When speaking about the Holy Spirit you will find people generally falling into one of two camps.
They’re either freaked out and weary, or fascinated and somewhat fanatical. This leads to a state the church often finds themselves in where the doctrine and experience of the Holy Spirit is either neglected and avoided, or it tends to be over-emphasized and exaggerated.
Below are three key crash-course fundamentals we have to understand about who the Holy Spirit is if we are going to begin to walk with Him in the fullness of who He is.
1. The Holy Spirit is God
The Holy Spirit is a major factor throughout the scriptures, being spoken of over 800 times. He’s on the first page of the bible deeply involved in creation, and He’s right there in the very last stanza in Revelation.22 bringing about the consummation of the ages. And he is a massive role player throughout the entire span of scripture as the third-member of the trinity with the Father and the Son.
There are many names that relate Him to the Father; the Spirit of God (Gen. 1:2); the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18); the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:11). Then another is, the Spirit of the Lord God, which is in Isaiah 61:1. Jesus speaks, in Matthew 10:20, of the Spirit of your Father, while Paul refers to the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor. 3:3). My Spirit, says God, in Genesis 6:3, and the psalmist asks, ‘Where shall I go from your Spirit?’ (Ps. 139:7). He is referred to as his Spirit—God’s Spirit—in Numbers 11:29; and Paul, in Romans 8:11, uses the phrase the Spirit of him [God the Father] that raised up Jesus from the dead. All these are descriptive titles referring to the Holy Spirit in terms of His relationship to the Father.
Then there are the titles that relate the Holy Spirit to the Son. First, ‘If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ’ (Rom. 8:9), which is a most important phrase. The word ‘Spirit’ here refers to the Holy Spirit. In Philippians. 1:19, Paul speaks about the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and in Galatians 4:6 he says, ‘God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son’. He is also emphatically referred to as the Spirit of the Lord (Acts 5:9).
Finally, there is a third grouping which comprises of His direct, distinct and personal titles, and first and foremost here, of course, is the name Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost. Some people are confused by these two terms but they mean exactly the same thing. The English language is a hybrid which has borrowed from other languages, and ‘Ghost’ is an old Anglo-Saxon word while ‘Spirit’ is derived from the Latin spiritus.
Other distinctive names are the Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4), the Holy One (1 John 2:20), while in Hebrews 9:14 He is referred to as the eternal Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8:2, ‘For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.’ In John 14:17 He is called the Spirit of truth, and in chapters 14, 15 and 16 of John’s Gospel, He is referred to as the Comforter.
2. The Holy Spirit is a gift
The Holy Spirit is a gift from the Father given not based on the merit of our performance, efforts or spiritual prowess, but completely according to His love for us. This is never more clearly illustrated than when Jesus had the Holy Spirit come upon him at the River Jordan on the back of the booming affirmation from His Father in heaven, “This is my son with whom I love and am well pleased.”
This is so powerful because up to this point Jesus had done no miracles yet. This clearly shows us that Jesus did nothing to earn him, and equally as powerful, it highlights that Jesus also did nothing without him.
Scholars tell us that Jesus in the flesh was 100% God and 100% man at the same time, but what we learn from scripture is that He did not cheat and lean into his God nature while here on earth, but rather as Philippians.2 tells us, he emptied himself of his divinity.
Acts.10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him”
In understanding how we are supposed to receive and walk with the Holy Spirit, Jesus is our model and example.
Furthermore, in Acts. 1:4 (“wait until the Father sends you the gift he has promised”), Jesus shows us that this gift that He received because of the Father’s love, is now a gift for all His disciples. Not merely for the spiritual elite, men of power for the hour or the so called anointed.
In Luke. 7 Jesus speaks to us on the back of his expert teaching on prayer (“ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be answered”) by showing us that the greatest gift one can receive from our Heavenly Father is that of the Holy Spirit. “You as evil fathers know how to give good gifts, how much more would the Father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit”
3. The Holy Spirit guarantees our sonship
Ephesians. 1 and 2 Corinthians. 1 make it very clear that it is the Holy Spirit (as God and as a gift freely poured out) who seals us and assures us of our salvation. We are told that He is given as a deposit, or a down-payment, guaranteeing us of our future inheritance in heaven. In Romans. 8, the apostle Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit being our guarantee that we are sons and daughters of God and that it’s only by the spirit that we can call out to God as “Abba Father”.
Once we understand this and start to believe we’ve had the assurance of the Spirit completely, the “He loves me, he loves me not” wrestle ceases.
We see it in the life of Jesus that as soon as He had the Holy Spirit descend upon him after his baptism, the first thing the enemy attacks is his sonship and identity (“if you are the son of God…”), and the enemy’s tricks have not changed since!
When describing the coming Holy Spirit to his disciples in John 14, Jesus tells us that he “will not leave you as orphans” but the Father would send the Holy Spirit and He “will never leave you.”
Paul writes to the Roman church that the fruit of the Kingdom is righteousness, peace and joy IN THE HOLY SPIRIT. These are ours by right when we are filled with the Spirit.
He is God, He is a gift freely given to all who would receive Him by faith, and He is our guarantee sealing us for the fullness that God has for us!
Listen to the full preaching series on the Person, Power and Pursuit of the Holy Spirit called The Gift at the link below: