The Holy Spirit

We affirm the necessity of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in every area of church and personal life.  We affirm that the Holy Spirit is abundantly active in regenerating, indwelling, sealing, gifting, filling, empowering, illuminating, leading, convicting, comforting, sanctifying, interceding and producing fruit in believers.  Additionally, we affirm that God can and does still work in miraculous ways according to His sovereign purpose and through the prayers of his people.

We teach that the Holy Spirit is no longer writing Scripture and the canon of Scripture is closed, therefore the exercise of the revelatory (tongue, prophecy) and miraculous gifts (healing, miracles) as offices within the church has ceased.

We also teach that there is no Scriptural basis for fallible prophecy and thus the prophecy commended in the New Testament (particularly 1 Corinthians 14) is direct, authoritative words from God (the same in both OT and NT) which were necessary for edification of the body of Christ as the apostles and prophets were laying the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:19, Eph. 3:5).  This prophecy has ceased with the closure of the canon.  The completed Scriptures – as objectively and experientially illuminated and empowered by the Holy Spirit – now equip the saints for every good work and provide them with everything pertaining to life and godliness.

We do not require that members or regular attenders of Grace hold this entire position (most specifically the ceasing of the revelatory and miraculous gifts and the lack of fallible prophecy) in order to be in good standing in the church.  However, those on the elder board and those in teaching positions must affirm that this is a biblical position and must agree not to teach against this position as representatives of Grace Community Church.