The Holy Spirit is Very Significant and Imperative in Lives of Christian Believers - Research Paper Example

Since centuries, Christianity has remained one of the religions with the most number of followers and believers around the world. It is observation that followers of many religions create their basis of spirituality on something visible; however, life of the believer of Christianity is unique in terms of the existence of an invisible and unseen dimension that is pivotal in spiritual life of Christian followers. It is a belief of Christians that the Holy Spirit is the cause of such unseen forces that are supernatural, and function to provide a framework to the believers to live their life in acquiring glory of the God. For this reason, the Holy Spirit is very significant and imperative in lives of Christian believers that carry out different functions to facilitate followers in a spiritual manner. Since late 1900s, there has been increment in the endeavors toward discussing and analyzing the role of the Holy Spirit in light of the Holy Scriptures due to a number of misinterpretations of the notion (Graham, pp. 22-28). In such efforts, Saint Augustine is one of the popular names that played a significant role in enlightening believers with the contribution of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Although many put efforts to reveal the role of the Holy Spirit, however, Augustine performed this task in a more rational way that resulted in the emphasis of the Holy Spirit’s functions in the practical lives of believers that was only limited to unseen spiritual life or theoretical frameworks of the Christianity. John’s gospel in its 14th chapter (Carroll, pp. 409-438) has the story in which, the Lord arranges the exit of Jesus Christ while preparing the believers for the departure. However, besides making arrangements, believers feel encouragement on getting the revelation that the Father will not left the believers alone, and there will be someone after the Son to take care of them, and guide them the way Christ did during his life. In addition, the revelation identified uniqueness between Jesus Christ and the prospective helper that was the arrival of new helper forever, and not for a limited period. Studies (Graham, pp. 40-56) have indicated that this was an appealing and fascinating revelation as believers had a very close relationship with Jesus Christ, and to maintain such a similar relationship with an unseen and invisible force was very interesting. However, this chapter indicated the spiritual role of the Holy Spirit, and the importance of the notion of faith that is visible from this chapter of the gospels. In other words, the Holy Spirit came in the world in an invisible form to facilitate believers in performing tasks that they used to do while depending on Jesus, and now, with the help of the Holy Spirit based on faith that exists within them. In the Holy Scriptures, many instances have indicated the examples of believers that fell short, such as “Matt.14:15-21, Matt. 14:24-32, and Matt. 17:19-20” (Graham, pp. 42-49) that made the need of the Holy Spirit an essential task for the Lord. In this regard, abovementioned story from the John’s gospel indicates the first role of the Holy Spirit that is of the helper, a spiritual helper that has the same aptitude and competence to guide and help the believers the way Jesus did during his life. However, the Scriptures are not sure on one thing that is the authority of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, few theologians argue that it is only the same capacity of Jesus, and thus, the Holy Spirit does not have the same authority to rejuvenate spiritual lives of the believers. On the other hand, other scholars have criticized such perspective, and have argued that in light of the Holy Scriptures, there is no room for doubt regarding the capacity and authority of the Holy Spirit that is same as it was of Jesus Christ during his physical life. In Greek, ‘paraklhtos’ is the word for another helper that indicates Jesus Christ who was a helper for His believers. Now, there will be a new paraklhtos for the believers as mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. In specific, paraklhtos is an amalgam of a noun and a preposition: para and klhtos that stand for ‘with/beside’ and ‘invited’ respectively. Thus, paraklhtos is an individual that someone invites for the help, or for completing an unfinished task. In this regard, the Holy Scriptures (Carroll, pp. 12-38) have used the term paraklhtos for the Holy Spirit in several places of the Bible, and in translation, paraklhtos stands for helper, counselor, supporter, etc that indicates the different roles of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers based on the Holy Scriptures. In this regard, paraklhtos has been an ideal term in the Holy Scriptures (Carroll, pp. 50-58) to indicate the role of Jesus Christ, as well as the Holy Spirit that has been performing similar functions for their believers and followers until today in physical/visible and invisible/supernatural form respectively. For instance, Jesus Christ used to guide, teacher, help, discuss, and explain new things to His believers that will help them in leading their life towards the Lord, and so does the Holy Spirit that performs similar role. However, another important thing that was similar during the life of Jesus Christ and that is same in the case of the Holy Spirit is willingness of the believers. Jesus Christ used to guide and help His believers as they were interested and showed intention to follow that subsequently commenced the process of guidance, encouragement, correction, rejuvenation, etc. In other words, discussion of role and actions of Jesus Christ will be another way of illustrating role of the Holy Spirit in lives of believers, while the only difference remains of the physical existence of Jesus Christ and invisible and unseen dynamics of the Holy Spirit that allows the believers to depend more on faith rather than physical existences. For instance, Jesus Christ was a teacher, and at the same time, a counselor as well. Although the Holy Spirit cannot perform such tasks in a physical manner, however, it is playing similar role in a supernatural form that was promise of the Lord in His revelation as mentioned in John’s gospel. Besides such roles, the Holy Spirit is fulfillment of the Lord’s promise that there will be someone for the believers to help them out in acquiring the blessings of God. In other words, the Holy Spirit is a way of showing the departure of Jesus Christ and execution of the God’s promise to guide His believers until the last day. In addition, mentorship is another has been very prominent in the studies related to the Holy Spirit, as besides paraklhtos, mentor is another relevant term that indicates the role and responsibility of the Holy Spirit. In specific, the Holy Scriptures have mentioned the following major roles of the Holy Spirit for His believers: The Holy Spirit will stay forever with the disciples (Jn. 14:16) The Holy Spirit will inhabit within them (v. 17) The Holy Spirit will be unseen yet recognized (v. 17) The Holy Spirit will coach/teach the believers (v. 26) The Holy Spirit will facilitate believers in remembering everything that Lord taught in the past (v. 26) The Holy Spirit will guide disciples towards the glory of the truth (16:13) The Holy Spirit will reveal new information to the disciples (vv. 13-15) Such responsibilities and roles of the Holy Spirit are present in various other places in the Holy Scriptures, such as everlasting indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Jn. 14:16-17, invisible existence of the Spirit in 1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19, role of a teacher in Jn. 14:26, etc. In addition, analysis of the scriptures has identified similar indication of the Holy Spirit’s role in the Epistles as well. In it, the development of a testimony within the disciple is another imperative role of the Spirit (Rom, 8:16) besides the role of the leader (Gal, 5:18), the role of a mediator (Rom, 8:26-27) (Eph, 4:1) (Eph, 5:18-22), etc. Lastly, several Holy Scriptures state, “The Holy Spirit seals, regenerates, presents, baptizes, and indwells the disciple” (Eph. 1:13; Titus 3:5; 1 Cor. 3:16). In this regard, theologians have pointed out that the major role of the Holy Spirit is to perform the abovementioned tasks at the time of salvation. Although Holy Scriptures have not mentioned the time of such responsibilities, however, scholars have made an assumption on the basis that execution of the spiritual life of a disciple is essential for filling of the Spirit, and thus, salvation is the right time for such responsibilities of the Holy Spirit. In this regard, salvation is the moment that allows the Spirit to enter within the believer, and lies within him/her in an everlasting manner. However, scholars (Graham, pp. 38-40) have indicated that although the Holy Spirit performs various functions, however, indwelling remains the most fundamental of all, as not all other roles require repetitive measures, but it requires due to sinful nature of the humans. Conclusively, the paper has discussed some of the significant aspects of role of the Holy Spirit. The paper has identified and analyzed different perspectives of the Holy Scriptures related to the topic; however, it is anticipation that future researches in this regard will allow a more comprehensive and updated understanding of the impact. It is an expectation that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. Works Cited Carroll, Robert. The Bible. Oxford University Press, 1998. Graham, Billy. The Holy Spirit. Thomas Nelson, 2008. Read More