On the occasion of Pentecost yesterday, I’m publishing this talk, given on 21 July 2022 at the ACTS Academy of Higher Education. The Q&A session is at the end of this post.

We meet this character for the first time in our bibles on the very first page where we learn about how the great Creator made the universe, with all its grand diversity, by hurling it into being through his creative speech. And we have our final glimpse of this character in our bibles on the very last page, where he speaks for the final time to urge the risen and reigning Lord Jesus to return, finally to establish his glorious kingdom. And of course, we encounter this character throughout the bible.

We see him hovering over the tempestuous waters to permit the creation of a stable world. And we see him animate the human, newly formed from the dust of the ground. We see him recoil at the sinfulness of humans and remove his protection over the world, allowing it once more to descend into a watery chaos. And we see him protecting the humans and other animals who had taken refuge in the ark. We see him alight upon David to designate him as the rightful king. And we see him depart from the Temple in the terrifying vision given to Ezekiel. We see him driving Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the devil. And we see him descend upon the fear ridden disciples to empower them to speak boldly in the face of all opposition. I am, of course, referring to the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, as our ancient creeds declare, that mysterious personal power who both comforts and convicts, disciples and disciplines, protects and provokes, elucidates while remaining elusive.

I am grateful to have been asked to speak on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christians. Quite frankly, an hour long session is insufficient to cover a topic so broad in scope. So I will only be able to scratch the surface – barely. If you have questions, as I am quite sure you will, please do keep them for the Q&A time right after this talk. I wish to divide the rest of my time into four parts.

First, I will give a trinitarian perspective on the Holy Spirit so we avoid some common misunderstandings when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

Second, I will look at what happened in Acts 2. There is a lot of confusion about what happened on the first Pentecost and what it means. Specifically, interpreting this episode as an isolated text that is unrelated to the rest of scripture has led to major problems not just in recognizing what the speaking of tongues on that day involved but also why it happened that way. The misunderstanding reduces the importance of Pentecost and fails to understand why Peter, believing that it had cosmic consequences, quoted Joel.

Third, I will discuss the often highlighted aspect of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with special emphasis on the gift of tongues. The gifts of the Holy Spirit have often been misunderstood and applied in ways that impoverish Christians rather than empower them.

Fourth, we will look at a few verses that tell us about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Let us proceed.

We are, hopefully, trinitarian in our approach to the scriptures. That is, we recognize that the scriptures speak of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as being God. But at the same time, the scriptures also tell us that there is only one God. Moreover, the scriptures also indicate that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not identical but that there are important distinctions between them. And finally, there are scripture passages that indicate that the Father loves and is loved by the Son and the Holy Spirit, and that the Son loves and is loved by the Holy Spirit. The orthodox synthesis of this data is the doctrine of the Trinity, according to which we say that the one God exists as three persons who share one divine essence.

What this means is that we need to be careful when speaking of God. For example, the common benediction goes as follows: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.” This does not mean that grace comes only from Jesus and not the Father or the Holy Spirit. It does not mean that only the Father loves us and Jesus and the Holy Spirit do not. It does not mean that we have fellowship only with the Holy Spirit and not the Father or Jesus.
It also does not mean that we first encounter the grace of Jesus, following which we are enfolded by the love of God, culminating in an experience of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Rather, because we have to read in some order, we have to put words in some order. And putting words in an order does not automatically imply that it is a temporal order that is in effect. You see, when we say things, it has to be sequential, with one word following the next. Hence, we cannot say everything at once.

More to the point, this benediction is written in poetic form, which is clear when we realize that what Paul wrote in Greek does not even have a verb to complete the sentence. Indeed, if we approach the biblical text like an instruction manual, we will misunderstand most of it. In this case, we will end up thinking that the three persons in the Godhead have roles like we have in a government cabinet, with each having a clearly defined and differentiated portfolio, a line of thinking that leads to the heresy of modalism.

So when we speak of the role of the Holy Spirit, we have to be careful not to think that the Holy Spirit is doing something in and for us which does not involve the Father and the Son. We should not think that the three persons of the Trinity are cooperating with each other, as though they had three distinct wills and had a meeting every time to reach some sort of consensus. Rather, since they have one essence, they have one will through which God acts in the world and with his people.

We should also not think of the Holy Spirit as some sort of impersonal power, like the Force in the Star Wars movies. The Holy Spirit, rather, is a person. Yes, it is true that he is often described in terms of the power he brings, but that does not mean he is to be identified with the power that he brings. So when Jesus says that, “The wind blows where it chooses,” we should not think that the Spirit is impersonal like the wind. It is more true to Jesus’ intent to say that the wind is the personal outworking of the Holy Spirit.
In other words, we live in a world that is infused with and suffused with the presence and power of God as mediated by the Holy Spirit. We do not live in a world of dead matter, working according to some mechanistic principles, but in an enchanted, magical world, animated by the life of the Holy Spirit, where the presence and power and working of the Spirit is evident to everyone who has eyes to see and ears to hear and minds to comprehend, a world bursting to overflowing with the glory of God.

With the issues of trinitarianism out of the way, we can proceed to look at what happened in Acts 2. On that day, after the Spirit had descended on the first disciples, Luke tells us, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” The disciples began to speak in other languages. It is normally understood that this meant that they spoke in ecstatic speech, leading the people who heard them to conclude that they were drunk. Let’s give this some thought.

There are two reasons for which a person may conclude that I am drunk. First, I could display signs of drunkenness, like slurred speech, instability while walking, lack of coordination, blurred vision or excessive drowsiness. Second, I could say something that made no sense, leading you to conclude that my powers of reasoning had been compromised in some way. For instance, suppose I told you this: “I woke up late today and prayed to God that I would not be late for this talk. In response to my prayer, God made the earth stop rotating for an hour and made all the clocks stop so that I would be on time.” What would you conclude if I said this? You would quite likely conclude that I am drunk!

So which was happening in Acts 2? There we read that the people who heard the disciples asked, “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?” So you see, the speech involved was not unintelligible, but perfectly intelligible. The people heard, in their own languages, what the disciples were saying.

So it was not a case of the disciples displaying signs of drunkenness. Hence, it must have been what they were saying that led to the conclusion that they were drunk. Something about their message led the audience to conclude that they were drunk. I cannot devote time to what the message was right now. If you are interested, please ask me during the Q&A time. The point I wanted to make was that there was no ecstatic speech in Acts 2. Rather, the disciples were given the ability to speak other human languages.

In other words, despite the fact that their audience spoke different languages – languages the disciples themselves did not know – the message that disciples proclaimed was understood by the audience. This is not some local, repeatable event, as is often supposed, with the disciples receiving the gift of speaking in tongues and the audience being spellbound when they heard the miraculous speech – though the audience certainly was spellbound. Such a view just does not capture the importance of what happened that day.

Rather, the ability to communicate with others in languages they had never spoken before is a reversal of what happened when God judged the people at Babel in Genesis 11. There we read, “The Lord confused the language of all the earth.” Note what it does not say. It does not say that the people began speaking different languages. Rather, only one language is mentioned. In other words, the people were unable to understand each other even though they spoke the same language.

Babel marks the move from comprehension to confusion even though the people spoke the same language. To the contrary, Pentecost marks the move from confusion to comprehension despite the fact that the people spoke different languages. It is because of this grand reversal that Peter stated that this was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, which had cosmic effects. To understand this as the empowerment of individuals with ecstatic speech is to fail to comprehend the cosmic scope of Pentecost.

We have seen that we should be careful when discussing the role of the Holy Spirit so that we do not end up describing the Holy Spirit in ways that are heretical by driving sharp distinctions between the persons of the Trinity. We have also seen that the first Pentecost involved the reversal of the punishment at Babel where there is a move from confusion to comprehension. Now let us look at the aspect of the gifts of the Spirit in general with a focus on speaking in tongues.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” In his first letter to the Corinthians, he mentions gifts of messages of wisdom, messages of knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, speaking in tongues and interpretation of tongues. It is interesting that, even though Jesus says that his disciples will be known by the fruit they bear, most of us crave the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

This is simply because the gifts can provide almost irrefutable evidence that I am empowered by God, while the fruit are more subtle in nature. If the Holy Spirit heals someone through me, then very few people would be able to say that I am not being empowered by the Holy Spirit. But patience can be confused for inaction, kindness for being a pushover, joy for being deluded. Now, it is true that the scriptures tell us that the Holy Spirit used signs and wonders to attest the message that the apostles preached.

And there is no denying that even today the Holy Spirit uses such miraculous sign gifts to validate the gospel to those who have not heard the message before and especially to those in hostile environments. However, let’s face it very honestly. I have been a follower of Jesus for almost three decades now. If I still need the sign-gifts to validate the message of the gospel or the power of the Holy Spirit or the love of God or the need of being a member of a local church, something is seriously wrong – very seriously wrong.

