A Woefully Inadequate Understanding of the Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The following quote (a personal confession by Art Azurdia in his book, Spirit Empowered Preaching) is one I can certainly relate to. And my guess is that many of my fellow evangelical pastors can too.

By way of personal reflection I must say that it has been painful for me to acknowledge my woefully inadequate understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. To be brutally honest, over the years my concern has been directed more toward avoiding charismatic excesses than it has been toward rightfully acknowledging the sovereign Spirit as He presents Himself on the pages of His own scriptures. Consequently, the majority of my efforts in pneumatology [the study of the Spirit] have been devoted to establishing what the Spirit does not do, almost to the complete exclusion of establishing the magnificence of His person and the indispensability of His ministry in any positive way (italics mine).

Let us move beyond focusing just on what the Holy Spirit does not do, and let us make every effort to establish the magnificence of His person and the indispensability of His ministry!