The Role Of The Holy Spirit In Worship

By H. Eugene Soulsby

Christianity does not deny the Holy Spirit's existence and most Christians would confess they believe in the Spirit, at least with their head and creed. But few "experience" him in their daily walk or have a biblical understanding of who he is, why he came and what his role is in the Christian life. The Holy Spirit is a living presence""a person""and as such must be experienced, not neglected, within the church and the individual believer. The crucial role of the Spirit in Paul's life, thinking and theology was always that of the personal presence of God. As a Christian, a believing follower of Christ, the Spirit is the empowering presence experienced in our lives as we await the perfect ending of the Kingdom of God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643494500

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The Role Of The Holy Spirit In Worship

DR. H. EUGENE SOULSBY

ISBN 978-1-64349-448-7 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64349-739-6 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64349-450-0 (digital)

Copyright © 2019 by Dr. H. Eugene Soulsby

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

For our children—Shannon, Carmen, Heather, and Mark—for whose faith in Christ and fellowship of the Spirit we are grateful to God the Father.

Foreword

I first met Dr. Eugene Soulsby on the phone in September of 1987 while on a graduation trip from Seminary. He was part of a pastor search committee for First Baptist Church, Burley, Idaho. I had filled out a post-it board job application for pastoring at First Baptist Burley, Idaho. I know, I know, where is that? I did not know either but three months later I became their pastor. Dr. Soulsby was my worship leader and my chiropractor. From the first I knew he had a passion for worship. The local lore of the church told me of a time he went to a worship seminar, came back and removed all the chairs in the choir loft and had the congregation lead in worship singing favorite choruses and hymns of the eighties, believing that the church should be the choir for an audience of ONE! Not the choir performing for the church. This was a wonderful new thought for me. He had determined to invite the presence of the Spirit into every service he helped lead. Over the next eight years I enjoyed many fantastic worship services where the presence of God permeated the whole service. I believe that much of that was because Doc brought the church into a dynamic with the Holy Spirit that resulted in the Spirit’s presence being experienced. It was from his encouragement that we hosted a Worship and Warfare Conference with Gerrit Gustafson. That conference changed my view of worship forever. I was Doc’s pastor for 8 years and during that time our friendship grew and my admiration for his determination to bring us each Sunday into God’s presence grew. This was not without cost. There is a reason that this time period in church history has often been labeled as the Worship Wars. But I believe that his commitment paid off as we saw many come into the church and the church grow to the point of a major relocation and building program.

When Doc retired as a chiropractor I was not surprised that he decided to do doctoral work in theology and specifically the role of the Spirit in worship. He has a mind that does not rest. His curisioty is one of the things that drives him. I was honored that he asked me to read his dissertation and to write this foreword to his book. Frankly, most who read this will not know either of us. I have served three churches in Idaho, Montana and Georgia. Doc served in numerous churches during his college days and his doctoral training first at Yale for the performing arts and then later at Logan College of Chiropractic. He came to Burley to begin his pracitice and to fulfill his love for hunting. Since he has always felt called to the ministry of music, he accepted that call in Burley as well. He tells the story of coming over the hill on I-84 during his family’s move to Burley and seeing the lights of Burley and believing God for revival and the winning of Burley for Christ, his heart was moved and set on what God would have him do while there. Burley was 80 to 90% Mormon at that time. Over 40-plus years later, he has seen God do some amazing things and many have turned to Christ. Burley is now closer to 50% Mormon with many Christians and new churches scattered throughout the valley. This is not all because of his own efforts and he would be the first to give total credit to the power of God, but I would venture to say that much has been done in the heavenlies because of his leading the way in worship and the insuing warfare in the heavenlies that happens when one worships. So it seems only natural and consistent to me that he would write his dissertation on the role of the Holy Spirit in worship.

What you hold in your hands is therefore a summation of 40 plus years of ministry leading worship in various churches but mainly at First Baptist Burley. It is now the worked-out exegesis of scripture on the subject of the Holy Spirit and his role in the life of believers empowering them for ministry and worship. True worship cannot happen without the Holy Spirit’s enabling. So how does one bring the Holy Spirit into the average church worship service and allow him to take over and lead as only he can do? How does the individual understand the prompting of the Holy Spirit in private worship? Doc’s writing will help the reader get a solid Biblical understanding of how that can happen. I believe that the Holy Spirit gifts each individual and church to stir worship for the Father, and he does all of that in the confines of Biblical truth.

