The Role of the Holy Spirit in Corporate Worship
Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is an extremely important entity. He is God, a Person, and He is a member of the Trinity alongside the Father and The Son. We see that the Holy Spirit is God because many attributes associated with God have been used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit. We also see that Scripture use the Holy Spirit and God interchangeably in Acts 5 and 1 Corinthians 3:16. The Holy Spirit is also a person because scripture references the Holy Spirit using masculine pronouns and also gives the Holy Spirit personal attributes such as in Acts 5 when the Spirit was lied to and Ephesians 4 when it said “do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” He has been referenced to from the beginning to now. In Genesis 1 we see Him being referenced to as hovering over the waters. There’s also reference to the Spirit as descending like a dove at the baptism of Jesus. Now, the Holy Spirit is around us when referenced by Jesus when He said that He must leave so that the helper may come.
What is the Holy Spirit’s Role in Corporate Worship?
So then what is the role of the Holy Spirit in corporate worship? One role is the illumination of the scriptures. In 2 Timothy 3:16, we see that all scripture is inspired by God. As previously stated the Holy Spirit is God. Therefore, the Holy Spirit inspired the scriptures. Only the author of a text can bring about the true meaning of what was written, and because of this it is the Holy Spirit’s role to illuminate the scriptures and the preacher’s role to present it to the congregation. Not only that, but in John 14:26, it literally states, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” From this passage we can see that the Holy Spirit is the one that will teach us (illumination) all things and bring remembrance of all things that Jesus said to us (the scriptures).
Another role of the Holy Spirit is to bring about conviction of sin to both believers and non-believers. Whatever your stance is on who the church is for, there is an undeniable fact that churches all across the world experience this one thing: non-believing first time guests. Whether that’s 50 a year or 50 a Sunday, healthy churches have newcomers coming to their Sunday services. It is the role of the Holy Spirit in corporate worship to convict those that come to each weekend service of their sin. For believers, conviction of sin will hopefully lead to repentance, and for non-believers to acceptance of the free gift of salvation.
And perhaps the most important role of the Holy Spirit in corporate worship is that the Holy Spirit enables us to worship God the way that God desires. In John 4 we learn that God is looking for people to worship Him and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Holy Spirit allows believers to worship God in the spirit, because worshiping God in the Spirit worshiping Him with a spiritual relationship. The truth part of it is that it must be authentic and genuine. In other words, the only people that can worship God are those that genuinely and authentically loving and adoring God and have accepted the free gift of salvation, which allows them to have a spiritual relationship with God.
