The Holy Spirit has been given the ministry of perfecting and bringing the Church, the Body of Christ into existence. He was sent by the Father after the resurrection of Jesus to reveal the truth and revelation of the new creation. We've walked in some light of the truth, but only a small portion of it. We can only see it from man's viewpoint, without the Spirit of Truth.
We've been given some revelation about salvation in Ephesians 2:5 (Amplified) which says, "Even when we were dead (slain) by (our own) shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; (He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him) for it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation)."
We've shortened that scripture and confess, "We are saved by grace." If we read down to Verse 8, then we will read, "For it is by free grace (God's unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ's salvation) through (your) faith. And this (salvation) is not of yourselves (your own doing, it came not through your own striving) but it is the gift of God."
John 1:16 (Amplified) tells us, "For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received (all had a share and were all supplied with) one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor gift (heaped) upon gift."
For too many instances we have looked at these spiritual blessing as though they were intended only for when we get to heaven. What we've failed to realize is that the spiritual blessings were the Father pouring out heaven on earth. Ephesians 2:8 says that we were given "one grace after another." We've believed that the extent of this grace allowed us to be saved and nothing more. This is "salvation by grace through faith." If your faith will continue after being saved, then it will bring us into more grace.
This is the Holy Spirit's ministry. He reveals Jesus to the Church from faith to faith and one grace after another. 2Peter 1:2 (Amplified) tells us, "May grace (God's favor) and peace (which is perfect well-being, all necessary good, all spiritual prosperity, and freedom from fears and agitating passions and more conflicts) be multiplied to you in (the full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."
This "correct and precise knowledge of God and Jesus" can only come through the Holy Spirit. Most of the knowledge we have about God or Jesus, came more from man's ideal than from the Spirit of Truth. Jesus said that, "No one knows the Father, but the Son." Man's knowledge has been slanted by religion and we seemingly wish to hear that rather than the Truth.
Many things that have caused division in the Church are man-made doctrines and certainly not "correct or precise knowledge." Only the Holy Spirit can take us from on grace to another and from one faith to another. It is by grace from the Father that brought forth our salvation by faith, according to John 1:17 (Amplified) which says, "For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor, and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ."
This grace has been here on earth in fullness ever since Jesus came. Grace without faith does nothing in our lives. If we do not apply faith to His grace, then we simply do not receive that portion of His grace. Grace has been here all along for salvation, but we are saved by grace through faith. I know many unsaved persons. It's not that God doesn't want them saved or that His grace isn't enough for them to be saved, but it's because they haven't mixed faith with His grace.
The same grace that saved us will heal us, one grace after another. The Church has argued for so many years about whether these things were meant for everyone. It's only that some have had more grace revealed to them by a "precise and correct knowledge of Jesus" through the Holy Spirit. As we allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into this correct knowledge of Jesus by revelation, we will move from faith to faith. Many have argued that one cannot take a promise from God's Word and expect it to work for him. Isn't that exactly what we've done when we heard or read His promise from Romans 10:9 (Amplified) which says, "If you will believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He has been raised from the dead, and confess the Lord Jesus with our mouth, we shall be saved."
Isn't this a promise given that we put faith in and then by that, we were saved? This same promise of salvation is the same Jesus Who took away not only our sin, but everything under the curse. Romans 8:1-3 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, (there is) now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) For those who are in Christ Jesus, who live (and) walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of Life (which is) in Christ Jesus (the Law of our new being) has freed me from the Law of sin and of death." Verse 3 goes on, "For God has done what the Law could not do (its power) being weakened by the flesh (the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit) sending His Own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. (God) condemned sin in the flesh (subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice)."
The Law of the Spirit of Life that was in Christ Jesus, it the same Law that now works in us by His grace. The difference is that some will place faith in those promises and some will not. It is available to those who will believe...one grace after another, gift heaped upon gift, blessing upon blessing and favor upon favor. Grace didn't end when we got born again, but this initial act of faith opened the door that had been closed before our receiving the Lord Jesus. Now, we can "come boldly to God's throne of grace to receive that grace and help whenever we need it.
This first act of faith in His grace was the place the Holy Spirit springboards from to catapult us into the blessing of our new Law of Life in Christ Jesus. The same faith in God's saving grace, is the same faith to more faith where we enter grace for our healing, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Gifts of the Spirit and every other spiritual blessing promised by God.
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