The Holy Spirit is a divine person eternally one with the Father and with the Son. Through the Word of God He convicts people of sin, persuades them to confess their sinfulness to God and calls them to faith through the Gospel. He regenerates, sanctifies, and preserves believers in the one true faith. He comforts, guides, equips, directs, and empowers the church to fulfill the great commission.
  —Church of the Lutheran Brethren Doctrinal Statement of Faith, Paragraph F

When Zerubbabel was faced with the task of rebuilding the temple, he did not have the resources that David and Solomon had when they originally built it. God’s Word to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6). This is still true as God builds the temple today.

The body of believers is the place where God lives by his Spirit, according to Ephesians 2:22. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul writes, you (plural) are God’s
temple (singular) and God’s Spirit lives in you.

Paragraph F of the Statement of Faith addresses the question of how God builds this temple. The answer is “by his Spirit.” We will examine that here. We will look at the identity of Holy Spirit, the Spirit’s role in salvation and sanctification, and the Spirit’s work in the Church.