Since we are studying spiritual gifts and their correct origin, function, and their abuses, it would be instructive for us to study the seven salvation ministries of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity that provides the empowerment for each of us to live the spiritual life. Without Him, we could not have become saved even though we had positive faith belief, we could not learn any divine truths, and we could never have fellowship with God. Without His divine power in each of us, our spiritual gift(s) would not exist and would have no power to function spiritually.

Regeneration

God the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. We are born-again as children of God and entered into God's family at the moment of salvation. God the Holy Spirit is the agent of this new birth. In John 3:5, Jesus answered Nicodemus by telling him that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. This does NOT say that you are saved by water baptism. Some Baptists, members of the Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and Roman Catholics all erroneously believe that you are born-again by water baptism. Being born of the water is the water of the Word that is the Gospel in the Word of God or Bible doctrine. This is the doctrine of the Gospel. You are born-again through the Gospel and through the Spirit. You cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are born of water - the Gospel - and of the Spirit - the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. The Gospel is the information that we must understand under the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit so we may receive Christ as Savior and, at that instant, be born-again.

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)

The Believer Receives a Human Spirit

God the Holy Spirit, in His salvation ministry, creates a human spirit for each believer and imputes or provides it to them as one of the 40 things every Church Age believer receives at salvation. This is so that you have the spiritual apparatus necessary for the intake of the Word of God.

The unbeliever in 1 Corinthians 2:14 is without a human spirit and is called a "natural" man. He is natural to the exclusion of the human spirit. He does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they are discerned by means of the human spirit. This is the implication from the original Greek. The believer has a human spirit and is then equipped to understand the things of the Spirit of God. The Greek word for "spiritually appraised" in 1 Corinthians 2:14 is pneumatikos and applies to the Christian who is spirit-filled. It doesn't refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit. Therefore, the teaching of the Word of God gets into the human spirit before it becomes resident in the soul.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

1 Corinthians 2:14 makes it pretty clear, doesn't it? This means the unbeliever has a soul, but does not have a human spirit. He cannot accept the things of doctrine. It is foolishness to him because the unbeliever does not have a human spirit and Bible doctrine must be discerned by means of a human spirit to be understood.

Pastor-teachers do not communicate God’s truth based on philosophy, rationalism, human reasoning, or empiricism. God’s truth has nothing to do with human wisdom. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 talks about communicating spiritual truths or Bible doctrine to spiritual believers. If you are Spirit-filled, you can understand the Word of God. You can understand this because of your human spirit. Bible doctrine is communicated by spiritual persons to a spiritual apparatus, or the human spirit, without which you cannot understand the Word of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:12-13)

We understand the doctrine of being a child of God because we are filled with the Spirit. That doctrinal information gets into the human spirit before it becomes objectively comprehended and before it becomes full knowledge in the thought pattern of the soul. The presence of a human spirit is essential to learning God’s Word. The unbeliever is dichotomous because he only has a body and a soul and without a human spirit.

Thank God for that salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit creating the human spirit so that we are trichotomous with a body, soul, and spirit. Without that, we would be minus a spiritual mechanism to handle any incoming spiritual information. Doctrine of the Word has to get into the human spirit before it can become resident either in the left or right lobe of the soul.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Every believer in the Church Age is placed in union with Jesus Christ at the moment of salvation by the Holy Spirit, as indicated by 1 Corinthians 12:13. This is not optional! It does not occur after salvation. The word baptism means to be "identified with." We become identified with the Lord Jesus Christ at the point of salvation. We are identified with the Lord Jesus Christ as He is seated at the Father's right hand. This is called Positional Truth.

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Members of the Charismatic Movement believe erroneously that believers are baptized after the point of salvation. They call it the second blessing. Some say if you don't have it, it means you were not saved in the first place. Others say, if you don't get it, that means you can never be spiritual and pleasing to the Lord. They call it the second blessing and it's evidenced, they say, by speaking in tongues. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, the phrase "we were all baptized" shoots that false doctrine down clearly, doesn't it? This verse teaches a doctrine that is anti-charismatic and anti-pentecostal. This verse disproves Pentecostalism. The phrase "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body" means the Holy Spirit did all the work and we all become members of the Body of Christ. All believers were baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free. The phrase "we were all made to drink of one Spirit" refers to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

