Life in the Spirit: Reflecting on the Work of the Holy Spirit in Our Lives

By Steve Langford

Do you want to know how to know God? This book is for you. Do you want to know how to grow spiritually? This book is for you. Do you want to know how to live with joy and peace? This book is for you. Do you want to experience God’s power in your life? This book is for you. Do you want to know how to move beyond guilt and fear and shame? This book is for you. Do you want to know how to move beyond emotional wounds and old messages and self-destructive patterns? This book is for you. Do you want to know how to love as Jesus loved? This book is for you. Do you want to know your unique abilities and how to use them to make a difference in the world? This book is for you.

This book explores the many references to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament in an effort to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in our individual lives and in the life of the church. Understanding the Spirit’s work positions us to be aware of, open to, and responsive to that work so that we can experience its transforming results

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: May 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781698711881

Steve Langford

Dr. Steve Langford—also known as Pastor Steve—has dedicated his adult life to the study and teaching of scripture in the local church with a focus on spiritual formation. In the spiritual communities in which he has walked, he is known as a gifted teacher with a prophetic spirit. He served as a pastor for fifty years, first in Baptist life and then as an ordained elder in the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Since retiring in 2019, he serves—in addition to his writing—as a spiritual guide, Bible study teacher, and Bowen Family Systems coach/counselor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Howard Payne University along with master’s and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His postdoctoral work has been in Bowen Family System Theory with an applied focus on spiritual formation and leadership in the local church. Pastor Steve is married to Etta, his wife of fifty-three years. They have three adult sons and four grandchildren.

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Copyright 2022 Steve Langford.

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The image used on the cover is an original work by Camille Harmon of Georgetown, TX.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®, © 1973, 1978, 1984, by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. [Website]

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1190-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1189-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6987-1188-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022908343

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1The Scripture’s Witness to the Work of the Spirit

Chapter 2Born of the Spirit

Chapter 3Pentecost: The Outpouring of the Spirit

Chapter 4Live by the Spirit

Chapter 5Keep in Step with the Spirit

Chapter 6Led by the Spirit

Chapter 7A Spirit of Adoption

Chapter 8Freedom From . . . To

Chapter 9The Mind of Christ

Chapter 10A New Creation

Chapter 11The Pattern of Spiritual Formation

Chapter 12Growing Spiritually: How It Works

Chapter 13How We Sabotage Our Own Spiritual Development

Chapter 14Stopping Short of the Destination

Chapter 15Loving as Jesus Loved

Chapter 16The Fruit of the Spirit Is Joy and Peace

Chapter 17Power to Do What I Cannot Do in My Own Strength

Chapter 18Power to Be a Witness

Chapter 19Filled with the Spirit

Chapter 20The Spirit’s Role in Prayer

Chapter 21The Spirit Intercedes

Chapter 22The Sword of the Spirit

Chapter 23Christ Lives in Me

Chapter 24God’s Earnest Money

Chapter 25The Body of Christ

Chapter 26The Unity of the Spirit

Chapter 27Neither Jew nor Greek

Chapter 28The Gifts of the Spirit

Chapter 29A Better Way

Chapter 30The Spirit’s Guidance

Chapter 31Beware of Pouring Cold Water on the Spirit

Chapter 32Life in the Spirit: An Overview

Appendix ASummary of New Testament Teachings about Spiritual Gifts

Appendix BNew Testament Passages Listing Spiritual Gifts

Appendix CDescription of the Gifts

Endnotes

Introduction

T hroughout the history of the Christian Church, the Spirit and the work of the Spirit have lived in the shadows of the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, particularly his death and resurrection, has been center stage while the Spirit has been in the wings, in a supportive role. As a result, the average church member knows little of the Spirit’s work, even though the Spirit is the means by which every one of us experiences God and the gift of salvation. ¹

A number of factors contribute to this pattern of overlooking the work of the Spirit. A primary reason lies in the nature of the Spirit’s work. The Spirit’s role is to point us to Jesus and draw us to God. Just as Jesus’s work was to reveal the Father to us (John 1:18; 14:9), the Spirit’s work is to be a witness to Jesus as a means of drawing us into a relationship with the Father.² The Spirit’s role is an expression of the self-giving love and servant spirit that lie at the heart of the divine character. Living out of the same character as the Father and the Son, the Spirit is self-giving, not self-promoting. Following the Spirit’s lead, we have focused on Jesus and his death and resurrection, paying little attention to the Spirit.

The scriptures also reflect this primary focus on Jesus. Whereas the four gospels relate the life and ministry of Jesus, there is no single book that focuses specifically on the Spirit and the work of the Spirit. In all of the New Testament, only four passages specifically speak of the Spirit and the Spirit’s work in any detail. (See Chapter 1 below.)

Another factor in our neglect of the Spirit is fear. We humans commonly fear what we do not understand and cannot control. We seek to understand, explain, and define reality in our effort to have a sense of control over life, but the Spirit and the work of the Spirit lie outside our understanding and control, in the realm of mystery. Jesus used the wind to speak of the mysterious nature of the Spirit’s work: The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (John 3:8).³ To embrace the Spirit is to surrender our need to understand, explain, and control. It is to embrace mystery.

As in every dimension of spiritual life, our ego is a factor in our neglect of the Spirit. Our ego-based identity is built on a twofold foundation of achievement and self-reliance. Our sense of self is tied to what we have accomplished, particularly in comparison to others. The motto by which we commonly live is expressed in the words of the preschooler who declared, I can do it myself. Living in relationship with the Spirit calls for a spirit of glad dependence. As we live in relationship with the Spirit, we learn from the Spirit, we follow the Spirit’s lead, and we look to the Spirit for power to do what we cannot do in our own strength. Such dependency goes against our ego’s pattern of stubborn self-reliance.

The New Testament writers were clear about the Spirit and the Spirit’s role in our salvation and God’s eternal redemptive purpose.⁴ In their minds, the work of the Spirit and the work of Jesus were inseparable. They were two parts of the same reality. What Jesus accomplished in his death and resurrection, the Spirit brings into reality in our lives. In Galatians 4:4–7, for example, the Apostle Paul spoke of God sending both the Son and the Spirit. The Son was sent to redeem us so that we might receive adoption as children (Galatians 4:5). The Spirit was sent to nurture the spirit of adoption within us, whereby we cry Abba! Father! (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:14–17). This spirit of adoption is a child’s unquestioning trust in the Father’s love. Such a spirit frees us from fear so that we live out of our identity as a beloved child of God and as an heir of the fullness of God. We live with freedom (Galatians 5:1, 13)—freedom from fear, from guilt and shame, from having to earn God’s approval, from slavish obedience to the law. The biblical writers understood that the Spirit actively works to make God’s salvation—the transformation of our hearts and minds, conforming us to the image of Jesus—a reality in our lives.

When we as individuals and churches overlook the work of the Spirit, we fail to experience what the Spirit seeks to accomplish in us and through us as the followers of Jesus. We live with little or no awareness of the Spirit’s movement in our lives. We fail to recognize, much less respond to, what the Spirit is seeking to do in us. In short, we limit what the Spirit can do in us. We limit our spiritual growth and development. In addition, we limit what the Spirit can do through us. We limit how the Spirit can use us in ministry and witness to others in bringing the kingdom into reality on earth.

This book explores the role and work of the Spirit both in our individual lives (Chapters 2–24, 31) and in the life of the church (Chapters 25–30). These meditations draw on the New Testament writers’ teachings about and references to the Spirit. While these teachings and references do not explain the mystery of the Spirit’s work, they do give us glimpses of how the Spirit works. These glimpses position us to be more aware of the Spirit and more responsive to what the Spirit is doing.⁵

I offer these reflections with the prayer that understanding the role and work of the Spirit will help the reader be more open and responsive to the Spirit’s work of

• drawing us to God,

• teaching us the ways of God that Jesus taught,

• transforming our hearts and minds into the likeness of Christ,

• nurturing within us an unfettered freedom in our relationship with God,

• teaching us to live out of a spirit of joy and peace and thanksgiving,

• guiding us in living the ways of God,

• empowering us to do what we cannot do in our own strength,

• gifting us with abilities to use in ministry to