Paul expresses his desire to know Him and the power of His resurrection and be made conformable to His image and likeness. These three critical objectives, the resurrection, Holy Spirit, and redemption, are fundamental to the apostle. He knows that the resurrection validates all that the Lord and the prophets have declared and promised (Rom. 4:1; 8:11). The gift of the Holy Spirit is the “earnest,” “first fruits,” and “seal” of our future redemption. This hope set before Paul is so great that it superintends all earthly desires and challenges. It is for these reasons that the resurrection and the Holy Spirit are being marginalized and domesticated respectively. To minimalize and distort the ministry of the Spirit and to dismiss the resurrection from our preaching and teaching agendas promotes an ignorance, gullibility and even a skepticism among a generation that has never heard of these issues of faith. The chaos is a result of the misuse and abuse of spiritual gifts and the crisis is the anit-charismatic sentiment that has crept into the churches.
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