Who Is The Holy Spirit?

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit

“Who Is The Holy Spirit?”

{Audio File: https://mega.nz/#!adkWXKxb!73iSZfHz2NukA4uQGI-kNQqoltJSzFHOxqBly6oZnSU}

In this new series we’re beginning, we will be looking at the Holy Spirit, who is He, or the person of the Holy Spirit. Then based upon this, we’ll take time and look at the various aspects of the Holy Spirit, or His work in our midst.

When religion started taking over the church, where it was no longer about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and where believers came together encouraging one another as brought out in Hebrews 10:25; the tragic result was that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit became neglected, and in large part replaced through the substitution of priests and the priesthood, the Church as the authority over a person’s life, and the veneration of Mary and the saints. These were put in the place and position of the Holy Spirit, thus rendering the presence of the Holy Spirit unnecessary.

Even today, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is still being neglected, not only through these substitutions, but also due to the doctrine being over-emphasized, over-hyped, and over-exaggerated, making believers leery of those who teach on the Holy Spirit. And so, unfortunately, the church has kind of let the whole thing alone.

The unfortunate part is that all these false ideas and manifestations of what people call a move of the Holy Spirit is due to this overall neglect. Consider how terrible it would be to neglect the teaching or doctrine of God the Father, or Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is equally terrible to ignore or neglect the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, which may also be the reason why we don’t see a move of God in our generation and in our time.

And so to begin this new series, I’d like to look at the personhood of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is a Person

The first thing we need to understand is that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force that acts upon our lives, like the force in Star Wars.

Such an outlook has invaded the minds of many because of the titles or names given to the Holy Spirit within the Scriptures that seem to make Him a part of, but not distinct from, the Father or Jesus. These are names like the “Spirit of God,” the “Spirit of the Lord,” or even in the song we sing prior to the message, whose title is found in 2 Corinthians 3:3, “Spirit of the Living God.” He is also called the “Spirit of Christ,” the “Spirit of Jesus Christ,” and the “Spirit of the Son.”

These give the impression that that Holy Spirit is a spirit that is found within the Father, and within Jesus, much the same as the spirit that is within us as human beings. It is such an understanding that has brought about the unbiblical view of God being the Father and the Son only, but not the Holy Spirit.

Other examples that our found within the Scriptures that promote this view that the Holy Spirit is not a person are the designations the Holy Spirit have been given, and how He is represented in the Bible as other thing, like breath, wind, fire, oil, water, and a dove. But these are not exact representations of the Holy Spirit, but rather they are symbols explaining the work of the Holy Spirit.

It’s kind of like when we use the designation found in the Scriptures about Jesus Christ when He said that He is the door or gate of the sheep (John 10:7). Jesus isn’t saying that He literally is a door of wood, or a gate of iron. Instead, He is saying that He is the protector of the sheep, and that He is the one who leads them to salvation and everlasting life.

It is in this same way that we need to look at these symbols of the Holy Spirit to see what they mean, and how through these symbols He is working in our midst.

Now, before we move on, there is also what the writers of the King James Version calls the Holy Spirit that lead people not to consider the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and that is when they call Him the Holy Ghost. Unfortunately, today this conjures up in people’s minds a shadowy aberration, but not a person.

But when we further examine what the Bible says about the coming of the Holy Spirit, we see that the Holy Spirit is a person, and that there is a distinct difference between Him and the Father and the Son.

Jesus said, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:16-17a NKJV)