Ministries of Holy Spirit

Empowered for Purpose: The Ministries of the Holy Spirit

So today we will have a conversation about what are the ministries of Holy Spirit. Maybe another way to say it is what does Holy Spirit do, what is His day job?

We will attempt to do a very quick survey on the ministries of Holy Spirit and then wrap things up with how do we apply this in our everyday lives. And like I have said several times before, there is no way we can cover everything in this one teaching. We could spend an entire teaching series on just the ministries of Holy Spirit. I am not sure if we are even going to scratch the surface here today.

What I am hoping from my perspective is there might be something that is shared today that would create a desire and hunger in you that you would want to study a little more on your own or in your group that you are in, and have some beautiful conversations about this.

The ministries of the Holy Spirit encompass a wide array of functions including conviction of sin, guidance in truth, empowerment for service, and the cultivation of transformative character traits in believers.

Understanding these ministries reveals the multifaceted role the Holy Spirit plays in the life of the Church and individual Christians.

Picture a jigsaw puzzle depicting a beautiful landscape. Each piece represents different ministries within the church. Initially, it seems chaotic—pieces scattered everywhere without a clear image. However, with time and guidance (like the Holy Spirit), all the pieces come together to create a stunning picture of faith and community. Understanding these ministries shows us how our individual contributions complete the whole story!

So lets start at the very beginning. Lets take a quick observation at creation.

Genesis 1:2 “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

There will be some overlap between last weeks message and this but I think it is good to review and maybe I will say something slightly different and it will click with you.

We can see back in the very beginning of Creation that Holy Spirit was there. I am taking this moment because for some maybe you only thought Holy Spirit was only in the Book of Acts, which we will get to. But I just want us to all be on the same page that Holy Spirit was around at Creation.

Lets fast forward to Exodus. Which is the story of the Israelites being freed from slavery in Egypt and God used Moses for the task.

Last week we made the observation of God showing up at an alter and then the tabernacle.

Tabernacle image

God was guiding them to the promise land. While that is happening God is giving them guidelines of how to live their lives which included “rules,”I like to use the word picture of guardrails.

God gave instruction on worship, and building the tabernacle to host God’s presences. I just want us to make a quick observation of how the Spirit ministered in building the tabernacle.

Exodus 31:1–3 “The Lord also spoke to Moses: “Look, I have appointed by name Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with God’s Spirit, with wisdom, understanding, and ability in every craft”

Again lets fast forward and look at David. There is so much of the scriptures that talk about the life of David, and we have so many of the Psalms that are written by David. Needless to say there is lots of pages that look at Davids life.

1 Samuel 16:13 “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.”

If you spend anytime reading about David you see this shepherd boy from a large family who grows to be the King of the Israelites who has the highs and lows of life. A guy who writes songs and poetry, wins wars, commits adultery, and murders to cover up his sin.

To being known as a man who is after God’s heart.

With all the experiences that David had he knew very well the importance of God’s Spirit. I am so thankful for how much is written about David for us to observe, but I am even more grateful for Davids own words in the way he expresses himself through many of the Psalms. If I did my research well there are 74 Psalms that are attributed to David.

I want to show you just a glimpse of this intimacy that David had with Holy Spirit.

Psalm 51:10–11 “God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.”

I want to look at one more sample from the Old Testament. There are so many other places we could look at and, like I said, we can not cover all of it. But we have several writings in the Old Testament that we call the Prophets. These were people that God chose to use/minister to God’s chosen people.

Often it was a message of “hey you are getting off track and you need to turn back towards God.” You need to repent. Often the Israelites would take their eyes off of God/Yahweh and turn towards worldly things, or be corrupted by other nations and worship other gods.

Then life would get really hard and they would cry out to God/Yahweh. God would use the prophet to help them get back on track. All of them would direct the people to repent.

Lets look at this moment from the prophet Joel who seemed to have a grasp on earlier prophets and the Hebrew bible what we call the Old Testament.

Joel 2:28–29 “After this I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. I will even pour out my Spirit on the male and female slaves in those days.”

There is a lot going on here but I just want us to observe that when repentance takes place God pours out His Spirit.

Picture of ice cream

It is like getting ice cream after eating a meal. When we repent Gods spirit begins to fill in all the little voids.

We can also observe that prophesy, dreams, and visions are ministries of Holy Spirit.

Now remember up till Jesus the Spirit has been selective or not fully poured out on humanity yet.

Okay, we covered a lot of ground very quickly and I just want to stop for a moment realizing that some of you don’t know very much about the Biblical themes, narratives, and stories of the Bible and this can seem overwhelming and it is easy to check out. Please keep hanging with me.

We are gathered here in this moment because we are all on a journey together. Some of us have been on the journey longer than others. Some of us have walked at a different pace than others.

Regardless of how we got to this moment as we “apprentice” under Jesus, or become a disciple of Jesus we are exposed to things in our life through the Holy Spirit.

