Holy Spirit

Our Holy Spirit resource is a 6 part series exploring a theology of Spirit – helping you understand what you believe when it comes to the Holy Spirit and what the outworking of this is for our day to day lives.

We trust and pray this will aid you in your spiritual formation.

We want to take some time to understand God as Holy Spirit. Depending on your upbringing, denomination, experiences and theology the Holy Spirit has been a contested and debated part of God. The debate has never been around the essential reality that God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit; rather it is the outworking and power of the Holy Spirit for ordinary Jesus followers today.

Origin of the Holy Spirit

We want you to be able to think honestly about your journey, your experiences and how you understand the Holy Spirit works today and discover how we as a group can grow together in what the Scriptures teach and how we can teach each other.

Jesus & Spirit

For part 2, we want to look at how the “Ruah” of God, now reveals himself yet again in the pages of Scripture, this time through the life of Jesus. Jesus is God, yet Jesus was clearly led and filled by the Holy Spirit. Why? What can we learn and how can this change our reality and discipleship as Jesus followers who are also filled and led by the Holy Spirit?

Spirit & Us (Part I)

Part 3 of our series now brings the conversation closer to home where we look and see what it means for us to understand a life in the spirit and live in obedience and surrender to the spirit in our lives. Spiritual gifts are the language Paul and Peter use when describing what the “Ruah” of the Old Testament and now the “Pneuma” of the New Testament brings.

Spirit & Us (Part II)

There is no such thing as a perfect church. Inevitably, community and people coming together can bring challenges – if you are waiting for a perfect community, you will wait for a lifetime. Spiritual gifts bring an added layer of complexity into community. Priorities will range and may even clash. How we navigate our spiritual gifts and the tensions that may be created is essential to ensuring a united church.

At the same time, we must be realists. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, pastor, theologian and peace activist once said “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” As we navigate the topic of community, we must ensure we do not allow our dream to taint our reality; we must become people who are resilient in our love for others.

Spirit & Character

Part 5 of our series now shines the light on our inner life, or as you may say it, character, which comes from the Greek word “kharaktēr” meaning an engraving or stamping tool. These tools would give a distinctive mark to whatever they were impressioned on and is a reminder for us today that spiritual gifts give the potential to create powerful influence, but it is our character that leaves the mark of impression.

Spirit & Warfare

Part 6 of our series embraces one last concept the early followers of Jesus were comfortable with, yet has become distorted for us in our modern day; spiritual warfare. In the 1995 movie, “The Usual Suspects” a guileful character named Keyser Söze makes a profound statement when he says “…the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” CS Lewis, writer and theologian, famously wrote in his book, Screwtape Letters, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.” To deny, or to become obsessed with. As Jesus followers, we must have a healthy understanding and awareness when it comes to the Holy Spirit and spiritual warfare.

Thought

Think through the past number of weeks since you started this series. What practices have helped you keep in step with the spirit? What practices can you make a part of your every day, week, month and year that will keep you moving toward Jesus? Create this as a group and share.

Connect Host Notes