The Dual Working of the Holy Spirit
By Bruce Hines
There is an experience for the Christian following
the New Birth
experience. After a person has
accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and is baptized
into the Body of
Christ as a member of God’s
family, another experience awaits him that will
bring him deeper into
the things of God, into a
deeper dimension spiritually.
Believers have been confused about this subsequent
experience, and
theologians and church
leaders have debated the subject throughout the
centuries. There are
still some denominations
that believe that the work of the Spirit ended
with one’s being
baptized into Christ-with being
born again. Yet from the bible, we can clearly see
two separate and
distinct workings. These two
workings are the Holy Spirit within us in the New
Birth for character,
and the Holy Spirit upon
us in the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service.
Let us unfold this glorious working of the Holy
Spirit in the life of
the believer by examining
Jesus’ own words concerning the work of the Spirit
within and upon,
and unfold through the
Acts and the Epistles the continuing work of the
Holy Spirit.
Let us look at four portions of Scripture. Two are
in the Gospel of
John and the other two are in
John 14:17 says, “that is the Spirit of truth,
whom the world cannot
receive, because it does not
see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He
abides with you and
will be IN you.”
Acts 1:8 says, “but you will receive power when
the Holy Spirit has
come UPON you, and you
shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea and Samaria,
and even to the remotest
John 4:14 says, “but whoever drinks of the water
that I will give him
shall never thirst; but the
water that I will give him will become IN him a
well of water
springing up to eternal life.”
John 7:37-39 says, “Now on the last day, the great
day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried out,
saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me
and drink. 38 He who
believes in Me, as the
Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will
flow rivers of living
water.’” 39 But this
He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in
Him were to
receive; for the Spirit was not
yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Notice from these four references that the Word of
God speaks about
both the Spirit within and
the Spirit upon. This is called the dual working
of the Holy Spirit.
We can see from reading
these verses, and others that it is quite evident
there is a dual
working of the Spirit of God. God
expects this dual working of the Spirit of God in
the lives of those
who have accepted Jesus. As
we look at this subject from the Bible, we’ll see
that there is also a
twofold development God
expects in His Spirit filled children. I will
continue this subject
over the next few months. Let the
Holy Spirit and the Word of God guide your life,
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