Dallas Willard puts it like this…

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ All that Is Required to Begin

When setting out as his apprentices, we will sharply encounter all of the harmful things that are “in” us: false thoughts and feelings, self-will, bodily inclinations to evil, ungodly social relationships and patterns, and soul wounds and misconnections. These our Savior and Teacher will help us remove as we strive forward through the many-sided ministries of himself, his kingdom, and his people. All will be bathed in the Holy Spirit.

Understanding the ministries of the Holy Spirit can significantly enhance our daily walk with God, equipping us to live out our faith boldly and share it with others.

This knowledge can help us rely on the Spirit for strength in times of weakness, direction in confusion, and comfort in sorrow.

If Jesus is who we are following and modeling our life after, he taught his closest followers that the Holy Spirit was going to be our helper. And most importantly that Holy Spirit would be with us.

Lets look at Jesus’ words in Johns Gospel.

John 14:16–17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth. The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.”

So we can observe a couple of aspects of the ministries of Holy Spirit, he is going to be with us, and He is truth. And anything that Jesus has said, did, taught, is truth. Jesus himself said I am the way and the truth.

Holy Spirit is a wonderful reminder of this. Just a little further down in this passage…

John 14:25–26 ““I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.”

Image of post it note.

Holy Spirit can be like that post it note that you stick on your wall or mirror to help you not forget what Jesus has taught.

Jesus expands on this in much more detail in just a couple more chapters as he is dialoguing with His disciples.

John 16:7–15 “Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment:

The Spirit's work here reveals the necessity of recognizing our need for a Savior and understanding the truth found in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

This passage should encourage us believers to align ourselves with the Spirit's convicting work which can lead us to a more profound commitment to holy living and a deeper love for others.

We have said this many times from this stage that sin is bad. One of the ministries of Holy Spirit is revealing this sin in our lives, which in turn, points us in need of Jesus in our life.

The Spirits convicting power in our life should draw us closer to the Father not farther away.

I get it, maybe some of you were absolutely terrified as a child growing up that you did not want to get in trouble because there was going to be “hell to pay.”

Maybe there was a moment in your life where the pinishment was so severe in your life. Maybe that is why you have avoided getting help in that area of your life because of how painful it is. Or you thought to yourself it is just easier to suppress it deep and ignore it.

This reminds me of the movie Inside Out 2. If you have not watch either one of these movies it is time to buy them. And I am about to bring some spoilers. But hey, its been out for over a year now.

Image of inside out 2

I grabbed this shot because this is one of my favorite visuals of what I have done and have seen play out in so many others.

The ministry of Holy Spirit at times will reach back into our memories and emotions and it can seem like a flood just sweeps over us. Each one of those colored balls represents a memory and the emotions tied to those memories.

By opening ourselves to the Spirit's guidance, we allow the character of Christ to be formed in us, leading to transformation and fruitful living.

We will get to that shortly. Lets continue in our text.

About sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; and about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

It becomes clear what this means when we see that it is Jesus Christ’s righteousness of which we will be convinced.

Jesus was crucified as a criminal. He was tried; he was found guilty; he was regarded by the Jews as an evil heretic, and by the Romans as a dangerous character; he was given the punishment that the worst criminals had to suffer, branded as a felon and an enemy of God.

What changed that? What made people see in this crucified figure the Son of God, as the centurion saw at the cross.

Matthew 27:54 “When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

William Barclay makes this observation

The Gospel of John, Volume 2 The Work of the Holy Spirit (John 16:5–11)

It is amazing that men and women should put their trust for all eternity in a crucified Jewish criminal. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who convinces people of the sheer righteousness of Christ, backed by the fact that Jesus rose again and went to his Father.

Maybe to slow down for a minute and process this for ourselves, we can ponder a question.

How are you responsive to Holy Spirit? Are you listening to the guidance of Holy Spirit?

Up to this point we have done a very quick survey of the ministries of Holy Spirit which has included Jesus telling us more in depth some of what Holy Spirit does. Again I ask, are you responsive to Holy Spirit?

Maybe a different way to ask this is, are you resistant to Holy Spirit’s guidance in your life?

Maybe this is all very difficult for you to wrap your head around. Maybe some of this seems very abstract for you. Maybe this is to spiritual for you.

I am wondering if even Jesus’ disciples struggled with trying to understand that it was better for Holy Spirit to be here than Jesus himself. Let’s jump back into our text.

“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.

I find this fascinating. Jesus had so much more to teach about Holy Spirit but he could discern that the timing wasn’t good yet. Maybe that is you right now, it is hard for you “to bear right now.” My encouragement to you is stick around and see what happens.

Maybe for some of you your spiritual radar is going off and you feel really uncomfortable about all this. Maybe you think the church is going to get weird or people are going to start doing weird things.

If we stop talking about Jesus, it totally has the potential to get really weird.

For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is mine. This is why I told you that he takes from what is mine and will declare it to you.”

Jesus himself is giving us so much information of what Holy Spirit does, or what the ministries of Holy Spirit are.

He is saying that Holy Spirit is going to be pointing us back towards Jesus. I love the perspective of Charles Spurgeon

The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. VIII The Holy Spirit Glorifying Christ (No. 465)

May this Church ever continue to reverence the Holy Spirit without exaggerating his work! May we prize him, love him, and adore him, because he so wondrously glorifies our blessed Lord.