It would be like me requiring an old friend to constantly give evidence of friendship. In no other long-term relationship do we entertain the idea that we need exceptional evidence to continue with the relationship. Special things, such as an impromptu visit or a surprise gift may be nice reminders of the relationship, but they no longer add anything to validate the relationship. Not if it is a vibrant and healthy one at least. It is only decaying and putrefying relationships that need exceptional evidence to stay alive.

There is also a routine failure by many pastors and teachers to understand the difference between Acts and the New Testament letters. Acts is a historical account of a small part of the early years of the church from the Ascension of Jesus to the house arrest of Paul at Rome. The letters, on the other hand, are written to churches to help them remain faithful to Jesus amidst the various difficulties they faced. Acts records significant milestones that were reached in the development of the early Church.

The letters unpack what life within the community is to look like in light of the milestones that were reached. Acts to the early Church is like India achieving Independence and becoming a Republic, two crucial milestones. But no one would think that these need to be repeated! On the other hand, the letters are like the development and implementation of new laws within the newly formed nation that tell the citizens how they should conduct themselves now that they have achieved Independence and are citizens of a Republic.

Hence, the gifts of the Holy Spirit within the church setting, seen int the letters, have a completely different purpose than in the context of evangelism, seen in Acts. And unfortunately, we have considered the evangelistic setting as normative, when in fact it is the letters that tell us how to live. What this has resulted in are churches that are supremely dysfunctional and believers who have a completely warped idea of the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives and why he empowers them with any of the gifts.

Let me give an example. I have an XUV. It is quite a large car. And if we put the rear seats down, we could fit a lot of boxes to help someone shift homes. And indeed, when we moved in 2016, we used the XUV as a moving truck. But if I tell my wife and kids that, since it is a great moving truck, we cannot put the seats up and that everyone in the back has to sit cross legged, that would be the most ridiculous thing to do. That would be denying the main purpose of the vehicle and substituting in its place a secondary purpose.
But also, it would make those who sit in the back think that the car is not at all comfortable for long rides, when in fact it is very comfortable. What has happened is that I have misunderstood the car’s ability to fulfill a much needed, but occasional, role as an indication that this much needed, but occasional, role is its only role.

The same thing has happened in the church with respect to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We have been so awestruck by one aspect of his work that we have concluded that this is the only aspect of his work.

So, in order to reach a better understanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us look carefully at the passage from 1 Corinthians 12, in which Paul describes this. Paul tells the Corinthian Christians, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” In other words, while we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in an individual capacity, the gifts are given for the common good. Later in the same chapter, while still discussing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Paul likens people with different gifts to the members of a body.

The hands do what hands do in service of the rest of the body. The eyes do what the eyes do in order to benefit the body. And the feet do what the feet do in order to satisfy the needs of the body. In like manner, the gifts are given to various persons in the church in order to benefit, not the person who has received the gift, but the church as a unified body. Hence, any understanding of the gifts that does not prioritize the health of the church is at best self-serving and at worst a recipe for dysfunction and abuse.

It is important to understand this. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to individuals. But they are not given for the individuals who are given the gifts but for the church. The person who is given a word of wisdom is given it in order to speak wisdom to someone else, a group of people, or even the wider church in order to benefit the church as a whole. The person who has the gift of faith is given that gift in order to strengthen others within the church so that the church is encouraged and equipped to withstand opposition.

Treating a gift as an end in itself is to mistake the tool for the task. You see, I believe that I have the gift of teaching. But it is only when I am teaching others that I am exercising the gift. A screwdriver functions as a screwdriver only when it is used to fasten or loosen screws, not when it is lying in a toolbox. And the purpose of the screwdriver is to fasten or loosen screws, not to rest safely in a toolbox. In the same way, it is pointless to speak of having a gift without exercising the gift for the benefit of the church.

Later in the letter, Paul tells the Corinthians, “For those who speak in a tongue do not speak to other people but to God, for no one understands them, since they are speaking mysteries in the Spirit.” This has led many people to think that the purpose of the gift of tongues is to speak to God. But that would be like saying that, since my XUV burns fuel whenever the engine runs, its purpose is to burn fuel. But we know that, while a car will always burn fuel while running, its purpose is not the burning of fuel.

