50 Ways the Holy Spirit Works in the Life of a Christian

There are lots of reasons why a study of the Holy Spirit has been neglected and simply ignored. The fact that He is referred to as God and an equal member of the Godhead is just difficult for some people to process, but there are some other more practical reasons. First, in most of the religious world, the topic has not been perceived as being as important as studying about the Father and the Son. Although Jesus stated clearly that the Father was sending Him in His stead, (John 14:26), the Holy Spirit simply has not gotten the attention that Jesus intended. In other words, we do not study the topic with the same intensity as we do about Jesus and the Father. Secondly, the mysterious nature of the Spirit, being invisible, makes a lot of people uncomfortable; and therefore, they shy away from it. Moreover, since there has often been a lot of unusual events and sensationalism associated with the Holy Spirit that exhibit a wide range of emotional responses, people neglect it because people do not want to be labeled a "fanatic". Thirdly, since He has no body or shape that we can see, He is thought of being impersonal or maybe even unimportant. What people cannot see, feel, taste and touch, tends to be thought of as not being important or relevant. Fourth, and probably among the most important reasons, is neglect. Teaching on the Holy Spirit has not been emphasize consistently from the pulpit. He has been buried in a place that does not allow Him to be the resurrected very often, if at all. If leadership places little or no emphasis on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, then it is understandable why people know little about Him and assume the topic not to be important. There are probably other reasons, like a particular religious group's emphasis may not be on the Holy Spirit. However, our focus in this book is to uncover and reveal the multitude of ways that the Holy Spirit intersects with our lives as Christians by simply taking the bible and letting it speak to us. Using only the bible and some external historical information for context, we want to highlight what the bible has to say about this third member of the Godhead that is alive and well today to sustain believers in their walk with the Lord. The numerous ways to have cited are not intended to be comprehensive. As we were completing the book, we thought of other themes that could have been explored, but we hope that what we have shared will make the case and spur further study on the topic.