The Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit

The Power and Presence of the Holy Spirit

Host: Dr. Jamie Mitchell

Guest: Dr. Mark Crocco

Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 7/28/26. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.

Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.

Jamie Mitchell:

Hello again, friends, and welcome to Stand in the Gap Today. I’m your host, Jamie Mitchell, Director of Church Culture at the American Pastors Network. If you did not notice, each of our hosts during the week will cover a plethora of topics, but also each of us have an emphasis. One of the things that I focus on is pastoral concerns, church related topics, and occasionally theological issues. We understand that our audience is diverse, comes from many denominational backgrounds and holds to some various biblical positions on a range of subjects. Yet, it’s important for us to address issues and allow you to understand more fully where APN and Stand in the Gap stand on certain subjects. And today we want to do that as we look at the subject of the Holy Spirit. Probably every believer would say that the Holy Spirit is vitally important in regard to their Christian life, yet do most truly understand what the Bible says about the third person of the Trinity.

If you were to ask Christians about the Father, they would talk about his character, his sovereignty, and the uniqueness of the Godhead. Obviously, all would exalt Christ, his sacrifice, work on the cross, his miracles while he was in the flesh. But when you ask about the Spirit, there might not be as much specificity and depth of knowledge, yet the Holy Spirit is crucial. Listen to what some of the great voices of faith have said about the Holy Spirit. E.M. Bound said the chief end of the church today is not more machinery or better or new organizations or novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use. John Calvin said, “The Holy Spirit is the bond which Christ effectively unites us with himself.” Charles Spurgeon wrote, “Without the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing. We are as shipped without wind, branches without sap, coal, without fire.” And R.A.

Tori wrote, “To be ignorant of the person work of the Holy Spirit is to be spiritually impoverished.” We need to be reminded again, friends, who the Holy Spirit is and what does he do for us? How we fully access him and use all that is available to Christ followers who have been indwelled and filled by God’s blessed Holy Spirit. And help me today. Long time friend and a former guest, the past guest on Stand of the Gap, Mark Crocco. Mark served as a pastor, worked in business, presently serves as the director of ministry for the Rephidim Project who we’ve had on the program many times. And they help preachers increase their effectiveness and the great task of sharing God’s word. Mark, welcome again to Stand of the Gap.

Mark Crocco:

Hey, delighted to be with you again, Jamie.

Jamie Mitchell:

Hey Mark, let’s get right at this. This is going to be a great discussion today. Just in a few minutes, could you tell our listeners who is the Holy Spirit and maybe four or five quick theological facts that every Christian should know about the Holy Spirit?

Mark Crocco:

Well, the place to begin, Jamie, in terms of responding to that question is that the Holy Spirit is a person. He is not an abstract and impersonal force in our lives. It’s wrong to ever speak of the Holy Spirit as an it. He is a living and loving person who is literally God present and active in the life of every Christian. Cultivating a relationship with him begins with seeing the Holy Spirit as someone that we can know, trust, and respond to as we have the opportunity to share life with him on a daily basis. There are many passages of scripture that establish the fact that the Holy Spirit possesses all the distinguishing marks of personality like intellect, emotions and will. When we embrace the fact that the Holy Spirit is a person, the possibility of building a life transforming relationship within can become a reality in our lives.

And I’m hoping that that will be a practical takeaway for everyone who’s listening to the program today. But there’s a second thing that we need to highlight, Jamie. And that is the fact that the Holy Spirit is God. Throughout the scriptures, he is described with divine names, divine attributes, and divine actions that support the fact that he is fully God, co-equal with the Father and the Son is the third person of the blessed Trinity. The dignity of God, the Father, God the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit is foundational to Christian theology. It is an undeniable fact from the biblical record that the Holy Spirit is God in light of his perfect union with God the Father and God the Son. The third thing that I would emphasize, Jamie, is that the Holy Spirit is the divine author and interpreter of the word of God.

Second Peter 1:21 is a classic passage of scripture that speaks directly to the fact that the scriptures are not the product of a mere human being, but men were moved by the Holy Spirit and ultimately spoke from God. The scriptures are the holy, inerrant and authoritative word of God that find their source and origin in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. In John chapter 16 and verse 13, our Lord Jesus Christ expressed that when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide us into all the truth. Our ability to accurately understand and apply the word of God to our lives is the direct result of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And the final thing that I will share as we begin this discussion, Jamie, is that the Holy Spirit is God’s supernatural agent that produces Christ-like transformation in our lives.

The Christian life is a supernatural life that is to be lived in the strength, power, and energy of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to take up his personal and permanent residence in the life of every Christian at the moment of salvation. From a theological standpoint, we call this amazing reality the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The role of the Holy Spirit in the process of Christ-like transformation is clearly captured in two Corinthians 3:18 where the Apostle Paul expressed that we all with unveiled faith beholding is in a mirror the glory of the Lord. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, justice from the Lord, the spirit. The spirit of God has a major agenda in our lives. And that agenda is to transform our lives into the image of Jesus Christ so that every Christian will evidence the fruit of the spirit in their lives, which is an expression of a Christ-like life.

We cannot effectively live the Christian life without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He supernaturally empowers us to live a new quality of life in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit purifies and purges us as we submit to his authority and control while equipping us with spiritual gifts to build up others in the faith. His ministry in our lives is absolutely indispensable as we seek to live our lives for God’s glory.

Jamie Mitchell:

I love what Tozer said. If we want revival, we must revive our reverence of the Holy Spirit. That’s one of our hopes today. If you fully understand and begin to walk in the Spirit and rely on his power, maybe, just maybe we will see revival come. When we come back, what does the Holy Spirit do to and for believers? Don’t go anywhere. Stay with us here. Stand in the gap today. Well, welcome back. My guest today is Mark Crocco, and we’re taking a tour around and over and through and under the important topic of the Holy Spirit. Mark, I want to start to unpack all the Spirit does to believers, specifically the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This can be confusing. So can you explain what that is, when it happens, what occurs when we experience the baptism of the Spirit?

Mark Crocco:

Well, the central passage in the New Testament on the baptism of the Holy Spirit is found in one Corinthians 12:13 where Paul expressed, “For by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews are Greeks, whether slaves are free, and we were all made to drink of one spirit.” The baptism that is being referred to in this verse is not water baptism, but rather spirit baptism. Jamie, this occurs instantaneously at the moment of salvation. And the ultimate goal here of the spirit’s ministry is that he literally places a believer into the body of Christ. Spirit baptism is unique to the church age, which was inaugurated on the day of Pentecost. It is the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit that places a believer into the body of Christ. It’s important to emphasize that a believer experiences the baptism of the Holy Spirit only once, which is at the moment of their conversion to Christ.

Nowhere in scripture is a believer commanded to seek the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That happens at the time of our conversion. And as we think about the spirit of God doing that in our lives, there are a number of practical benefits that flow out of that. And one of the most significant is that we now have a new identity that is rooted in Christ rather than in ethnicity, social status, achievements, or even our failures. We also become a part of the body of Christ, which makes us royalty in light of the fact that our God is the King of all kings and the Lord of all Lords. So the baptism of the Holy Spirit specifically occurs at the moment of salvation and places us into the body of Christ.

Jamie Mitchell:

That’s so good. And that’s so important because I think sometimes, Mark, that’s where the confusion comes. The baptism of the Holy Spirit happens at the moment we become saved, but there are some of those believers and people we love and people who love Christ, but they have a little bit of confusion. They say things like that, “I didn’t get all of the Holy Spirit at salvation and sometimes after I get more of the Holy Spirit.” Why the confusion and what really might be actually happening? And they’re getting it confused with this idea of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Mark Crocco:

Well, I think that expression, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, has been misunderstood because people have not understood one Corinthians chapter 12 correctly. And again, when we understand that the church was a new entity that God brought into existence on the day of Pentecost, depending on what people’s view is in the area of ecclesiology or the doctrine of the church, when there’s confusion there, there’s going to be confusion about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Now, there are a number of people who use the expression, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they will talk about an experience that is subsequent to salvation. Some people teach that that is the result of people speaking in tongues. Other people will use an expression that is called the second blessing where they teach that a Christian can come to the place where a Christian never sins anymore.

