The Holy Spirit
Jean Bourdichon. “Pentecost,” Grandes Heures of Anne of Brittany
(Ms lat. 9474, fol. 49v), c. 1505-1510.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
(Listen to an audio version of the blog post above!)
Question:
Could you clarify your understanding of the Holy Spirit?
Answer:
I’d be happy to, but please bear in mind that this is my understanding of the person and work off the Holy Spirit, as I understand it from Scripture.
The three persons of the godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) are on every page of Scripture, but in the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), God the Father takes center stage, while the Son and the Holy Spirit are more in the background; in the gospels, God the Son takes center stage; and beginning in the Acts of the Apostles, God the Holy Spirit takes center stage, and he remains there throughout the rest of Scripture. Indeed, it is God the Holy Spirit who is driving the action, even today.
In my view, the Holy Spirit has two distinct roles, post-Pentecost: 1) to guide, shape and nurture the corporate body of the Church down through the ages; and 2) to take up residence within each individual believer as our "Comforter." Look first at the role of the Holy Spirit--the engine driving the Church. If the corporate body of the Church is attentive to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church performs heroically, and there are many examples of that throughout Christian history. However, if the Church (as a corporate body) is deaf to the Holy Spirit--or worse, deliberately ignores the guidance of the Holy Spirit, following its own desires--the Church behaves stupidly and shamefully. There are plenty examples of that throughout history, as well.
Concerning the individual believer, the Holy Spirit has two distinct roles. First, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us provides talents, gifts and abilities to be used in the service of the family of God. St. Paul gives a sampling of such "spiritual gifts" in both 1 Corinthians and in Romans. But they are just samplings; there are many such gifts. Our job as believers is to discern what gifts have been provide to us, and then to develop those gifts and put them to use, serving the family of God. For example, if your gift is healing: study hard, go to medical school and put your gift to use serving the family as a physician, surgeon or psychiatrist. If I have a gift, I suppose it's teaching. OK, so I developed that gift from undergraduate school through a PhD, and then put it to use as a university professor for thirty years and creating, developing and continuing Logos Bible Study. The same holds true for any spiritual gift. Just like a gifted athlete, one has to develop one's gift in order to use it fully and effectively. A gifted athlete doesn't go to the Olympics without a whole lot of hard work and development! Importantly, spiritual gifts are never for private enjoyment or edification; they are to be used in the service of the family of God, the Church.
The second role of the Holy Spirit with individual believers is to be our Paraclete (paravklhtoß, para--"alongside," like paramedic or paralegal; kaleo, "to call"); the Holy Spirit is "called alongside" us to guide, shape and nurture us, saying in effect: "I know living a Christian life isn't easy, and sometimes you need someone to lead you, someone you can lean upon: that's my job." If we're attentive to the Holy Spirit in our own lives, we can lead lives of heroic faith; if we're not attentive to the Holy Spirit, we live mediocre spiritual lives, at best . . . and God created us to be heroic, not to be also-rans!
Regarding Jesus "breathing on" the disciples and saying "receive the Holy Spirit," I understand this as Jesus (prior to his leaving this world and returning to the Father) gifting his disciples privately with the Holy Spirit, equipping them to carry out their role as Apostles, to launch the Church on Pentecost and to develop the Church in its early days. Recall that Jesus then spends forty days with his eleven (Judas is gone, of course), teaching them what they need to know to do their job. He then exits the stage, ascending to the Father, where he is seated at the Father's right hand. Ten days later, on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit arrives on stage like a freight train; the Church is born; Peter preaches his first sermon; 3,000 people are saved . . . and the journey begins.