Ephesians 5:18 NLT
Who am I? I am not a force. I am not a Ghost. I am not Energy. I am God’s Gift. I give Living Water to the thirsty. I give New Life to the spiritually dead. I give a new start to the born-again. I give gifts to edify others. I am like a River – a Wind – a Fire. Where I Am there is Peace. There is Hope. There is Love. What do I do? I live in hearts. I heal the wounded. I cast out demons. I reveal Truth. I exalt Jesus. Do you know who I am? I am Eternal. I am God. I am the Holy Spirit!
In the second week of the series, “More,” this is where our hunger – our desperation – our thirst for all that God is intercepts with the promises of God. We are thankful for the promises of God. We stand on those promises. God is real. Jesus is real. The Holy Spirit is real… and the enemy is very real. Because of that, we need to believe in and understand the power of the Holy Spirit. Our prayer should be, “Lord, let us never walk away from someone who’s in need of the ministry and power of the Holy Spirit.”
We need to learn about and discover more about the Person, the work, the power of the Holy Spirit, and what the Bible has to say about him. There are things we can still learn about the Holy Spirit. “Holy Spirit, we want to know you more – personally.” We talk about having a personal relationship with God – with Jesus – but we don’t talk much about having a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. So we’re good with sixty-six percent, but there’s thirty-three that we sometimes miss. We should all commit to getting to know the Person- the work – the ministry of the Holy Spirit better through this series.
There are groups and denominations that don’t see the Holy Spirit as a person. He’s viewed or referred to as “a force” or “a power” or an “it”, without the value of a person or a life. That is important for us because if we don’t understand that he is a Person, we’ll never have and enjoy a personal relationship with him. We can understand, through Scripture, who he is -what he does – and that he is a person – and then we can begin to enjoy an ongoing and growing relationship with him – not with a force – with some stardust or pixie dust, but actually the Person of the Holy Spirit.
- Excellent book- The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit: As Revealed in Scriptures and Personal Experience, by R.A. Torry
The Paraklétos or Pneuma (Breath or Wind) in Greek is most accurately translated as Holy Spirit (as opposed to Holy Ghost in the King James version). What’s so beautiful about God and his love for us is he continues to say, “Don’t be afraid. Come close. Draw near.” The Person of the Holy Spirit has a personality – a mind – a will – emotion -just like us, as we’ll see from Scripture.
Ephesians 5:18 NLT “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit . . .”
Filled- Greek: plēroō (play-ro’-o) – literally, filled to the full – to abound as to furnish or supply liberally or to be continually filled or ever be filled with the Holy Spirit. Why? – because we’re leaky vessels. That’s a good thing. We need to be leaking everywhere we go – leak his presence- leak his Spirit – leak his Life – his gifts – his fruit – the Person of Christ and the Person of the Holy Spirit. Everywhere, we’re leaking, so we have to continually be re-filled with God in us, through us, and upon us to touch other people’s lives, and to impact this world.
John 14:16-18 NKJV “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
Helper – Paraklétos in Greek- means Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Friend, and Helper. Abide – means to dwell, live, habitat.
The Holy Spirit has a Mind.
He is Omniscient – All-Knowing. God knows everything. If you’re a follower of Christ – born again – baptized – the Paraklétos in Greek, which means Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, Friend, and Helper – lives in you. If Christ, by his Spirit lives in you, then you have the capacity to tap into the One who knows all things. When you’re looking for solutions, you have living within you, the Omniscient One – the All-Knowing One lives in you by his Spirit.
Whenever we’re in a situation and need the answer to a serious thing, and we don’t know where it came from, but something popped into our head – came from our mind – and we had the answer- that didn’t come from the devil – that came from the Holy Spirit – the Omniscient One who lives within us. The Bible says, “We have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:16) The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ in us. Jesus went away so that he could send his Spirit to us. Now we have “the Mind of Christ”. That means we have the capacity to tap into Something that is beyond intelligence.
We can have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, where the first thing that we do when we need something is to pause and say, “Holy Spirit, I don’t know what’s going on here. I don’t have an answer for this situation.” There is general knowledge, and there is specific knowledge. Scripture has general information, but there is also specific information, like, “What do I do in this particular circumstance?”
The Good News is, the Holy Spirit – the Mind of Christ that we have within us -has the answer -the capacity to find the answer with specific information. What many of us experience is actually a spiritual gift called the “word of knowledge,” where we are given specific knowledge that we didn’t have before. That’s an activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He manifests himself as he wills – he has a mind.
