The Spirit and the Kingdom
The Spirit and the Kingdom
Finally, one further aspect of the kingdom and our global mission needs to be noted, especially in a book designed in part to give a biblical rationale for Pentecostal missions, and that is the role of the Spirit in the kingdom. Here again, we are especially indebted to Luke’s presentation of the good news. For he makes it clear that both the Savior himself and his followers are empowered for the life and ministry of the kingdom by the Holy Spirit. Especially in his Gospel, Luke singles out the Spirit as the power for Jesus’ life and mission;160 and it is by that same Spirit that he ties together his Gospel and Acts161 in terms of the ongoing proclamation of good news to the poor — and thus to the ends of the earth.
As with them, so with ourselves. The kingdom has come; it is still to come. With Jesus the time of the future, the day of salvation, has been inaugurated. But the empowering was the work of the Holy Spirit. What Jesus began “both to do and say” is now the ministry he has left his church until he comes again. The mission is that of Jesus himself — God’s kingdom as having come as good news for the poor. But the empowering for the kingdom, as then, is the continuing work of the Spirit. May God help us by his Spirit both to will and to do of his good pleasure — salvation for all through Christ.