This is not a book about how to do worship one way that is the supposed right specific way, the one size fits all idea. This is an exegetical study of the major passages in the New Testament on the Holy Spirit and his indwelling power to change the heart of man, equipping him for ministry and to worship in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). I would hope that each reader will take the time to read thru this book, contemplate the scripture brought before you, let the Word challenge your thinking. Then pray that the Holy Spirit will show you specifially how he wants you to become a deeper more complete worshiper of our great God and King.

One thing many will find interesting is how much we have missed in our exegesis in the past concerning the actual working of the Holy Spirit in all of our lives. Doc makes the point that Paul was matter-of-fact in presenting the activity of the Holy Spirit both in his own life and that of believers in the churches and assumed beforehand that all who read these letters would understand that the Holy Spirit was the experienced reality manifesting himself in all that they did. Could that be why the early church accomplished so much without basically anything but being submitted Spirit-filled Chirsitians? I think Doc is onto something that the church of today needs to get hold of again.

I urge you, I encourage you to read this book carefully, thoughtfully, prayerfully. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you and let the Word challenge your own presuppositions. I believe you will find this to be an extremely worthwhile task that will result in deepening your personal walk with Christ and your corporate experience as you surrender in a deeper way to the nudges of the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit bless you richly and may you grow in deeper intimacy with him.

Pastor B.G. Stumberg, retired

Acknowledgement

I have long been interested in the subject of the Holy Spirit and particularly to the letters of Paul reflecting the role of the Spirit in Paul’s own spiritual life and in that of his churches. Over the year and a half I devoted to researching and working on my doctorial dissertation, The Role of the Holy Spirit in Worship, I experienced an ongoing encounter with the living God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—an encounter in several ways. On the one hand, as I studied and interpreted (exegete) the text so as to articulate its meaning—both for myself and for others in the church—I was often myself so overcome by the power of the Word that I was brought to tears, to joy, to prayer, or to praise. On the other hand, I was sobered by the awareness that the Spirit’s activity by and large goes unnoticed in many church settings and that miraculous, supernatural phenomena are almost nonexistent or at the least the exception to the rule. I also became aware that exegesis and spirituality are not at war with one another and that knowing the intention of the author of the text will always lead to a Spiritual encounter resulting in worship. Therefore, I first of all acknowledge that without the Spirit of truth’s intervening presence in the Word to my mind, soul, and even the very atmosphere of my study, this book would not have been written.

My sincere thanks to my friend and former pastor B.G. Stumberg and his wife Lynn for their encouragement and the boiling it down around their kitchen table regarding theological accuracy and the truths that the Spirit was teaching me. I am grateful to B.G. for his willingness to write the Forward to my book and for his friendship and mentorship over the years.

Kevin Devine, my current pastor at First Baptist has consistently been an encourager, supporter and excellent listener, as I would express to him what the Spirit through the Word was teaching me about himself and his interaction with God’s kids. Kevin is a quiet man with a pastor’s heart, and a friend.

The dear people of First Baptist who attended my Bible study class on Sunday nights—even through the winter months—for over a year and half while I taught what the Spirit had revealed to me, will forever be recorded in my memory and grateful heart. Their sincerity, hunger for God’s Word testified by good questions, and facial expressions revealing a sudden awareness of the Holy Spirit himself in a text passage or the Christian life—their life—is evidence that they are letters of Christ written on tablets of human hearts by the Spirit of the living God. Thank you.

I have had a wonderful experience with Christian Faith Publishers, Inc. I have nothing but sincere praise for everyone there. From my first contact the entire staff demonstrates professionalism, integrity, and excellence in every department: acquisition, with Hailli Dorman, Literary Agent, to the editing, layout, marketing, accounting, and management. My most sincere thanks extend to Leslie Fox, Publication Specialist with CFP for her support and personal encouragement. She has been a real gem to work with. Her openness to helping me achieve the final product I’ve hoped for has been stellar. She is solid in every respect and I highly value her professional judgment and advice, which I seek liberally.

Next to God the Father, Jesus the Christ and the Spirit, no one is more important to me, than my wife and my family. Peggy is my best friend and mother of our four children. She has been patient and understanding throughout my post-retirement seminary training years and this book project. She was the first to read my completed manuscript. She jumped to the task, read it thoroughly, and provided invaluable suggestions, which have helped make the book better and, in some places, easier to understand. I am blest and grateful to have her for my life partner—God is good.

