It seems to me that Christians today either make too little or too much of the work of the Holy Spirit. John Owen, writing in the seventeenth century, observed that this imbalance has been an essential tactic of Satan throughout the history of the Church. Satan either encourages us to share the message of the Bible without the Spirit (e.g. through the use of dead liturgies and ceremonies), or else he leads us to believe that the Spirit (or a spirit) is enough without the Word.

In his excellent book Communion with God (Banner of Truth, 1991), John describes how we have fellowship with God – the undivided Three and united One – as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the third part of the book, John explains in simple terms how the ‘generous Spirit’ (Psalm 51:12 NKJV) works within our hearts as believers. His greatest work for us, of course, is the regeneration and new life which comes when, through the victory of Christ on the cross, the Spirit takes away our hearts of stone replacing them with hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26-27, Titus 3:5). For us, ‘there is now no condemnation, [because] the law of the Spirit of life has set [us] free in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1-2). 

Owen went so far as to say that ‘praying for the Holy Spirit is the most important work faith has to do in this world’ (p. 173). If that is the case, then the condition of the Church today depends upon our prayers for the Spirit of God to work in us.

John Owen quote

But what works does He do for believers? In this post, I want to consider seven ways in which the Spirit has communion with us (with thanks to John Owen for pointing them out in his book!). The number seven is fitting, as the third member of the Trinity is indeed the ‘sevenfold [i.e. perfect] Spirit of God’ (Revelation 5:6 NLT). Hopefully, this study will help us to right our uneven ship (whichever way it leans!), so that we understand a little bit more about God’s ‘good Spirit’ (Psalm 143:10) and how He works within our hearts.

1. He brings to mind the words and promises of Christ

‘But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.’

John 14:26

Do you ever wonder how the writers of the Gospels were able to accurately record every word that Jesus spoke? It was through the work of ’the Helper, the Holy Spirit’. Only by His help could the Word be infallible and inerrant, and so be trustworthy (2 Timothy 3:16).

We also see here the work of the Helper in speaking truths from Scripture to us at our times of need. How true this is! So often He will bring a verse from God’s Word to mind at just the right moment, to soothe our fears, challenge our sins and aid us in our struggles; thus we ‘stand on every promise of [His] Word’. However, here we must do our part too. The usual way in which the Spirit brings Scripture to mind is through our own reading, memorisation and meditation of the Word, or through hearing the Bible taught, preached and sung. When we immerse ourselves daily in the Bible, we reap the benefits for a long time! And this really helps to illustrate the Christian life: yes, it is all a work of the Spirit, but He uses our efforts – weak though they may be – to sanctify us and build us up.

2. He glorifies Christ

‘He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’

John 16:14

The Holy Spirit takes the things of the Father, which the Lord Jesus has won for His people, and shares them with us. This very work glorifies Christ. Do you see here the wondrous ‘Tri-unity’ (as one man put it) which Father, Son and Spirit have? The Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father (John 12:28), and the Spirit is right there in the middle glorifying them both (John 1:32). This is the whole purpose of the Godhead, and, by the way, the reason for our existence as well. Gregory of Nazianzus said:

‘No sooner do I conceive of the One than I am illumined by the Splendour of the Three; no sooner do I distinguish Them than I am carried back to the One.’

It is only as the Spirit enables us that we are able to see Christ and so glorify Christ, as we realise what a glorious Saviour we have that we magnify Him in our hearts as Mary His earthly mother did (Luke 1:46-47). To prove this, Owen quotes 1 Corinthians 12:3: ‘No-one can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Spirit’. Transformed lives, regenerated by the Spirit of Christ, bring honour to Christ. We often beat ourselves up over our sin because we’re not what we should be; but sometimes we forget that we’re not what we once were! Yes, sin continues to take too much of our hearts, but a new purpose now beats inside us, we are born again, we are ‘born of the Spirit’ (John 3:6), we care now because we want to please our Lord, and give He who died for us the glory that the Spirit gives Him.

3. He pours God’s love into our hearts

‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’

Romans 5:5

Here’s a rich truth which John Owen expands and so dispels the notion that the Puritans were a grumpy old lot! I think they experienced the truth of these words far more than we do today; they spent much more time on their knees and much more time searching the scriptures than we do. The Spirit takes hold of the boundless stores of God’s love and fills us with so much joy so that the Christian even cries, ‘Lord, stay Thy hand or the vessel will break!’ (D. L. Moody after beseeching God for the filling of the Spirit). John Flavel knew ‘more of heaven from [one] experience [with the Lord] than from all the books [and sermons] he had ever read’ (Meet the Puritans, p. 249). What do we know of this depth of experience today?

Owen describes the Spirit’s mission in this beautifully (p. 182):

‘To persuade a poor, sinful soul that God in Jesus Christ loves him, delights in him, is well pleased with him and only has thoughts of kindness towards him is an inexpressible mercy.’

And he sums it up with (p. 182):

‘What we have of heaven in this world lies in this work of the Holy Spirit.’

The Spirit ‘given to us’ truly is the ‘Comforter’ (John 16:7 KJV).