Every Christian is indwelt with the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation so that the Shekinah Glory of Christ can be a reality within our lives. That Shekinah Glory comes from the filling of the Spirit. Remember, the glory of God in the Old Testament times, as it emanated from the pillar of cloud by day and by the pillar of fire by night, was the sign to the Jews that they were under blessing and that they could continue to anticipate blessing from God. When you are filled with the Spirit today, you are under blessing and you anticipate continued blessing from God. That's why our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit as in 1 Corinthians 3:16. It's like the tabernacle and temple of the Old Testament - the Shekinah Glory resided there. This glory is inside us and is manifested in blessing as we are controlled by God the Holy Spirit.

Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Romans 8:9 means that you are not controlled by the Old Sin Nature, but by the Spirit when you are filled by the Spirit following confession of known sins to the Father. It also means that the Spirit of God does indeed indwell every believer and that you cannot be a believer and not have it. The title "the Spirit of Christ" is a functional title for God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit indwells and when He controls the soul, He reproduces the virtues of the character of Jesus Christ. That's how we follow in His footsteps. In John 15:26, the Lord Jesus Christ said that the Holy Spirit would come from the Father and bear witness of Jesus Christ.

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Romans 8:9)

When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, (John 15:26)

It is always the ministry of the Holy Spirit to lift up and glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church Age. This is accomplished as we are controlled by the Spirit, because the fruit of the Spirit is simply a pen portrait of the character of Jesus Christ. Being filled with the Spirit a maximum amount of the time on a daily basis means that you are spiritually mature. We are reproducing the character of Christ to a maximum degree at spiritual maturity. As you take in the Word and grow spiritually, you will be filled with the Spirit on a daily basis for a maximum amount of the time. When you find you're out of fellowship, you just recover through confession of sin. You then believe that you're forgiven and cleansed and filled with the Spirit once again. Your life is going to be characterized by love, joy, peace and all these virtues that God the Holy Spirit was sent to produce within our lives.

The Sealing Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The command given in Ephesians 4:30 is not to grieve the Spirit. It means to avoid being out of fellowship and in a state of carnality. Grief comes because of the loss of relationship. Isn't that true of life? A boy meets a girl and both think it's the greatest thing in the world. If the relationship doesn't work out, they break up and there’s grief. Grief and sorrow result from the termination of the relationship. This is what you have with God the Holy Spirit. You cannot terminate His indwelling or His baptism because they are both permanent grace gifts from God at salvation. You cannot terminate anything that's related to the salvation ministries of God the Holy Spirit. They are perfect and complete and eternal. What you terminate is your fellowship or your soul’s control by the Holy Spirit.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30)

You terminate the filling of the Holy Spirit when you convert temptation into sin by negative volition. By saying yes to the temptation and no to what God wants by using His problem solving devices, you are saying no. You then lose the filling of the Spirit and your fellowship and are no longer in the Fellowship Sphere for Time. You are out in the wilderness spiritually and are under control of your sinful nature. That sinful situation grieves the Holy Spirit. It doesn't make the Holy Spirit sad because God cannot be sad. How can perfect happiness be sad? This is an anthropopathism that presents a human feeling ascribed to God so we might understand the policy that exists in our relationship with the Lord.

When we commit sin and are then out of fellowship, this terminates our experiential relationship with God the Holy Spirit. He is no longer in control of your soul. He indwells the house, but He is not in control of the house. The phrase "day of redemption" in Ephesians 4:30 implies deliverance. We will be delivered from the very presence of sin by the Rapture of the Church. The day of redemption is the Rapture of the Church. We will be in our perfect resurrection bodies. This is a very important and rational approach to the doctrine of eternal security, because the seal refers to an official stamp used in the ancient world.

In the ancient world, a king who wanted to have an official communication delivered to one of his provinces would wrap up the scroll to be delivered, take the seal, dip it in hot wax, and put it on the parchment. He would then close it and have it delivered. It would then be a sealed delivery. That seal could not be broken until it reached its final destination. It could go anywhere in the realm. If the messenger were stopped or questioned, all he had to do was show the seal of the King to guarantee his safe passage and delivery of the message. We receive the Holy Spirit at salvation as a down payment and as a seal of God’s approval. God is able to make all of the monthly, daily, and moment by moment installments necessary to take us right on through to the Rapture of the Church. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our safe arrival.

