THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT
I. The Relationship of the Spirit’s Natural and Supernatural Operations
The diagram above pictures at least three truths about the Spirit’s work.
A. A person cannot have the miraculous without the interpersonal relationship. The non-miraculous must be in place before the miraculous becomes possible.
B. The miraculous is a non-essential, non-uniform add-on, whereas the interpersonal, non-miraculous is uniform for all Christians, everywhere, in any age. The second tier does not have to be added on, and when it is added on it is not added on for everyone.
C. There is no such thing as a miraculous manifestation of the Spirit that is contrary to his non-miraculous work or contrary to his previous work in scripture.
The “ordinary” operation of the Spirit means what is uniform for all Christians everywhere at all times, while the supernatural is not uniform at any time in the history of the church, including the first century. By no means does scripture show that every Christian possessed a supernatural gift during the apostolic age. Every Christian did and does, however, have a contribution to make to the complementary functioning of the parts of the body in evangelism and edification. Christians do so by natural talents, developed skills, or supernatural deposits. “Gifts of the Spirit” as an expression can include what is naturally inborn, what is personally developed, and what is supernaturally deposited. When people become Christians, their talents and skills become “gifts” the Spirit can use.
Scripture seems not to indicate clearly whether supernatural manifestation of the Spirit was only or primarily for the infancy of the church or for the entire church age. On that point, Christians need to adopt the same approach as first-century believers had to use in deciding whether claims and experiences were genuine demonstrations of the Spirit. They need to understand the nature of the supernatural gifts and apply the tests for distinguishing divine miracle from demonic miracle, paranormal phenomena, psychic experiences, illusion, and mis-definition.
When we become Christians, we receive the “gift of the Spirit,” an interpersonal relationship with God in the person of the Spirit. The Spirit himself is supernatural, but the relationship with him is natural because we as persons have the ability to relate to other persons. Other expressions for this reality are “baptism in the Spirit” and “the earnest of the Spirit.” None of these expressions have anything to do with supernatural endowment; that variable depends on God’s choice in each circumstance.
II. Four Patterns of the Spirit’s Non-Miraculous Operation
The issue in interpersonalism is relationship vs. miracle, not relationship vs. the supernatural. In the answered-prayer part of the Spirit’s fourfold operation, there is room for supernatural intervention. Miraculous has to do with the visible manifestation of the real but invisible presence of the Spirit.
Extremes so often beget extremes. In reaction to excesses in Holy Spirit matters, some modern Christians for all practical purposes have moved from a trinitarian to binitarian view of God. They drop the Holy Spirit out of the picture as an objective, personal, deific reality and change him into an atmosphere, the written revelation, a projection of the subjective dimension, and so on. But there is simply too much in the New Testament that is clearly more than that. We must handle the revelation about the Spirit in a way that avoids either extreme and retains something real and usable. The above diagram is an effort to picture a real, usable view of the Spirit’s normal interpersonal work, explained as follows:
A. Operation through the Word provides the content for Christian living.
B. Operation through other Christians provides mutual edification for the individual that is beyond the benefit of the individual’s interaction with the scripture.
C. Operation through circumstance becomes the arena through which answered prayer can operate. It represents intervention on the part of the Spirit to bring about results that would not have occurred without that intervention.
D. The dashed line represents the real, invisible relationship itself that exists between the Spirit and the individual Christian.
Operation through the Word centers on content for Christian living while other Christians, circumstance, and the relationship itself centers on motivation for Christian living. The Word, other Christians, and circumstance are indirect operations while the relationship is direct.
The processes pictured by the first two diagrams may be combined as the following diagram indicates.
Bible reading activates the vertical line, fellowship activates the line through other Christians, prayer activates the line through circumstance, and all these plus meditation/ communion/solitude activate the direct line of conscious sense of real presence.
III. Benefits of the Natural Operation of the Spirit
A. Guidance
B. Power
C. Intercession
The work of the Spirit in intercession differs from the work of the Son in intercession. The Son’s intercession has to do with salvation as relationship to God while the Spirit’s intercessory work has to do with operation in that relationship.
D. Unity
christir.org