Are You Missing the Miracles of the Spirit in Everyday Ministry?
It’s too easy for pastors and leaders to miss the miracles of the Holy Spirit, but when we open our eyes to see them we’ll be more full of strength, courage, and expectation as we minister.
I grew up in this family of churches, a proudly charismatic group. I also grew up afraid of the Holy Spirit. One of the people in my church referred to the Spirit as “The Holy Ghost” and as a kid, I wanted nothing to do with a strange ghost. I was a kid who liked order and predictability. I didn’t like how unpredictable prayer times or ministry times seemed.
Yet, later, I had a powerful encounter with the Spirit at age 13 during a missions week in Mexico. I wept tears of joy. I received some clear spiritual gifts. And then I spent some of my teen years wishing and longing I could experience that every week, and slightly disappointed when church seemed “normal.”
As a pastor, I often find myself caught between those two extremes as I minister to my church. There are times I want the Holy Spirit confined to a tidy corner of my statement of faith and don’t want our plans or ministry calendar interrupted. There are also times I long for some of the old experiences and wish we saw more of that every week.
But here is the poblem: In either extreme, I’m missing the miracles of the Spirit in everyday life. And when I miss the miracles of the Spirit, my church often misses the miracles too.
Miracles Everywhere
Think of it this way: I remember going on vacation to the beach in Mexico, where you could go parasailing. I remember just enduring the first two days, waiting for that one activity. But meanwhile, I was missing the ocean, the games with my cousins in the pool, the coconut bowling, the cold drinks on hot days. I missed the rest of the beauty.
Similarly, I’ve found that most Christians and pastors tend to default to thinking about spiritual gifts when we talk about the Spirit. But in the Bible, spiritual gifts are only one of the many miracles of the Spirit. If we’re fixated on one (very good!) benefit of the Spirit, we may miss the rest. We become the kid sitting grumpy inside waiting for parasailing, while there is an endless beach to run on.
So what are some of these other miracles we should be looking for? Here are just four.
The Miracle of the Spark
We often miss what is perhaps the most clear and obvious miracle of the Spirit: the spark that brings us to life.
In Ezekiel 34 there is a powerful picture of dry and dead bones that can do nothing on their own. But then a mighty wind (a picture of the Spirit of God) comes rushing in, and these dry bones come to life. We are crusty, sun-blasted, and sand-blown skeletons rattling around on the desert floor. Someone could offer us all the water in the world, but we could never drink it—if not for the Spirit of God.
Our hearts are made alive through the work of the Spirit. We then see the work of Christ for us—his death for our sins—and we happily believe. We drink deeply of salvation and rejoice. In John 3, we see the meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). We can only believe if we are born anew of the Spirit.
Do we ourselves see the miracle of the Spirit in all we do as Christians? We would not even be in Christ apart from this miracle. Do we help those we serve to identify and rejoice in this miracle?
The Miracle of the Forge
How is it that we grow in Christ-likeness? How is it that we are re-forged from our old shape that’s been warped by sin into a new shape that resembles Christ? By the Spirit.
Listen to Paul here: “But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to one another, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:16–17).
Paul shows us that there is a war going on inside of us between the “old us” and the “new us.” He calls the “old us”—our sin nature—the “flesh.” But by God’s grace, however, there is another power at work in us. It is the Spirit of God.
Before the Spirit, we’d have no hope of seeing true and lasting change in our lives. But the Spirit gives us hope. The Spirit enables us “both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). That means we receive the power to desire change as well as the power to actually change. This is nothing short of miraculous.
So do we see this miracle of the Spirit in our lives? Do we help those we serve see this miracle? Every time we are reshaped a little more, do we say, “Ah, look at the Spirit’s work.”
The Miracle of God’s Nearness
In Romans 8:13–16, Paul transitions straight from our fight against sin (one of the purposes of the Spirit) to our experience of God’s presence (another purpose of the Spirit):
“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”
The work of Christ reconciles us to God. God the Father adopts us. It is one thing to know that you have a heavenly father, but it is another to be the son feeling the embrace of the father. This is the miracle the Spirit does – helping us experience in our hearts what is true in legal declaration over us.
While we do not always subjectively sense this perfectly, there will be, for the Christian, many clear times the Spirit does allow us to sense this. Perhaps a moment of being lost in worship. Perhaps a moment of comfort as we pour our hearts out in prayer. It is the Spirit’s work to help us feel the embrace of the Father.
When we feel God’s embrace, do we trace this back to the miracle of the Spirit’s work? Do we see that apart from the Spirit’s unique work this would be impossible? Do we help those we serve to see the Spirit’s work in those moments as well?
The Miracle of Missional Power
When Jesus is about to ascend, he speaks of the promise of the Spirit coming, and he ties the Spirit’s coming not to our personal experience but to our outward mission.
“But 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” (Acts 1:8).
The Spirit, Jesus says, is coming to us, but he is not coming just for us. The gift of the Spirit is also for others through us. The power we receive from the Spirit is given to empower us for a mission.
Later in Acts 4, the believers face intense persecution. But the apostles say, “We cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (v. 20). The religious leaders threaten them and demand they stop speaking. When the believers gather and pray, their prayer is not that the persecution will stop but rather, “Grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness” (v. 29).
What is the result? Verse 31 tells us, “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
When the Church sets itself to the task for which God has given the Spirit, God sends the Spirit.
When we set ourselves to the task of witness, God gives us the power of the Spirit for that witness.
So here is the miracle we often miss: When Christians share the gospel and witness to Christ, they do so because they’ve been empowered by the Spirit.
Do we see that any of our efforts to share the gospel or be a witness are only possible because of the Spirit? And do we have confidence that when we step out in faith to share we’ll be met with the Spirit’s power? Tracing the work of the Spirit will make us, and those we serve, bold and fearless in gospel proclamation.
He Still Does the Wonders
A few years ago, one of our gospel partners from India was sharing with our church and coined a phrase that has lived in my mind ever since. He spoke about how our churches might be separated by distance, culture, and language, but we have some things gloriously in common. We believe in the gospel as of first importance. We treasure the Word. And in that list of common traits between us, he said this:
“Like you, we believe God still does the wonders.”
I love that. In our family of churches much has changed over the years, but this should not change. We want to remain a family who believes God still does wonders – bringing new life, helping people change, drawing people close in his presence, empowering gospel witness, and giving spiritual gifts. These are wonders. Miracles.
When we see these miracles, here’s the effect:
We treasure the Lord’s work – Even writing this short reflection, I’ve been overcome at how precious God’s work is in my life and church
We lean forward in courage and strength – Tracing God’s work only builds more confidence and faith for God’s work in the future.
We take the Spirit from our statement of faith to our everyday life – I love our Statement of Faith’s section on the Spirit, but it was written not to keep the Spirit in a tidy box but to serve us as we live in the power of the Spirit in everyday life.
May we lean forward, believing He still does the wonders.
FREE RESOURCE
Recently I completed a book published by my local church on the work of the Spirit. It was written out of a heart to help Christians understand the Spirit and see these miracles in their own life. We’d love to send a PDF and eBook to any pastor in Sovereign Grace that wants one. Just email ricky@crossofgrace.net and I’ll gladly send you a copy.