Holy Spirit and the means of grace?

[arapahoepark]

How does the Holy Spirit work through the public and private means of grace if is not ex opere operato?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

He makes his work effectual unto faith. In his elect, principally by the ministration of the word the Spirit creates faith in the heart, which thereafter is the instrument of reception in the individual of the blessings of divine fellowship or grace (covenant effect).

Also, the fact that it is activity of the Spirit, and not simply the human exercises, which repudiates ex opere operato views. The latter presumes that any time the word or sacraments are "done properly," the presence and effect of grace is objectively guaranteed.

Rome doesn't bother insisting on the presence of (personal) faith; Lutherans care enough to insist that the means of grace always produce the necessary faith, though what men do with that faith is then variable (i.e. some lose it after receiving). But for Rome, the vital thing is what "the church" is doing, and laity participate in what is going on by being part of the congregational activity; implicit faith (through the church) is all that's needed in their view.

 

[Ed Walsh]

How does the Holy Spirit work through the public and private means of grace if is not ex opere operato?

Is this a technical question only, or is there some deeper heartfelt question about how and when we can expect or hope for the Holy Spirit to work Grace in our lives? Or in your life particularly?

I believe that there are no guarantees even under the means of Grace for a true believer that the Spirit will always work in a prescribed way. I have found that the means of Grace are usually beneficial to me even in the sense of their effect. Other times they are without any sense experience yet prove later to have been beneficial. But none of this is 100% guaranteed. I have had times when I have spent a long time reading the Bible and in the end, feeling nothing. Yet at other times I've been driving down the road and had a passing thought like "Jesus IS God" and all of a sudden I am carried to a spiritual state of ecstasy where I am enabled to praise and glorifying God that passes all understanding and causes me to cry out Abba Father.

As it is said of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is not a tame lion.
I like to think of the work of the Spirit in a soul like the wind in John 3:8 which blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going;"

Just a few thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with your question. But if you would be so kind as to amplify your question just a bit I might better understand exactly what you were asking as it relates to you personally.

Have a great Lord's His day.

 

[Jo_Was]

Is this a technical question only, or is there some deeper heartfelt question about how and when we can expect or hope for the Holy Spirit to work Grace in our lives? Or in your life particularly?

I believe that there are no guarantees even under the means of Grace for a true believer that the Spirit will always work in a prescribed way. I have found that the means of Grace are usually beneficial to me even in the sense of their effect. Other times they are without any sense experience yet prove later to have been beneficial. But none of this is 100% guaranteed. I have had times when I have spent a long time reading the Bible and in the end, feeling nothing. Yet at other times I've been driving down the road and had a passing thought like "Jesus IS God" and all of a sudden I am carried to a spiritual state of ecstasy where I am enabled to praise and glorifying God that passes all understanding and causes me to cry out Abba Father.

As it is said of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is not a tame lion.
I like to think of the work of the Spirit in a soul like the wind in John 3:8 which blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going;"

Just a few thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with your question. But if you would be so kind as to amplify your question just a bit I might better understand exactly what you were asking as it relates to you personally.

Have a great Lord's His day.

I think this is a helpful thing to remember -- the distinction between the experience and the reality. I grew up in charistmatic circles, where it is treated as if lack of experience is a lack of the Spirit's work in one's life (especially "in the moment"). This is hard to reconcile when often many of the same people try to stress in human relationships that love is not equal to the presence of feeling, yet our love and work with the Spirit must be experiential. It is a strange irony that we should hold our human relationships to such a higher standard of consistency, persistence, action, yet afford the Spirit only certain modes of interaction to us. This is why I found the means of grace as described in the Reformed tradition so helpful in deconstructing out of charismaticism. What I come to believe is that, while it appears the charismatic crowd holds highly (or even "more") the "work of the Spirit" they actually have a very narrow view of how the Spirit and when the Spirit operates (typically in experiential moments or times of being called upon). Whereas, the Reformed have a rich understanding of not only seeing the Spirit's work through the means of grace but how the Spirit also moves as God's sustaining power in providence, and more. The scope is so much greater when we recognize the Spirit is "on the move" in more ways than we experience in the moment.

 

[arapahoepark]

Is this a technical question only, or is there some deeper heartfelt question about how and when we can expect or hope for the Holy Spirit to work Grace in our lives? Or in your life particularly?

I believe that there are no guarantees even under the means of Grace for a true believer that the Spirit will always work in a prescribed way. I have found that the means of Grace are usually beneficial to me even in the sense of their effect. Other times they are without any sense experience yet prove later to have been beneficial. But none of this is 100% guaranteed. I have had times when I have spent a long time reading the Bible and in the end, feeling nothing. Yet at other times I've been driving down the road and had a passing thought like "Jesus IS God" and all of a sudden I am carried to a spiritual state of ecstasy where I am enabled to praise and glorifying God that passes all understanding and causes me to cry out Abba Father.

As it is said of Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is not a tame lion.
I like to think of the work of the Spirit in a soul like the wind in John 3:8 which blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going;"

Just a few thoughts that may or may not have anything to do with your question. But if you would be so kind as to amplify your question just a bit I might better understand exactly what you were asking as it relates to you personally.

Have a great Lord's His day.

A little of both...

 

[Clark-Tillian]

From the human vantage point of seeing things, I think the mind of Christ is key.
See 1 Cor. 2.10ff (I'm having technical issues pasting the passage). Without sounding too mystical, the Spirit "speaks" to believers in a way that the world cannot, and may not, grasp. He leads us into truth through the Word preached, and the Word signified in the sacraments. When officiating at the Table each month, I pray aloud before the elements are distributed. I usually say something to the effect of "Through the ministry of your Spirit and through the mind of Christ, impress upon us the reality of your Son's brutal death; bring godly sorrow and true repentance into our lives."