The Fellowship of the Spirit

Published in the January 2012 issue of the Record of the Free Church of Scotland

Abraham Kuyper begins his massive work on the Holy Spirit by saying that ‘the need of divine guidance is never more deeply felt than when one undertakes to give instruction in the work of the Holy Spirit – so unspeakably tender is the subject, touching the inmost secrets of God and the soul’s deepest mysteries.’ And if there is one area of the spiritual life in which this is especially the case, it is in the way believers have fellowship with the Spirit.

As far as I know, there are two biblical passages which use the phrase ‘fellowship of the Spirit’ or ‘the communion of the Holy Spirit’. One is Philippians 2:1-2, where Paul writes: ‘So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.’

The other is the benediction found at the close of 2 Corinthians: ‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all’ (2 Cor. 13:14). There are several deductions that we can make from this benediction:

(a) We can experience blessings from each Person of the Trinity (Paul is not limiting what each Person can do by the examples he gives – for example, we can know the love of Jesus as well as the grace of Jesus and we can have the grace of the Father as well as the love of the Father). So it is appropriate to interact specifically with each of the three Persons and expect them to bless us.

(b) All believers can experience the blessings of the Triune God. The Corinthians had not been the best of Christians, yet here Paul wants them to know the height of spiritual experiences. That, of course, is very encouraging for us. Samuel Chadwick commented on this aspect of the communion of the Spirit, that it belongs to all believers: ‘The Apostolic Benediction prays: “The communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all.” All the blessings of communion are for each believer. There is nothing promised to the Church that does not belong to its humblest member. The Spirit of God is not the monopoly of any particular class.’

Chadwick went on to say, ‘Let that be quite clear. Everyone can say: The Holy Ghost comes into partnership with me. He is my Helper, my Witness, my Teacher, my Guide, my Strength. For doing all the will of God we each have the Spirit with all His resources of wisdom and power. All things are possible to the soul strengthened with His might and led in His wisdom.’

(c) The Holy Spirit will share ‘something’ with his people – that is what the word ‘communion’ or ‘fellowship’ means. We therefore have to ask, ‘How will we know what he will share with us?’ The place to find the answer is elsewhere in the Bible. A passage that indicates what the Spirit will do is John 16:14, where Jesus promises his disciples that the Spirit will bring to their minds the things that belong to Jesus. In the next verse (John 16:15), Jesus informs the disciples that all that belongs to the Father is his as well. So the Saviour promised his disciples that the Spirit would give to them out of what belongs to the Father and the Son. Therefore, the way we will experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, both mentioned in the benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14, is through the Holy Spirit bringing those blessings to us.

Obviously there is a sense in which the primary recipients of the promise of Jesus in John 16:14-16 were his first set of disciples. This does not mean that we are deprived of anything that we need. In a special way, after Jesus had ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit brought to their minds the teaching of Jesus which they had heard, and we now have those teachings in the New Testament. So, in order to find out what the Spirit will do, in the area of sharing with us the blessings of God, we only have to read what the New Testament holds out to us.

Continuing with the context in which Jesus made those promises, we can see that one purpose of the Spirit will be to bring comfort to the disciples of Jesus. This priority is clearly stated in the title Jesus gives to the Spirit, that of the Comforter. As he shares with his disciples out of the riches of heavenly grace, the Spirit will do so in a comforting, encouraging way.

This is a reminder that the Holy Spirit cares passionately for those with whom he shares what belongs to the Father and to the Son. He is not like a supermarket worker who gives to a customer out of the riches of the supermarket. The worker may have no experience of the goods he is handing on, may not know why the person wants to purchase them, and he has no idea why the owners have selected particular items for sale. In contrast, the Holy Spirit knows every detail about what the Father and the Son possesses, and also knows how to apply those blessings to each individual believer.

