For the early church, the Spirit meant God’s own personal presence, and because God is all powerful, they always thought of the Spirit as the presence of God's power. Yet for some reason, later Christians developed a quiescent view of the Spirit that is more like a “still small voice,” which is not at all the New Testament experience. The early church wouldn't have understood our later ideas of a quiescent Spirit: They knew that when God was present, there was power present. The difference between them and us lies in many ways in this latter reality. Check out this week’s message if you would like to learn more about the central and crucial role that the Spirit played in the life and theology of the early church:
