Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a vague, delicate life force. He is not impersonal or unthinking. The Holy Spirit is a “person” equal in every way with God, the Father, and God, the Son. The Bible tells us that all the characteristics of God apparent in the Father and the Son are equally apparent in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has personal characteristics like intelligence (1 Cor.2:10-11), emotions (Eph.4:30), and a will (1 Cor.2:11). Also the Spirit acts in personal ways by teaching us ( John 14:26), commanding us ( Acts 8:29), interceding for us in prayer (Rom.8:26) and conferring gifts and graces upon us for life, fruitfulness and service (John 6:63). The Spirit addresses us through the message of the Bible and seeks to nurture our spiritual life and to create in us a new identity in Christ.

The Holy Spirit was with God and was involved in the creation of the universe (Gen. 1:2, Prov. 8:22-31, Ps. 33:6, Is. 40:12,13). Predominantly in the Old Testament the Spirit came upon people to empower them for specific tasks (Judges 6:34; 1 Chron. 12:18; 2 Chron. 24:20) like: interpretation of dreams (Gen. 41:38, Dan. 5:11), special skills (Ex. 31:1-7), and prophesy (1 Sam. 10:6, 2 Sam. 23:23, Ezekiel 11:5, 24, Joel 2:28-29).

On the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Church as a body of living members of which Christ is the risen, exalted and living Head (Acts 2:1-4), and indwells the whole church and individual believers simultaneously today (Ephesians 2:19-22; Romans 8:1, 11; John 14:17; 2 Corinthians 1:22). He sets apart the children of God for the ministry of God and presides over and directs the Church into the will and plan of God.

The “filling of the Spirit” describes the crucial work of God enabling the believer to live a transformed life. The only way we grow spiritually is by the empowering work of God ( 1 Peter 1:3). It is specifically the ministry of the Holy Spirit that gives a Christian the capability of change and growth in righteousness ( Rom.8:13; Gal.5:22-23). Spiritual growth is a issue of control. We are either controlled by our self-centered flesh or by the Holy Spirit who indwells us (Rom.8:4-11; Gal.5:16,17). Ephesians 5:18 describes this controlling and empowering ministry of Spirit as the 'filling' of the Spirit. We can be filled by fleshly desires or be filled by the Spirit.

Although it’s the Spirit’s power that is at work, the believer must choose to be empowered by the Spirit. It is a command to “Be filled” and likewise to “Walk in the Spirit” (Gal.5:16). The Spirit’s indwelling is permanent but we must continually choose to yield to God to experience the Spirit’s transforming power to change and grow us. This means living the Christian life (facing temptations, making decisions, etc.) with a conscious dependence on the Holy Spirit.

While the Spirit has a role in the cognition of the gospel his primary work is that of conviction of sin. We do not need to point to others how bad and sinful they are and prove to them that they are sinners. The Spirit works to convict of sin. Regardless of how people come to acknowledge their sin, the Spirit is the one who brings us to see the grotesque reality of our sin. Our role in ministry is to proclaim the good news that God has acted in Christ to save fallen, sinful humanity.

The Spirit also imparts spiritual gifts to believers to accomplish spiritual ministry that God desires, equip others to minister (Eph.4:12), and to glorify God (1 Pet.4:11).