The communion of the Holy Spirit is also an expression of his power. We can imagine all kinds of difficult situations in which believers can find themselves. Some may be facing persecution, some may be undergoing severe physical illness, some may have troubles in their families, some may have deep depression, some may have had huge disappointments, and some may be undergoing strong temptations. In such situations, they may find that human help is of little use. Yet the Holy Spirit can bring to such some features of the grace of Christ and the love of the Father. Into their darkness he brings aspects of light in such a manner that often, in their sense of fear and despair, they experience the powerful comfort of the Spirit.

Further, the communion of the Spirit is an expression of his wisdom. He is aware of the aspect of communion that he should share, and he also knows the level of fellowship that he should give. Why do some Christians have more of the peace of God than others? Once we have assessed that there is no sinful reason for the loss of peace, we have to conclude that the reason why one dedicated Christian has more peace at one time than another dedicated believer is connected to the sovereign wisdom of the Spirit who in his kindness has given peace to both believers, but more to one than to the other.

We have to remember that the Holy Spirit takes seriously his role of sharing divine blessings with the people of God. This is one of his constant missions and we should anticipate his fulfilling of that purpose. Expectation is an important aspect of faith. In a manner similar to how we expect the Saviour to fulfil his roles as prophet, priest and king, so we should look to the Spirit, as he desires communion with us, to bring divine blessings to us.

Three aspects of communion with the Spirit

In Romans 8, Paul refers to several activities of the Spirit. In that chapter, we find, among other matters, that the Spirit enables us to speak in prayer, that he witnesses to us, and that he groans with us.

First, in Romans 8:15, Paul reminds the Roman Christians: ‘you have not received the spirit of slavery again to fear; but you have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.’ The Spirit here leads us to speak lovingly to God. He teaches us about the good things of the Father, things such as his eternal purpose for us, his endless pardon of us, and his effective providence working for us. And he teaches us in such a way that we realise the personal dimension of it, that the Father is at work on behalf of each of his people, and as we realise this is the case, our hearts are inflamed by the Spirit and we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ When we sense that wonderful response in our souls and on our tongues, we have evidence that we are experiencing the communion of the Spirit.

Second, in Romans 8:16, Paul writes that ‘the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God’ (Rom. 8:16). The apostle’s concern here is connected to assurance of faith. Here the Spirit is testifying alongside our spirit about our membership of God’s family. But where does the Spirit bear witness? Some might suggest that he bears witness in heaven, in God’s presence, that we are God’s children. I don’t think that is what Paul means, mainly because the Father does not need any confirmation of our status. It was because they were sons that he already sent the Spirit into the hearts of believers. Rather, I would suggest, Paul has in mind, as a location of the Spirit’s testimony, the inner life of each believer.

This then leads us to wonder how the Spirit bears witness – what are the ways he does so? The marvellous reality is that, in each believer’s heart, there is a twofold witness to the fact that he is a child of God. There is the believer’s own witness, which he will have deduced from the promises of the Bible and from the change in his life. And there is the Spirit’s witness, which is distinct from these other sources of assurance, but not separate from them since he is the one who provided them (after all, he inspired the Scriptures and he is the agent of sanctification).

Remember that this witness, according to Paul here, is the common privilege of all family members – he writes in a way that suggests his readers know what he is speaking about and that it is not a rare experience for them. So this witness was designed for all of God’s people all of the time. So George Smeaton, in his important book on the Holy Spirit, was correct to say about the witness of the Spirit that ‘It is not an exceptional gift, but the ordinary criterion and accompaniment of adoption.’

So how does the Spirit witness to us? It can be explained in this way. Here is a believer who has meditated on the promises of God and has searched his heart for evidence of conversion. He has concluded that he is a saved person, yet he finds his assurance to be weak and fluctuating and not very resistant to the devil’s attacks. He needs something to strengthen his sense of assurance, and that comes by the Spirit reinforcing the existing assurance of the believer.

