Spirit Filled: Normal Christian Living

By Noel Due and Steen Olsen

Being filled with God’s Spirit is not a special blessing locked up for the select few, but the normal experience God has planned for all Christians.
Spirit Filled is written in plain language for ordinary Christians. While it is perfectly designed for group use, it can be equally enjoyed as a book in its own right.
The authors

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lutheran Church of Australia
• Release date: May 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9780987623591

Noel Due

Dr Noel Due is a Lutheran pastor, author and theological educator with extensive experience in Australia, Scotland, India and elsewhere.

Book preview

Softcover ISBN. 978-0-9876235-8-4

Ebook ISBN. 978-0-9876235-9-1

Religion, Mission, Evangelism

Copyright © 2019 Lutheran Church of Australia

The Lutheran Church of Australia gives permission for this book and bible studies to be used, adapted and reproduced free of charge, on the condition that they are attributed to the authors and publisher. No part of this book or bible studies may be sold or contracted to any third party without the prior written permission of the Lutheran Church of Australia, 197 Archer Street, North Adelaide SA 5006, Australia. Email [e-mail] for information.

All scripture quotations indicate their source, as below:

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.

New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV), copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

The English Standard Version (ESV®) Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, (NIV®) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by Permission.

Designed and printed by Openbook Howden Print & Design

Contents

Endorsements

Acknowledgements

Preface

How to use this Resource

Introduction

Meeting the Holy Spirit in the Bible

God Reveals Himself

God Reveals Himself Through Jesus

Jesus is Baptised

Jesus and the Spirit

Jesus, the Spirit and You

Spirit Filled Gathering #1

Meeting the Holy Spirit in Person

God Pours Out the Spirit through Jesus

Repeatedly Filled with the Spirit

The Spirit, Belief and Baptism

Christian Baptism

So Why Do We Baptise Infants and Young Children?

Spirit Filled Gathering #2

Meeting the Holy Spirit as the People of Faith

What is Faith?

Faith Receives God’s Gifts, It Doesn’t Create Them

Why Do Baptised Christians Celebrate the Lord’s Supper?

Spirit Filled Gathering #3

Meeting the Holy Spirit: God’s Ultimate Gift

The Upper Room

Jesus, the Spirit and the Father

A Hostile Courtroom

The Spirit and the Gathered Church

Spirit Filled Gathering #4

Being Filled with the Spirit

A New Covenant

Living in the Spirit’s Fullness

Believing God’s Promises

Led by the Spirit

Opportunities to Serve

Spirit Filled Gathering #5

The Holy Spirit: The Giving Gift

The Lord, the Giver of Life

A Gift Worth Waiting For

Pentecost: One and Only, Forever

The Gift of a Person, Who Leads us to People

Spirit Filled Gathering #6

Participating in the Spirit’s Gifts

God Does All Things

Deadly Deism

The Spirit of Adoption Gives Gifts to God’s Children

Participating in the Spirit’s Gift Life

Spirit Filled Gathering #7

Enjoying the Fruit of the Spirit

The Spirit and the Flesh

Fruit: Produced Not Compelled

Living Under Grace

Christian Freedom

Spirit Filled Gathering #8

The Spirit Teaches Us to Cry ‘Jesus is Lord’

‘Jesus is Lord’

Everything Old is New Again

Jesus is Lord: So No One Else Can Be

Jesus is Lord: It Still Has Consequences

Spirit Filled Gathering #9

The Spirit teaches us to cry ‘Abba Father’

An Important Piece of Vocabulary

Abba

Abba’s Family: Male and Female Sons

Abba’s Family Share in Abba’s Life

Spirit Filled Gathering #10

The Spirit Teaches Us to Cry ‘Come’

The Church, Christ’s Bride

The Bride and the Nations

The Spirit’s Constant Work

Spirit Filled Gathering #11

The Spirit and Your Future

A Good Text for a Funeral

Hidden, But Real

Coming to the Spirit with Empty Hands

The Spirit and Suffering

Spirit Filled Gathering #12

Scripture Index

Endorsements

If you are worried whether the Holy Spirit is active in your life, if your Christian faith is a bit wobbly, your love has cooled, and your hope become uncertain, this is just the book for you – and anyone you know who is in the same situation. This wonderful study doesn’t tell you what you have to do to get back on track in your spiritual life, but what God has done for you and is still doing. Here is the gospel of the Holy Spirit who implants us into Christ who leads us to the heavenly Father.

