The Spirit of God is often misunderstood and misrepresented. The Holy Spirit is much more than the attributes of God, the “essence” of God or a divine, impersonal force, and is not identified in the Bible as an “it” but rather as “him.” John 14:26 records Jesus as saying, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” Jesus said God would send the Holy Spirit with a defined mission with a specific purpose.
When Jesus was introducing his disciples to the concept of his own death and the fact that it was necessary for him to leave them, he emphasized, “But I tell you the truth: It is for your own good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” John 16:7. Christ’s primary mission was to give himself as a sacrifice and atonement for sin which required his death and while his life and teaching as God in the flesh dwelling among men was incomparable, he was restricted to the mortal confines of his humanity from a perspective of locality. Conversely, the Holy Spirit’s omnipresence facilitates taking the Christian experience to a higher level of unity with God on a global scale.
As a side note, Jesus more than equates himself with God here, he intimates that he is God by saying The Father would send the Holy Spirit in John 14:26 and that he himself would send the Holy Spirit in John 16:7, while at the same time maintaining his own role as Son with the Father as the head and the Holy Spirit also in a subservient position. God never contradicts himself.
Furthermore, in John 16:13, Jesus says, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will only speak what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” The Holy Spirit hears and speaks, he conveys the will of God to us and dwells within believers when they commit to following Christ. The apostle Paul teaches in Romans 8:9-11 that those who believe in Christ have the Spirit of God living in them. The Holy Spirit also grieves (Ephesians 4:30), therefore, we must make every effort to turn from our past and wholeheartedly become faithful to him in the way we live.
Again in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul reminds us, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? Additionally, the Holy Spirit has the power to, “convict the world of guilt in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me;” John 16:8-9. This is where many theologians get things wrong in their Christian dogma by teaching that we are accepted along with our sin and that there is no need for repentance. While Jesus was not sent to condemn the world but to save the world (John 3:16-17), all people will be held accountable for their sins (John 3:18) and faith in Christ will be credited to believers as righteousness. True believers take up their cross and follow Jesus daily (Luke 9:23-24; Mathew 16:24-26), denying their fleshly desires and passions and surrendering to the Holy Spirit and thus enabling them to produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Holy Spirit also reinforces our position as children of God as Paul informs us, “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Romans 8:13-14, and continues in verse 16, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
The Holy Spirit can also be lied to (Acts 5:3) and tested (Acts 5:9). We are told in Acts 5:4, “What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.” Once again, scripture demonstrates the triune nature of God by equating the Holy Spirit with God in this passage.
The Holy Spirit reveals the mysteries of God to us. We are told in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, ”However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ – but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” Indeed, the Bible is a spiritual document and understanding it requires spiritual discernment, as Paul points out in subsequent verses, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-14.
Peter informs us in his 2nd epistle, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:20-21, and Paul taught that all scripture is God breathed, (2 Timothy 3:16). In the original Hebrew, the word ruach, which means air in motion, is used for breath, wind and spirit, which explains why the Holy Spirit can be depicted as the sound of a wind at Pentecost and why Jesus explained to Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8.
In the third chapter of Mark’s gospel, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” Marl 3:28. Blasphemy is defined as the act of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things. It is the irreverent, disrespectful slander of God and if one can blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, this is another scriptural truth that the Holy Spirit is God and therefore part of the Trinity.
When Jesus instructed the disciples in what is known as the great commission, he said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mathew 28:19-20. He did not say to baptise in the names of, but in the name of, meaning one triune God. The mystique of God’s nature is lost on those who don’t have the spiritual discernment to comprehend or accept the infinite qualities and characteristics of his being. Those who claim Jesus cannot be God are restricted by their worldly syllogism and therefore cannot have an intimate relationship with him as the one and only living and eternal God.
The Holy Spirit played an active participant in creation (Genesis 1:2, Job 26:13) and in giving life to Adam (Genesis 2:7). Similarly, Jesus breathed on the disciples in John 20:22 as he dispensed the Holy Spirit to them, “And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit filled the disciples at Pentecost (Acts 2:4), and again in Acts 4:31, indicating we can be filled with the Holy Spirit more than once. In fact, we can be filled over and over again as we pour out the Spirit onto others only to be replenished again when we turn towards God as Jesus alluded to when he spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:13-14) in John 7:38-39.
When we choose to surrender to the Holy Spirit and actively engage with him in an intimate relationship, our lives are transformed. Our will aligns with his will and we live in a state of repentance having forsaken our worldly ways and embracing his heavenly ways. By surrendering completely to the Holy Spirit we put on the full armor of God and can be assured of our salvation as we stand in solidarity with him.
We live in perilous times and now more than ever we must take refuge in our Savior. Let us seize the time we have, here and now, and put our faith and trust in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, knowing full well that the Holy Spirit dwells within every true believer. Remember John’s words of encouragement, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4.
