Transcript

One Sunday, when my youngest son, Tyler, was around 4 years old, the church service started and one of the elders opened the service in prayer.

We all bowed our heads and closed our eyes. During the prayer, the elder thanked God for the work of the Holy Ghost.

Immediately, Tyler popped his head up and with wide round eyes whispered to my wife “Ghost?! Mom, I don’t want to see that Ghost!”

We were able to calm his fears both at church and later at home as we explained to him more about the Holy Spirit being God.

The Holy Spirit is not a ghost in the way we think of ghosts and apparitions. But the Holy Spirit is a Spirit. There are misconceptions about the Holy Spirit regarding His person, wondering if He is just a mysterious power or influence, a sort of divine thunderbolt, or impersonal force that does miracles or helps us do good?

A. W. Tozer once wrote that when many think about the Holy Spirit one “is likely to imagine a nebulous substance like a wisp of invisible smoke.”

Then today you have the extremes regarding the Holy Spirit’s work in the Church. On one hand, there are those whose sole focus is the Holy Spirit, and believe that His miraculous work results in speaking in tongues, healing, visions, excitement, and being overcome by His power and being slain in the spirit.

Then you have the other extreme where the Holy Spirit is essentially ignored. Many live, think, and act as if He did not exist. For them, the Holy Spirit is real, but not important. He is a name, a title, a phrase, but not a living reality in their lives.

Often, as is the case with extremes, the truth is to be found somewhere in the middle.

The Bible is full of information about the Holy Spirit. There are descriptions, names, symbols, actions, and attributes of the Spirit explained throughout Scripture.

This teaching is important, because it is in the Word of God and because the Holy Spirit is God. And we need to know our God.

But as it’s been rightly said, “Undoubtedly the least understood Person of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit.” Often there is this shroud of mystery surrounding the Holy Spirit. But do we truly know Him? Do we know who He is?

For all these reasons, we are going to begin a series on what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit. I decided to call it “Holy Spirit 101” because this will not be an advanced study of the Holy Spirit, but a general overview of the Bible’s teaching of the Third Person of the Godhead.

And as we’ll see, the Holy Spirit plays a key and vital role in each of us being transformed by God’s grace.

Hebrews 9:14: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

In God’s Word, the evidence for the deity of the Holy Spirit is abundant. The Bible reveals this through the names and titles given to the Holy Spirit, His attributes, His relation to the Trinity, and His mighty works.

First, we’ll look at the Spirit’s attributes which teach us that He is God. There are attributes that God shares with man with us being made in His image, attributes such as: justice, love, grace, mercy, patience, faithfulness.

We share these kind of attributes with God, but only to a finite extent. For God, He is infinite in all these and all His other attributes.

But there are also attributes which God as God does not share with man, which belong to God alone. These include that He is omnipotent (or all-powerful), omniscient (or all-knowing), omnipresent, self-existent, sovereign, immutable, transcendent, and eternal.

In describing the Holy Spirit, the writer of Hebrews referred to the Holy Spirit as “the ETERNAL Spirit.” Being “eternal” is one of the attributes of God that God does not share with man, declaring Him to be God.

Being “eternal” refers to God’s existence backward throughout time and beyond, further than we can imagine, and then forward into the future, as far as we can imagine and beyond. God never had a beginning and will never have an ending. There never was a time when He was not, and there will never be a time when He ceases to be.

Like with my mind, and I’m sure with yours too, this makes your mind want to explode. It’s difficult to understand. But that’s okay, and we are to simply trust it with childlike faith, because it’s the truth of God’s Word.

It’s been said well that “A God who is small enough to be understood isn’t big enough to be worshiped.” The Holy Spirit is “eternal.” This means that He is God. And this means He is big enough to be worshipped and He is worthy for us to do so.

This is why in 1 Corinthians 6:19, Paul wrote the Body of Christ: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?” A temple is a place where God dwells and where He is to be worshipped and served.

Our bodies being called “the temple of the Holy Ghost” teaches that the Holy Spirit is God and thus, with our lives we are to “glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.”

Other attributes that belong only to God that the Holy Spirit possesses include that the Spirit is omnipresent. Psalm 139:7-10: “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell [or sheol], behold, Thou art there.

“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”

The Holy Spirit is omnipresent, meaning that as God, He is there, He is here, and He is everywhere. His presence is unlimited. He’s everywhere present at the same time. The Spirit is present in every part of space with His whole being.

This means He is inescapable in the creation and you can’t run or hide from Him. Like the Psalmist wrote, there’s nowhere he can go that the Spirit isn’t already there waiting to lead him and hold him.

And yet the Holy Spirit is also uniquely present in different places, such as in heaven and in the believer.

While we can and should be in awe at the reality of God’s universal presence everywhere, often what we most need in our lives is a God who dwells with us and understands us and what we go through in life.

And that’s the kind of God we have. Isaiah 57:15 reads, “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

As God, the Spirit is the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity and dwells in the high and holy place of heaven, but He also dwells with the humble and contrite on this earth.

He’s the high and holy God who fills the whole earth with His whole presence and yet He is the God who is in us, with us always, and who ministers to your heart and to mine.

The Holy Spirit, as God, is also omnipotent. Omni, is a biblical term which means all, and potent means power. So omnipotent means all power.

Being all-powerful is an attribute that belongs only to God. And the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is all-powerful.

When the angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her about giving birth to the Christ, he told Mary, “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee” (Luke 1:35).

Speaking of the Holy Spirit, Gabriel told Mary that the “power of the highest” would overshadow her. The power of the highest belongs to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit’s almighty power was demonstrated in the work of Creation. All three Persons of the Godhead took part in the creation of all things.

Genesis 1:2 tells us that the Spirit was the One who moved across the formless deep and brought form to it: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the SPIRIT OF GOD moved upon the face of the waters.”

In our marriage, from time to time, my wife has handed me a jar of pickles, and said, “I can’t open this. Can you open this for me”? And in a macho tone I tell her “No problem.”

But in the few cases when I’ve not been able to, it’s a moment of discouragement and humility. It’s a reminder that I’m not as strong as I might think I am.

But nothing is too hard for God. There are no degrees of difficulty with God. He does everything with equal ease. He does one thing as easily as He does another. And God never gets tired. His power never wavers. He is always all-powerful.

And with the Holy Spirit and His power dwelling in us, we have strength in us. The Holy Spirit is always right there willing and able to strengthen us as we turn to Him in faith. Because we are not as strong as we might think are.

Each of us are weak and have weak moments, but God, in His grace and mercy, has given us His Spirit to help us daily and in our times of need.

As God, the Holy Spirit is eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, and He is omniscient. Isaiah 40:13-14 tells us, “Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding?”

God the Holy Spirit has never been counseled, instructed, or taught. He doesn’t need to be. He is perfect in knowledge. He instantly and eternally knows every fact about everything, everywhere, forever, and He knows it perfectly, completely, and unerringly.

The Spirit has never learned anything. He knows everything already. And His knowledge of each of us is perfect. The Spirit knows us better than we know ourselves.

Out of that perfect knowledge, He knows how best to care for us. And by grace, even knowing all our sins and failures, He still loves us with an unconditional love.

No one counsels God the Spirit, but we NEED His counsel, the instruction and guidance of the all-wise God. We find that wise counsel in His Word.

Acts 5:1-4: “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”

Next, we’ll take a look at the Holy Spirit’s relation to the Godhead, which further teaches that the Spirit is God. In Acts 5, the Holy Spirit is expressly and plainly called God.

To Ananias, Peter said, “Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?” and then in the very next verse, he affirmed “thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”

To lie to the Holy Spirit meant to lie to God, because the Holy Spirit is God. And we see the divine name actually applied to the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is an equal Person to the other two Persons of the Godhead. We find this demonstrated by passages of Scripture where He is named with the Father and the Son.

In 2 Corinthians 13:14, we find the Trinity in one passage of Scripture: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ [God the Son], and the love of God [or God the Father], and the communion of the Holy Ghost [God the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.”

In the unity of the Spirit in Ephesians 4, we see the Spirit united with the other Persons of the Trinity. Paul taught the church: “There is one body, and ONE SPIRIT, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; ONE LORD, one faith, one baptism, ONE GOD AND FATHER of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

In giving His apostles His commission concerning the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, the Lord said in Matthew 28:19: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

Notice the singular nature of the word “name.” The union of the three names under one name teaches that there is one God in 3 Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Spirit is a separate Person, but yet one with the Father and the Son.

God is at all times three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Spirit is co-equal in authority, glory, nature, and deity within the triune Godhead. The Spirit is not one whit behind the Father or the Son in all their attributes.

He is equal to God in every way, equal to God the Father in every sense, equal to God the Son in every sense, and in no sense is He less than equal.

All of this shows then that when we talk about the Holy Spirit, we’re talking about God.

He is the third person of the Trinity, fully God, worthy of praise, worthy of worship, worthy of all that we render to Christ and all that we render to God the Father.

John 16:13-14: “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”

The Holy Spirit is also a Person as much as the Father and Son are persons.

When we talk about the Holy Spirit we are talking about a person, a person who thinks, feels, knows, and speaks as we do. He is living. He is real. He is personal.

When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, we don’t mean to say that the Holy Spirit has hands and feet and eyes and arms and legs, and so on. The Holy Spirit is a Person because He possesses attributes of personality. He does things only a person can do.

He is a Being, a Person who knows and feels and wills. An influence does not create, empower, teach, guide, love, grieve, pray, speak, or command. But a person does. And the Spirit does all of these things.

