The work of the Holy Spirit in the Life of Believers, Church and Mission

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Each Christian from the time he or she first believes (whether that can be identified or not) is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This indwelling, according to Romans 8:9, is that which identifies a believer. At the same time, however, the need to grow, to be "changed from one degree of glory to another", remains the believer's abiding goal. Such change becomes possible only through the Holy Spirit Who makes His power available through our conscious appropriation of Christ's gift of salvation. We are called to "abide in Christ", to "hold fast to the Head". The Spirit's work, in other words, can be described as self-effacing: He points us to Christ. We are called to "know the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of Christ" and so to "be filled with all the fullness of God. Our tradition is neither pro- nor anti-Charismatic. We have freedom of understanding about which gifts, both ordinary and supernatural, might be used by the Holy Spirit for the up-building of the Church. These gifts are many and various. Some are evidently miraculous and extra-ordinary; others are equally supernatural even in their ordinariness. As part of the restored relationship, supernatural gifts (charisma) are available to the Church continuously until Christ's return in glory. We accept that some of us will understand that some of these gifts have ceased and others will not want to be specific about what a gift of the Spirit is. We are to live within the tensions of this framework consciously and existentially. In all things we must remember that the Holy Spirit is personal, completely Sovereign and Holy. Our relationship with Him is personal and not mechanical. It is not always clear what and how the Holy Spirit chooses to manifest these gifts and how they function. There is much that is fraudulent and a concentration on some “gifts” can be self-serving and therefore miss that larger and more glorious role of the Holy Spirit in empowering the Church to glorify Christ and to mission. Wise discernment is needed in their exercise, especially in a time when people find epistemological justification for belief primarily through existential experience and may be ignorant of the same phenomena appearing in the experience of many non-Christian religions. Any objection we have to an overemphasis on extraordinary experience and phenomena arises not from anti-supernaturalism, but rather from a concern that such a preoccupation tends to displace the priority both of a personal and corporate relationship with Christ, a wellreasoned grasp of Truthxlii and a belief that God is active in the ordinariness of life. What is important is that Christ is honoured in our unity and that we remain dependent on the Holy Spirit for our strength; that we do not grieve Him in our behaviour and that we trust Him to fulfil the work He wants to do through us.