The Holy Spirit

There is little disagreement among most Christians regarding the Holy Spirit. He is considered the third person of the Godhead. However, being third does not make him less important than the Father or the Son. He is God, the Holy Spirit, coexistent and proceeding eternally from both. He first appears in Scripture in Genesis. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2 | ESV) And we last encounter him in Revelation. The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17 | ESV)

Old Testament

Cummings ^2. lists eighty-six references to the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament, OT. However, “The OT does not contain an idea of a semi-independent divine entity, the Holy Spirit.”^3. Instead, he is a source of God’s prophetic inspiration, creation, and life. The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. (Job 33:4 | ESV). The OT prophets anticipated God pouring his spirit on humankind. “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servant in those days I will pour out my Spirit.” (Joel 2:28-29 | ESV)

The public ministry of Jesus began with a reading from Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19 | ESV)

New Testament

Although he enjoys varying acceptance in today’s churches, the Holy Spirit permeates the gospels. The New Testament, NT, word for him, pneuma, appears in 261 passages. John the Baptist prophesied Jesus would baptize believers with the Holy Spirit. “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11 | NIV) The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove at his baptism. (Like 3:22) Jesus faced Satan’s wilderness temptation full of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 4:1 and 14). “Christ’s humanity was sustained, and His actions empowered by the Holy Spirit.”^4.

Jesus prophesied the Spirit would be made available after his ascension. On the last day, the climax of the holidays, Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare that rivers of living water shall flow from the inmost being of anyone who believes in me.” (He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him; but the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet returned to his glory in heaven.) (John 7:37-39 | TLB)

A Samaritan Woman

The power of the Holy Spirit was made available to believers beginning on the first Pentecost following Jesus’s ascension. But we saw evidence of how he would work with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus promised, “. . . no one who drinks the water I give will ever be thirsty again. The water I give will become in that person a flowing fountain that gives eternal life.” (John 4:14 | CEV)

She was given faith with power in a testimony that drew many of her friends and neighbors to Jesus, who promised to send the Holy Spirit to indwell his followers. On the last day, the climax of the holidays, Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17 | ESV)

Jesus told his listeners God would fill them with his Spirit if they asked him. “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13 | ESV) We have access to God through the Holy Spirit. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:18 ESV)

Help

The Spirit even prays for us when we can’t find the words to pray according to God’s will. Likewise, the Spirit helps us with our weaknesses. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27 | ESV)

God’s Spirit is living inside the believer. Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16 | ESV) According to Erickson, “The Holy Spirit is the point at which the Trinity becomes personal to the believer.”^5. The last instruction Jesus gave his disciples before returning to his father was to share the gospel. And he promised to empower them to do it. “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5 | NIV)

Promise Fulfilled

Peter preached on the Holy Spirit in the first Christian sermon, linking it with repentance and baptism. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. ² Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:1-4 | NIV) They went out into the streets preaching the “mighty works of God” in the native language of the foreign Jews visiting Jerusalem for the holiday.

The crowd grew larger as Peter, who once cowered in fear, stood up boldly to preach. He accused them of being guilty of the death of Jesus and then proceeded to tell them that Jesus was alive and seated at the right hand of the power of God. Peter explained that God had given his Son the Holy Spirit, and he had poured it out upon his followers. Consequently, that outpouring was the very thing that the people were witnessing. It served as proof that God had made Jesus both Lord and Savior. Many people who were present that day were convicted by Peter’s message, including some who likely had demanded Christ’s crucifixion.

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:37-38) The Church began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and continues advancing God’s kingdom through his work. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22 | ESV)

Hope

Hope is evidence of God’s love and the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5 | ESV) He is the source of resurrection hope. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. (Romans 8:11 | NIV) Finally, the Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance as Jesus-followers. The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him. (Ephesians 1:14 | NLT)

“The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.”^6. Without his influence and conviction, we would not recognize our need for a savior and reject God’s gracious forgiveness. Unbelief is the unforgivable sin. Those who do not avail themselves of God’s grace are destined to spend eternity separated from Him in a place prepared for Satan and his angels.

His physical body constrained Jesus to one place in time. That is not the case with the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, 7 But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you. 8 The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin and God’s justice and the judgment. 9 The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin, because they didn’t have faith in me. (John 16:7-9 | CEV)

Tongues

Some believe that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. No Scripture asserts that is the rule, but it seems to have been the pattern in the 1st-century church. Practically every time we read about people receiving the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues. (Acts 2:4, 10:46, and 19:6) The apostle Paul considered it important, “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you.” (1 Corinthians 14:18 | ESV)

We may be filled with the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit . . . (Ephesians 1:13 | NIV) If so, it would make speaking in tongues an untapped option  in the life of a believer. But that is an argument for a future post. One certain evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is through exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit, . . . love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23 | ESV)

Some misunderstandings surrounding the Holy Spirit today have to do with the gifts of the Spirit and how or even if they are available to the contemporary Church. Evidence of the Spirit might be missing from many congregations today because Jesus is accepted as Savior, but not Lord. Belief makes Jesus Savior. Obedience makes him Lord.

Two Views

There are two views on the gifts of the Spirit: cessationism and continuationism. Cessationism holds that the “miracle gifts” have ceased—that the end of the apostolic age brought about a cessation of the miracles. In the late fourth century, John Chrysostom could speak of the spiritual gifts as belonging to an age in the past.”^7.Most cessationists believe that, while God can and still does perform miracles today, the Holy Spirit no longer uses individuals to perform miraculous signs.

Continuationism is the belief that all the spiritual gifts, including prophesy, healings, tongues, and miracles, are still in operation today, just as they were in the early church days. We don’t hear much about spiritual gifts in many contemporary churches today because when it happens, God, not man, is in control. Consequently, the belief that they are no longer available results more from a lack of experience rather than solid exegesis.

There is no biblical evidence that the gifts ceased with the apostles or ceased at all. The apostle Paul took great pains to explain the importance of spiritual gifts to the Church in 1 Corinthians 12. He encouraged believers to, “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1 | ESV) I could say more about this topic, but that will have to wait for a future post.

Footnotes:

1. Guy P. Duffield and Nathan M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (Los Angeles:Foursquare Media, 2008), 272.

2. James E. Cummings, Through the Eternal Spirit (Stirling, Scotland:Stirling Tract Enterprises, 1937), 50.

3. Thomas S. Caulley, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 2001), 568.

4. John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids:Zondervan Academic), 27, Kindle edition.

5. Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids:Baker Academic, 1998), 862.

6. Duffield and Van Cleave, 273.

7. Caulley, 570.