Delighting in The Spirit's Person and Work

John Owen on the Holy Spirit is quickly proving to be life-changing for me. I don't think I can be the same after working through volume three of his works. I don't say this flippantly; and I don't say this infallibly. After all, the Spirit is sovereign and moves as he pleases (1 Cor. 12:11), blowing where he will (Jn. 3:8). But I do say it advisedly.

I think I've only been able to say this sort of thing a handful of times in my walk with God. Another one of these seasons was spending a whole year with Professor Greg Beale in Principles of Interpretation and New Testament Theology at Wheaton College. This season profoundly shaped my approach to the Bible, my understanding of eschatology, and my appreciation for God's inbreaking new creation kingdom in the risen Christ. Yet another was being introduced to the prophetic preaching of John Piper. In particular I experienced  electric soul shock upon hearing Piper preach in person for the first time. My whole being was moved. Never before had a man brought such unction and power with his message.

So, similarly perhaps, here's a serious word for me, and I think for all, from Owen on the importance of our response to the Spirit's ministry in the world:

But now the Lord Jesus Christ, being ascended unto his Father, hath committed his whole affairs in the church and in the world unto the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11). And it is on this design of God that the person of the Spirit may be singularly exalted in the church . . . and with respect unto him it is that the church in its present state is capable of an apostasy from God. And whatever is found of this nature amongst any, here it hath its beginning; for the sin of despising his person and rejecting his work now is of the same nature with idolatry of old, and the Jew's rejection of the person of the Son (Works, vol. 3, p. 44).

We need to think long and hard about this warning from Owen. And we need to consider whether or not we honor the Spirit fully, sow to him duly, and delight in him truly. Do we grieve him? Do we quench his holy motions?

May the Lord and Giver of life be pleased to blow through our land and give us life indeed through the Son, working in us not only a zeal to avoid despising the Spirit's person and work, but more, a zeal to delight in and prize sensibly his person and work. O God our Father, give us a felt sense of the glory of the gift of your Son's Spirit! All we possess, that is to say, infinite glory and treasure, we do possess in the Spirit.