The Holy Spirit and Worship
The words “Holy Spirit and Worship” invoke a wide variety of mental images and feelings for the reader. The Holy Spirit is expressed differently in different denominational backgrounds, and each of these experiences seeks to better understand the role and nature of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps one of the least understood persons of the Trinity; the Holy Spirit is often mistaken as a mere force that is ethereal and intangible. Yet Scripture refers to the Holy Spirit as a person via His personal traits. “The elements of personality are intelligence, volition, and emotion, and Scripture ascribes all three to the Spirit.”[1] In Matthew 10:19–20, we see the Spirit’s intelligence displayed where Jesus promises that the Spirit “will speak through his disciples when they are persecuted because of Jesus.”[2] What comfort to know that the Holy Spirit gives us the words to speak. Later we learn in Ephesians 4:30 that the Spirit has emotion and can be grieved as Paul warns us not to “grieve God’s Holy Spirit.” Furthermore, we see the Spirit’s work in the church’s life as He empowers our prayers both in personal and corporate worship, enables us to worship God, and bears fruit in us as we submit ourselves to the Trinity.
The Holy Spirit empowers our prayers in worship. Have you ever felt so crushed within your Spirit that you could hardly utter the words to formulate your anxious prayers? If you have experienced this, it is of great comfort to know that the Holy Spirit, our promised Comforter, is “praying for us when we do not know what to pray and [is] empowering our own prayers.”[3] The Holy Spirit intercedes for us as Romans 8:26 says, “through wordless groans” (NIV), speaking words that we are not able to say. The Holy Spirit empowers our prayers in private times of worship and corporate worship.
The Holy Spirit enables our worship. Worship is Trinitarian in nature. The Father perfects the plan for our salvation, while the Son enacts the plan of salvation, the Holy Spirit, works on unifying us with Christ through regeneration, adoption, justification, sanctification, preservation, and glorification. “The Holy Spirit joins us to Christ in salvation and enables us to live for God as the church.”[4] As we gather together as a church, we can offer up worship to God, which is acceptable because the Holy Spirit has applied the work of Christ to us and is thereby making our worship an acceptable offering, thereby enabling us to worship God and declare His Lordship.
The Holy Spirit produces fruit in us. The Holy Spirit’s work of unifying us with Christ causes fruit to be produced both in and through us. Galatians 5:22–23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.” A life indwelt by the Holy Spirit is a life that displays the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit we produce has two functions. It points people around us to God, but it also allows us to edify and serve each other in the body of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is essential in worship. A proper understanding of the Holy Spirit and His role in the Trinity is essential for implementing Trinitarian worship in our churches. The Holy Spirit’s work of unifying us to Christ allows us to worship God and empowers our prayers. The Holy Spirit also matures us and causes us to become more like Christ and points others to Him as we live out our faith.
[1] Christopher W Morgan and Robert A Peterson, Christian Theology: The Biblical Story and Our Faith (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic (Logos Bible Software), 2020).
[2] Morgan and Peterson.
[3] Morgan and Peterson.
[4] Morgan and Peterson.
