Example of my Academic Writing

Essay for the Holy Spirit and the Church Final Exam

The Holy Spirit is the third member of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and Jesus in order to be with the church and keep it together. The Spirit is God with the individual and God with the New Covenant people. Through the Holy Spirit, some of the New Covenant promises are fulfilled during a believer’s earthly life. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit is God’s seal of salvation on the believer guaranteeing that they will experience the New Covenant fulfilled when Jesus comes back. 

The Holy Spirit works in the pre-Christian heart. The Spirit prepares the person for Jesus and the Father to reside in their heart through the Spirit, and the person to have a relationship with God. This is what happened at Pentecost: through the Spirit, the Father and Jesus could be with their people and take possession of the church despite being in heaven and the people could experience the presence of God as Trinity. Through the Spirit’s ministry people are brought into the New Covenant because He is the one that causes re-birth. During a believer’s lifetime the Holy Spirit sanctifies them and ensures that they grow in Christ. 

The Holy Spirit is who enables a person to have communion with the Triune God because He is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit does this in many ways such as through the reading of the written Word, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer. The Spirit also enables the individual and the church to persevere in the faith. Without Him there would be no Christian faith and no church because the followers of Christ would never have grown beyond themselves or endured the centuries.

The Holy Spirit is the one who drives the mission of the church. The mission of the church, as described in Matthew 28:18-20, is to make disciples and teach those disciples what Jesus taught. Many people answer the call and go across oceans and cultures in order to bring the Gospel to the nations. These missionaries face many hardships, such as rejection, persecution, and culture shock in order to fulfill the church’s mission. For many, the Holy Spirit is the only reason why they entered into the mission field. From calling Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:2 to sending missionaries to the Middle East, the Holy Spirit drives them forward and continues to call people in the church to go and preach the Word to people who have never heard it before.

Finally, the Spirit helps to connect spiritual realities with contemporary realities. The church can seem like it is anything but what it is supposed to be on a bad day. It can be quarrelsome, arrogant, intolerant and closed minded, hypocritical, and a big waste of time. Further, it seems to do a good job of disobeying the Bible it claims to base its standards on. As it divides into hundreds and hundreds of denominations, it seems that it is destined to fall apart.  Thankfully, the Holy Spirit will keep that from happening.

 The Holy Spirit that brings understanding into what the church truly is. In spite of outwardly sinful behavior, the church is holy because it is a temple of the Holy Spirit.  Despite being divided, Christians are still a part of the people of God, the church of Christ and the fellowship of the Spirit. Only through the Spirit can an individual remain active within the Christian faith and maintain these things in balance and attempt to help the church maintain its image and mandate, despite humanity’s failings. 

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and of Christ. Through Him, God’s people maintain an intimate relationship with God and participate in the New Covenant. The Spirit brings people into communion with Christ and enables them to fulfill the mission He gave His people. Without the Spirit, the church would have closed its doors long ago. Therefore, the Spirit should worshiped  and praise because He is God and He has directly endured two thousand years of blessing and heartache as He guides, teaches, and comforts God’s people toward the consummation of history at return of Jesus Christ, and beyond.