…for it is God who works in you, bot to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2.13

The Spirit brings power into the life of a believer, not, in the first instance, so that we might go witnessing, but that we might be witnesses. The work of the Spirit in enabling us to do what is pleasing to God is above all a work of character-formation, a work unto holiness.

Which only makes sense; He is, after all, the Holy Spirit, and we would expect any power that He exerts within or through us to be expressive of His presence and character. The Holy Spirit is working in each believer to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18), and in every church to build it up as a holy temple unto the Lord (Eph. 2.21, 22). All other works and manifestations of the Spirit of God in or through the believer are incidental or instrumental to the larger end of making him willing and able to do what pleases God so that holiness may ensue.

So, what is it, precisely, that pleases our heavenly Father? Various things: it pleases Him to give us the Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit (Lk. 12.32; Rom. 14.17, 18). God is pleased with the life of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and, hence, that we should walk in His steps and follow in all His ways (Lk. 2.22; Matt. 17.5). And it pleases God that we should not quench the work of His Spirit, Whom He and the Son have sent in order that we might be holy.

Thus if we as individual believers, and our churches as expressions of the Body of Christ, would realize the full working of the Spirit, we must resign ourselves to His purposes and His means of accomplishing the ends for which God has sent Him to us. And that has little or nothing to do with ecstatic utterances, mystical visions, or signs and wonders. Rather, it has everything to do with being taught the Law of God by the Spirit of God that we might live, by His power, the life of Jesus Christ unto holiness (Ezek. 36.26, 27).

If we neglect the Law of God – through indifference or outright rejection – we quench the Spirit, and thus displease our heavenly Father, to such an extent that even our prayers become an abomination to Him (Prov. 28.9).

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