Noel Due and Steen Olsen present profound theology in simple, non-technical language. What I love most is the way in which they don’t refer to the scriptures in order to find proof texts, but let the Spirit-inspired Word be the first and most important voice. Communal listening to the sacred text and sacramental celebration have priority over individual experience. The twelve chapters reflect familiarity with debate on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, but without being confrontational or argumentative.

That being Spirit-filled is the normal thing in being a believer is a breath of fresh air. If you sense that I’m excited about this book you are not wrong. Please read and share it.

Revd Dr Vic Pfitzner emeritus Lecturer and former Principal of Luther Seminary/Australian Lutheran College, Adelaide South Australia

A strong, loving, and wise book designed for use in ordinary local churches and small groups within the church community. Strong theology, indeed, very strong theology that is well exposited for a lay audience. Loving, the authors clearly love their Lord, His Church, and the life of the Holy Spirit in everyday life. Wise, they have lived with these sentences and state their lessons from experience with careful, reflective, responsible clear thoughts and proposed actions.

Revd Dr Patrick Keifert Professor emeritus of Systematic Theology, Luther Seminary, St Paul MN, USA

Spirit Filled – Normal Christian Living is a gem of a book. It is all too easy for confessionally-grounded churches to prioritise the Word at the expense of the Spirit. Conversely, experience of the Spirit can be regarded as something ‘extra’, over and above normal, everyday discipleship. Noel Due and Steen Olsen rectify this by emphatically identifying the priority of the Spirit in creating and sustaining faith. This very accessible book is not only shaped by astute theology, it connects our understanding of God and the Spirit with the wider interplay of discipleship, church as a community established in the Spirit, and of the means of God’s grace and the Sacraments enabled by the Spirit. The format makes it especially valuable for group study, and explores vital questions for our church today.

Bishop Tim Harris, Bishop Missioner to the City of Playford, Anglican Diocese of Adelaide, South Australia

Steen and Noel have done a great job in explaining who the third person of the Trinity is and his role and impact on our daily lives in an accessible and relevant way. This book combines good theology with lots of practical implications of what it means to be Spirit filled. The discussion guide at the end of each chapter helps to really embed the learning in daily life.

Revd Canon Dave Male Director of Evangelism and Discipleship, Church of England.

Christian thinking about the Holy Spirit can either downplay or place the Spirit in the too hard basket, or see the Spirit as a force or power that each of us somehow have to feel, tap into or display in supernatural ways to be a genuine Christian.

Spirit Filled: Normal Christian Living shows how being Spirit filled, gifted, set free and transformed for daily life in the world is not something we can do or have to attain to, but the gift of a normal Christian life. It describes the Holy Spirit as personal and all about relationships, with the Father through Jesus, with each other in the body of Christ, and with the world around us.

By encouraging slow listening to scripture, the book models the truth that the Spirit works in and on us through the Word. I am confident that it will deepen and enrich your understanding and appreciation of the nature and work of the Spirit. I encourage you to let it inform, comfort, liberate, challenge, inspire and empower your life with God, each other and the world around you. Above all, let it point you to Jesus Christ, which is the Spirit’s highest priority.

Bishop David Altus, Bishop of the SA-NT District, Lutheran Church of Australia

Spirit Filled: Normal Christian Living is a well written, easy to read book that helps us appreciate the ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit given to us at our Baptism, participate in his gifts and enjoy the fruit he produces. Especially helpful is the guide for Spirit-Filled Gatherings that follows each chapter with helps for Bible reflections and conversations as well as questions for discussion.

Bishop Terry Kee, Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Singapore

What a joy it is to read of the work of the Holy Spirit, who is active in and through our daily lives, in and through our normal Christian living. Spirit Filled explores life in the Spirit and, by extension, our living relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit. It reveals a Spirit who brings us to God personally and in community (who calls and gathers us), a Spirit who continually fills us with joy and hope (who enlightens us), and a Spirit who leads and guides us (who sanctifies us).

Spirit Filled is both a textbook on the Holy Spirit and a study guide. It takes you to the Word of God and most importantly to the Father, Son and Spirit. Grab a small group of people and enjoy a Spirit-filled journey, for the Father is ‘making all things new.’