And in the last 30 to 40 years, there has been what has been called the third wave movement that emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s work through supernatural gifts, signs and wonders, encouraging those in that movement to refer to something that is called power evangelism. So there’s some real confusion that exists out there as it relates to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. What I think is so encouraging, Jamie, is the passage that we find in two Peter where Peter says, “Seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything that we need pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who caught us by his own glory and excellence. For by these…” Now listen to what he says here. “He has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises in order that by then you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

“So one of the amazing things that happened at the moment of salvation is that we now become participants and sharers in the very life of God. At the moment of salvation, we were given all the Holy Spirit that we will ever need to live our lives supernaturally through his divine empowerment. It has often been stated that the key to spiritual victory in our lives is not us needing more of the Holy Spirit, but rather the Holy Spirit needing more of us in terms of us yielding ourselves to Him with a greater sense of dependence upon His divine power and enablement. When we got the Spirit of God at the moment of salvation, we got all the Holy Spirit that we could possibly need.

Jamie Mitchell:

And Mark, a lot of times people make that confusion between baptism and what the Bible talks about, and that’s the filling of the Holy Spirit. And that could happen many times. It could happen many times in one day. And it’s exactly what you’re saying when we yield to the Spirit and more of who we are that may be under control of the flesh or our willfulness, those kind of things, is then controlled by the Holy Spirit. Let’s deal with one other thing, Mark. When the Bible says that we are to keep in step with the Spirit, what is that all about?

Mark Crocco:

Well, basically that comes from Galatians 5:25. And basically Paul is exhorting us to march in step or to keep in line with the Spirit. Quite simply, keeping in step with the Spirit is all about following the Spirit’s leadership in our lives. And we follow His leadership by living with our faith, our trust, and our dependency upon Him. Paul made that statement in Galatians chapter five where he was contrasting what it means to live in the Spirit and what it means to live in the flesh and living by the strength and the power and the energy of the Spirit of God. Galatians 5:16 is what keeping in step with the Spirit is all about.

Jamie Mitchell:

Mark, this is important because we have brothers who love the Lord. They love God’s word, but they de-emphasize the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It was almost like they’re a little afraid of it. And then we have other brothers and sisters who maybe, I don’t want to say exaggerate, but overemphasize the spirit. We need to strike that balance, but there is something that we need to understand as Christians. And that is what is called the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Where the Spirit of God tugs at us, it makes impressions upon us. We’re not to be afraid of that. We’re to respond to it. And as believers, Mark, isn’t it true that we really need to understand when the Spirit of God is prompting us?

Mark Crocco:

Yes. Well, that is one of his ministries. We discover that in Romans chapter eight. But if we are going to have a sensitivity to those promptings, it’s because we are living out the command in Ephesians chapter five in verse 18, where Paul says, “Do not get drunk with wine, but be filled with the spirit.” When we are experiencing the filling of the spirit, which is a repeated experience in our lives, we are going to have a sensitivity to the ministry of God’s spirit, to his leading and to his promptings in our lives. When we think about that passage in Ephesians chapter five, there’s a comparison that Paul is making. And the comparison is between living in a state of drunkenness and being filled with the spirit. And that comparison is one of control. A drunken person is controlled by the alcohol which he has consumed, which causes him to think and act in ways that are normally unnatural to him.

Likewise, the man who is spirit filled is controlled by the Holy Spirit and acts in ways that are unnatural to his former way of life and his sinful nature. But there’s also a contrast that’s occurring in that verse. And the contrast is between drunkenness and being filled with the spirit. And that contrast is one of restraint. When a person is in a drunken state, their behaviors lead to attitudes and responses and behaviors that are out of control. But when a person is filled with the spirit, their behaviors lead to restraint and self-control in contrast to people that are out of control because of the influence of alcohol. So I’ve often thought through the years, whenever I’ve wrestled with that concept of being filled with the spirit, I’ve often thought of the yield sign when I’m driving my car. When I come to a yield sign, a yield sign is all about slowing down and giving the right of way to other vehicles and to other drivers.

And as I live my Christian life each day, what it means to be filled with the spirit is me being confronted with all kinds of choices in the course of any given day. And my need to yield to give the right of way to the spirit of God as I trust and rely upon him to do supernatural things in my life.

