The Work of the Holy Spirit
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and others
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and others
IN THE LIVES OF BELIEVERS
The orthodox Reform or Evangelical position on the work of the Holy Spirit is that the regenerate believer receives the Indwelling, Sealing, and Baptism of the Spirit at the moment of salvation/conversion (“upon believing/having believed” Ephesians 1:13b). At regeneration the believer receives everything he can have of the Spirit; the experience and manifestation (power) of the Spirit in a believer's life are however progressive and dependent on a believer's surrender, obedience and seeking in prayer (Luke 11:5-13). We may be Anointed (later) for a specific work/ministry, and our Filling is related to our (willing & cooperative) obedience (Luke 11:13, Ephesians 5:25).
The works of the Spirit are not separate nor disconnected, but are listed here as such as a help in understanding.
Indwelling – oikeo/3611, meno/3306
Reside/dwell within, abide
Upon Christ as authentication & power – Matthew 3:16, John 1:32-33
All believers – 1 Corinthians 3:16, 6:19, John 14:16-17, Romans 8:9-11
Jewish “Pentecost”
Predicted - John 16:7-15, John 20:21-22
Fulfilled - Acts 2:1-4
Samaritan – Acts 8:14-17
Paul – Acts 9:17
Gentile – Acts 10:44-48
John’s Disciples – Acts 19:2-6
https://www.gotquestions.org/indwelling-of-the-Holy-Spirit.html
Why was there a delay in Acts?
To authenticate/confirm the inclusion of Samaritans, Paul, the Gentiles, John the Baptist’s disciples, and establish the authority of the Apostles.
Sealing – sphragiso/4972
To identify as permanent ownership and authenticity = Eternal Security
“Having believed”, upon believing, by believing - Ephesians 1:13, 4:30, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Galatians 3:2
https://www.gotquestions.org/sealed-with-the-Holy-Spirit-of-promise.html
Anointing – chrio/5548 (not aleipho – “with oil”)
Consecrated, set apart (and enabled) for ministry
Jesus – Luke 4:18, Acts 10:38; Believers – Acts 13:2, 1 John 2:20, 27
Every believer has been “called” by God to a specific (secular or ministerial) God glorifying and honoring task - Kaleo or proskaleo “to summon to a task”. Ephesians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 7:24, 12:28, Romans 12:6-8, Colossians 4:17
Those who God calls, the Holy Spirit enables or equips, with our cooperation and effort - Ephesians 1:18-20, Philippians 1:6, 4:13 & 19, 2 Timothy 3:17. The Holy Spirit encourages and empowers a medical missionary, but he/she must do the hard work of obtaining their medical degree and learning a foreign language.
We are each also called to walk in holiness; "worthy of the calling to which you have been called" Ephesians 4:1, and are enabled to willingly and obediently do so by the power of the Holy Spirit.
https://www.gotquestions.org/anointing-you-received.html
Filling – pletho/4130
“plerousthe” – obediently controlled
Ephesians 5:18 “…be filled…”
Acts 4:31, 13:52 – with boldness, joy & power
The manifestation of filling is the “Fruit of the Spirit” – Galatians 5:22-24
https://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-filled.html
Baptism – baptizo/907
Reform theology: To place into/union with Christ (Romans 6:3-6, Galatians 3:26) and with all believers (1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 1:11-13a) as children of God.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Spirit-baptism.html
“With fire” = cleansing (Isaiah 4:4, Zechariah 13:9, Luke 3:16) and “with water” John 1:33, 7:37-39 (the Spirit)
https://www.gotquestions.org/baptism-fire.html
Pentecostal theology adds additional baptisms; sanctification and receiving the “charismatic” gifts (1 Corinthians 12:7-11), esp. prophecy and tongues (1 Corinthians 14:1-15) as "initial physical evidence" of Spirit-baptism.
Douglas Oss in Are Miraculous Gifts For Today?
Pentecostal-Wesleyan-Holiness movements view sanctification as a post-conversion, once-for-all experience, resulting in entire sanctification and eradication of the sinful nature, which is followed by baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Most Pentecostals (AOG) view baptism in the Holy Spirit...as the first experience of the Spirit's empowering work ["enduement with power"], which inaugurates a life characterized by continued anointing(s) with the Spirit...available to the believer from the moment of faith...
Lloyd-Jones’ position is that the Apostles were regenerate believers who were (after their salvation) baptized with the Holy Spirit, by Jesus Christ, when breathed upon by Jesus in John 20:22. Similarly, the Samaritan Pentecost of Acts 8:15-17, Paul’s Pentecost in Acts 9:17, the Gentile Pentecost of Acts 10:44-45, and the disciples of John the Baptist in Ephesus Acts 19:5-6. Baptism with the Spirit could be used interchangeably with being filled with the Spirit.
This baptism results in extraordinary joy, assurance of salvation, confidence of our Father's love & acceptance, and Holy boldness in service and evangelism.
Lloyd-Jones believed sealing of the Spirit was the same thing as baptism of the Spirit: authentication, ownership and eternal security. God's seal was His "way of authenticating to (both ourselves and) others the fact that we are Christians" by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer, producing the fruit of the Spirit. "Sealing is an experience, something that God does to us, and we know it when it happens." (Galatians 3:2)
Experiencing the New Birth
That is the supreme purpose of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, to give us an absolute certainty that we are the children of God.
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eusebeia/07_038.pdf
There on the Day of Pentecost we have seen the apostles filled with this power, and seen also that the real object of the baptism with the Spirit is to enable men to witness to Christ and His salvation with power. The Baptism with the Holy Spirit is not regeneration — the apostles were already regenerate — and it is not given primarily to promote sanctification; it is a baptism of power, or a baptism of fire…
God the Holy Spirit
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the initial experience of glory and the reality and the love of the Father and of the Son.