In a marvellous way, through this aspect of his communion with us, the Spirit gives to his people an infallible sense of security. I don’t mean infallible in the sense of perfection but in the sense of genuine. The believer, when he has it, knows it is genuine. It is not an unwarranted assumption; the Christian knows that he is on his way to glory, even though he is a sinner. Because it comes from the Spirit, this assurance is irrefutable. Sadly, by his sin, the believer can grieve the Spirit and so lose the strength of this witness until he repents of his sin.

The third aspect of the communion of the Spirit that Paul mentions in Romans 8 is the groaning of the Spirit (Rom. 8:26-27). He has already mentioned how the creation groans in anticipation of its release from bondage and how the Christian groans as he waits for the redemption of his body. Neither of these groanings is extraordinary once we understand their contexts. But to describe the Holy Spirit as also groaning is remarkable because the other two groanings are connected to the consequence of sin, and the Holy Spirit is sinless.

No doubt, the Spirit’s groaning is an indication of his sympathy with his people in their aspirations. The Spirit, too, is anticipating the day when all that causes distress to the believer will be gone and he will receive his glorified body. Yet the aspect of the Spirit’s groaning on which Paul focuses is connected to supplication. Christians know that there are times when prayer is not straightforward, when their spirits are so crushed or confused they do not know what to say. From a shallow point of view, this can almost seem a denial of the experience that Paul described earlier when he said that the Spirit enables believers to cry in a strong manner, ‘Abba, Father.’ But the difficulty is not in calling God, ‘Father’; rather it is in finding something else to say to him when we are overwhelmed by a sense of sin or distraught because of our sufferings.

Paul is telling his readers that there will be many times when they will be in ignorance about items for prayer. This dilemma is distressing. We might imagine that the Lord’s response in such a situation would be to give clarity of expression, to suddenly enlighten our minds and cause us to speak articulately about the problem. But that is not often the way God addresses the dilemma of his people in distress. Instead the Spirit groans along with them, and these groanings of the Spirit are beyond words; in fact, too deep for words. This is a profound description. Paul is saying that more is said by these groans than is said by the most articulated prayer. Alfred Plummer, the commentator, once said, ‘By the work of the Spirit, a heart without words may bring down the blessing of God.’ There are many things in the Christian life that we need and for which the Spirit groans on our behalf. We may long for more love to Christ, or we may desire a greater ability in understanding spiritual things, or we may want to anticipate the world of glory ahead, or we may long for deliverance from sin. Sometimes, when thinking about such matters, we become aware of a deep groan. We should cherish such groaning because it is a sign of the communion of the Spirit.

Do not grieve him (Eph. 4:30)

The imagery of a grieving Spirit should cause us to realise the sensitivity he has concerning the sins of his people. What are the consequences of grieving the Spirit? Here are three losses that we will incur. First, we lose his help in providing us with the assurance that we are the children of God, and then we no longer have that warm sense of his delight in us. Second, we lose his help in obeying God’s commands from the heart, although it is possible to persevere in outward behaviour that seems to be obedience, but is not. Third, we lose his help in our prayer lives. The Spirit in a healthy Christian causes him to live in a spirit of prayer. But when the Spirit is grieved, prayer becomes a dry formality, which a Christian discovers he can do without, and there is no longer a joyful interaction with God.

Thankfully, the Spirit whom we have grieved desires intensely to resume the conversation. Therefore he will work in our hearts in another way; that is, to bring us to repent of our folly. The process will involve chastisement if we persevere in our sinful actions, but at the same time the Spirit will work to bring us back to the cross, and once there the Spirit will resume communing with us about his favourite subject, the atoning death of Jesus and the great benefits that flow from it. When that happens we will be restored to the fellowship of the Spirit.

Hopefully we have seen that communion of the Spirit involves communication from him and sharing with him concerning the blessings of the Father and the Son. It is wonderful that he desires so strongly to have communion with us. The next time you hear the benediction at the close of a service, thank God for the fellowship of the Spirit.