As a community of people believing in the saving work of
God we reckon it quite devotedly that walking in the Spirit is inevitable
signifying the vitality of spirituality for renewal of the Church. Certainly it
is not enough to believe in the whole counsel of God, if we do not experience
the reality of the gospel ourselves. We need to think about the importance of
‘life in the Spirit’ not just to concentrate on ‘the work of the Holy Spirit in
bringing people to Christ’. The main key for spiritual renewal is ‘walking in
the Spirit’ and in order to experience that renewal in our church, each of the believers
should have personal spiritual renewal. Without the presence of Christ, all
that we do is just activity outside of Christ’s domain. We need to
connect the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Spirit in a way how they
work together in the Church. Jesus is
the bearer of the Spirit as he is anointed by the Spirit. In other words, it is
the Spirit who empowered, shaped and rested upon Jesus. Besides, ‘Jesus is the
giver of the Holy Spirit’ indicating that when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit then
the Church was born through the power and work of the Holy Spirit. In declaring
the vitality of Christ’s presence in the church, we can also learn that where
there is no Christ, there cannot be a true Church.
As the Holy Spirit works in Christ, Christ’s central
mission was to make whole of bodies, persons and relationships. His
unconditional grace seeks the holistic of a person-emotional, mental, physical
and spiritual wholeness and his surroundings. In our context today we need to rethink
the nature of the church and its mission in the way how Christ taught. And as
Christ’s work is done in the power of the Spirit of grace, our mission should
include all dimension of life not only limited to human relation with God but
also restoration of the whole creation. For preparation of the coming reign of
the Lord, the church should reflect Christ’s light, anointed by the Holy Spirit
in every dimension of mission that we join the Lord.
In doing so it is important to understand the work of the
Holy Spirit in terms of evangelization to the poor and transformation of the marginalized
communities such as Dalit and Adivasi because Holy Spirit is the main key not
only for personal transformation and renewal of individual Christian, but also
for transforming such marginalized communities so as to enable them to
experience God’s shalom. The Holy Spirit does not work only to sustain and
renew life but to build a community of Christ who would carry out the love of
Christ in the power of the Hoy Spirit to the poor in a way the fullness of
Christ would also be experienced by the marginalized. The
‘Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ’ and the Holy Spirit should be identified
as ‘Missional Spirit’ which would not only work as ‘the sanctifier and renewal
of the community of faith, but also the transformation of community with
regards to the work of Justice, social transformation and particularly to reach
the poor, Dalit and Adivasi for they are also valued equally in the sight of
the Lord.
Come Holy Spirit, renew us!
Kasta Dip
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