Jamie Mitchell:

Amen. I’m reminded that the Shekinah glory of the Old Testament, the same power that lives in us, we need to learn how to respond to God’s presence and power in our lives. When we come back, what does it mean to grieve or quench the Spirit? Don’t go anywhere. Stay with us here at Stand of the Gap today. I’m so glad that you’re with us today as we deal with a really important doctrinal topic. Who is the Holy Spirit and what does he do for us? Mark Crocco is my guest. Mark, as you’ve heard me say, the Holy Spirit is not an it and should be referred to as a he. He is a member of the Trinity. He is a person. He’s personal. He is filling us and baptizing us. And we’re to keep in step and yield with him. But there’s also some other important truth.

There’s something else that Christians don’t always understand about the Spirit. I want you to weigh in a little bit on this. And that is, what is meant by to grieve the Spirit or quench the Spirit? Can you unpack those terms a little bit where we find them and what exactly does that mean?

Mark Crocco:

Well, Janie, there are four specific commands that are directed at believers in relationship to the Holy Spirit throughout the New Testament. Each of these commands were issued by the Apostle Paul. There were two very positive commands. We’ve been talking about one of them. Be filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18 and walk by the Spirit, Galatians 5:16. But there are also two negative commands that he directs to believers. And that is what your question is all about. The first of those negative commands is found in Ephesians 4:30 where the Apostle Paul commands us and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. The second negative command is found in one Thessalonians 5:19 where Paul commands us, do not quench the Spirit. The key to understanding the meaning of grieving not the Spirit and quenching not the Spirit is found in grasping the context of these passages.

So let’s start talking about the Ephesians passage where Paul tells us, he commands us not to grieve the Spirit. What grieves the Holy Spirit and causes him to go into mourning in that context is broken relationships within the body of Christ where God’s people sin verbally against one another, hold on to anger, resentment and bitterness, and basically refuse to forgive one another. This is why our unity within the body of Christ, which is the major theme in this context, is so important to God. As a matter of fact, Ephesians four begins with a command for us to be diligent about preserving the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Jamie, the reason so many of God’s people are lacking spiritual power in their lives is because they are grieving the Holy Spirit in light of the relational sin that exists in their lives.

And I believe that that’s the thrust of what he’s trying to get at when we are being commanded to not grieve the Holy Spirit. But in the Thessalonian passage, the context indicates that what quenches the Spirit is a believer’s unwillingness to obey the word of God. The graphic picture that Paul paints is the image of throwing water on a fire. When God reveals His truth to us and we consciously choose to reject and disobey that truth, it’s like throwing water when the spirits fire in ministry in our lives. We are not to be quenching, extinguishing. We’re suppressing the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives through our rejection. We’re disobedience to God’s truth. And Paul captures this in the following verse when he commands us not to despise prophetic utterances, which we would equate with the word of God in our day. The reason so many of God’s people are experiencing spiritual power outages in their lives is because of their disobedience to God’s word.

So the bottom line to the commands to not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit is that it is our sin that both grieves and quenches the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So the practical question we need to ask is, what is the antidote and the solution to this dilemma in the life of a Christian? And I believe the answer is found in obeying the two positive commands of being filled with the spirit, Ephesians 5:18 and walking in the spirit. Galatians 5:16. When we are living under the control, the influence and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we will not be grieving or quenching the ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is amazing how interrelated these four commands are when they are understood in their historical context.

Jamie Mitchell:

Mark, when we come to faith in Christ and the Spirit of God indwells us and enters into our lives, we don’t become mindless drones, mindless robots. We are to cooperate. And that’s the point here is that the Holy Spirit is that beautiful gift that God gives us. He places himself in us by his spirit. And now as believers, we are to cooperate. But Mark, can we interrupt or break our fellowship with the Lord? And I guess that’s what you’re saying there. When we’re not cooperating, we’re grieving, we’re quenching the spirit. We’re reducing his power and influence our lives. However, the Bible is clear that we’re also sealed by the spirit. What does that mean? What is that significance and what assurances does that give the believer? We have a few minutes left here.

Mark Crocco:

Well, the sealing of the Holy Spirit is another one of those ministries of the Holy Spirit that occurred at the moment of our salvation. Just like his ministries of regenerating us and coming to indwell us and baptizing us as we’ve discussed already. Let me read from Ephesians 1:13. Paul writes these words in whom you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, notice what he says here, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. So the ceiling ministry of the Holy Spirit that occurred at the moment of salvation is about God, God’s eternal ownership of his children. It is a guarantee of our eternal security. The ceiling of the Holy Spirit guarantees that our salvation is eternally secure.

Jamie, God has no unmarked sheep. The ceiling of the spirit guarantees that our salvation is eternally secure and that we belong to God eternally. In verse 14, which I just read, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as a pledge. He’s the pledge of our inheritance. This means that the ceiling of the Holy Spirit is like a down payment or a deposit or the first installment of purchasing a home. The down payment is a promise and the guarantee that the rest of the money will follow. The ceiling of the Holy Spirit and his indwelling presence is a pledge and a down payment that God makes to us guaranteeing our eternal inheritance and the future redemption of our bodies, which will lead to our glorified state for all eternity. It is so wonderful to understand that the eternal security of the believer is guaranteed because of this particular ministry of the Holy Spirit that we call the ceiling of the Spirit of God.

What a wonderful thing to consider.

Jamie Mitchell:

As you’ve been thinking, I’m sitting here thinking to myself, here is why this program is so important because some very significant theological truths such as if you don’t believe that you get all of the Holy Spirit at salvation and you’re confused about the baptism, you’re running around wondering, well, what is God holding back? And then if you don’t understand and believe that you’ve been sealed and secured by the Holy Spirit, again, there’s great confusion in your Christian walk because you’re thinking to yourself, “Well, if I do something or I sin or I struggle, then maybe the Holy Spirit will depart me.” We’re trying to give people through this program. And in our conversation today, it’s so important for Christians to have confidence in God. And our confidence, doesn’t it, come from the presence of the beautiful and wonderful blessed Holy Spirit, Mark?

Mark Crocco:

Yes, without a doubt. So Jamie, what you’re really getting us to think about is our identity in Christ and what it is that God has done for us in and through his spirit. And when we think about that initial moment of salvation, when we have first placed our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, there are all these wonderful things that the spirit of God has done in terms of regeneration and indwelling and baptizing and sealing. Many years ago, I was in a theological setting in a classroom setting, and I remember a professor talking about ribs, that at the moment of salvation, the spirit of God did four things. RIBS regenerated us, he came to indwell us, he baptized us, placing us into the body of Christ, and he sealed us, speaking of our permanent ownership of Bible living God. So it’s just wonderful to celebrate our identity in Christ and understand how critical the ministry of the Holy Spirit is in that respect.

Jamie Mitchell:

Hey friends, the Bible’s clear. Nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus. That’s directly connected to this idea of being sealed by God’s promise, the Holy Spirit. What confidence we have, what joy we have, what removal of anxiety that in some way the Christian life depends on me. No, it doesn’t. It depends on the Holy Spirit. When we come back, I want to finish up and handle a few more ways that the Holy Spirit impacts our relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, for some reason, you’re just checking in on the program. I want you to encourage you to go back to the Stand in the Gap Today website, our archives, and listen. From the beginning, this program, Mark Crocco has been our guest, and we’ve just had a wonderful conversation today about the blessed Holy Spirit. Mark, as we bring this program to a close, I want you to touch on a couple of things that the Spirit affects in our lives.

But first, you alluded to it before, but what role does the Spirit play inspiring and illuminating God’s word in our hearts? And why is that so significant for us to fully understand and embrace that fact?

Mark Crocco:

In my initial comments, Jamie, when we began, I highlighted how the Holy Spirit is the divine author of scripture. I believe that the word of God is the holy and inerrant word of God because of the holiness of its author. Who is the Holy Spirit? In two Timothy 3:16, the Apostle Paul expressed that all scripture is literally God breathe. Even better is breathe out by God, acknowledging that the word of God originates and is sourced in God. Two Peter 1:21 also clearly identifies the Holy Spirit as the divine agent who carried the human authors along in the process of producing the word of God. In terms of delivering the word of God to our hearts, the night before his crucifixion, our Lord Jesus Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would come not only to indwell us, but as the spirit of truth, one of his primary ministries would be to teach us all things and to bring to our remembrance the things that Christ wants us to understand throughout the word of God.

