He works within us and upon us. 

The Spirit Within: for Transformation

Briefly, when we read in Scripture about the Spirit being within us, what is emphasized is that He permanently dwells within us to transform us into the likeness of Jesus, producing the fruit of the Spirit, etc. That is to say, the Spirit is within to transform our character (e.g., Gal. 5:17-26). We also believe that all who come to faith in Christ do so because the Holy Spirit is at work within us drawing us to Christ, and that all who come to faith in Christ have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them (cf. Rom. 8:9). 

The above is not at all at odds with a Reformed understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit. Reformed theology would put it this way: The Holy Spirit is at work within us for our sanctification. Nor is this teaching absent from Charismatic circles. We would all agree on this work of the Spirit.

The problem we have in the Reformed tradition is that we have not seen the Spirit's work in any other way than this. Not that the Holy Spirit has not done more than that. We proclaim that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that the Bible is the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit, both of which go beyond a mere sanctifying influence.

The Spirit Upon: for Empowerment

When we find the preposition "upon" in relation to the Spirit we find that something other than personal transformation at work. There is something almost formulaic here: The Spirit came upon [name], and he/she [performed some mighty or miraculous deed]. The classic example is Sampson (Judges 14:6, 19; 15:14). 

Interestingly, in all these cases, the Spirit does not come upon and remain. But He seems to come upon until the task is accomplished. We aren't told what He does then (presumably He 'lifts' from the person), but later He may come upon again, as He does with Sampson. This kind of work of the Spirit is episodic.

This particular example is helpful, because there are few who would argue that Sampson was know for his godly character! Sampson was empowered to do these mighty deeds by the "Spirit of the Lord," for the sake of God's people. The Spirit did not seem to be at work on his character - at least not that we can tell from reading the Scriptures! (BTW, this serves as a warning to us that empowered ministry is not God's approval of one's moral choices, and may explain the disconnect between empowered ministry and moral failure in our day.)

We find that pattern in the Old Testament, do we find it in the New? We do! We find that Jesus applies this work of the Spirit to Himself in Luke 4:18, following His baptism where the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Notice that Jesus does not do any healing or other miracles before the Spirit comes upon Him at His baptism - this is probably theologically and Christologically significant! (I may develop that conclusion later.)

There are some other interesting things we find with Jesus in regard to the Holy Spirit. In Luke 5:17 we read that "...the power of the Lord was present for Him to heal the sick." What a strange thing to say, unless the power of the Lord was not always present for Him to heal the sick! 

In Acts 1:8 Jesus promises that the disciples will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them. This happened at Pentecost. The result was not so much in character transformation as in empowered ministry. But this isn't the only time the Spirit comes upon them. Acts 4:8 looks like a subsequent filling of the Spirit, as does Acts 4:31. Although the word "fill" is used, the formula: Spirit came upon [name] and they [empowered action]. The Dunamis course teaches a distinction in Greek verbs for 'filling' here, that I won't go into in this blog post. For our puposes the formula mentioned above is sufficient to identify a filling for empowerment from a filling for transformation.

In Acts 19:1-7 we read that some "disciples" who did not receive the Holy Spirit when they believed (Acts 19:2). How is this possible? Don't we believe that it is impossible to believe apart from the Spirit, and that the Spirit indwells all believers? We do. But something else happened here: Paul put his hands on them and the Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesied (Acts 19:6). The problem in the text goes away, when we realize we're talking about two different workings of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit did enter them to bring them to faith, and to guide them in their faith, but the knew nothing of the empowering work of the Spirit. (Another option is to consider that these disciples and believers, were disciples of John and believed his message. But that creates other problems in the text: why doesn't Paul teach them about Jesus, rather than merely correcting their baptismal inadequacy? This option seems to force the text to fit a preconceived idea, rather than letting the text teach us something we may not have known.)

Why the "Spirit Upon" Idea is Helpful

Once we see in Scripture the idea of these two basic ways the Spirit works ("within" for transformation; "upon" for empowerment), we begin to find a door opened to empowered ministry that we may not have noticed before. In other words, if we assume that the only thing the Spirit does is transform our character, we will believe that ministry operates primarily out of transformed character. However, if the Spirit not only dwells within us, but can also come upon us, a way of understanding ministry also opens up for us. Namely, we begin to see that we are not merely vessels of the Spirit, but also conduits through whom the Spirit works.

The "Spirit upon" idea is also helpful in that when we see that the pattern in Scripture is that the empowerment in these events is episodic (the empowerment ends when the task is accomplished), we can understand some of the statements in Scripture (like Luke 5:17; Acts 4:8, 31), that don't fit with the idea of permanent indwelling of the Spirit.

Most importantly, this understanding shifts ministry from something transformed humans do for God (a la "if it's to be, it's up to me"), to something God does through our cooperation. The shift in perspectives is Copernican in significance. If our task is to get ourselves sanctified so that we can do God's work, not much will be done, except by the most holy, and most self-deluded. However, if our task is to be both transformed and empowered, then there is nothing that God cannot do through any of us (remember Sampson!). This is not to promote triumphalism, but dependence! In the end we can't really do anything, but God can do everything. He can even do it through people like you and me.

Next I'll take up the teaching on the Baptism of/in the Holy Spirit, a topic with which there is a wide variety of understanding!