What does the Holy Spirit do? If we pay careful attention to what the Bible says about it, we will obtain an impressive insight into what God does through his Spirit, in the world as a whole as well as in the lives of us who believe. The Spirit works in creation and in recreation. In the course of history, God reveals himself more and more and comes closer and closer. Since Pentecost, he binds himself with the Spirit to those who accept him. Then he begins converting their lives from the inside out in a process of metamorphosis. The writers of the early church also brought forward very inspiring things about this.

Wind⤒🔗

Around 350, Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem showed his catechumens how the Holy Spirit works. He drew connections that opened rich perspectives and presented inspiring images. Here we will give brief attention to the main ideas of his lessons.

The Spirit, Cyril said, works like the great elements of nature: wind, fire, and water. Shortly before his suffering, Christ said to his disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12, 13). After his resurrection, Christ already gave them a portion of the Spirit when he breathed the new breath of life over them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). Later he will grant them that grace much more richly. Therefore, they must stay in Jerusalem until they are “clothed” with power from on high, until they are totally drenched in the power of the Spirit (Luke 24:49).

Fire←⤒🔗

How will that happen? John the Baptist had not yet given the Spirit to his followers. He proclaimed Christ, who would do that. He said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11). And the Lord once said joyfully, “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled” (Luke 12:49). That happened at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit descends in order to clothe the apostles with power and to “baptize” them as the Lord had announced shortly before his ascension to heaven (Acts 1:5). Then they are immersed in the fire of the Spirit. They receive grace, no longer in part, but fully. Those who are immersed and baptized in water are surrounded by water on all sides. In like manner, the apostles are completely “baptized” by the Spirit. However, water stays on the outside of the body. The Spirit baptizes and penetrates the soul and in doing so, leaves nothing untouched. How should we picture this? Fire penetrates solid iron and causes the whole mass to glow. The cold becomes hot, the black lights up when the fire penetrates the iron. In like manner, the Holy Spirit penetrates the innermost part of the soul.

Eyes saw fire, ears heard the sound of a rushing wind that filled the whole house. The house became, as it were, a chalice of spiritual water. The young people sat inside and were completely immersed in the spiritual bath. According to the promise of Christ, they were “clothed” — body and soul  — with a godly garment.

They received fire, not a fire that consumed, but a fire that brought salvation. It was a fire that scorched away the ever‑increasing sin and totally cleansed the soul from it. It penetrates so deep that not a single hidden corner of the heart remains outside of the reach of the Spirit’s glow. Once a glowing sword blocked the entrance to Paradise. Now a tongue of fire brings salvation back and restores the state of grace. That fire was first kindled in the apostles, and was then spread further by them. In this way it starts burning everywhere in the world and in this way Christ’s prayer is fulfilled.

Water←⤒🔗

The Spirit works as wind and as fire, but also as water, the element that is essential for life. Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Here Christ was referring to the grace of the Spirit. Why? Water brings plants and animals to life. It comes down as rain from heaven in one form, but if has very different results. It becomes white in the lily, red in the rose, purple in violets. It works differently in the palm than in the grapevine. It is the same rain, but it has different effects. In like manner, the Holy Spirit is also one, but he gives each one the grace that he wants: wisdom, prophecy, the ability to drive out demons, explanation of the Scriptures, abstinence, mercy, fasting and an ascetic life, despising of worldly longings, martyrdom. He works like this in the one, and differently in another. In this way, he brings very individual possibilities to life in each person and makes them fruitful for their Lord. In this way, the believer can become a spring from which the grace of God also flows out to others. God does not give in scanty measures (John 3:34-35), but drenches all with the rivers of his wonderful gifts (Ps. 36:8).

In this way Cyril instructed his catechism students who were about to join the church: at your baptism, you will receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, who will then permanently join himself to you and will powerfully work in your lives.

God Dwells in the Believers←⤒🔗

Some fifty years after Cyril, Augustine wrote a letter to Dardanus who had asked him a few questions about the presence of God in the life of the believer. In his answer, Augustine said that God is present everywhere. As the creating and sustaining power, he penetrates through all things. But this does not imply that he dwells in all people. You can speak about the presence of God in two ways. He is everywhere because his godhead is present everywhere, but he does not dwell everywhere with his grace. He who is everywhere does not dwell in everyone. Furthermore, there is a difference in the measure in which he dwells in the believers. Elisha asked for a double measure of the spirit of Elijah. And among the believers, some are more holy than others, because God dwells in them more abundantly. God also dwells in small children, who are still too little to know him, but who are still made holy through the sacrament of Christ and are born again through the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God dwells in baptized children, even though they do not know it. That also occurs among older people. Paul refers to some people in the congregation as infants, not referring to their chronological age, but to their spiritual age (1 Cor. 3:1, 2). Although the Holy Spirit was dwelling in them, they were still “of the flesh” and not “spiritual.” Yet, God does also dwell in such people. For in a secret way he works to make them a temple of his. In the mortals in whom he now dwells, he is continuously building on his indwelling. That will only be completed in the hereafter. In the life that we now know, we are born again through water and Spirit, but that life still shows many blemishes. For this reason we must also continuously pray, Forgive us our debts.