Every believer is in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer is baptized by the Spirit and sealed by the Spirit. Every believer is going to be at the Rapture of the Church and will receive his or her resurrection body. This is the sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit and is the Spirit’s approach to your eternal security and your guarantee of safe arrival.

Spiritual Gifts from the Holy Spirit

God the Holy Spirit is the sovereign executive who distributes spiritual gift(s) to every believer at the point of salvation as stated in 1 Corinthians 12:11. He gives the type of spiritual gift(s) to each individual believer at the moment of salvation as He desires sovereignly. That was true of all temporary spiritual gifts from 30 to 96 A.D. and is true of all permanent gifts given throughout the Church Age.

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. (1 Corinthians 12:11)

The charismatics erroneously believe He distributes spiritual gifts as a second blessing after salvation. This false belief leaves the believer not knowing whether he or she is saved or spiritual. The fact that all these spiritual gifts are the work of the Holy Spirit means this is grace all the way. The charismatics are agonizing, tarrying, and whipping themselves into states of emotional hypnotism to get some type of gift from the Spirit. Of course, they prefer gifts that will cause an ecstatic experience. This is wrong and negates the sovereignty of God and relegates salvation and spirituality to whether a believer exhibits a certain outward behavior to be interpreted by other believers. Spiritual gifts given by the Holy Spirit are the work of God for each of us according to His plan.

You should never have a superiority or inferiority complex over your spiritual gift(s). You may have the spiritual gift of Helps and assist others in the local church by preparing the meeting auditorium and classrooms before everyone arrives for Bible class. Others may have an administrative spiritual gift and keep the church running and be a part of the deacon board. No matter what your gift from God, it’s all grace! Accept it and keep on moving spiritually! God the Holy Spirit knows exactly which gift is best for your soul and personality. Your personality is simply the way you express your soul and God knows what spiritual gift is best for you.

The Filling of the Holy Spirit

At the moment of salvation, every believer is filled with the Holy Spirit. This principle is presented in Acts 1:5. The original Christians were Jewish Age believers, but when they were baptized by the Spirit, they were filled with the Spirit and they evangelized in the Spirit. The principle here is that at the moment you become a Christian, you are filled with the Spirit. You regain the filling of God the Holy Spirit afterwards through the confession of known sin to God the Father whenever necessary. Once filled with the Spirit, you can now take in the Word of God on a daily basis.

for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. (Acts 1:5)

When no Bible classes are scheduled or if you are unable to get to the Bible class although you have made it a priority in your life, you should seek secondary sources of the Truth. They are audio tapes of your pastor’s messages that you have missed, available written literature from the local church and other sources, and even newly available computer files from selected doctrinal World Wide Web sites on the Internet. You should use whatever means are at your disposal to fulfill your destiny within the plan of God. Jesus Christ will never be first in your life until His thinking is the highest priority in your life. The filling of the Holy Spirit is mandated in Ephesians 5:18. There is also a mandate against drunkenness, whether it's with wine or other alcoholic beverage. The word "dissipation" means wasteful consumption or indulgence in sensual pleasure or debauchery. Drunkenness will always lead to some type of debauchery or wasteful activity. Ephesians 5:18 is saying that when you drink alcoholic beverages, it goes inside you and changes you on the outside. Instead of doing that, you should be filled with the Spirit on the inside which will change you from the inside out.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, (Ephesians 5:18)

An intoxicated person is controlled by the alcohol that they have imbibed, but the person who is filled with the Spirit is controlled by the Spirit. The Greek verb for the phrase "be filled" is pleroo and means to be filled up, to be full and overflowing, to be fully influenced, and to be fully controlled. What greater thing could happen to your life on a daily basis than to be filled a maximum amount of the time, every day, and be fully controlled and influenced by God the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit never works apart from the Word of God. It is always the power of the Word that enables us to be controlled by Him a maximum amount of the time, on a daily basis!

It’s always rewarding to a pastor-teacher to be told by those in his congregation that the teaching of the Word has changed them from the inside out. Doctrinal teaching should change your life. That's what the spiritual life is all about! Your life should be changed from the inside out with God the Holy Spirit being in control. The change in your behavior comes from a change in your thought pattern of the soul.