The late John Stott wrote:
“Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from His fruit, and no effective witness without His power. As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.”
Christianity works because there is an internal change in the believer, which change is wrought by God the Holy Spirit. He in-dwells each believer. The Church is the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is everywhere in scripture. This thread of the divine in-dwelling is important.
- “The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1.2). Here in the moment of creation, Holy Spirit hovered over the waters. Active and present from the very start.
- “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit on them (all)” Num 11.29. Moses, who had enjoyed the power of God’s Spirit, prophesied that God’s Spirit would dwell in all of God’s people.
- “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1.8). Just before Jesus’ ascension into Heaven, He announced that the Holy Spirit would come upon His followers in a new way. This occurred on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2.1-4). We read of the Holy Spirit being poured out in far greater measure than before. No longer was the Holy Spirit restricted to a few moments and a few miracles and a few man. He is truly the birthright of all of Christ’s people.
In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul links the Holy Spirit with freedom. Freedom from duty and law and obligation. The Holy Spirit does not merely improve a law-based religion – He delivers transformation to all who are “in Christ.”
In dwelling Spirit gives us freedom to worship God and power to obey God.