Introduction

There has been a growing resurgence of interest in the power and reality of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church and its theology. This is due in part to the rise of Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century and the charismatic movement from the middle of the century until recently. This Spirit resurgence has also effected and influenced worship in the life of the Church. And is further evidenced on both subjects, by the extensive number of books written, as well as numerous scholarly studies. However, this research will not be another in-depth study on worship, but rather a focused and hopefully comprehensive look at how the person of the Holy Spirit interacts Trinitarian to accomplish his purpose—as demonstrated through the Word—and the effect his presence has on the Christian life and the believer’s worship. The answers could lead us as Christians to evaluate our walk and the role we have in worship. Once we understand the how, we may better understand the why of our response—both to the Holy Spirit and to our worshiping the way we do.

Michael Green describes God’s plan to disclose himself to us in his word, as a drama in three acts beginning with the long Act One from the beginning of the world’s history until the coming of Jesus Christ. In Act Two God comes in person to make himself known. Act Three began at Pentecost, and it has not ended.¹ Our research will confine itself mainly with Act Two and Act Three, with focal concentration on the latter. Unless otherwise indicated, Biblical quotations are from the New American Standard Bible.²

One of the concerns with the Church—especially in America—as I see it, is the seeming absence of the Holy Spirit’s presence evidenced by the lack of supernatural phenomena, or at least his recognized presence effecting the individual Christian and the Church to live differently and look different to the world. We profess to believe in Holy Spirit and yet there is an inconsistency between what we know and how we live. We are happy to espouse our belief in the Trinity, but our practice is binitarian. This kind of testimony would suggest one of four possibilities: we aren’t Christian and therefore lack the ability—the Spirit—to erase this inconsistency in our lives; we are quenching God Holy Spirit from working in our lives because we are saying no to him (sin); we are afraid of the real thing and just ignore the Spirit; or, we really don’t know much about the Spirit and what the Scripture teaches about him. The apostle Paul states, If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him (Romans 8:9b), for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (vv. 13-14). It is not enough to study to gain knowledge about Holy Spirit; we must and can experience being led by him. May our testimony be about what he is doing in our lives today, rather than what he did months ago or years ago or centuries ago!

Unique to Christianity alone is the belief in the One True God (monotheistic) in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, a tri-unity. This Trinitarian view of God cannot be overstated. Gregory Pereira states, the Apostle Paul’s view of salvation is that of a Trinitarian emphasis in that he ascribes deity to both Christ and the Holy Spirit without denying his monotheistic background or beliefs.³ From Genesis to Revelation, God reveals himself to man from a Trinitarian view but it’s the NT that reveals and identifies the deity and personage of both Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit. We see referenced throughout scripture glimpses of all three and yet the mystery remains since what we are able to know of God is revealed only by God.

Francis Chan writes, There are many evangelical churchgoers across America, who are aware of the Holy Spirit, do not doubt his existence, but cannot confidently say they have experienced his presence or action in their lives over the past year.⁴ Sam Storms writes, "I look deeper, beyond the façade of religiosity, the flurry of activity, and the new $25 million sanctuary with padded pews. What I see is a gap—often a chasm—between what the church is and what it ought to be. I see the disparity between what Christians say and what they do, between what they know and how they live, and between what they promise and how much they fulfill. I am convinced the problem is power, or, should I say, the absence of it.⁵ Francis Chan believes that the missing something is actually a missing Someone—namely, the Holy Spirit."⁶ Others point to the terrible theological immaturity in the church as the source of its struggle. Perhaps the Church—especially in America—does a better job at birthing baby Christians (evangelism) than disciple to maturity (discipleship). The two go together (Matt. 28:19–20). This would bring to mind the incident recorded in Acts where Paul confronts some Ephesus disciples, and he said to them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said to him, ‘No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit’ (Acts 19:2).