Thus, this means we are not left to seek only some supernatural feeling or spiritual experience for help.

We have a real friend, a comforter, a helper, a person who knows us inside and out. The Holy Spirit is not a power which acts in a friendly manner. The Holy Spirit is a Powerful Friend who acts to help us in our need.

In normal discourse, personal pronouns such as I, he, him, they are used of persons. And in the New Testament, personal pronouns are used of the Holy Spirit in such a way that personality is affirmed.

In the original language of the New Testament, the term “Spirit” is the Greek word “pneuma” and is a neuter noun. This would normally entail using a neuter pronoun, and thus the proper way to refer to the Spirit would be with an “it.”

But strikingly, the New Testament writers contradicted normal grammar by using “He” and “Him” when referencing the Spirit. Masculine personal pronouns are used to refer to the neuter noun of the Holy Spirit, such as in John 16:13-14:

“Howbeit when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of HIMSELF…HE shall glorify me.”

The writers, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, referred to the Spirit as a definite Person. The Spirit is not an “it.” The Spirit is a “He” and a “Him.” He is a Person.

The attributes of personality is to have an intellect, emotions, and will. The Holy Spirit possesses all of these in a wide-range of characteristics as the Scriptures reveal.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 reads, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”

In this passage, we see the Spirit’s KNOWLEDGE of the things of God and how He searches the deep things of God.

The Spirit of God as God understands and knows all the truths of God, and out of His infinite wisdom, He teaches and imparts them to us as we spend time with His Word.

Next, we see the emotion of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4:30 reads, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Grief is a powerful emotion that we feel at the loss of a loved one. The Spirit, being in us and being holy, experiences this deep emotion when we fall into sinful actions.

And the Holy Spirit has a will. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11: “For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit…But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally AS HE WILL.”

To the early church, with these miraculous gifts, the Spirit gave them to the members of the Body of Christ “as He will.” Choice is an act of the will, and by the imparting of spiritual gifts to the early church, it shows the Spirit’s will.

Acts 13:2: “As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.”

Beyond the characteristics of personality: intellect, emotions, and will, many acts that only a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in Scripture, which further reinforces that He is a Person.

We Acts 13:2, we learn how He speaks. He spoke by divine revelation to the prophets and teachers in Antioch and told them to separate Barnabas and Saul to Him for the specific work He had for them.

Earlier, the Spirit spoke to Philip in the desert: “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” The Spirit spoke to Philip and commanded him talk to the Ethiopian eunuch to explain Isaiah 53 more fully to him.

When Peter was on the housetop in Joppa, Acts 10:19-20 reads, “While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.”

The Spirit told Peter to go with the men from Cornelius’ household in Caesarea.

As a person does, the Spirit speaks. Then in Romans 15:30, we learn how the Spirit loves. “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.”

It is wonderful to know that we are loved equally by the entire triune Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Out of His love, the Spirit sympathizes with us in our sufferings and intercedes for us and prays for us.

Romans 8:26 tells the Body of Christ, “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

In the difficult times of life, it is comforting to know we are being prayed for. Often our family members, friends, and church family will tell us that they are praying for us. And it is encouraging when someone tells you that they are praying.

But we should stop to consider the blessing of knowing that the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf and prays for us also, offering up fervent petitions on our behalf, with groanings that cannot be uttered to the Father. He does that out of His love for us.

The Holy Spirit speaks, commands, loves, intercedes, prays, and He forbids. Acts 16:6-7 says, Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were FORBIDDEN OF THE HOLY GHOST to preach the Word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but THE SPIRIT SUFFERED THEM NOT.”

The Spirit also leads. Paul wrote in Romans 8:14: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

And the Spirit teaches. The Lord told His apostles in John 14:26: “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

When you put all of this together, how the Spirit has a intellect, emotions, and will, and that He speaks, speaks, commands, loves, intercedes, prays, forbids, leads, and teaches, all these things taken together cannot be performed by a mere power or influence. They are the acts and attributes of a person, a personal being.

And because He is a person, our relationship with the Holy Spirit must be personal.

If the Spirit is merely a power coming from above, it would simply be a power at our disposal. But if the Spirit is a Person and even more than that, God Himself, then it is we who should be at His disposal, and love, worship, and obey Him in all things.

R.A. Torrey wrote this: “It is of the highest importance from the standpoint of worship that decide whether the Holy Spirit is a divine person worthy to receive our adoration, our faith, and our love, or simply an influence emanating from God, or a power that God imparts to us.

“…to decide whether the Holy Spirit is a power that we in our weakness and ignorance are somehow to get hold of and use or whether the Holy Spirit is a personal being infinitely wise, infinitely holy, infinitely tender, who is to get hold of us and use us…

“It is of the highest experiential importance that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. Many can testify to the blessing that came into their lives when they came to know the Holy Spirit not merely as a gracious influencer, but as an ever-present loving friend and helper.”