The Holy Spirit is the “Grace, the uncreated energy,” proceeding eternally from the Father and sent to us by the Son[1]. This Grace, the Holy Spirit, brings to us all the other graces.
The Holy Spirit is the One who transfers to us these graces because He is the Person of the Trinity who makes us enter into the fellowship of the Father and the Son.
We have a very limited understanding of the Trinity. Theology is not topics that can be understood by the mind; the mind cannot comprehend these matters. But they are comprehended by the spiritual mind because God is its source. This spiritual mind is formed through fellowship with God. Therefore, Apostle John writes: ‘that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full’ (1John 1: 3, 4).
In this short message, I want to draw your attention to few things that are important highlights in the spiritual path. As ministers, you need to understand these things and live them out so that in your ministry you can help others.
Some people may hear the spiritual messages in the meetings and they may not understand everything. As ministers of God, you have an important role in the meetings and after the meetings. In the meeting, a message is delivered and it touches the needs of the people attending. After the meeting, the ministers can have an edifying conversation with the attendees related to things that touched them in the message or things they could not grasp enough. You can help them fill in the gaps that they did not understand.
The speaker presents a message that touches every heart. His message is like cloth material that requires the tailors to make into clothes that fit each person. So the listener may come out of the meeting having heard something that he could not fully understand or is not able to apply. The ministers who should have a deeper experience in the spiritual life and deep understanding of the messages would help make this piece of cloth become a garment that fits each person. This is the role of the ministers. The ministry can be hindered if it relies only on the speaker or the leader of the meeting. We should all be doing the work of the Kingdom together.
The Holy Spirit is the One who does the whole spiritual work in people, working through the human vessels that surrender to Him and obey Him[2].
Each one of us has a different form and a different pattern. The bible calls us ‘precious stones’. In Revelation 21, it is clearly highlighted that there are different kinds of precious stones:
‘The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst’ (Revelation 21: 19, 20).
We are these precious stones because we have been ‘built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets’ (Ephesians 2: 20); and these are their different patterns.
Though we may not be experts in knowing these kinds of stones, we can understand that they are all different from each other. Therefore, we are also different from each other; different patterns having different in spiritual gifts.
Therefore, when we go out to ministry, we need to be aware of this and aware that God uses each one with others who can fit with his pattern/vessel. We first need to tune our hearts with God and repent. Then one should pray: ‘Holy Spirit, You are the One responsible for our ministry. I surrender myself to You and put myself in Your Hands. Use me as You wish and help me not to hinder Your work.’ After that, we will find that He will allow me to meet certain people; and allow my brother to come across other people and my sister to encounter yet other individuals. We will find that the Holy Spirit is the One who is distributing us according to the needs and our different patterns and the shape of our vessels[3]. Then, when I speak with the people that the Holy Spirit had brought in my way, I will find that they understand and grasp what I say; the words reach their hearts easily and people will be helped in setting their feet on the correct path.
The important point here is that we can only carry out our role in ministry through our fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
I started my talk by referring to our fellowship with the Father and the Son which Apostle John spoke about[4].
What about my fellowship with the Holy Spirit?
Actually my fellowship with the Holy Spirit allows me to have fellowship with the Father and the Son. In other words, the Holy Spirit Himself makes me enter into fellowship with the Father and the Son.
The Holy Spirit then transfers to me the gifts of the Father. It is written: ‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him’ (Luke 11: 13). The Holy Spirit is the first and supreme gift that the Father gives. The gifts that the Father bestows upon us are good gifts. It is also written: ‘For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him’ (Matthew 6: 8). It is also written: ‘For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things’ (Matthew 6: 32).
Therefore, it is the heart desire and pleasure of the Heavenly Father to give us gifts, like any father who likes to give gifts to his children. The Father gives us fatherly gifts that express His love for us. He gives us gifts of love.
The Son gives us graces[5], the grace of Redemption that can be expressed in various ways like healing our illnesses.
In the prayers of the church we see how the Church addresses all the Persons of the Trinity, for example: ‘the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’ (2Corinthians 13:14).
Also, in the prayers of the third hour, the litany refers to the grace of the Holy Spirit. According to the fathers of the Church, the Holy Spirit is the main ‘Grace’ through whom the other graces to come to us.
