We are in Philippians.
At the beginning of this set of scriptures in Philippians 1:18–26, two verses stand out that I think deserve more time than we could give them the first time around. Last time we talked about prayer. We need to be people of prayer, and we need to believe our prayers matter.
This week, we will talk about the Holy Spirit.
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.
Philippians 1:19–20 (ESV)
The joyful, undefeated attitude Paul shows is not natural. I have said this three weeks in a row now. You don’t reach this attitude on your own.
Paul was not born as this person ready to step into this role. It all started with salvation and grace, of course, but here Paul specifically points to the Philippian church’s prayers (which we talked about last week) and the help of the Holy Spirit as what he needs.
It is through prayer and the Holy Spirit that Paul has the confidence that he will make it through with courage and joy. The gateway to the deliverance and salvation he is talking about — the gateway to the courage and joy that will carry him through his situation — runs through the prayers of the Philippians and a supply of the Holy Spirit. His deliverance/salvation is partially connected to the prayers of others and the moving or supply of the Holy Spirit.
Paul expresses a desire to have the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Other translations say plainly: the Holy Spirit.
I’m going to try to be brief here, talking about the Holy Spirit, because honestly, we should probably do an entire month-long series on the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit is there to help us. He is our advocate. He is interceding for us. He’s working for us. He’s moving in ways that we can’t comprehend or see, even in the hearts of those who don’t follow Jesus yet — He’s impressing upon them the truth. He is convicting the world of their sins. And here is something I need you to understand: the Holy Spirit did not stop working when John the Revelator penned the last words of Revelation. He is still working. He is still moving. The same things He did in the New Testament are the same things He is still doing now. All of these job descriptions have scriptural backing. We believe the Holy Spirit is active in our lives as Christians.
For this particular scripture, the question I had is, and I think all of us in here understand this, whenever you are saved, you have the Holy Spirit. So why does Paul need the help of the Holy Spirit if he already has the Holy Spirit?
It’s a legitimate question with a clear answer. We know Paul doesn’t mean he has somehow lost the Spirit and now needs Him again. In Romans 8 he makes it clear his view of the role and presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer. So there seems to be a distinction between the general presence of the Holy Spirit in salvation and in your regeneration, and a momentary bump or move of the Holy Spirit that provides extra help in certain situations. It would be appropriate to even say that Paul was seeking a supply of the Holy Spirit for a particular season.
“On the other hand, many Christians today believe that the Spirit is more inactive than Paul’s language allows. Paul speaks of the Spirit being given to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 4:8) and being supplied to the Galatians (Gal. 3:5), he commands the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18), and he tells Timothy to fan the gift given to him (probably the Spirit) into flame (2 Tim. 1:5). All believers have the Spirit all the time, but they sometimes experience the Spirit’s presence in greater power and abundance than at other times. Thus Luke tells us that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit” when he bore witness to the gospel before a hostile Sanhedrin (Acts 4:8), that the persecuted Jerusalem community was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and spoke God’s word boldly (4:31), and that Stephen, prior to his martyrdom, was “full of the Holy Spirit” (7:55). Paul was similarly “filled with the Holy Spirit” when he confronted the magician Elymas (13:9), and despite the persecution that Paul and Barnabas left in their wake when they departed Pisidian Antioch, the disciples there were “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (13:52). The Holy Spirit lived within each of these people prior to these occasions (see, for example, 6:5), but each apparently received an unusual abundance of the Spirit’s infilling during a time of special testing.”
Thielman, Frank S. Philippians, NIV Application Commentary, p. 82
Paul clearly has the Holy Spirit. But he is also clearly asking for the Spirit of Jesus Christ’s help in a very specific moment he’s facing.
So first, for us: you have to understand that if you are saved, you’ve got the Holy Spirit. Don’t fret about that. But also, whenever you are facing something — a problem, a trouble, a situation you don’t know how to get through — there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying for a fresh something, a new movement, a new event of the Holy Spirit in your life that will enable you to do and to survive what’s in front of you.
The night before my brother died, I was restless. It was around 9:30, I had things to do the next day, I was just starting my master’s program, and I could not settle down. So I got up and started walking around the campus. Eventually I just started praying — praying in the Spirit under my breath. And eventually I was settled. I felt peace, and I went back to bed. I woke up the next morning to the news that my brother was gone. What I did not know at the time was that the Holy Spirit was preparing me for that moment. He was sustaining me. He was supplying me with what I needed to make it through what was coming.
I will be honest with you: every week, almost every day, and especially Sunday mornings, I am specifically asking the Holy Spirit to help me get through this. I do not enjoy standing in front of people. I pray for a supply of the Holy Spirit to be able to stand up here and do this in a way that is meaningful — not just to say what I prepared, but to trust the Holy Spirit to say what needs to be said to prepare you for what is out there.
Some church groups call this an anointing of the Holy Spirit. Some groups might call it a baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don’t care what you call it, and I am not sure there is a perfect name for it. I just need you to understand that the Spirit is active in your life if you’re saved, but there’s also absolutely nothing wrong with praying for the Holy Spirit to do something fresh and new in your life post-salvation.
I am a Pentecostal preacher. What that means is simple: I believe in the active work of the Holy Spirit as described in action in the New Testament. Unfortunately, there are a few too many groups that hold back the activity of the Holy Spirit in a way that does not appear in scripture. There are lots of reasons for this, but those don’t matter right now. I just need you to know that for whatever you face, there is help to be had in the presence and working of the Holy Spirit. It is a real and tangible thing. Just ask for it.
There are so many more details I want to go into. We might have to do a little mini-series here in the next couple of weeks. But here are some practicalities we need to think about.
The work and movement of the Holy Spirit does not supersede God’s word as given to us in the Bible. It will work in conjunction with what God has already revealed, but it is not coming up with new things. That is one of the reasons some groups get uncomfortable with the work of the Holy Spirit, because anyone can claim to be working/speaking for God. It is much easier to deal with that if you are already discounting it.
That is the easy way out. We have to be grounded in God’s word so we have that level of discernment when looking at the claims and actions of others in the church.
The Spirit does move, and in powerful and seemingly unique ways, depending on what is needed in any given circumstance. It might not seem rational sometimes.
Speaking in tongues is not rational. It does not fit into our Western framework, and even in the church world, there are books and books that seem to always discount that little piece of the Holy Spirit’s activity. They are often very good books and well-reasoned when addressing other biblical issues. They clearly follow the rule of thumb that good translation and interpretation chase the plain meaning of a text, but when it comes to speaking in tongues, the plain reading of the text goes out the window because it is uncomfortable.
1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 exist, and they are pretty straightforward in how they address the Holy Spirit and even speaking in tongues. So long as someone is within those guidelines, something as strange as speaking in tongues is a healthy part of the moving of the Holy Spirit. I do not want to be a church that neglects the plain command of 1 Corinthians 14:39 at its own peril: “Do not forbid speaking in tongues.”
That is just one small example. I am not saying it is easy to deal with the many people and groups who seem to try to abuse the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the tag they throw on every crazy action or word. I get it. I just know the answer to that difficulty is not to throw out every strange and uncomfortable thing — judge the work according to scripture.
Maybe we do need a series on the Holy Spirit. I will have to pray about that this week.
But we need help. Paul needed help, and he was asking for a special supply of the Holy Spirit. But pay attention to this. He is not asking for this supply to draw him up into some sort of spiritual ecstasy, or some higher plane than an ordinary believer.
He certainly isn’t asking for help to gain more health and wealth, though he might have, depending on the circumstances. Paul does not seem so concerned with that.
He is praying and hoping that the Spirit will carry him to courage and boldness so that his testimony might be elevated and the gospel shared, even if he is executed by the Romans. Through the Holy Spirit, Paul hopes Christ is exalted in his life or in his death.
That is the power of the Holy Spirit. Growing up in Pentecostal circles has allowed me to see many great things and many bad things about people who claim the work of the Holy Spirit for their actions and ideas. All the bad things can be avoided if we remember that the Holy Spirit is given to advance the gospel, not our perceived spirituality or positional authority in a church.
The fruit of the Spirit is characterized as things that, of course, help you live in alignment with who God is, but also as examples of who God is.
The gifts of the Spirit are often for building up the church for its great mission of sharing the gospel.
Think about what that means practically. To be the worship leader God has called you to be, you need the daily help and supply of the Holy Spirit. To be the parent you need to be, you need a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit every morning. To be the pastor I need to be, I have to have a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit every Sunday morning to do this in a way that brings edification to this church and glory to God. I needed the Holy Spirit to face the loss of my brother and my father. I needed the Holy Spirit to make certain decisions in my life that only made sense in faith. We need the Holy Spirit — not so that we can be hyper-spiritual, not so that we can elevate ourselves, but because we know we need help and we know where the best help comes from.
If the operation of the Holy Spirit fits into that framework, there is nothing to be afraid of, and we should be encouraged to ask for the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because we need help.
I don’t want to be a church that goes through the motions. I don’t want to be a church that relies on its own talents and abilities. What you get on Sunday mornings would be far less without the Holy Spirit. What is offered through worship would be far less without the Holy Spirit. We need the Holy Spirit — not to be hyper-spiritual, not to put ourselves on a pedestal, but because we know we need help and we know where the best help comes from. Responsibly. Invite the Holy Spirit into the process responsibly.
We need prayer. We need to be people who pray for people. We need to be people who want the prayers of people. And we need to be people who aren’t afraid to call on the Holy Spirit — to face things we know we can’t face on our own.
Paul writes this from prison. He doesn’t know if he’s going to live or die. And even with that supreme confidence in Christ that we talked about a few weeks ago, he still asks for prayer and for the Spirit. If Paul needed it, we need it. Let’s be that kind of church this week.
Pray. Pray for the Holy Spirit.
Zachary Peters 
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