Hence, Paul tells the Corinthians, “Since you are striving after spiritual gifts, seek to excel in them for building up the church. Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.” In other words, in the context of the church, a person who speaks to God with the gift of tongues, whether a human language or some ecstatic speech, does so in order to receive a message from God for the church. There are no private conversations in the context of corporate worship.

This means that, within the context of the church, and especially in the context of corporate worship such as we have on Sundays in our churches, any communication between God and a person is for the benefit of the church as a whole and not for the edification of the individual. To think that I can have a conversation with God, while worshiping with other believers, without that conversation bearing fruit for the rest of the church is to deny the reality of the body of which I am a part.

Now, there are quite a few churches in which many people supposedly speak in tongues simultaneously. I have seen this. And it is a travesty. Paul makes this clear when he writes, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three and each in turn, and let one interpret.” In the context of corporate worship, tongues are to be limited to a handful of people taking turns and only if there is someone to interpret. Multiple people speaking simultaneously is a refusal to recognize the reality of the corporate body – the church.

But someone may point out that I have focused only on the gifts in the context of corporate worship. What about the gifts in the privacy of my prayers? What can we say about the role of the gifts in private prayer? Almost anticipating such a question, Paul tells the Corinthians, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unproductive.” In other words, if there is no one to interpret what is being spoken in tongues, then my mind will not be engaged. So how does Paul respond to this predicament?

In response he writes, “What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also.” What he means is that he will not pray only in tongues, but also in a language that he can understand because he wants not just his spirit to be engaged but also his mind. Now we may wonder why Paul singles out the gift of speaking in tongues and places so many restrictions on how it is to be exercised in the context of corporate worship. What is so special about this gift?

The reason that Paul places so many restrictions on the gift of tongues is because there is confusion built into it that is not built into the other gifts. After all, if I pray for healing and someone is healed, there is no confusion. If I speak a word of wisdom, the people will know how to understand what is happening to them. If I encourage someone to strengthen their faith, there is no confusion about what is happening. And so on for all the other gifts except for the gift of speaking in tongues.

Indeed, if I speak in a language that no one can interpret, then there is always the possibility of confusion. Since no one is interpreting the foreign or spiritual language, the sounds that the person makes will only be meaningless babbling in the ears of all around that person. In other words, uninterpreted tongues are a source of confusion. But since, as we have seen, the gift of the speaking of tongues was given to reverse the confusion of Babel, it is crucial that the gift should not be used in a confusing way.

It is, therefore, really a sign of our rejection of God’s purposes and the work of the Holy Spirit initiated at Pentecost, if we allow the very gift that was used to reverse the confusion of Babel to be the source of confusion in our churches today. In other words, in a remarkable irony that is hardly ever recognized, to allow the uncontrolled use of the gift of speaking in tongues is not to be Pentecostal, but anti-Pentecostal, because it is a rejection of what the Holy Spirit accomplished at Pentecost.

Let us take stock of what we have learned so far. We have seen that it is important to use correct language when speaking of the Holy Spirit. Our language should not separate the persons of the Trinity in a way that would lead to heresy. Then we saw that what happened in Acts 2 was the gift of speaking in tongues that accomplished the reversal of the confusion of Babel. And we saw that all the gifts of the Spirit are given for the benefit of the church, not for the benefit of individuals in the church.

Specifically, we saw that Paul places special restrictions on the gift of speaking in tongues because it is the only one that can easily lead to confusion. And since this was the gift that the Holy Spirit used as the sign of the grand reversal of the confusion of Babel, we should be especially careful not to allow this gift to be the source of confusion. This brings us to the last part of my talk, namely, the roles of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers. When discussing this, it is important to do this carefully.

After all, the Holy Spirit is involved in every aspect of our lives. However, some aspects of his work span our entire lives, while others are more situational. When we speak of the aspects that span our entire lives, we can think of them in terms of what is done within the community of believers and what is done at the interface between the community of faith and the world at large. In 1 Corinthians 3.16, Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?”

This is something that is true all the time. But note that the pronouns ‘you’ are all plurals, while the temple is singular, implying that the Holy Spirit lives inside the community. In Ephesians 1.13, Paul writes, “And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.” The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is something that is recognized within the community of faith and experienced by the believers.

However, the seal placed by the Spirit is like a mark that declares that we belong to Jesus. This is the testimony of the Spirit to the world that Jesus has brought us salvation. These two roles are true at all times. We are always members of a community that interacts with the world at large. Hence, the indwelling of the Spirit and the seal of the Spirit are perpetual realities, things that are true about us all the time. There are other realities that are more situational in nature. So let us turn to those.