4. He assures us that we are God’s children

‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God‘

Romans 8:16

All of us get doubts and fears from time to time, however strong or weak we think ourselves. However, the very reason that Satan comes along and whispers such rubbish as ‘you don’t really think God would save you, do you?’ suggests that there is something worth attacking. The devil will not let the pilgrim reach those pearly gates without doing his level best to stop them by hook or by crook. But – praise God! – we have the Spirit bearing witness with our own spirits that we are indeed the children of God.

John Owen compares the Spirit’s work here to Jesus stilling the storm in Matthew 8:25-27 (p. 183):

‘The Holy Spirit with one word stills the storms in the soul, bringing calm and assurance, then the soul knows by experience that divine power is present and so rejoices in that presence.’

By holding onto the promises of Christ through the Spirit, we can weather these storms. By His good grace, we’ll ‘persevere to the end and be saved’ (Matthew 24:13). The Spirit assures us that if Jesus Christ can conquer death and rise again, it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that He can keep hold of those given to Him (John 10:28-29).

5. He seals us

‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.‘

Ephesians 4:30

John Owen takes this picture of us being sealed in the Holy Spirit and says that this is how we are stamped (or impressed) with the image of God. This is how He purifies us and transforms us more into His own likeness. As our lives go on, through the Spirit’s work of sanctification, we are made more and more like Him and produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

There is real encouragement here, we will be kept safe. Like Christian in The Pilgrim’s Progress, we have a scroll marked with the King’s seal that we must give at the celestial gate, granting us entry into paradise. Similarly, Owen references Ezekiel 9:4, where those who grieve for ‘all the abominations’ have God’s mark stamped on their foreheads. So we have the hope that, along with all who bear His mark, on that great day of judgement, we will be redeemed.

The warning for us is to not grieve the Spirit, Who sealed us, by persisting in our sin.

6. He is our guarantee

‘God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.‘

2 Corinthians 5:5

The Holy Spirit Himself is our guarantee, our deposit, or, as Owen puts it, our ‘pledge’ from God that He will do as He says. And you know what? The deposit we have now is just the tiniest part of what we’ll one day have, when we receive our full inheritance purchased for us by Christ!

What is the full inheritance, you ask (p. 186)?

‘When that Spirit which is given to us in this world has perfectly taken away all sin and sorrow and has made us able to enjoy the glory of God in His presence, that is the full inheritance promised.’

In the Spirit we have all the security we could ever want. Owen points us to Isaiah 59:21:

‘“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”’

Owen closes with this belter (p. 187):

‘By the Holy Spirit, then, we get a foretaste of the fulness of that glory which God has prepared for those that love Him and the more communion we have with the Holy Spirit as [a guarantee], the more we taste of that heavenly glory which awaits us.’

7. He anoints us

‘But you have been anointed by the Holy One.’

1 John 2:20

The man Jesus was fully reliant on the anointing of the Holy Spirit for all that He did. He had to learn all that He taught for Himself first. He had to pray for the Spirit’s help, just like we do. The Spirit taught Him many things; so it is written that ‘Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man’ (Luke 2:52).

It is only by the Spirit’s work that we are regenerated and sanctified. It is only through Him that the Gospel is realised in our hearts, that the Son and Father dwell in us (John 14:23). It is only through Him that we are built up in the faith. So the Lord tells us, ‘not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit’ (Zechariah 4:6). How often do we try to do things in our own strength, without God’s help? If Jesus, God incarnate, needed the Spirit’s anointing, how much more do we!

The Spirit is in us (1 Corinthians 3:16), He’s anointed us, but we must earnestly pray for God’s Spirit to pour more of Christ upon us like ‘[fragrant] oil poured out’ (Song of Songs 1:3). The truth is this anointing isn’t always pleasant… Isaiah 4:4 (KJV) says that the Lord will cleanse ‘the filth of the daughters of Zion’ by the ‘Spirit of burning’. 

What is the anointing of the Spirit then? Isaiah 11:2-3, speaking supremely of Christ, tells us what happens when the Spirit anoints someone: 

‘The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.’

It’s better to have the Spirit than the bodily Jesus

We can and should praise the Holy Spirit for all His undertakings for us. Frankly, He doesn’t get enough credit. The Holy Spirit is equally God and so He is to be equally praised, along with the Father and the Son. Rejoice, and glorify the Spirit!

The sad thing is we know so little about the Spirit, both in our heads and in our hearts. But the truth is, when Jesus was still on this earth, He said:

‘It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.’

John 16:7

If you’re anything like me then you’ve sometimes bemoaned the fact that we no longer have Jesus bodily present with us, but Jesus tells us this is a good thing! If He didn’t return to heaven, then we would not have the post-Pentecostal pouring out of the Holy Spirit. This is a great truth to take hold of! If Jesus was still here then we wouldn’t appreciate the Spirit’s work and presence within our hearts; we’d still be looking for an earthly kingdom like the disciples were (Acts 1:6).

So let us be encouraged to look by faith and pray to the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, to ‘live according to the Spirit [by setting our] minds on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5b). What are these things of the Spirit? Supremely, Christ and Him crucified, and what that means for us; all of which would have been impossible without the ‘Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father’ (Romans 8:15 KJV). Paul closes out Romans 8 by telling us that ‘[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:35, 38-39). You can thank the Holy Spirit for that.