Lets get a little more practical about the ministries of Holy Spirit.

One thing that I have experienced over and over in my walk with Jesus is how Holy Spirit can help me to pray. There are moments I just struggle to pray or I feel like I need the right words. Holy Spirit helps us to pray.

Check out the Apostle Pauls words to the church in Rome. Who had so much going on with being persecuted. People were dyeing for their faith and I would imagine there were times that they had no idea how to pray for what was going on in Rome.

Romans 8:26–27 “In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

There is an important point here in this passage. We have to not only recognize, but we have to admit that we are weak. This is very counter cultural.

Lets see if you recognize any of these sayings or a version of them, or maybe you have thought about them being a truth and lived your life by these.

Get your act together

Put your nose to the grindstone

Keep your chin up

Take the bull by the horns

Fend for yourself

Maybe we have let this type of mindset rule our hearts which makes it really hard to completely surrender over to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

If we lean into just this passage we can observe the importance of prayer in our walk with Jesus and even when we don’t know how to pray the Holy Spirit helps us in the process.

Check out the wisdom of Charles Spurgeon

We should pray when we are in a praying mood, for it would be sinful to neglect so fair an opportunity. We should pray when we are not in a proper mood, for it would e dangerous to remain in so unhealthy a condition.

Let’s begin to land the plane with our teaching today. I want to look at two more thing when looking at the ministries of Holy Spirit. As we begin our decent, what is the by product of us allowing the Spirit to guide and direct our lives.

What comes out of us, as we allow Holy Spirit to minister in and through us?

The Apostle Paul uses a word picture of fruit. Which builds off of the language that Jesus used

Galatians 5:22–23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.”

Imagine you’re part of a cooking show. The host shows you how to mix ingredients to make a cake. You see them add eggs, flour, and sugar, and you think, 'Sure, if I just sit here, a cake will appear!' But of course, you need to stir and bake! Bearing the fruit of the Spirit is similar. We can’t expect love, joy, and peace to happen on their own; we must actively mix in prayer, passion, and participation in community to bake a delicious spiritual life!

Maybe have the ingredients to make a cake on a table the whole time to build the anticipation.

John 13:34–35 ““I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The ministry of Holy Spirit helps us to be able to do this. We will unpack this more in a separate teaching. So standby on that though. I think I am safe to say, that we more than likely have people in our life that require a little more effort to love than others. The only way we be able to show that we are Jesus’ disciples, loving others, is through the ministries of Holy Spirit.

The ministry of Holy Spirit transforms us and helps us to have evidence of the developing of fruit, of the Spirit, within us.

This should be prompting us to walk by the Spirit daily which will result in lives marked by love, joy, peace, and more, which testify to the world about the reality of Christ in believers.

We will get more in depth in a later teaching but I want to put this in front of you as we look at our final point of the ministries of Holy Spirit. Which again, reminder, we barely scratch the surface of this today.

But one of the wonderful things that the Spirit ministers to us is empowering us.

This Gospel message was never met just for you, and just for me, it is for everyone.

Lets look at Jesus’ words to his closest disciples before he went back to heaven.

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””

The empowerment by the Holy Spirit is for witnessing and ministry. This passage highlights how the disciples moved from fear to boldness, demonstrating the transformational power of the Spirit. This should encourage us believers to depend on the Holy Spirit for courage in sharing the gospel and living out their faith.

This empowerment is not only for effective ministry but also for overcoming personal obstacles to living out God's calling. When we wait on the Spirit's anointing/healing/empowerment it changes our lives. Which can be a wonderful witness to those around us.

Think about it for just a second. If you struggle with some sort of addiction, or you struggle with gossiping, being overly critical, but the Spirit gets a hold of you think about the witness to those around you? They will see it. I used to be one way now I am another.

The Spirit emboldens us believers to live out our faith and spread the gospel with conviction and love.

All of this only happens by the grace of God. Yes we can put effort into this but only through Gods grace does this transformation take place. It is the Spirit who makes the changes in our life. I like how Dallas Willard puts it.

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ Transforming the Details of Life

What I receive in response to my efforts is therefore also a gift, a grace. Spiritual (trans)formation of my thought life is achieved by the ministry of the Spirit in the midst of my necessary and well-directed efforts.

Recognizing and embracing the ministries of the Holy Spirit can lead to a deeper relationship with God, enhancing our ability to live lives that reflect Christ. By actively engaging with the Holy Spirit's guidance and empowerment, believers can become more effective witnesses and servants in the world, fulfilling the unique purposes for which they were created.

The Holy Spirit's ministries are essential for our transformation and empowerment, enabling us to live out God's purposes and embrace our identity as His children.

With that being said often this can take place in just everyday ordinary conversations. And we just so happen to have a workshop happening to help better equip us for these conversations. I would like to bring up my friend Pastor Dan Crowley

Can you give us a 60 second introduction of yourself.

What are you passionate about?

What should we expect at the workshop?

Pray over the everyone the following verse

2 Corinthians 13:13 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”