Two streams of history are merging in groups like Sovereign Grace MInistries and The Association of Charismatic Reformed Churches. On the one hand there are those deeply committed to theological reflection and biblical supremacy. On the other, there are folks who find a robust doctrine of the Spirit in pre-20th century Reformed writers.
My own journey was sparked by Lloyd-Jones on the Spirit of God in his sermons in Romans 8. His historical survey made me see that my anti-Spirit-experience prejudice was the minority position of the Protestant era. J I Packer's excellent work, Keep in Step with the Spirit, moved me to appreciate the marks of the Spirit in the charismatic world. This was informed by Edwards defense of the Great Awakening and his Relgious Affections. From these I gleaned the clear markers of the Spirit's activity and found as much evidence of the Spirit's work among charismatic friends as I ever did among cessationists. When I was honest I also found as much flesh generated weirdness in the cessationist world as I saw in the charismatics.
John Piper played a big role in his sermons on the Kingdom and Power. Then Gordon Fee's exegesis of key texts in the work of the Spirit drove home by tendency to selective exegesis. I well remember the night at Regent College's Pastors Conference in 1990 where I scoured my NT for all the references to the Holy Spirit and realzed how I dishonored his work. He is certainly not the quiet member of the Trinity!
Add to all that a steady preaching through Romans, 1 Corinthians, Galatians, the prison epistles -- plus studying John Owen's 3rd volume on the Holy Spirit. All this brought me to see that the Holy Spirit had not changed his work from the first century -- but I had no idea where this was being lived out with doctrinal and pastoral control. So I prayed and shut up and waited. Over many years God brought me into the family of Sovereign Grace Ministries.
During the waiting I was being moved toward seeing the Gospel as the center of all things. That has become the core of my biblical theology. It also furthered by commitment to the work of the Spirit. More than that, the death, burial, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus told me of the purpose for the pouring out of the Spirit in this age. The Spirit of God is the marker of the rule of Messiah and the beginning of the age in which he rules. He is a down payment on our future inheritance. My understanding of the work of the Spirit's is Gospel Driven. He is sent into the world by the exalted Christ to apply the Redeemer's work to his own -- to call the church into being -- to perfect her -- to purify the saints -- and to gift the members of the church for the purpose of edification. He emboldens for witness and convicts of sin.
This guards my seeking of his active work from the extremes discussed recently on other websites. There is no room for sensationalism here -- all that he does is to further the achievement of the Savior in the life of His people. That is primarily seen in sanctification.
He is active in the lives of God's people and to be active in the church. We are to desire his filling in our lives each day. I believe we are to honor Him as part of honoring our Great Redeemer.
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