Are we, Christians of the Church of the twenty-first century, representing a new form of normative Christianity, whereby the Holy Spirit and his power are missing or absent in the church? If this is so, why is it so? Is it due to our fear and misinformation—perhaps we’ve subliminally decided to ignore him? After all, I have Jesus, why do I need Holy Spirit? Or are we simply reminiscent of the old story of obedience vs. disobedience? A pastor friend of mine made this statement recently: I think we as the Church behave as though the Holy Spirit isn’t real. Our doctrinal statements affirm him, but we would never pray ‘triune’ prayers, never really seek the Spirit’s guidance, and never ask BIG things of God. We’re so afraid of some of the lunacy that poses as the work of the Spirit that we just avoid him altogether. We’re afraid of the real thing.⁷ We tend to stay away from that which we fear and do not understand. Perhaps this is why there is the big gap between what we read in Scripture about the Holy Spirit and how most believers and churches operate today? In many modern churches, you would be stunned by the apparent absence of the Spirit in any manifest way. And this, Chan believes, is the crux of the problem.⁸ We cannot—we must not—ignore the Holy Spirit.

A position of neutrality about the work of Holy Spirit is not an option either in this post-Pentecost age in which we live. There is hardly anyone who does not have an opinion—or a positive or negative experience—regarding the renewal of Spirit phenomena in the contemporary church. Part of the problem here is one of polarization; far more people tend to take sides—for such phenomena or against them—than try to embrace Spirit phenomena within the confines of historic Christianity.⁹ The ultimate authority is God the Father and he has already given his Word on the subject. So, what does his Word say?

Chapter 1

A Brief Look at The Spirit of God in the Old Testament

The Holy Spirit is referred to in the OT most often, as the Spirit of God. For example, we see him as the Spirit of God [was] moving over the surface of the waters in Genesis 1:2b, or Samson’s encounter with a lion as the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a kid though he had nothing in his hand, Judges 14:6a. Surprisingly, rarely is there any mention in the Old Testament of the Holy Spirit. Only twice:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Thy presence, and do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.

(Psalms 51:10–11)

As well, in Isaiah 63:10–11 regarding the house of Israel, the writer recalls:

But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; Therefore, He turned Himself to become their enemy, He fought against them. Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses. Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them?

Green suggests "perhaps the reason the Spirit is here called Holy, is because in both cases the writers are very conscious of the moral and ethical aspect of God’s ruach."¹⁰ Certainly the holiness of the Spirit of the Lord contrasts abruptly to his fallible servants’ unholines and would be reason enough to call the Spirit here Holy. Of course this becomes the normal name for the Spirit in the New Testament. God, the Holy One, is perhaps giving a preview of his complexity—the one God is Father, Son (later to be revealed in person), and Holy Spirit. It is also interesting that because of Israel’s rebellion against God in the wilderness experience (ungrateful disobedience), it grieved His Holy Spirit. John MacArthur points out, Here is an illustration of the reality that the Holy Spirit is a person, since only an actual person can be ‘grieved.’¹¹ Walvoord and Zuck suggest God is foretelling the third person of the Trinity (cf. Eph. 4:30 and Matthew 3:16–17).¹² Clearly, there is no incompatible opposition, as some would suggest, between the teaching of OT and NT on the subject of the Holy Spirit. The difference between OT and NT Holy Spirit would be role and activity, that being the seemingly outside in, coming and going, resting upon the servant/prophet, versus the indwelling, always with you, paracletos—in both cases the power and presence of Holy Spirit. Certainly it is not until the NT revelation that we are given a full image of his activity.

The Hebrew word for Spirit of God is ruach, while the Greek word is pneuma. Both words have three meanings: wind, breath, and spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:8, "The wind (pneuma) blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (pneumatos). In addition to the wind being mysterious, the wind is powerful: "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind (ruach) to pass over the earth, and the water subsided (Genesis 8:1). The two ideas of power and mystery mark much of the teaching of Old and New Testaments alike when they treat of the Spirit of God."¹³ The idea that the Spirit of God comes and goes is not uncommon in the OT:

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.

(1 Samuel 16:13–14)

In addition, the Old Testament throughout emphasizes the Spirit of God with the inspiration of prophecy. Overall the one through whom the prophecy was given was considered special, with a special task. Men like Moses who ached for God to fulfill his desire,

Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!

(Numbers 11:29)

Or Jeremiah and Ezekiel who looked for the day when God would birth a new covenant with Israel, giving his Spirit within his people providing forgiveness and pardon (Jeremiah 31:31ff; Ezekiel 36:24ff). God did put his Spirit within you, on the Day of Pentecost and he has not cancelled the gift! Unlike the Old Testament where