To sum up, the Holy Spirit is the main Grace. When I enter into a fellowship with the Holy Spirit, He makes me enter into fellowship with the Father and hence receive the gifts of the Father that are full of love. He also makes me enter into fellowship with the Son and hence I receive the grace of the Son that grants freedom to the soul and body and that transforms one’s image[6].
If we are honest with ourselves, we may feel that our fellowship with the Father is weak and we do not sense His fatherly love. We probably experience God’s tenderness and the good things He does for us in a general way, but do we truly experience the Fatherhood of God?
The Holy Spirit can help us and make us enter into fellowship with the Father: sense His fatherhood and experience His face reviving us: ‘As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness’ (Psalm 17: 15).
If I have a true fellowship with the Son, His grace penetrates me freeing me from sin[7], cutting off my bonds, and healing my soul[8]. It enters deep within me, truly freeing me from sins. Sometimes one can have chronic or repetitive sins in his life resulting from a hurt or wound in his soul that gives the chance for the enemy to attack, taking advantage of this vulnerable area in his soul. This weak or vulnerable area can be deep emotional hunger resulting from not having received true or sufficient love. In this case, the evil spirits can attack this person in the area of affections and passions and one can be easily taken by it because of this area of vulnerability.
The Grace of the Only begotten Son heals! I can receive this grace through my payers in my chamber. I can receive it through the Word of God which I eat[9], repeat, and chew on until it heals me: ‘He sent His word and healed them’ (Psalm 107: 20). I can also receive it through Communion and receiving the true Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; I eat it and hence eat freedom, healing, strength, victory, and eternal life: ‘Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him’ (John 6: 54 – 56). We eat and drink freedom, strength and victory. It is not fitting or appropriate for the Redeemed to be cast down, weak and paralysed.
This is a great mystery granted to humanity. Ah, if our eyes are opened and we perceive it! During the liturgy, many of the fathers of the Church who had open spiritual insight, used to see the glory of God coming upon the holy mysteries/sacraments and see the angels surrounding.
Ministries of the Kingdom of God:
Going back to the ministers of God, Apostle Paul used this term in his epistles. Let us see what he says about the ministers of God:
‘We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things’ (2Corinthians 6: 3, 4).
Also in 1Timothy 6: 11, Apostle Paul uses the term: ‘man of God’: ‘But you, O man of God…’
This is what the ministers and servants of God should be. When anyone sees them, he can tell that they are full of grace and the honour of God; when anyone talks with them, he is healed by the grace of God in them.
To conclude, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit makes us enter into the fellowship of the Father to be filled with His love and into the fellowship of the Son to be filled with the freedom He grants us.
A prayer
Thank you, Lord Jesus because though we are sometimes slow in heart and at times stubborn in heart, You are longsuffering; You teach us gently and with tenderness; You make us rise up; You coach us.
Lord, You sent these words to us and You had taught us few highlights about the fellowship of the Trinity. Now, Lord You desire that through this fellowship we may lean to have fellowship with You as the Father and the Only-begotten Son who has redeemed us so that our joy may be complete, as Apostle John wrote.
Lord, we often pray and ask for this joy. Though we understand the difference between the joy of the world and the joy of the Spirit, we still receive very little of this true joy. Because of our poverty, we take the comfort of the Spirit to be the joy; yet Your joy is eternal and it is written that this joy is ‘inexpressible and full of glory’ (1Peter 1: 8).
The only way to this joy, as the bible tells us, is through the fellowship of the Father and the Son. Lord, we are so estranged from this fellowship and we so much need to be brought into it.
Help us, O Lord, to know You as the true Father who is near to us –as You desire to be. You long that we give You the chance so that we may enjoy Your Fatherhood and Your gifts. We are in great need of this so that our joy may be complete; glorious and inexpressible.
And if our faces shine with the true joy, as the Church fathers wrote, the world will know You, even if we do not say a word. They will surely search for the source of our joy[10]; they will seek it because they need it and cannot find it. This will be their entrance to know You.
Amen, Lord Jesus. All glory be to Your name.
[1] Acts 2:33
[2] Acts 5:32
[3] 1 Corinthians 12:18
[4] 1John 1:3
[5] 1Peter 4:10; 1Peter 5:10
[6] 2Corinthians 3:17, 18
[7] John 8:32
[8] Luke 4:18
[9] Jeremiah 15:16
[10] John 16:22; 17:13