One Corinthians chapter two is a great passage of scripture that talks about the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that he takes the word of God and he sheds light on the word of God, helping us to understand its truth. I am a part of a ministry to pastors, as you’ve mentioned, that is called the Rephidim Project, a ministry that is designed to call pastors back to the expositional preaching of the word of God. We often challenge pastors to evaluate whether they are preaching the word of God in demonstration of the spirit and of power. That’s how Paul described his preaching in one Corinthians two: four. It is through the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit of God that we are able to preach God’s word, to understand God’s word, and ultimately to apply God’s word to our lives. In terms of evangelism, it is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that those who are spiritually lost can become convicted of their sin and have their eyes opened to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God in the salvation.

Only the spirit of God can do that in the lives of those who are dead in their trespasses and sins.

Jamie Mitchell:

Boy, what a truth. And Mark, that means like today, I’m sitting here at my desk and I read God’s word. I can, with confidence, say, “Oh, Holy Spirit of God right now, take your Holy Word and illuminate my mind. Quicken my mind, quicken my conscience, apply it to my heart. Give me understanding.” Mark, I’m not overstating that, am I? That is what and how the Holy Spirit works when we interact with God’s word, isn’t it?

Mark Crocco:

Yes. Amen. Absolutely.

Jamie Mitchell:

Well, it’s powerful. Powerful. One last thing. We have just a couple of minutes here, and that is, you mentioned early on about how the Holy Spirit magnifies and glorifies and transforms us into the person of Christ. Is this where the fruit of the Spirit and let’s say the gifts of the Spirit, that the Holy Spirit is working in us, he’s forming the fruit of the Spirit and He’s given us gifts of the Spirit really to turn us into Christ-like people. Isn’t that what the Holy Spirit is doing, Mark?

Mark Crocco:

Well, that is his supreme passion, and that is what His ministry in our lives is ultimately all about. When we think about spiritual growth and transformation, it is growth and transformation into the image and lightness of Jesus Christ. And only the Spirit of God is able to do that significant work in our lives. Jamie, I am so delighted that the final question you have for me relates to the glory, to the exaltation, and to the magnification of our Lord Jesus Christ, because the ultimate passion and ministry of the Holy Spirit is to exalt and to magnify Christ. Christ said it so clearly in John 15 when he taught John 16:14, I believe it is when he asserted. Speaking of the ministry of the spirit, he said, “He will glorify me, for he will take of mine and shall disclose it to you.” Jamie, whenever we seek to determine whether the ministry of the Holy Spirit is being biblically taught, applied, and emphasized, the ultimate test and barometer must always be whether the Lord Jesus Christ is given prominence in first place.

In Colossians 1:18, the Apostle Paul passionately expressed that in all things, Jesus Christ is to be given the supremacy. This is the heart, the passion, and the driving force of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. His ministry is always focused upon shining the spotlight upon Christ rather than himself. Jamie, I believe that one of the keys to living a vibrant Christian life is to live as a Christ-centered, Christ-consumed, Christ-saturated, Christ-controlled, and Christ empowered individual. This is precisely what the spirit of God is seeking to do in the lives of God’s children. The spirit of God wants to lead us into an intimate first love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, while empowering us to allow the Lord Jesus Christ to live his resurrected life in and through us. And Jamie, if I could make one final comment, there were two very significant conclusions that have transformed my life about the Christian life.

The first conclusion I had to draw about the Christian life quite simply was this, that the Christian life is an impossible life to live. The Christian life was never designed for us to lit it in our own strength, power, energy, and resources. But the second conclusion that I’ve come to is that the Christian life is a supernatural life to live. The Christian life is a life that is designed to be lived in the strength, the power, the energy, and the resources of Jesus Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit. So Jamie, there may be many people who are listening to this program who are discouraged and who may be feeling defeated in their Christian lives. And it is my prayer that as a result of this discussion, people will have hope, understanding that God literally wants to do a supernatural work in their lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, through the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, through the grace of our God leading us into victory spiritually in our lives.

Jamie Mitchell:

Wow. Wow. There’s so much more we could do. We could have been talking about the names of the spirit that we see, the work of the Holy Spirit, the Old Testament, the fruit, the gifts. I hope we brought clarity. I hope this encouraged you to worship God in the power of the Holy Spirit and to appreciate all of the Trinity, Father, Son, and especially the Holy Spirit. Until tomorrow, live and lead with courage and do it under the control and guidance of God’s blessed Holy Spirit. We’ll see you here again tomorrow for another stand in the gap today.