John 16:13 NKJV “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” The Holy Spirit will teach us, lead us, and guide us into all Truth as we read the Word.
Romans 8:26-27 NKJV “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. [27] Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
The Holy Spirit has a Will (a desire, a choice, or a determination)
Acts 16:6 NKJV “Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia.” Forbidden – to exercise our will – our choice- our determination. Have we ever forbid our children from doing something? That was exercising our will – determination – choice – desire with specific information. The Holy Spirit has a will. He brings direction.
We need help to pray (Romans 8:26-27). When we run out of words, we’re not left alone. We have help. We have a Helper – the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit has Emotions
The Holy Spirit is not just a wisp or a vapor or a fire glowing somewhere in the desert like Moses coming upon the burning bush. The Holy Spirit is a Person – the third Person of the Trinity.
Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV “But the fruit of the Sprit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” (These are the nature, characteristics, and emotions of the Holy Spirit). Fruit – proof or product – the “proof” of the Spirit -the produce of the Holy Spirit. Patience – long-suffering – the ability to suffer long with somebody. The Spirit of God – giving us these amazing gifts – the proof, product, and presence of the Holy Spirit- his nature flowing through us.
A litmus test for ourselves and others as to whether we are walking in the flesh or in the Spirit: anything other than these nine traits – it’s the flesh, not the Holy Spirit. Walking by the flesh includes anger, rage, impatience, frustration, angst, division, etc., but walking in the Spirit exhibits the nine traits mentioned, even when we’re in conflict.
The Holy Spirit can be Grieved
Ephesians 4:26-30 NKJV “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
Grief is an emotion we feel when we lose intimacy with another person – by loss of life – through divorce – separation – a breach in a relationship. These things can be wrapped up in one word – Sin – because what sin does – it separates us from God. It does it in the form of grief – grieving the Holy Spirit. As we seek to know the Holy Spirit as a Person, remember that he has a mind, a will, and emotion – and what we do can bring us closer (James 4:8) or it can bring separation and grief – he will grieve at the loss of intimacy.
“A common mistake made with regard to the Holy Spirit as “It” – the Holy Spirit is a Person. He has the attributes of personhood – performs the actions of a person – has personal relationship. He has insight. He knows things that require an intellect. He has a will. He convicts of sin. He performs miracles. He guides. He intercedes between people. He is to be obeyed. He can be lied to – resisted – grieved – even insulted. He relates to the apostles and to each member of the Trinity. The personhood of the Holy Spirit is presented without question in the Bible.” (Unattributed quote)
Let’s journey together and get to know the Person of the Holy Spirit, the One who has a mind, a will, emotions – and by all means, let’s learn not to separate ourselves from him by grieving him.
Prayer
Father, in the name of Your Son, we thank You for the Person, the work, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We ask You, Holy Spirit, will You teach us more about You, as we continue to journey through the scriptures and get to know various aspects and facets of Who You are.
We want to get to know Your personality, that You are loving, joyful, peaceful, gentle, kind, longsuffering – You suffer long for us. You exhibit self-control. You’re faithful. Lord, You’re teaching us, so we want to continue to learn, and then, Father, we want to cast off any fear that has come our way. Maybe we’ve been taught in a church setting, or been told to be careful with that Holy Spirit “stuff”.
Father, we want to shake that off and break any agreements that we’ve made with the enemy, or even ourselves – any unrighteous judgments – any unrighteous vow that we’ve made about being afraid of the Holy Spirit. We want to get to know You – all of You. Father, we want everything You have for us – nothing more – but nothing less – so we lean into You, and open our hearts and our minds, and Holy Spirit, we invite You to be the Spirit of Truth and lead us and guide us into all Truth. Would You remind us to say, “Good morning” to You when we get up and start our day as we are getting to know You better.
Thank You that You are a Gentleman and that we don’t have to be afraid. We confess that we need You as Helper – Friend – Counselor – Comforter – and Advocate. So, we welcome You into the deeper places of our lives to continue to grow, explore, and get to know You better, and we want to grow as Your disciples. Father, we give You honor for teaching us today from Your Word, and we turn our hearts to You as we go.
In Jesus’ name, Amen
Written by Jimmy Pruitt
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Christian Grandfather Magazine
Featured Image by Josh Eckstein on Unsplash
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