THE HOLY SPIRIT
This is from The Vineyard Statement of Faith …
THE MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus.
We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.
The Vineyard teaches that all believers receive the Holy Spirit at conversion. Either at conversion or subsequent to conversion, believers will experience and are encouraged to ask for the empowering or filling of the Holy Spirit for ministry. This empowering and filling is not meant to be a one time experience, but an ongoing relationship of dependency on the Spirit’s presence and power. The Vineyard encourages all believers to continually seek the Spirit’s filling and take risks of faith expecting the Spirit’s empowering.
The Vineyard believes that all the spiritual gifts are available and valuable for today. The gift of tongues is NOT consider THE gift that marks the Spirit-filled Christian. Instead, the Spirit-filled Christian is to be characterized by the fruit of the Spirit, especially love, and any gift that the Spirit determines to give.
It’s helpful to see how the New Testament uses prepositions in reference to the Holy Spirit. The preposition IN is used to describe the indwelling presence of the Spirit IN the believer (see Ezekiel 36:26-27, John 7:36-39, 14:15-17, 20:19-21, Romans 8:9, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22). The preposition ON is used to describe the initial and ongoing empowering of the Spirit ON the believer (see Acts 1:8, 2:17-18, 4:8, 4:31, 11:15-16). We are called to mature in our relationship to the Holy Spirit—both the IN and ON. For example, the fruit of the Spirit, then, continually grow withIN us and the power of the Spirit, including His gifts, repeatedly works upON us.
Some call the initial IN of the Spirit the baptism of the Spirit. Others call the initial ON of the Spirit the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent ONs of the Spirit as the filling of the Spirit. (This is where Pastor Karl has landed). Still, others call both the IN and the ON of the Spirit the baptism of the Spirit. Whoever is right and whatever it is called, who can’t grow in their relationship with the Holy Spirit? Jesus encourages—How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him (Luke 11:13) and Paul commands—Keep on being filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). So let’s keep maturing in the IN of the Spirit and let’s keep asking for the ON of the Spirit. There’s always more to us that Spirit can fill and more of Spirit to fill us with. Jesus offers ALL of the Holy Spirit to us. Let us offer ALL of us to the Holy Spirit.