Why does it matter?

Why does it matter that we get it right about the Holy Spirit?

For one, He is equally God, and as such, equally to be worshiped as the Father and the Son.

And how concerned should we be about getting it right about the Father and the Son?

Heaven forbid it, but if we believed that the Father had incomplete foreknowledge of the future, and did not decree all things, how much of a concern would that be?

Or if we were to believe that the Son’s work on the cross was only for that living generation in the Middle East during His time on earth, how much of a concern would that be?

Why then would rightly understanding, believing, and practicing life in the Spirit of Christ be anything less?

Christians need to joyfully believe the Word of God, fully embrace it, and make it the prayer of our lives to walk always in the light of His countenance - to experience His smile.

A biblical pneumatology may be secondary when we are defining God in His being and works, or when we consider the meaning and importance of Christ in salvation.

But biblical pneumatology - getting it right about the Holy Spirit - is actually primary in the context of anything having to do with the christian life - mainly ecclesiology (of the church) and hagiology (of the individual in sanctification). The Holy Spirit is the only God-provided fuel for the vehicles of the church and the believer. Without His fullness - with a faith in only part of the New Testament teaching about Him - to that degree we have a partially biblical ecclesiology and a partially biblical hagiology. To that degree, we can find ourselves trying to power those vehicles with the fumes of moralistic religious flesh.

Lord, grant us faith to believe all You’ve revealed to us in Your Word. And with that faith, grant us more of Your power and Your presence to walk them out until the Day of Christ.