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2 Sermon Illustrations on Role of the Holy Spirit

2 illustrations

The role of the Holy Spirit in Christian preaching centers on His work as the divine agent who illuminates believers' understanding and applies God's grace in their lives. Illustrations often depict the Spirit as a light unveiling spiritual truths or as the vital wind that empowers and sustains faith (John 16:13; Acts 1:8).

Illumination, Need of

The Holy Spirit enables believers to truly perceive and experience spiritual truths.

Now, were we in a room hung with the finest paintings, and adorned with the most exquisite statues, we could not see one of them, if all light were excluded. The Spirit's light is the same to the mind that outward light is to the bodily eyes. The most correct and lively description of the sun cannot convey either the light, the warmth, the cheerfulness, or the fruitfulness, which the actual shining of that luminary conveys; neither can the most labored and accurate dissertation on grace and spiritual things impart a true idea of them, without an experience of the work of the Spirit upon the heart. The Holy Spirit must shine upon your graces, or you will not be able to see them; and your works must shine upon your faith, or your neighbors will not be able to see it.

— Toplady

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster

Means Of Grace, Holy Spirit in

Means of grace are ineffective without the Holy Spirit's presence and blessing.

In none of these is there any benefit, unless God the Holy Spirit shall own and crown them. These are like the conduit-pipes of the marketplace: when the fountain-head floweth with water, then they are full, and we derive a blessing from them; but if the stream be stayed, if the fountain-head doth cease to give forth its current, then these are wells without water, clouds without rain; and ye may go to ordinances, as an Arab turns to his skin-bottle when it is dry, and with your parched lips you may suck the wind and drink the whirlwind, but receive neither comfort nor blessing nor instruction from the means of grace. Spurgeon.

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster

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