Daily Renewal←⤒🔗

But the people in whom God dwells do make progress, because they are being renewed from day to day. God makes them increasingly righteous. He hears them when they pray. He cleanses them when they confess their sins. All this happens in order to make them a pure temple for eternity. He dwells in people whom he has called according to his counsel. He has taken it upon himself to justify and glorify them, starting in this life. Many, in whom God dwells, do not reach spiritual maturity in this life, but God who dwells in them will — after this life — fill them with the insight they were missing here. They have kept the unity with the body of Christ and have kept the fellowship with the temple of God. In that, they have steadfastly kept to the faith that the small and the great have in common in the church. God shapes the people in whom he dwells, as well in unity as he does individually, into a glorious temple for himself, by delivering them from the power of darkness and bringing them into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:13). They are living stones, out of which a spiritual house is being built up (1 Peter 2:5). God will dwell in their midst and associate with them. He will be their God and they will be his people. Thus far, the main ideas from the letter to Dardanus.

Room for Love←⤒🔗

God, in grace, enters our lives to give himself to us. Out of ourselves, we do not give him room for that. God’s grace must create that room in our lives. The Holy Spirit starts with that. Under his influence, God’s love is poured out into our hearts (Rom. 5:5). That is a central idea that you often encounter in Augustine’s writings. In his sermons, we read, “We have something of that love: we have been sprinkled with it, we have been moistened with it as with dew. That dew is of the same nature as the source. Sprinkled with that dew, but longing for the source from which it came forth, you must say to your God, ‘The source of life is with you.’ Through that dew, the longing is born; in the source you will find satiation. That which can give us satisfaction is there.” When the sleeper wakes up and rises from the dead, Christ’s light shines over him. God will allow him to experience his nearness. His Spirit, which is the connection between the Father and the Son, binds us to the Father and the Son, and also binds us to each other. Jesus said, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you…If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:20, 23). Thus the Spirit works to bring God near to people. He breaks open their hearts for God’s affection. And they are going to entrust themselves entirely to Christ in devotion. They are kindled by the fire of love.

The house of our lives is reconstructed when room is made in our lives for the love of God. “Pay attention to what happens when people want to give dwelling places a better destiny: for a part, they are broken down and demolished; for a part they are remodelled for better function. The same happens to us. Expressions of egotism and selfishness such as licentiousness, dissension, and jealousy must be demolished as false gods. The members of our body must begin to serve for something better.” In this way we are God’s temple under construction.

The Glow of the Spirit←⤒🔗

The chilled human heart is thawed by the warmth that comes to us through the words of Scripture. It is a warmth that contains the glow of the Spirit. When we read the Bible, the Spirit allows us to taste and experience the grace of God, letting us “taste how good the Lord is.” His warmth calls forth change. The words of the Bible do not only give knowledge, but they appeal to the human heart, affect us and touch our innermost being. In this the Spirit encourages us and invites us to seek God and go to him with our thirst. Whenever the Scriptures are read, the Holy Spirit makes us glad. In this way we may enter a little into the joy of our Lord, and we ourselves are also kindled through the fire of the Spirit (Rom. 12:11).

Once he has received a new life through the Spirit, the believer may also be further fed and may grow through the Spirit. A tension and movement come into his existence, through which his life becomes more and more inclined toward God. In the Spirit, he has the beginning of salvation. His life becomes more and more strongly united with God in love. In the Spirit, God gives himself to the person. Thus, he is in him as love, which calls forth love. That love compels him to do more and more from within and with dedication what God requires in his laws. No longer does he move in concentric circles around himself, but he seeks God as his centre, not to have, but to give; not to perform, but to serve. All this happens in the expectation of a total renewal and a final face‑to‑face meeting. All this according to Augustine.

Dynamics and Motion←⤒🔗

For us, the Holy Spirit is often vague. The belief in the Spirit does not mean much to us. One can picture so little of it.

For these writers of the early church, the Holy Spirit is a reality — not far away, but very close by and intimate in the life of the believer. The Spirit of God is a reality of the greatest importance for our life of faith. God is not merely incidentally at work in the life of the believer. He lives with him permanently. That “indwelling” is not a phenomenon that happens to only a select few. That indwelling belongs with the faith, even when we ourselves do not or barely perceive it. It is an invisible truth which sets our lives on another track. Because of him, we may see ourselves as a new creation, on which God is continually at work. The Spirit is dynamically busy in our lives and sets it in motion. From the inside out we are being transformed. The Spirit of God control us more and more, and plays a role in the practical aspects of our lives. He also marked that.

Just as in the creation, the Spirit also works in recreation — primarily in secret. God’s kingdom does not come with outward display. Neither must we then seek it in special, impressive workings of the Spirit. Those who cannot join in the conversation about the spectacular and the eye‑catching work of the Spirit, must not think that, because of this, their faith in meagre and has little presence. God is with us in the “day of small things.” His Spirit works like wind, fire, and water.

We live through the breath of his voice, also as new creation. His fire brings a glow and animation to our lives, through which it can also kindle others. He provides continuous irrigation, by which our lives can bear fruit. And as “readable letters from Christ,” we may also pass on that water to others. He clothes us with his power and provides us with weapons of defense against the attacks of the evil one.

All this work is carried out by the Holy Spirit within the framework of Word and prayer, church and covenant, sanctification and fulfillment of the law. Our life of faith knows its ups and downs, progress and setbacks, a grieving of the Spirit and a walking in his footsteps. In that flux of existence, the Spirit is also dynamically active. Realizing this should fill us with deep respect for God, who wants to be so near to us, and who brings us to the point where we in ourselves desire more and more what he wants to bring about in our lives on our path to salvation (Phil. 2:12, 13).