The Work of the Spirit

Now we come to a topic that people will discuss and debate until He returns. We have for two thousand years, so why stop now. What is the work of the Holy Spirit? What does He do in our lives or does He do anything? Is His work different for us now than it was during the first century church experience? What does the Bible have to say on the subject? Isn't that what all "truth seekers" want to know?
    We have already talked about His involvement in the creation. But, reread Genesis 1 and understand that His work has been ongoing from the creation of this world and everything in it. Other verses that you might want to check into are Psalm 104:30, Job 26:13 and Psalm 33:6. His involvement in the creation of humans is recorded in Genesis 1:26-27 and Job 33:4. So, we learn from these verses that he Spirit was at work form the beginning, but we also see that He continued to work as God began to reveal His plan for the redemption of man.
    The Spirit was at work in the revelation of God in the Old Testament. Peter tells us "knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someones own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:20-21)  and "of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ". (1 Peter 1:10-11) Clearly, the Spirit was busy in Old Testament times communicating through the prophets. 
    In New Testament times, He was busy guiding the apostles into all truth (John 16:12-13). We are told that all scripture is God-breathed in  2 Timothy 3:16 - "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." God breathed - the breath of God, in Greek "pneuma" meaning the Spirit of God. He was there giving breath to God's words and leading the prophets and the apostles to write down His revelation for man.
    When Jesus made his appearance as a man, it was the Spirit that gave confirmation to His identity. Many claimed and still claim to be the Messiah, but only one, Jesus had the Spirit there to give confirmation to who He was. He gave the Spirit the credit for His ability to work miracles in Hebrews 2:3-4 and Acts 10:38. The Spirit was given to Him during His human existence to allow Him to do works that would confirm Him as the one and only Son of God. And when He left this earth and gave the apostles their commission (Matthew 28:18), the Spirit was there giving them the ability to perform miracles to confirm their words. (Hebrews 2:3-4 and Romans 15:19) The Spirit was busy confirming Jesus as the Son and the apostles as His spokespersons.
    Now we get to some good stuff... He was and is involved in our regeneration and our sanctification. In regeneration as the word was preached and obeyed. Acts 2 is a great place to see both the preaching and the obedience of people who heard the word preached. Peter taught them that Jesus was the Son of God and that it was their sins that had put Him on the cross. The people heard and those that accepted his message wanted to know what to do. He gave them the Gospel to be obeyed in Acts 2:38 and those that heard and believed, obeyed and 3000 souls were saved that day. In sanctification, He is involved in both our initial setting apart and our ongoing growing into His likeness. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor 6:11) After our conversion, we are ongingly set apart through the work of the Spirit...that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (Eph 3:16)  He is busy working in us to accomplish our sanctification. I don't understand all I know about that, so somethings I just accept that I cannot fully understand.  
I am sure there are questions about His ongoing work in the area of miracles and revelation, and we will get to that shortly. But for now, we see that He was busy working in those areas during the time that our Bibles were being written and that He is continuing to be involved in our conversion and our growth. Stay tuned for more discussion.....