Dr Tania Nelson, Executive Officer – Local Mission, Lutheran Church of Australia

Noel Due and Steen Olsen have done, what we sometimes call ‘mainstream churches’, a huge favour with this new resource helping Christians anywhere on the journey of faith engage with the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Often overlooked, ignored or avoided by us, the Holy Spirit can be the forgotten partner in our Christian walk. This is a wholly comprehensive guide to the subject encompassing in my view everything you ever wanted to know about the Holy Spirit but were afraid to ask, to coin a phrase. And they don’t avoid, but really engage with the difficulties and resistances we find in ourselves when we reflect on our experience of the Spirit. Written in an accessible style and language I thoroughly recommend this work for use in churches and study groups wanting to go deeper into God through the work of the Spirit.

Revd Canon Dr Nigel Rooms Leader – Partnership for Missional Church UK, Church Mission Society, UK

Over the first quarter of 2019 I have heard many sermons and discussions that present the Christian life either as a self-improvement programme or as simply implementing a corporate church mission strategy. My spiritual antennae started twitching. I wanted to declare two warnings. Beware of instrumentalising God’s work – reducing it to functional efficiency. Watch out for personal development that makes the Holy Spirit redundant. When I read the Spirit Filled: Normal Christian Living I was pleasantly surprised by its emphasis on the necessity of God’s Spirit for a normal Christian life for individuals and Christian communities. This is a good introduction to the person of the Holy Spirit as presented in the Christian Bible. The twelve chapters have relevant biblical passages and accessible content that can discussed and prayed over individually and together. Helpful theology is woven into its structure and though written from a Lutheran perspective and concern, it can be used profitably in any denominational context. You do not have to agree with every thought – why would you? But it is good to explore the themes of this book.

The book explains how the Spirit of Jesus is given to each and all Christians together to serve God in his world including the church. It discusses how people have very different callings, but all can be drawn into a deeper experience of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit reflecting the fruit of the Spirit and releasing his gifts to bless the world. A good contemporary short book on the most vital of subjects – the Holy Spirit!

Revd Paul Thaxter, Director of International Mission, Church Mission Society, UK.

Dr Steen Olsen and Dr Noel Due have spent many decades listening, participating and observing the work of the Spirit in the lives of congregations and missional communities. One of the results is this seminal work on the Holy Spirit in Mission. It has been too long since such a book has been attempted but it is well overdue. Essential reading for Christians of all traditions who need a succinct biblical and practical guide to the work of the Holy Spirit in missional living! Highly recommended!

Dean Eaton, Church Planting Mentor and Mission Facilitator, Lutheran Church of Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to express their sincere thanks to Kay Carney, who proof read the manuscript as a labour of love and offered helpful suggestions for clarification and correction. Kay, you did a marvellous job!

To Dr. Vic Pfitzner and Dr. Patrick Keifert whose external reviews were both encouraging and helpful, thank you! Thanks also to the others who reviewed the book and wrote endorsements.

To James Jay and the team at OBH, thank you for your professional competence, flexibility and patience.

To Linda Macqueen and the team at the LCA Communications Department. Thank you for continually providing what was needed at the right time, and for the in-house assistance at each step.

To the members of the LCA (interim) Board for Local Mission (2013-2017) who laid the groundwork and contributed knowledge, insight and wisdom that continues to be built upon as we develop resources such as this book.

And for the Committee for New and Renewing Churches of the LCA who believed in this project and whose funding has made it possible.

Finally, we acknowledge the support and encouragement of our wives in regard to this project and many other things and so dedicate this book to them.

Steen Olsen Dedication

For Ruth who seeks to live by the Spirit, and helps me to walk by the Spirit. [Galatians 5:25]

Noel Due Dedication

For Kirsten, whose wisdom and joy in the Spirit is life and health to my soul.

Preface

As we wrote this book, we kept in mind those who are not experts in understanding the Bible. So hopefully there won’t be too many unusual words and ideas that are not explained. If you do find any, ask the other members of your group. If you are reading this alone, you might have a friend you can ask. Failing that, there is always Google!

Around five hundred years ago reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin taught that all the people of God were called and sent into the world to serve others and bring the good news about Jesus to their family, friends, neighbours and workmates. The church had come to be dominated by pastors or priests and bishops, who not only taught and led in the church, but were understood to be the only ones called to minister to others.

Still today, congregations are often too pastor-centred. Some even think that we call a professional pastor to do ministry on our behalf, so that the rest of us are just meant to listen, pray, give money and do whatever we can to help with the running of the church as an institution. People mistakenly think it is the pastor’s job to do all the real ministry.

The Bible has a different idea. The Apostle Peter addresses all Christians when he says:

Come to [Jesus], a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus