Understanding the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit—His deity, personality, baptism, filling, gifts, fruit, and ongoing work in believers.
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 01148 One of the most practically significant questions in contemporary Christianity concerns the difference between the Holy Spirit opening a person’s mind to understand what Scripture already says, and the claim that the Spirit provides fresh revelation that goes beyond or supplements the biblical text. Getting this distinction right matters enormously for how Christians…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 01149 There is a beautiful coherence to the doctrine of Scripture that is sometimes missed in debates about inspiration and interpretation. The same Holy Spirit who oversaw the production of the biblical text is the Spirit who opens the minds of believers to receive it. The Spirit who breathed out the words is the…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 0039 This question reflects a misunderstanding that some sincere Christians hold; the idea that because we have the indwelling Spirit, we can bypass careful study and simply rely on direct spiritual insight. It sounds humble and spiritual, but it actually contradicts what Scripture itself teaches. The Spirit-Led Life and the Word Yes, every believer…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04010 Galatians 5:22-23 lists what many Christians have memorised as the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The question of whether every believer possesses all of these, or whether they are distributed differently among different people, touches on the nature of spiritual growth and the relationship…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4008 The question of how the Spirit guides believers is one of the most practically significant in all of pneumatology. It touches directly on decision-making, on the discernment of God’s will, and on the texture of Christian life at a day-to-day level. Romans 8:14 states that “all who are led by the Spirit of…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4007 Few phrases have been borrowed more freely from their original context than “the still small voice.” It has become a standard way of describing the Holy Spirit’s gentle inner promptings, invoked in worship songs, devotional talks, and spiritual direction conversations. The phrase comes from 1 Kings 19:12 in the King James Version. The…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4006 Christians sometimes describe hearing from the Spirit in ways that raise an obvious question: does the Holy Spirit actually speak in an audible voice? This is not a sceptic’s challenge to spiritual experience. It is a fair biblical inquiry into how the Spirit communicates, and the answer has practical implications for how believers…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4004 Ephesians 4:30 contains a command that is both sobering and, on reflection, remarkable: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” That the Spirit of God can be grieved is not a peripheral observation. It tells us something important about who the Spirit…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4003 Christians sometimes speak of being filled with the Spirit as though it were an elusive spiritual state achieved only by the most devoted believers, or conversely, as though it is synonymous with emotional intensity in worship. Neither captures what the New Testament is actually talking about. The idea of Spirit-filling is important, biblical,…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4002 Few questions in pneumatology have generated more disagreement than this one. Some traditions teach that the Spirit is received at water baptism. Others insist on a distinct post-conversion experience, sometimes evidenced by speaking in tongues. Still others locate the Spirit’s reception at the moment of saving faith. The question matters not as a…