In this age of scientism, technology and materialism, it is hard to think in spiritual terms at all. Reality as we know it is what we see, hear, touch, taste or smell. Just give us hard facts. Anything beyond smacks of Voodoo.

We live in an age of rationalism – scientific and religious. We put our trust in formulas. This is certainly true in secular thought. But it’s also true in the religious world. We want to put everything in a box. We have no time for the mysterious, the inexplicable, for realities beyond our power to grasp.

Yet the Christian religion is founded on the notion that the spiritual dimension is real. We worship a triune God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Not Father, Son and Bible. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, who exercises the power of the Father and Son in creation and redemption. Because the Holy Spirit is the power by which believers come to Christ and see with the new eyes of faith, he is intimately connected to us on the deep level.

The Holy Spirit appears in the Gospel of John as the power by which Christians are brought to faith and helped to understand their walk with God. He brings a person to new birth John 3:6. It is the Spirit who gives life John 6:63. The Holy Spirit is the paraclete or helper Jesus promised to his disciples after his ascension. The triune family – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – are unified in ministering to believers John 14:16, 26. It is through the helper that Father and Son abide with the disciples John 15:26.

Believers receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at baptism. To have the Spirit is to have an awesome power in our lives. That Spirit works in us. He changes us. In Galatians 5, Paul speaks of “the fruit of the Spirit.” What is the fruit? In the coming weeks we are going to focus on that question in a series of sermons and Bible classes.