"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
1 Peter 2:5
If there is anything that is fundamentally clear in the New Testament, it is the fact that we know we are living in a time when the Great Holy Spirit has been sent to be our teacher and guide.Jesus himself said,"Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). How necessary it is that we recognize the opportunity we have been given concerning the personal work of the Holy Spirit - an opportunity that "could not" have come to pass without Jesus carrying out the work that he came to accomplish.
John writes in his gospel letter, "If any man thirsts let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified"(John 7:37-39).
How significant a statement! All throughout the Old Testament we find the Holy Spirit actively involved - working, moving, inspiring, and empowering individuals in a supernatural fashion. And yet, we find written here in John's gospel that he, the Holy Ghost "...was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified!"
Clearly, this tells us that something took place in redemption that enabled the Holy Spirit to come in a way that he had not been able to come in any other previous generation.
What possibly could have occurred that made Christ's departure so expedient - a departure so necessary that even though the Holy Spirit was here, his presence and activities were held to a limited fashion until after Christ was glorified?
It is the fact that in redemption Jesus not only conquered sin and death, but he paved the way for man's spirit to be born again. The one major truth that stands out in our dispensation, above every other dispensation, is that men can now receive eternal life. We have the opportunity to experience a life that makes us alive in spirit. And through the Divine Administration of the Holy Spirit, we are capable of living and operating in a spiritual arena where God himself lives.
Peter said we are to be built up a spiritual house.
The word "spiritual" is PNEUMATIKOS, which means things pertaining to and of the Holy Ghost.The Holy Spirit was limited in his administrative capacity because the spirit of man was incapable of carrying the life of God.Now that we have been born again our spirits have become awakened to the spirit realm.The administrative skills of the Holy Spirit can now quicken our spirit to his activities, enabling us to become fully functional spirit beings.He was sent to teach and guide us through life so that step by step we are able to be spiritual. There is no way that you or I can fully function in the spirit realm without the aid and support of the Holy Spirit.
A.B. Simpson once said,"By receiving the Holy Spirit we areactively and positively taking of His life and power into our hearts and lives. It is not a mere acquiescence in His coming, or passive assent unto His will, but an active appropriating and absorbing of His blessed person and influences into our whole person." He later added, "We are to receive the Holy Ghost with an open, yielding, hungering, thirsting, believing, accepting and absorbing heart...for there are spiritual organs of reception as well as physical. There are vessels of heart hunger and absorption which can be cultivated and exercised." \
If there is ever a need within the church today it is with us learning how to cultivate these spiritual organs of receptivity so that we can enter into the full workings of the Holy Spirit. In order to become fully, functional spirit beings, engaged with the spiritual empowerment associated with the Divine Administrator, we must give our full attention to being a house occupied with things pertaining to and of the Holy Ghost!