Mention the ministry of the Holy Spirit in many evangelical circles today, and almost everyone will immediately think of miracles and healings. The Holy Spirit seems to be only acknowledged when there is some supernatural or extraordinary event. He is the forgotten member of the Holy Trinity. Forgotten, not only as a Person with a specific office to fulfill, but forgotten also in His main work of bringing sinners to repentance and faith, and in the building up the faith of the people of God.

A miracle has these three characteristics: a law of nature is broken; it is performed without means; it happens immediately. A miracle is distinct from an extraordinary providence, which has means. For example, the Red Sea parting was an extraordinary prov­idence and not a miracle, for “the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided” (Ex 14:21). God used the laws of nature which He estab­lished to serve His own special purposes.

Whereas in miracles and divine healings, the Lord performed these without means, and they were effected immediately. For example Peter’s mother-in-law was healed instantaneously. Jesus “stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them” (Luke 4:39). And with the leper, “Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately his leprosy was cleansed” (Mat 8:3). All miracles were done without means and were immediately accomplished.

Technically, conversion is not a miracle although regenera­tion is. Regeneration is the making alive where there was death. It is the quickening of the dead soul which only God can do by His Holy Spirit. The classic Biblical verse for regeneration is Paul’s statement: “But God, being rich in mer­cy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4).

Conversion to Christ is brought about by means of the Holy Spirit working on the soul, often, although not always, over a period of time. God’s Word and God’s providence along with some truth, always play an important part in someone’s conversion. Even in ‘sudden’ conversions there are always means employed to bring each sinner to repentance. Conversion does not take place without the work of the Holy Spirit.

With the lapse of sound Biblical teaching today, the ministry of the Holy Spirit has largely been confined to the extraordinary and is often the unseen and un­noticed Worker in every conversion to Christ. Our culture’s self-centered em­phasis and individualism, is liable to fail in crediting any work of the Holy Spirit in the saving of a soul. Credit is given to the individual’s wisdom and choice without any mention of the Third Person of the Trinity in bringing a radical change on the affections and desires of the individual.

The soul comprises four main faculties. The conscience, the understanding, the affections, and the will. The Holy Spirit operates on all four of these faculties, ultimately bring the will to submit to God.

The Holy Spirit awakens the conscience to the fact of sin and guilt before God, “when He comes, (the Helper/Paraclete) He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). The change is not due to the individual maturing and getting better and wiser, but to the Holy Spirit awakening the ‘dead’ conscience to recognise sin to be what it really is – sin! Paul said “when the commandment came, sin came alive” (Rom 7:9). Prior to that, sin as an offence against God, was totally ‘dead’. Sin did not trouble Paul until the Holy Spirit be­gan to awaken his conscience to the reality of sin as an evil against God.

The understanding also is changed. The mind, is enlightened by the Holy Spir­it to perceive and discern the spiritual realities as well as the physical. Paul spoke of the Ephesians’ minds being “enlightened” to discover the “hope” and the “riches of His glorious inheritance” (Eph 1:18). The ministry of the Holy Spirit opens the mind of the believer to what it was previously closed to before! Before this new understanding, their minds were darkened regarding spiritual objects. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14).

The newly born Christian gets light and understanding, especially on the Scriptures. The Apostle John said “we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true” (1 John 5:20). Jesus opened the minds of the disciples that they could “understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Right up to the resurrection of Christ, the minds of the disciples were deeply confused.

The affections (what we like and dislike, what we love and what we hate), are also changed by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Believers begin to love what they once hated, and hate what they once loved. They are drawn towards what is pure and holy and become averse to what is evil and wrong. While they are unable to completely eliminate sin from their lives, they hate sin and are opposed to it. Their desires are completely changed. This change is radical and can only be effected by the power of the Holy Spirit. No human power can do this, it is only the Holy Spirit. There are those who may appear godly but do not possess the power to crucify any sin in their lives (2 Tim 3:5).

The glorious gospel preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven brings about this radical change as in the case of the Thessalonians whom Paul says “our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thess 1:5).

A change in the affections is also seen in those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Jesus said such people are blessed. Those who long for holiness and desire to be like Christ reveal that they have that new heart which the Holy Spirit creates in their souls.

The Holy Spirit must also work upon our wills. By nature our wills are opposed to God. “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot” (Rom 8:7). The writer to the Hebrews informs us, there may be an enlightening of “the heavenly gifts” and a tasting of “the goodness of the word of God” and of “the powers of the age to come” (Heb 6:4, 5) which falls short of eternal salvation. Unless the will is broken and brought into subjection by the saving and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, there will be no true submission to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul told the Philippians “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). It is God who makes us willing to believe and follow Christ. It was God that changed Paul and made him the man he was. He said “by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain ... it was not I but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor 15:10). The Holy Spirit must accompany the word preached to make us willing to become the servants of God.

As A W Pink has said ‘the mere preaching of the word – no matter how faithfully – will never bring a single rebel to the feet of Christ in penitence, confidence, and allegiance. No, for that there must be the special and supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit: only thus are any actually drawn to Christ to receive Him as Lord and Saviour: and only as this fact is carefully kept prominently before us does the blessed Spirit have His true place in our hearts and minds.’

It is the Holy Spirit who frees us from love and bondage to sin and makes us willing servants of God. Paul told the Romans “thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart ... and having been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness” (Rom 6:22).

The ministry of the Holy Spirit continues His work after conversion. Not only does He create life in the dead soul and changes sinners hearts, but He also feeds, nourishes and builds up the saints by His sanctifying work. The Philippians were assured by Paul that “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Phil 1:6). Once God begins to deal with us in mercy, He continues His acts of mercy and does not give up on us.