In John 14.26, Jesus tells the disciples, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and will cause you to remember everything I said to you.” According to this, the Holy Spirit teaches us and enables us to remember things that Jesus said. Here it is possible to have an individualistic focus and think that the Holy Spirit teaches me all by myself, without the involvement of others from the community of believers.

This may happen if, for instance, I am confronted as an individual. However, for the most part, the Holy Spirit teaches us in the context of our community of faith. This is because God is in the business of producing a faithful community in the world rather than isolated individual believers. In the same verse Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate. Some other translations may use the word ‘helper’ or ‘comforter’ or ‘counselor’. Given that the Gospel according to John is presented as a court case, we should prefer the word ‘advocate’.

But here it is crucial we recognize what kind of a court case John presents the reader with. In the Gospel, it is Jesus who is the accused. We are witnesses called in by the Advocate to testify in favor of Jesus. Once again, depending on the situation, this could be the testimony of an individual or that of a whole community. There is a purpose for this testimony. According to John 16.8, “And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” The work of the Holy Spirit is to use our testimony not just to exonerate Jesus, but also to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. There is no time to discuss what these three words mean in context. But feel free to ask me during the Q&A. But it is important to observe that what Jesus says goes against what we are often taught about the role of the Holy Spirit. This is not about the Holy Spirit convicting individuals and bringing them to a profession of faith in Jesus.

Remember, the context is a court case. Jesus is the accused and the world, driven by the Prince of the World, is the plaintiff in the case. The world has brought accusations against Jesus and the Holy Spirit calls witnesses to testify on behalf of Jesus in order to demonstrate that the world has no case against Jesus. A few verses later, Jesus says, “He will glorify me, because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you.” So the Holy Spirit works in and through us in order to glorify Jesus. This is absolutely crucial.

It is true that, in the past, many Christian traditions pretty much forgot the Holy Spirit in their teachings. However, the remedy is not an inordinate focus on the Holy Spirit. Remember, the role of the Spirit is to glorify Jesus. If Jesus is not kept at the center, then you can be quite certain that this is not the work of the Holy Spirit. But you may ask, “How does the Holy Spirit glorify Jesus?” This is a pertinent and valid question. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus in three main ways.

First, the Holy Spirit empowers the church. Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The power to be witnesses to Jesus all over the world is given to the church by the Holy Spirit. Here it is important not to trivialize this by reducing it to our individual efforts of sharing the gospel because being a witness covers all of our life and not just parts of it.

Second, the Holy Spirit gives gifts in the church. Most of the gifts serve to validate the witness of those who have been gifted in this manner because they go beyond what can be explained naturally. As we have seen, the gifts are given for the building of the body and not for the edification of individuals. Jesus is glorified when people, who are quite different from each other, use their gifts to benefit each other, producing a healthy community that attests to Jesus’ power to do the otherwise impossible – unite diverse people.

Third, the Holy Spirit transforms our character, developing in us the characteristics known as the fruit of the Spirit. As mentioned earlier, these are character traits that are subtle in nature. They are not often evident on the outside, but are experienced by people over time. We grow to be more loving, more joyful, more patient, and so on. We can never say that we have reached the goal of being perfectly loving or perfectly joyful or perfectly patient and so on. We are always on the journey and hopefully growing and maturing.

What we have seen so far is that the Holy Spirit is involved in every aspect of a believer’s life mediated through the shared life with a community of believers. Specifically, his role is not to empower individuals as an end in and of itself. Rather, while the Holy Spirit does empower individuals, he empowers individuals in order to facilitate the growth and maturity of the church so that it can become increasingly faithful as the unique people of God through which God spreads his kingdom in the world.

We have seen that a failure to think in careful trinitarian terms results in faulty teachings about the Holy Spirit that incline toward heresy. And we have seen that an undisciplined approach to the biblical text has resulted in a misunderstanding of what happened at Pentecost and the reasons for it. We have seen that thinking of the gifts of the Spirit in individualistic terms undermines the very reasons for which the gifts are given. And finally we looked at some major aspects of the role of the Holy Spirit.

It has been quite the journey. We have covered a lot of ground. But as I said at the start, we have barely scratched the surface. However, let me close this study with a quote from N.T. Wright, “Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.” This is the task of the Holy Spirit. This is his overarching purpose. Will we join him in this task or will we skew our understanding of his role in our lives and undermine his work?