“The Holy Spirit: Who Is He And What is His Purpose”
Pastor Busani Mcingolwane
Introduction.
We need to know the Spirit Himself not just His Works. A frequent source of error & fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the attempt to study and understand His work without first of all coming to know Him as a Person. If purpose is not known abuse is inevitable (Myles Munroe). “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8. “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” Acts 10:38 NKJV. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 NKJV. Words of Jesus at commencement of His public ministry, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:17-21 NKJV. I believe prophesy is certainly bring fulfilled this morning, If Jesus has sent us even as the Father sent Him (John 20:21), then let certainly believe that we should be able to say like Jesus, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives” (Luke 4:18). May my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit & of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (I Corinthians 2:4-5). So the Church will, “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the Lord will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3. “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light . . . Do not be drunk with Bavarian beer but be filled with the Holy Spirit . . . Put on the whole armor of God . . . and take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God . . . Keep alert . . . and help each other be bold (Ephesians 5:14, 18; 6:11, 17–19). The Church needs to Grow in Knowledge & Love for the Holy Spirit. “If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live” (Rom. 8:13). May we come to know the Holy Spirit, love Him & enjoy Him. We need to be awakened & empowered by Him to fulfil our divine assignment (Isaiah 61). 1. Who is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the trinity, which Christians refer to as God. He is no more, no less God than the person referred to in the Bible as Jehovah: God the Father, or Jesus Christ: God the son. He is fully divine, a distinct individual, and active in the world to convict us of our need for God, as well as comfort, teach and lead us in the direction of God’s will. (Genesis 1.1-2 & 26-27, Luke 3.21-22, Acts 5.3-5). The Holy Spirit is a person not an impersonal force (John 14-16). The Holy Spirit is God not a creation of God. The simple evidence for this is the frequent designation “Spirit of God.” The Spirit is “of God” not because God created him, but because he shares God’s nature and comes forth eternally from God (1 Corinthians 2:10–12). The Holy Spirit is a Person Proof in the Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person. I. All the distinctive characteristics of personality are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. -Grieve not the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30). 2. Many acts that only a Person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor. 2:10, John 15:26, ” John 14:26, John 16:12-14, Neh.9:20, Rom 8:14, Acts 16:6, 7, Acts 8:2, From all the passages here quoted, it is evident that many acts that only a person can perform are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 3. An office is predicated of the Holy Spirit that can only be predicated of a person (John 14:16, 17, John 16:6, John 16:7). 4. A treatment is predicated to the Holy Spirit that could only be predicated of a Person (Isa.68:10, Eph. 4:30, Heb. 10:29, we read, “Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Here we are told that the Holy Spirit is “done despite unto” (“treated with contumely” — Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament).
There is but one kind of entity in the universe that can be treated with contumely (or insulted) and that is a person. It is absurd to think of treating an influence or a power or any kind of being except a person with contumely. We read again in Acts 5:3, Matt.12:31, 32). Here then we have four distinctive and decisive lines of proof that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Theoretically most of us believe this but do we, in our real thought of Him and in our practical attitude towards Him treat Him as if He were indeed a Person? The Deity of the Holy Spirit. I. Four distinctively Divine attributes are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. Eternity, omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. All of these are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. eternity (Heb. 9:14). Omnipresence (Ps.139:7-10). Omniscience (1 Cor. 2:10, 11, John 14:26, John 16:12, 13) Omnipotence (Luke 1:35) 2. Three distinctively Divine works are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. – Creation. In the Scriptures creation is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. (Job 33:4, Ps 104:30, Gen. 1:1-3). – The impartation of life. (John 6:6, Rom 8:11, Gen. 2:7, – The authorship of Divine (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Sam 23:2,3) So we see that the three distinctly Divine works of creation, the impartation of life, and prophecy are ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 3. Statements which in the Old Testament distinctly name the LORD or Jehovah as their subject are applied to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, i. e., the Holy Spirit occupies the position of Deity in New Testament thought.(Isaiah 6:8-10, Acts 28:25-27 , Ex 16:7, Heb. 3:7-9). 4. The name of the Holy Spirit is coupled with that of God in a way it would be impossible for a reverent and thoughtful mind to couple the name of any finite being with that of the Deity. (1 Cor. 12:4-6, Matt. 28:19, Conclusion The Bible portrays for us a history of redemption with three major divisions that reveal progressively the three persons of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Before the first coming of Christ, the great testing truth was “the oneness of God’s nature and his monarchy over all,” especially with respect to the person of the Father. When Christ came, the great question was whether a people orthodox on the first point would recognize and receive the incarnate Son of God in whom all the fullness of deity dwells. Then, after the Son had gathered a people who received him, he was put to death, raised up, and exalted to the Father’s right hand, from which He sent the Holy Spirit with new prominence upon the church. -Before Christ’s coming . . . the prominence of God the Father; —during the days of Christ’s earthly life . . . the prominence of God the Son; -and since the ascension of the Son . . . the prominence of God the Holy Spirit. May we arise to our identity & mandate as the church. Empowered by His Spirit let us fulfil our divine assignment (Acts 1:8, Eph 2:10).
References:
The person & work of the Holy Spirit – A.R. Torrey,
The Holy Spirit: He is God – John Piper