Lloyd-Jones quoting Charles Simeon, in Romans: An Exposition of Chapter 5, Assurance
This is a blessing which, though not appreciated or understood by those who have never received it, is yet most assuredly enjoyed by many of God's chosen people. We scarcely know how to describe it, because it consist chiefly in an impression of the mind occasioned by manifestations of the love of God to the soul.
The Baptism and Gifts of the Spirit
Baptised With Heavenly Power, "The Holy Spirit in the Teaching and Experience of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones", 2025
https://www.amazon.com/Baptised-Heavenly-Power-Experience-Lloyd-Jones/dp/1527112535
(From Murray, The First Forty Years)
(Easter 1925 Lloyd-Jones)...came to see the love of God, expressed in the death of Christ in a way which overwhelmed him...It was solely to that death that he owed his new relationshiop to God. The truth amazed him and in the light of it he could only say with Isaac Watts..."Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all". Lloyd-Jones would call that a personal baptism with the Holy Spirit in which he was overcome by God's love and it enabled him to speak with new authority and power.
In 1949 Lloyd-Jones spent 2 weeks at a clinic in Bristol; sick of body and spirit, depressed and under significant demonic attack. One morning as he was dressing, his eye spotted the word 'glory' in the book of sermons that he had been reading. Instantly, he felt the very glory of God surround him. Every doubt and fear was silence. The love of God was 'shed abroad' in his heart. The nearness of heaven and his own title to it became overwhelming certainties and, at once, he was brought into a state of ecstasy and joy...Lloyd-Jones believed that what happened to him was the work of the Holy Spirit witnessing to His sonship.
Joy Unspeakable: Power and Renewal in the Holy Spirit (See documents below)
https://archive.org/details/joyunspeakablepo0000lloy
Signs and manifestations of baptism with the Spirit
1. A sense of God’s glory and presence
2. An assurance of God’s love for us in Christ
3. The element of joy and gladness
4. Love toward God
5. A desire to glorify the Father and the Son
6. Light and understanding of the truth
Letter to Leslie Land, Minister of Melbourne Hall, Leicester, 1943, published in D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Letters, 1919-1981
More and more I am being drawn to see that the greatest need today is the power of the Holy Spirit in and through individuals. Right theology is essential but without the power given by the Spirit it can achieve nothing.
“A Gospel of Power” on 1 Thessalonians 1:5, March 13, 1960 at Westminster Chapel
https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/gospel/a-gospel-of-power/
Concluding statement:
“Let us go on preaching the truth, but let us at the same time pray unto God to open the window of heaven and to baptise us anew and afresh with the power of the Holy Ghost.”
“Not In Word Only” on 1 Thessalonians 1:5. Knox Presbyterian Church, Toronto, 1967
On June 18, 1735, several weeks after his evangelical conversion, Howell Harris experienced a personal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Revival soon began in South Wales.
Howell Harris: His Own Story. An Eyewitness Account of the 18th Century Welsh Revival quoted by Lloyd-Jones in The Puritans: There Origins and Successors
Being in secret prayer, I felt suddenly my heart melting within me, like wax before the fire, with love to God my Saviour. I felt not only love and peace but longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Then was a cry in my inmost soul, which I was totally unacquainted with before. “Abba Father!” I could not help calling God, “my Father.” I knew that I was His child and that He loved me, and heard me. My soul being filled and satiated, I cried, “‘Tis enough, I am satisfied. Give me strength, and I will follow Thee through fire and water.” I could say I was happy indeed! There was in me a well of water, springing up to everlasting life . . . The love of God was shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit.
C.H. Spurgeon “The Indwelling and Outflowing of the Holy Spirit” on John 7:38-39
Brothers and sisters, let us go in to get from God all that God will give us. Let us set our hearts upon this, that we mean to have by God’s help all that the infinite goodness of God is ready to bestow. Let us not be satisfied with the sip that saves, but let us go on to the baptism which buries the flesh and raises us in the likeness of the risen Lord. Let us seek that baptism into the Holy Spirit and into fire which makes us spiritual and sets us all on flame with zeal for the glory of God and eagerness for usefulness by which that glory may be increased among the sons of men.
John Piper, "A Passion for Christ-Exalting Power, Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Need for Revival and Baptism with the Holy Spirit"
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/a-passion-for-christ-exalting-power
Duncan Campbell, “Revival in the Hebrides”
http://articles.ochristian.com/article13381.shtml
I believe that the baptism of the Holy Ghost in its final analysis is just the revelation of Jesus. It is Jesus becoming real - wonderful, powerful, and dynamic in my life.
D.L. Moody believed that the Holy Spirit established a permanent relationship with the believer at the moment of regeneration. Nevertheless, he believed that something more was needed for effective Christian work; the “Holy Spirit upon us for service.” He had such an experience himself in 1871, and on those rare occasions when he referred to it, he spoke of it as a filling, a baptism, an anointing, an empowerment for service. Moody however disavowed that this "filling" led to entire sanctification, eradication of the sin nature, or perfection.
https://toddstiles.net/2017/05/28/d-l-moody-and-the-holy-spirits-filling/
John Piper https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/dwight-l-moody-turns-172
CAUTION
Disobedience/unconfessed sin grieves (lypeite - to make one deeply emotionally distressed) the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
We quench (sbennumi - extinguish/stifle/"pour cold water on") the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19) by our denial of or refusal to respond to the movement/message of the Spirit, individually and corporately.
And resist (antipiptete - to fall against or upon an enemy) the Spirit (Acts 7:51) by pridefully and stubbornly opposing the light, truth, and conviction of the Spirit.
Please see the documents below and Assurance